How does your whole party fly?

[Nidgit]

Since my own party (Level 10) is very nearly capable of getting everyone airborne at the same time, I thought I'd ask the forum: what level did/will your whole party become capable of flying at the same time? What does it look like when everyone's in the air?

For us, the:
Draconic Sorcerer has wings
Land Druid Wildshapes into a Giant Eagle and carries the Cleric
Bard Polymorphs into a Giant Eagle and carries the Paladin
Ranger misses the session

At Level 13 my Paladin will have a Pegasus or Griffin so our whole party will be able to fly all at once by then at the latest

[OldTrees1]

As a DM that just created 5 custom tier 3 bosses, 4 of which fly, 2 of which fly at a significant altitude, this was a concern for me. How would the whole party fly.


They have a Druid that can Conjure Animals to get several flying mounts, then they can Wildshape into an Air Elemental.
They have a Paladin that has a Pegasus steed and a Griffon magical figurine.
They have a Wizard and a Bard who both know Fly.
They have a Priest (not cleric) who has Flying Boots.
They have a Barbarian that has Baba Yaga's Mortar & Pestle.

That was more than enough flight for 3 of those bosses. The 2 at significant altitude make it more complicated.

In the first fight they started with Conjured Giant Eagles. Some eagles died, others vanished when the druid lost concentration and consciousness (while shape was broken earlier). Using their backup methods of flying (or just grappling the colossal enemy) they were able to finish the fight before any fell out of the fight. Although there was a tense moment where the druid was falling and out of sight of the casters with feather fall. The Paladin dived down to catch them and get them back in the fight.


The second fight is ongoing. If the party retreats there may be a third fight. In this case the party split up. The Wizard and Priest are staying at a safe distance after providing some support. The Barbarian and Paladin are on their Mortar and Pegasus. The Druid is in Air Elemental form for the time being. The Bard is flying using fly at a medium risk range.

Edit: Update. The second fight finished. The Wildshape died and the Bard lost concentration on Fly. They relied on feather fall. At one point the wizard considered teleporting above the fight to free fall into position. At the very end of the fight several characters dived out of the sky to be caught by feather fall at a safe distance.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

We all jump into the portable hole and let the druid or warlock familiar carry the hole.

If we need to go fast a hasted shadow monk wood elf in darkness with boots of speed do well.

We also use it for full party DD.

[Wizard_Lizard]

things like gaseous form, while not helpful in combat can be good for transport. The Fly spell is useful also. If I as a dm see that flying will be nescessary I can always hand out items like brooms of flying, winged boots, or in one case, an animated flying carpet that gave one-liners, etc.

[DwarfFighter]

Potions of Flying, if you can buy them.

I see a suggested cost of 400gp each, right here on the internet!

-DF

[Silly Name]

One party has got an airship, a warlock who can cast Fly, and an artificer who can probably come up with something if they need to all be airborne.

Another has a sorcerer with a flying broom, a paladin with boots of flying, the warlock can just blast anything out of the sky. The fighter is still land-bound, but in a pinch he could borrow the paladin's boots while he summons a flying steed.

[Tanarii]

Land Druid Wildshapes into a Giant Eagle and carries the Cleric
Bard Polymorphs into a Giant Eagle and carries the Paladin
I assume you don't do much combat while flying? Just moving to/from the adventuring site?

Edit: that's a common limitation (or at least relatively high risk to take) for many forms of 5e flight. But I'm genuinely interested if you risk loss of concentration / loss of all HPs.

(About the only one I've outright limited in combat is Broom of Flying requires two hands to use.)

[5eNeedsDarksun]

The group I'm DMing at the moment has a Shepherd Druid, so add full party flight to the list of things that he can trivialize in early tier 2...
Not loving this subclass.

[strangebloke]

For combat flight, making the whole party fly is generally going to involve concentration (fly cast at level five) or some kind of mount.

Both of these are intensely risky. Not only can you easily lose your source of flight, but you can do so when you're sixty feet in the air.

It's far better for flight to be something each individual party member has a plan for.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

For combat flight, making the whole party fly is generally going to involve concentration (fly cast at level five) or some kind of mount.

Both of these are intensely risky. Not only can you easily lose your source of flight, but you can do so when you're sixty feet in the air.

It's far better for flight to be something each individual party member has a plan for.

I mean Feather Fall is a level 1 spell which covers everyone (though not all at once), so there's that. A 100 foot fall is worth 35 points of (non-magical) bludgeoning damage and a fall of over 500 feet gives a round to do something about it. My player's Shepherd Druid has Warcaster and Res Con (by level 8) and he's a Halfling so he's unlikely to roll triple 1s and fail any Con saves any time soon.

[J-H]

My party is 14th level and is still not accomplishing this.
Artificer: Armorer, Iron Man/flies.
Paladin: Summons Griffon. Likes to Misty Step onto the backs of large enemies.
Cleric: Rides with Paladin
Monk: Wall-runs, has an item that converts fall damage into a shockwave (he takes no damage). The armorer has started picking him up and dropping him like a bomb in conjunction with Haste and Boots of Haste.
Barbarian: No flight. Has been Dimension Doored. Owns Boots of Levitation but doesn't use them.
Ranger: No flight.

There's some discussion about the Artificer doing multiple flying boots for the party, but it hasn't happened yet.

[Osuniev]

My level 19 party still takes turn on the Broom of Flying.

[Kane0]

Everyone at once? I don't think my party has, but that's because it's a big party

Fighter has winged sandals
Paladin has a flying mount
Warlock casts Fly on himself and two of the others

The Rogues (2) can't on their own, but one can climb real good and the other could use scrolls
Monk can't on their own, but can jump real good
Bard can't on their own, but might have a potion somewhere

[sambojin]

Usually it's because of me as a Moon Druid. 8 giant owls or two giant eagles and me as an eagle/ quetzalcoatlus/ air elemental is plenty of flying for most groups.

Stuff like actual Fly spells tend to be used as backup, in case the inevitable happens.

[Ashe]

The group I'm DMing at the moment has a Shepherd Druid, so add full party flight to the list of things that he can trivialize in early tier 2...
Not loving this subclass.

That implies you can't do it without the subclass. The extra max hp bulk isn't going to make a difference if the mounts are in real danger (i.e. 1 round KO), and if they're not, then any druid can do it. PHB summoning is just 'fun' like that.


As for me, that would require literally anyone else I play with to ever play an archetype that lets them do things that they very clearly want to do. I imagine their character creation process involves darts being thrown or something.

[Deathtongue]

As of Tasha's, you have Summon Celestial and Summon Fiend for hour-long multi-party flight. Won't get everyone, but it's a big help.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

That implies you can't do it without the subclass. The extra max hp bulk isn't going to make a difference if the mounts are in real danger (i.e. 1 round KO), and if they're not, then any druid can do it. PHB summoning is just 'fun' like that.


As for me, that would require literally anyone else I play with to ever play an archetype that lets them do things that they very clearly want to do. I imagine their character creation process involves darts being thrown or something.

I mean, yes, any Druid can get your group flying, but 17 bonus hp for Giant Owls at 6th level is nearly double, which significantly changes the types of combat you can realistically do; what might be a potentially deadly encounter with everyone on 19 HP steeds is far less so when they have 36 HP. I disagree that it's only an issue on round 1; if my 19 hp mount crashes on round 2 or 3 that still seems like a problem. Also, the mounts are far more likely to be used for multiple encounters with the extra hp, meaning a regular Druid would be having to use up additional spells to achieve inferior results.
If that's all this subclass did well, then no problem, but on top of a strong chassis I'm finding this is the first character that can dominate such a wide variety of encounters (after 6 campaigns that have gone level 1 to tier 3). In our current campaign, DiA, I'd say it started in earnest at 6th level and is still going strong at 9th.

As for your last paragraph, I'm not sure what you are referring to, so can't really reply.

[Porcupinata]

Brooms of Flying are only an "Uncommon" item with a price of 500gp according to the DMG guidelines. That's a third of the cost of a suit of plate armor and well within the budget of most medium level characters.

Generally - assuming magic items can be bought in the campaign - my party have one each by around 4th to 5th level and fly around like a quidditch team.

[Lord Ruby34]

Our party manages it at level 5. The (gnome) wizard casts fly on me, the centaur. The half orc gets on my back, and so does the gnome (because he's very light).

[Democratus]

In one campaign, the party had a flying ship.

In the latest campaign, nobody flew at all.

[Brawnspear]

In our current party for noncombat flight, when we needed to get back to the fort lickety split we took a somewhat unorthodox approach.

This was before the paladin had greater flying steed, or the dragon sorcerer had innate flight.

I am playing a half Bearbarian, half fiend lock. Goliath with the brawny feat (Though I don't recall if I had brawny at the time)

Party consists of Spindly dragon sorcerer, Nature cleric Dwarf, Gnomish Lore bard, Human Paladin and his trusty steed.

As a 5th level warlock, I have fly available. I also have a crapton of chains and locks instead of rope, because I have the carrying capacity to not care. Added in a creative use of the shape water cantrip. We fashion a harness to strap the cleric, bard and sorcerer to me and I toss the Horse over my shoulders, paladin rides the horse.

I cast fly, Cleric casts Enhance ability (strength) and the sorcerer extended hastes me. I have plenty of weight capacity to just lift everyone and shoot back to camp.

Definitely not a combat flight, and we took some pot shots from the combat force that we were trying to beat back to base, but We were moving at about 360 feet per round, so we were not in bow range for very long.

[Ashe]

I mean, yes, any Druid can get your group flying, but 17 bonus hp for Giant Owls at 6th level is nearly double, which significantly changes the types of combat you can realistically do; what might be a potentially deadly encounter with everyone on 19 HP steeds is far less so when they have 36 HP.
Where are you getting 17? The bonus max hp is 2 per hit die, giant owls have 3 hit dice, so 6? Or are you assuming they bear totem instead of unicorning like you can usually expect a shepherd to do?


I disagree that it's only an issue on round 1; if my 19 hp mount crashes on round 2 or 3 that still seems like a problem. Also, the mounts are far more likely to be used for multiple encounters with the extra hp, meaning a regular Druid would be having to use up additional spells to achieve inferior results. If that's all this subclass did well, then no problem, but on top of a strong chassis I'm finding this is the first character that can dominate such a wide variety of encounters (after 6 campaigns that have gone level 1 to tier 3). In our current campaign, DiA, I'd say it started in earnest at 6th level and is still going strong at 9th.
I meant "killed in one round", not "killed on round one". But yeah, definitely not arguing that shepherd druid is weak or anything, just that normal druids can do the flight strategy to great effect too :p



As for your last paragraph, I'm not sure what you are referring to, so can't really reply.
Ah that was just answering the thread question.

[Houster]

My party is 14th level and is still not accomplishing this.
Artificer: Armorer, Iron Man/flies.
Paladin: Summons Griffon. Likes to Misty Step onto the backs of large enemies.
Cleric: Rides with Paladin
Monk: Wall-runs, has an item that converts fall damage into a shockwave (he takes no damage). The armorer has started picking him up and dropping him like a bomb in conjunction with Haste and Boots of Haste.
Barbarian: No flight. Has been Dimension Doored. Owns Boots of Levitation but doesn't use them.
Ranger: No flight.

There's some discussion about the Artificer doing multiple flying boots for the party, but it hasn't happened yet.

That item for the monk is super cool. Also, it's a great 5e version of the descending dark spell from hollow knight, for those of us who play(you really should).

[J-H]

They picked it up from Slogra, the Dinosaur Knight, in Castle Dracula...my Castlevania campaign that got them up to level 13. It's on the DM's Guild. In the games, he has this thing where he gets picked up or jumps onto the ceiling, then drops down on the player.

Skyfall Boots
Legendary, requires attunement
These armored boots and greaves have a thick, flexible sole and conform to the wearer’s feet and shins.
The wearer’s jumping distance is doubled, and the wearer is immune to falling damage as long as they are not paralyzed or otherwise incapacitated when landing. When the wearer lands from a jump or fall, the boots absorb the force as the wearer slams into the ground, redirecting it outwards in a thunderous blast of air, dust, and debris. The falling damage dice that would normally be taken are converted into a circular shockwave dealing thunder damage of the same amount (_d6) in a 10’ radius around the bearer, with a Dex DC 12 save for half.

[Joe the Rat]

For combat purposes, my old game (Northlands) team could get fully airborne around 9th - by then they had two hippogriffs, a flying carpet, and an Boon-enhanced Owlbear. Using the Carpet as a weapons platform for the blaster casters, we could have three mounted, and the rest held up via fly spell.

That never happens.

They later captured a flying keep, but that is more of an overland model. In combat it wasn't much more than Very High Ground.