Wingless Aarakocra?

[Silly Name]

A friend of ours is finally joining the ongoing 5e campaign I'm mastering, and he's come up with a pretty cool character concept of an aarakocra that got unjustly exiled from the Plane of Air, ended up joining the church of Hextor and gave up his wings both as an offering to his new god and as a way to distance himself from those that wronged him.

I like the idea, he likes the idea, it's pretty cool all around - however, this poses a question for me: if you take the flight away from the aarakocra race, they're pretty bland and don't really offer much, mechanically. I feel like I should probably give them something to compensate this loss, but I'm not sure what it should be. Darkvision? Cantrips? Free half-feat? Something else?

[Tawmis]

A friend of ours is finally joining the ongoing 5e campaign I'm mastering, and he's come up with a pretty cool character concept of an aarakocra that got unjustly exiled from the Plane of Air, ended up joining the church of Hextor and gave up his wings both as an offering to his new god and as a way to distance himself from those that wronged him.

I like the idea, he likes the idea, it's pretty cool all around - however, this poses a question for me: if you take the flight away from the aarakocra race, they're pretty bland and don't really offer much, mechanically. I feel like I should probably give them something to compensate this loss, but I'm not sure what it should be. Darkvision? Cantrips? Free half-feat? Something else?

Would he be cool with Self Levitation, gifted by his chosen deity - similar to the Air Genasi? Limit it to being cast only on themselves.

Mingle with the Wind. You can cast the Levitate spell once with this trait, requiring no material components, and you regain the ability to cast it this way when you finish a long rest. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

[EphTheorem]

I'm no balance expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I did buff many of the PHB races in my game. And you're right, their flight is an extremely powerful feature and pretty much the only thing they have going for them, but it's a 3rd level spell *at will* and at level 1, which is extremely impressive already. So here's a little idea, how about making them somewhat analogous to a Wood Elf? They already have the same racial bonuses.

Make their walking speed 35 ft since they've shed their wings. The same martial weapon proficiencies Elves get, but no Trance or the extra Perception proficiency. (I suppose you could still give them the latter if you wanted...) Instead, how about at 3rd level, they get a 1/long rest 1st level spell of their choice from the Druid or Ranger spell lists, and a 2nd level one at 5th. Like Tieflings get their Infernal spells at 3rd and 5th. This is a feature I just gave to Wood Elves in my game, but it might work for your player's Aaracokra PC.

If it's horribly unbalanced though, I'm sure they'll be other suggestions. Again, I'm no game designer.

[HappyDaze]

Why not use human and say that it cosmetically resembles a wingless aarakocra?

[EphTheorem]

Would he be cool with Self Levitation, gifted by his chosen deity - similar to the Air Genasi? Limit it to being cast only on themselves.

Mingle with the Wind. You can cast the Levitate spell once with this trait, requiring no material components, and you regain the ability to cast it this way when you finish a long rest. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

This also sounds like a decent idea, but why not Wisdom for the spellcasting ability?

The above suggestion is also viable, I've had cases of players being 1 race *mechanically* but another *thematically.*

[Mr Adventurer]

I would definitely just use a different race and change the specifics.

[Mastikator]

I'd say something thematically related to Hextor, maybe Wrathful Smite x/short rest plus a cantrip?


*x is some number you think is appropriate, like 1 or proficient bonus number or level/5 + 1

[Copper_Dragon]

Use kenku but drop the language mimicry stuff? Maybe a reflavored air genasi?

[MinotaurWarrior]

For a homebrew game?

He loses two limbs (wings) and hexator grants him four more. Like his God, he can wield a ton of weapons.

The actual balance concern here would be something like shield + two handed weapon, which is +2 AC or ~2.5 Damage per attack. This is probably weaker than the wings were. But if you want to, you can easily restrict the bonus hands to only wield 1H weapons, other objects, and grappling. So then he's just got a lot of options.

[nickl_2000]

So, for Tieflings you can trade this Infernal Legacy for Flight. So, it seems fair to give something similar.

-Learn Guidance as a cantrip and can cast Bless 1 time per day. Seems appropriate for a boon given by a god.
-Learn Thaumaturgy and Spiritual Weapon 1/day
-Learn Thaumaturgy, Inflict Wounds, Enhance Ability (dex/con/str only) 1/day

Etc

[da newt]

Ask the player for suggestions that fit their theme.

In order to keep it really simple, I'd just let them pick any one racial feature from any other race to replace flight. If they want Dwarven Resilience or Halfling's Lucky or even V Human free feat - fine.

[Mr Adventurer]

Aaracokra Flight is better than Tiefling, and Aaracokra get basically nothing else at all for their race, save claws (which are of limited use). I wouldn't assume Tiefling Flight is an appropriate balance point.

[nickl_2000]

Aaracokra Flight is better than Tiefling, and Aaracokra get basically nothing else at all for their race, save claws (which are of limited use). I wouldn't assume Tiefling Flight is an appropriate balance point.

That's a solid point, but you could still use it as a base and then choose spells that are more useful (or let the player choose the spells from the Cleric + War Domain spell list, instead of setting them).

[moonfly7]

For a homebrew game?

He loses two limbs (wings) and hexator grants him four more. Like his God, he can wield a ton of weapons.

The actual balance concern here would be something like shield + two handed weapon, which is +2 AC or ~2.5 Damage per attack. This is probably weaker than the wings were. But if you want to, you can easily restrict the bonus hands to only wield 1H weapons, other objects, and grappling. So then he's just got a lot of options.

This is really cool and does fit really, really well, if I was the player I'd love this. But also as a player if my concept was "Aracokra with no wings" and it got changed to "Four arms" from Ben 10, it wouldn't be the same concept anymore for me.

Ask the player for suggestions that fit their theme.

This. This is the most important comment here, and I would add this to it: ask if he even wants a boost or replacement feature. As a DM and from a balance standpoint, I would want to boost this too, but some players live for the challenge of concepts like this and don't actually want anything to balance it, which, as it's not hurting any body but them, should be allowed easily enough. However if the player does want compensation, which is completely understandable, the core concept should be suggested by him, then as the DM you should shave it down or build it up to a balanced level. Bottom line this is something you two should be working closely together on as it involves your realm of control: game balance and rules, and his realm of control: how he wants his character to play and feel.

[MinotaurWarrior]

This is really cool and does fit really, really well, if I was the player I'd love this. But also as a player if my concept was "Aracokra with no wings" and it got changed to "Four arms" from Ben 10, it wouldn't be the same concept anymore for me.

Yeah absolutely all of this should be done with consultation from the player.

But to be clear, the idea is based on him specifically sacrificing his wings to hextor, the six armed God of War.

I was in a campaign where the GOOlock underwent a transformation into a giant slug abomination, and the player absolutely loved it.

[moonfly7]

Yeah absolutely all of this should be done with consultation from the player.

But to be clear, the idea is based on him specifically sacrificing his wings to hextor, the six armed God of War.

I was in a campaign where the GOOlock underwent a transformation into a giant slug abomination, and the player absolutely loved it.

Hence why I said I loved it and that it made sense thematically. I think it's a great option because it provides mechanical benefit while amplifying story and role play, I was simply cautioning player consultation if it was ok.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Why not use human and say that it cosmetically resembles a wingless aarakocra?

I was going to say that this would be my suggestion as well. Base it on variant human. The language you get is Auran, the ability scores are the two the Aarakocra usually get, and the feat and the skill can be replaced by one and two small racial features respectively. Raise the walk speed to keep it fair.

Then I noticed though that Aarakocra actually get +2 Dex and +2 Wis, that's a full feat worth of ability score bonuses, so with that in place of the feat and the natural talon attack instead of the skill you've basically filled up variant human already. And that's probably not the answer either of you are looking for. Aarakocra are OP, apparently.

So yeah, maybe just give the player whatever two or so small features extra he wants.

Or maybe a skill and a flavor feature from an extra background, to represent him literally walking the earth and gaining life experience compared to others of his race.

[Mr Adventurer]

Then I noticed though that Aarakocra actually get +2 Dex and +2 Wis, that's a full feat worth of ability score bonuses,

+2 Dex and +1 Wis, and that would be one and a half feats (ASI) on their own.

If you reduce that by the +1/+1 from Variant Human, that's half a feat/ASI leftover.

[Dark.Revenant]

A gift from Hextor? Grant a fighting style from the Fighter class and increase walking speed to 30.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

+2 Dex and +1 Wis,

O, hey, you're right.

I should do a double take when I read things that seem out of the norm.

[VonKaiserstein]

Be inspired by the horrible bruisers of the flightless bird world, Cassowaries.

Let them lose flight, but gain a footclaw kick, kicking shove, and jumping kick rush (all reskinned Minotaur skills)

Call it the Buffalo Wing subrace.

[DracoKnight]

A friend of ours is finally joining the ongoing 5e campaign I'm mastering, and he's come up with a pretty cool character concept of an aarakocra that got unjustly exiled from the Plane of Air, ended up joining the church of Hextor and gave up his wings both as an offering to his new god and as a way to distance himself from those that wronged him.

I like the idea, he likes the idea, it's pretty cool all around - however, this poses a question for me: if you take the flight away from the aarakocra race, they're pretty bland and don't really offer much, mechanically. I feel like I should probably give them something to compensate this loss, but I'm not sure what it should be. Darkvision? Cantrips? Free half-feat? Something else?

You could take the Protector Aasimar and reflavor it as a wingless aarakocra. Once a day they can draw on the power of their sacrifice to Hector and they go all sun-disc of Ra and luminous ghostly wings.

[Falconcry]

Over on DDB there is homebrew for a penguin variant. 40 swim speed and a 25 foot waddle

[moonfly7]

You could take the Protector Aasimar and reflavor it as a wingless aarakocra. Once a day they can draw on the power of their sacrifice to Hector and they go all sun-disc of Ra and luminous ghostly wings.

Ah Yes, the Mighty Hector, god of office supplies, Calculators, and bestbuy.

[DracoKnight]

Ah Yes, the Mighty Hector, god of office supplies, Calculators, and bestbuy.

*grumbles something about stupid autocorrect*

[Hellpyre]

If they like the concept, why not design a cusomized magic item of some sort that grants a connection to Hextor (who the character values) in a way that is mechanically outside of the niche that other Aarakocra (who the character has distanced themselves from) occupy. If the player wants some mechanical boon in exchange for the show of devtion, feel free to give it to them. If they don't, you can still keep the design around and present it to them if you or they feel like the backstory choice has negatively impacted their ability to enjoy the game.