Totally understand them not being able to carry multiple people straight away. That can totally be the 15th level feature.
But at 7th level, it’s medium sized. Which, granted, is a wide spectrum. But surely it wouldn’t be too overpowered to allow the ranger conditonally permanent flight at that level, would it?
Yea but Wizards don’t get Fly until 5th level which also has the number 5 in it. Have you considered that? /s
Playing a drakewarden character sometimes feels like finding narrative explanations for undesirable mechanics. Although, whether or not the drake companion works as a flying mount is dependent on the campaign. Seriously, rules lawyer-ing the dragon mid-game sucks.
A narrative explanation might simply be the drake doesn’t know how to fly properly with a rider at medium size…
To make it a non-issue, I chose a variant Tiefling, winged, so my PC can raise/train the dragon from a hatchling and fly with, rather than on.
Regardless, versus other class options, the drake is still a formidable familiar, and rangers don’t normally get an option to just fly at will (without a magic item) anyway.
Besides, half the reason for choosing a class is flavor. They don’t all have to be able to do the same shit at the same level.
Small creatures can use medium creatures as mounts without restrictions just as medium can use large mounts. Just be a gnome, halfling, goblin, kobold, or short human.
My greatest problem with Drakewarden is that you do not get additional dragon themed spells and that it takes forever to get a flying mount. If WotC is okay with Twilight Cleric and Genie Warlock getting to fly so damn early on, I see no reason why Drakewardens cannot fly at like level 7 or 11.
Giving a player something then inventing an arbitrary rule to nerf that thing is indeed stupid.
To point out how stupid it is: “While you are riding your drake, it can’t use the flying speed of this feature.” Nothing says it can’t pick you up by the shoulders, or that a small party member can’t ride it instead.
Sorc Flight should be level 10 imo.
I think, instead of sprouting wings, they should get the capstone at the 14th(?) Class feature, and their capstone should be the ability to turn into a dragon.
Or at least bend dragons to their will, like Necromancer Wizards can with undead.
No.
It’s almost like flight breaks a lot of things in 5e RAW.
By level 15, your expected to be somewhat broken. As someone who has never DMed a game without someone picking a flying race, I get it.
Fly speed is outright better than normal movement speed. There is nothing you cannot do with fly speed that you can’t do with normal movement. It negates a lot of pre written adventurers, almost completely.
Flight is more work for the DM. The player never has to “account” for flight while they play. They can just walk. But if the DM doesn’t account for flight, one character suddenly overcomes problems without rolling a dice. They beat maze puzzles without thinking and without expending resources. They can kite melee opponents forever, just following along throwing ranged attacks as the enemy flees after realizing they don’t have any ranged attacks. This is free exp, when 80% of the monsters in the game are melee focused. The other 20% are spellcasters.
So for a new DM, they let the player get to a “reasonable” level before granting the DM more work to accommodate that player. Giving them time to understand how 5e works and hopefully learning they need to Homebrew a lot of they want to be challenging after level 8. By level 8 the average party can nova down a Tarresque in under a combat minute. 600HP isn’t that much as soon as people overcome resistances, which most do by level 5-8.
TL;DR you aren’t meant to fly until your basically a god. That’s what 5e is balanced around. Think I’m joking? Give your rogue a broom of flying one time and watch them never get hit again as they sharpshooter snipe from 400ft in the air with a heavy crossbow. Give your wizard a carpet of flying and watch them cheese any climbing/moving check ever made. Athletics? Nah carpet. Acrobatics? Nope gonna fly. It’s just more work for your DM as they have to design every single battle map in 3D.
Nah man. That makes total Sense
They should get a limited flight around about 5th… When others get the flight spell.
The game often makes nonsensical decisions for the sake of balance. Like the Rune Knight only getting extra damage while in Giant’s might on one attack per turn. Like sir, my hammers are the size of a minivan, why would only one of my attacks with it deal more damage than the tiny version?
Exactly. Giant Stature from the Path of the Giant barbarian is the same way. Yet someone casts enlarge person, and it’s +1d4 damage every attack.
I’m currently playing a Drakewarden and they feel a little lacking in a few places. I don’t love that the dragon doesn’t get any stat bumps as it grows, like say getting stronger would be cool. They also don’t get any skill proficiencies which is baffling given the Tasha’s new Beast Master Stat block which seems way way better. a lack of flight until later levels feels pretty bad, and they do not get any kind of breath weapon until 11. You are a dragon rider and your dragon doesn’t have a breath weapon for most of the campaign, if you even get to 11 and lord knows how few people will ever see level 15 for flight.
Your first part is what hurts me the most about both companions, tbh. The lack of scaling attributes just feels off to me. I get why they don’t, but doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’d love to see something like:
“At X level, your companion has been steadily growing in power alongside you. When you gain this level or whenever you summon a new companion, that companion gains a +2 to any ability score and a +1 to a different ability score.”