Air Support in Pathfinder: 4 Ways To Get Your Party Airborne ASAP

Flying is one of those things that happens in every Pathfinder game, sooner or later. Whether it's for epic dragon fights, or so you can avoid the deadly bastions of an enemy fortress, the ability to add a third dimension to your party's combat and movement capabilities is a game changer.

The question so many parties face, though, is how do you get into the air?

All right, Ragnar, we just have to get this rope around his neck...

Most of us are content to wait until we hit mid to high levels before we can finally start flying around. And while there are plenty of abilities like bloodline powers or racial feats that kick in around 11th or even 15th level, that's not what this week's installment is about.

Because if you really want to get the most out of being able to defy gravity, then you need to get your hands on that power as soon as possible. So the following methods are meant to get you high in the sky before you hit 6th-level or so. Also, we're looking for permanent ways for you to fly whenever you want to, rather than just for a few minutes when you happen to be in a fight.

Now then, on with the list!

Option #1: Character Race

Some of us are just born lucky, I guess.

One of the appealing traits of fantasy races is that they offer unusual capabilities or helpful bonuses. Some races even grant you a natural flight speed that you have at creation. Your maneuverability will vary, and you'll have to make a lot of Fly skill checks, but the ability to be high in the sky from level 1 onward grants you serious advantages that cannot be overstated. From ignoring difficult terrain, to staying out of the reach of melee-focused enemies, there's a lot to be said for those who can take wing using just what the gods gave them.

Some of the options you have include:

- Gargoyles: According to the playable stat block in the Advanced Race Guide, gargoyles have a natural fly speed of 50 feet. While most DMs probably won't let you have a gargoyle, it is one of the most powerful natural fliers out there.

- Strix: Also statted out in the Advanced Race Guide, the strix is probably one of the most commonly-denied races players have requested. With a natural fly speed of 60 feet, or 20 feet if they have the wing-clipped trait, most dungeon masters view strix as a flying monkey on their backs. If you get one, hold tight and have fun!

- Wyvaran: Paizo's answer to the Dragonborn, the wyvaran is another race that got a lot of attention in the Advanced Race Guide. They have a 30 foot fly speed, but their maneuverability is absolute crap. Fortunately, a high enough investment in the Fly skill can help you get around that minor inconvenience.

- Gathlain: These small-sized, woodland-looking creatures have a surprising among of speed when it comes to getting into the sky. With a 40 foot fly speed, but rather crap maneuverability, you can do quite a bit with them if you can persuade your DM to let you have one.

- Aasimar: While most people are familiar with the Angelic Wings feat aasimar can take later on in the game, there's actually an alternative racial feature that grants them a 20 foot natural flight speed at creation. It's a feature that shows up more than once in my most recent collection 100 Unusual Aasimar, and while it isn't the best speed, it can be boosted through any spells and other items that increase your character's base speed.

- Skinwalker: Skinwalkers debuted in Blood of The Moon, and the Bloodmarked variety have the ability to take Bloodmarked Flight once their BAB hits 5. This adds flight to their list of features they can use when they transform, and their transformations last basically as long as the player wants, making this a solid contender for full-BAB characters with an open feat slot.

While not being added to this list, honorable mention goes to the tengu. Their ability to glide and thus prevent falling damage is very useful in an aerial campaign, and the feat Tengu Wings allows them to grow functional wings for a short period of time per day, but it's not enough to keep up with the rest of the options in this section.

Option #2: Animal Companion

Mount up, loser, we're going adventuring!

Animal companions tend to fill more of a tank role, with bears and wolves as some of the standby favorites. However, there are a lot of animal companions out there that can fly... and some of them start as Medium-sized animals! The vulture is one of my favorites for this purpose, but there are one or two others on the list.

This is ideal if you're a small-sized druid, ranger, hunter, or other class that naturally receives an animal companion. You could even use it for clerics with the Animal domain, or those who take feats like Animal Ally out of Faiths and Philosophies. If you don't get a full druid level to advance your companion, then taking the feat Boon Companion out of Ultimate Wilderness is a smart idea. And if you want to play a Medium-sized character, but still want to fly, then you should consider the feat Undersized Mount out of the Advanced Class Guide. There are also some ranger archetypes that get flying mounts, like the hippogriff rider, if you're willing to wait a few levels to claim your sleek ride.

Generally speaking, we're looking at level 1 and level 4 respectively for animal companion flight, which isn't too bad. Provided, of course, you're not too big for your animal companion to haul you aloft.

You need to make sure your animal companion is properly trained so you can ride them, you'll likely need to get the proper saddle made for them, and you might want to take some mounted combat feats to help you run and gun through the skies. If you're going to be shooting from the saddle, that gives you penalties, so it's a good idea to take Mounted Archery. If you're going to be casting spells from a moving mount (as opposed to casting before or after your mount moves), that forces you to make concentration checks, which is also something to keep in mind.

Option #3: Familiars

Oi! Make with the magic already, Mephisto!

We tend to think of familiars as delicate little flowers to keep protected and safe... but you can turn them into a harrier, and rain death from the skies if you want to. With the right options, a familiar can make a perfect perch for an evoker who wants to provide fire support from a distance, or for a conjurer who wants full access to control the battlefield like it was a chessboard.

But how do you make such a tiny animal something you can ride on?

Well, this is another lovely present from Ultimate Wilderness. Because in addition to animal companion archetypes, the book also gave us familiar archetypes. The one you're going to want most for this plan is the Mauler. These familiars are always dumb and aggressive, but that's exactly what you want in a battle mount. At level 3, they can grow to a medium-sized version of themselves, which makes them easily able to be ridden by smaller casters, or by Medium-sized ones with the right feat.

If the idea of a half-mad gnome evoker riding a hawk the size of a condor into battle, blazing bolts flying from his hands as he and his familiar screech in triumph appeals to you, then this is definitely the direction you should be going.

This isn't just an option open for strictly arcane casters, either. If you take Eldritch Heritage in Ultimate Magic for the Arcane bloodline, then that grants you a familiar. You could also take the feat Familiar Bond out of the Familiar Folio, if you want something a little more expedient but which is much more useful for a melee class that just needs a familiar that can become a mount. And, of course, there is a magus arcana that grants you a familiar, as well as several other paths to acquiring such a bonded companion.

The thing to remember is that your familiar/mount needs to be able to carry you and your gear, and that you need the proper skills to ride it the same way you would any other mount. As it grows in level, though, it will gain more natural armor, and Maulers will also gain damage resistance when they hit higher levels. And if you are a caster, you can share spells with your familiar, allowing you to buff it up to become even harder to hurt, and giving it other capacities while it carries you through the battlefield.

And if you take a dip into a different class, Boon Companion works for your familiar just as it does for an animal companion.

Option #4: Eidolon

You didn't forget about me, did you?

The summoner is known for making terrifying tanks via their eidolons, but it's also possible to give yourself a flying mount pretty much right off the bat if you invest the points. A base avian form, and a small-sized summoner can be a deadly combination. Especially if you add in some other traits that let the bird blast from a distance, or if your summoner gets hold of the right scrolls, wands, and other spells to provide the right kind of support from their place on-high in the sky.

Unlike many of the previous options, eidolons are one of those things you can't really tap into from other classes. So for this one, being a summoner is really the way to go.

Make Sure You Bring Your Squad To The Right Campaign

Before you get too caught up in designing your ideal aerial wing, there's one last thing to keep in mind when it comes to these ideas; fliers need room to fly!

It sounds obvious, but it's one of the reasons I wanted to bring an airborne party to a game like Giantslayer, rather than one like Emerald Spire. Because while there may be times in the former adventure path when the party finds themselves underground, or constrained within a relatively small arena, there will be plenty of opportunities for high-flying shenanigans, ranged games, and all sorts of airborne adventures. Whereas in the Spire... well, you're inside all the time, often in cramped, narrow, dungeon-crawl style halls. Not the best place for a halfling wizard named Iceman and his hard-eyed arctic hawk Mauler.

That's all for this week's Crunch topic! For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or if you'd like to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well! And if you'd like to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little bit of help can go a long way, trust me on that one.

The Avatar Summoner

"I don't see why we listen to that twisted little fetchling," Thiana said, idly tugging at the steel hoop through her lip. "We are the chosen of the Midnight Lord. We do not bow to a shadow from the Uskwood."

"Thiana, please," Zanders hissed, glancing round. "The dark has ears, and you never know who might be listening."

Thiana's scarred lips twisted, and she was about to retort, when they heard something. The scrape of steel on stone, and the rattle of chains. A figure who hadn't been there a moment ago leaned out of the shadows in the corner of the room. He was small, and slight, with wisps of black hair hanging in his too-pale face. Looming over him, wreathed in pure darkness, was the visage of a terror. A single red eye burned above a lipless mouth filled with fangs, and too-long, skeletal limbs clutched a barbed chain. The creature laughed; a harsh, rasping sound like a hacksaw hitting bone.

"Zanders gives good council, Thiana," the fetchling said, his voice far deeper than it should have been considering his thin chest. "What I hear, our Lord hears. I am his creature, and his doorway, into this place. But I do not need to remind you of that, do I?"

I am the gate, and the threshold, to darkness.

The Avatar Summoner

When it comes to drawing forth creatures from the ether, no one does it better than the summoner. Not only that, but an eidolon is a force to be reckoned with, especially since it grows in power along with its summoner. But what if a summoner contacted a being from the outer planes who was simply too powerful to manifest through the summoner all at once? A being who, metaphorically, could only poke the tip of its finger into our reality, as long as the summoner was there to act as his doorway?

Well, then you'd have what I refer to as the avatar summoner.

Yeah, that kind of avatar.

 

If you're not familiar with the term, an avatar is typically thought of as a manifestation of a deity in a physical, corporeal form. And often (though not always) an avatar is considered vulnerable. You can fight, and even kill, an avatar. That doesn't hurt the god who made it, but it can force them to re-establish their foothold on the material world.

Now take that concept, and apply it to a summoner's eidolon. The eidolon is formed at least partially from the summoner's own mind, but the entity they bond with could be practically anything. A forgotten aspect of a supposedly dead god trying to pull itself back to the material realm? That's a possibility. A powerful demon, a fiend, or even a celestial? Those are also options. Demigods, or beings from the outer fringe of the dark tapestry? You could do that, too.

The idea behind the avatar summoner is that there is a bigger story to their eidolon aside from, "this is an extraplanar creature that follows me around, and participates in my story." The eidolon is a glimpse through a keyhole at a being that is far larger, far more powerful, and potentially far darker, than it might seem. And as the summoner grows in power, then the gateway they make allows more and more of that entity to manifest on the material plane. First a finger, then a hand, then an arm, until the eidolon can draw on nearly the full power of the inhuman outsider who carries the summoner's soul in its pocket.

Recommended Mechanics

There are several ways you could mechanically represent your tie to a powerful outer being; even one worshiped as a god on the material plane (in a major or minor way). For example, taking feats that modify your eidolon by giving it more evolution points will allow you to increase its power, and help you bring across just how strange this tiny god is. If you're connected to an infernal or celestial creature, then feats like Summon Good Monster, or Summon Evil Monster, might show the influence your allegiance has on your magic. Traits like Possessed might mean your eidolon never really goes away, and that part of it lingers in your mind even when you sleep, or have its physical form dismissed.

It all depends on how weird you want to get with your character, and how deeply ingrained their connection is to their eidolon. You might even make them a priest who summons the hand of their god through prayer. Or someone who invokes ancient rituals to call forth a sliver of a faerie lord, or the shadow of an archfiend. The sky is the limit when it comes to just how far you want to go with the concept... though how much of what the character believes is actually true should be discussed with your game master.

For more inspiration, check out 5 Tips For Playing Better Summoners!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!

That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Hell Yes! TPK Releases "Feats of Legend" and "The Demonologist"

Normally I dedicate my Monday posts to helping promote others in the gaming industry, or to bring unusual bits of interesting trivia to the attention of my readers. This week, though, I'm giving the post over to complete self-aggrandizement because not one, but two, great products just came out from TPK Games with content by yours truly!

These must-have items? Feats of Legend: The Infernal Feats, and The Demonologist.

You know you want it!

What Are They?

I'm glad you asked, bold, italicized text! Feats of Legend is a small, ongoing feature that TPK Games recently embarked on. The idea is simple; put out a little collection of feats every month, each of them gathered around a theme, so that players can add a little extra oomph to their games. The first installment, The Infernal Feats, has 20 feats by yours truly. Future editions, like Undead feats, will also feature contributions from other RPG designers, both well-known developers and up-and-comers.

The Demonologist, though, is the meat to Feats of Legend's potatoes.

The Abyss yawns open at your feet, filled with legions of howling demons bent on death, destruction, and corruption. Most sane mortals oppose these creatures, using sword and spell to keep the madness of the pit at bay. There are some, though, who seek to harness the power of the Abyss, and the creatures who lie within it. These men and women, called demonologists, hold truck with terrible forces. Attended by powerful demons, and with all the ferocity and knowledge of their servants to hand, they can be valued allies, or dangerous enemies.

Just sign on the dotted line.

The demonologist is a level 1-20 base class that's an alternate version of the Summoner. Based largely off the Pathfinder Unchained rules, this book comes with history, feats, eidolon evolutions, class archetypes, and a variety of other tools to help bring the full power of the pit to your game. My contribution was a good-aligned demonologist archetype, which is meant to let players utilize the class under DMs who disavow evil characters.

And remember, even if the players can't have it, demonologists make for tasty antagonists as well!

As always, thanks for stopping in to check out my Monday update. If you don't want to miss any of my posts, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. If you'd like to help support me and my blog, then head on over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to toss a little bread in my jar. There's a free book in it for you, too, if you become a new patron by the end of November!