That's a tough one. I would consider some of this.
If they are flying with a light load, I would give them no penalties. Interestingly enough, There are flight penalties when you are a creature of a large size or greater, you take a penatly to your fly check. I would probably go with that. Maybe as as added penalty, you may also want to drop their Dex Bonus depending on the kind of load they are bearing.
I know this may be rough, but you could also drop their flying manuverability if they are encumbered.
The thing is I would consider when adding penalties like: Fly Speed, Manuverability, Dex Penalties, is the nature of the flight. Flying adds a whole new dimension to movement. You gotta do fly check (and maybe ride checks) for everything. It's gonna make it tougher, If it was easy every creature would be able to do it.
I hope that helps.
Creatures cannot fly while wearing medium or heavy barding. From the Equipment section of the rules. Barding is armor fitting for a non-humanoid body.
"A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor." From the Additional Rules section of the rules.
So, annoyingly, creatures cannot fly when carrying more than their light load. Not lose maneuverability, take a fly skill penalty or lose speed, but just cannot lift off at all.
Creatures cannot fly while wearing medium or heavy barding. From the Equipment section of the rules. Barding is armor fitting for a non-humanoid body.
"A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor." From the Additional Rules section of the rules.
Well, I checked it out and Mauril was right. The book does take you in a big loop as far as flying and carrying weight and all that.
I yeild Mauril (Althgouh i think that rule is crap :-P)
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Oh, we ignore that rule in our games too. Especially since a laden rider can easily outstrip the light carry capacity of a mount. We just deduct speed.
Mauril, I think you are taking a specific rule and making it more general unccessarily.
First: Nowhere on pages 149 through pages 153 does it mention the word 'barding'. Nonhumanoid Armor (not barding) is listed on page 153.
Second: Barding is a subset of Armor. Armor > Barding not Armor = Barding. A Flying Mount is a subset of Flying creatures.
Thus, all flying creatures who are not mounts and not wearing barding can fly in medium and heavy armor (at reduced speeds).
A Dragon can wear Heavy armor OR it can wear Heavy Barding (if it is serving as a mount). If it wears Heavy Armor it can fly (at reduced speed). If it wears Heavy Barding it cannot fly at all.
Barding, Medium Creature and Large Creature: Barding is a type of armor that covers the head, neck, chest, body, and possibly legs of a horse or other mount.
The following is where it talks about pricing not what qualifies for wearing barding.
Armor for a horse (a Large nonhumanoid creature) costs four times as much as human armor (a Medium humanoid creature) and also weighs twice as much (see Table 6–8).
In summary: Barding is only for creatures who are mounts. Armor is for creatures (regardless of humanoid or nonhumanoid status) who are not mounts.
Regarding Encumbrance, nothing in the encumbrance or flying rules state that any kind of flier is restricted when medium or heavily encumbered. The application of encumbrance in your logic is based on the interpretation that Barding = Armor rather than the interpretation that Barding is a more restrictive subset of Armor.
- Gauss
P.S. I don't agree with the medium/heavy barding rule penalizing flying mounts while medium/heavy armor does not penalize other fliers. I believe it should be one way or the other and think it should fall on the side of the armor/barding not penalizing.
It's worth noting that the Fly spell is a specific exception to the normal rules for flying with a medium/heavy load. It allows it, just at reduced speed. Explicitly:
"The subject can fly at a speed of 60 feet (or 40 feet if it wears medium or heavy armor, or if it carries a medium or heavy load)."
Encumbrance does not affect flying anymore than it does any other form of movement. It reduces your fly speed as appropriate and applies the encumbrance penalty to your fly checks (among other skills).
There is no restriction on flying with armor unless you happen to be a mount that that is wearing barding (though I'm sure you still need to deal with speed reduction and armor check penalties as above).
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P.S. I don't agree with the medium/heavy barding rule penalizing flying mounts while medium/heavy armor does not penalize other fliers. I believe it should be one way or the other and think it should fall on the side of the armor/barding not penalizing.
There is no way to make sense of barding and identical "non-barding" armor for the same creature. Barding comes in varieties (chainmail, breastplate, fullplate, etc.) as far as I understand. So why would anyone buy barding? It costs the same as non-barding armor for the same creature, provides the same protection, ACP, ASF, and speed reduction but also imposes an extra limitation.
The only way to make sense of these rules is to have barding = armor, where barding is just an alternate (historical) term for non-humanoid armor. As such, the rules are mean, but they are at least consistent.
I ignore those rules as written, making barding just reduce speed. I do the same with medium/heavy loads. But I do so realizing that it's a houserule.
I would have to agree with you Mauril. I think it is a relic of 3.5 that didn't get looked at.
- Gauss