Flight (Ex or Su) A creature with this ability can cease or resume flight as a free action. If the ability is supernatural, it becomes ineffective in an antimagic field, and the creature loses its ability to fly for as long as the antimagic effect persists.
When looking at the bestiary how do you know whether a creatures flight is Ex or Su? It doesn't seem to specify in the stat block. Is just looking at the artwork of the monster and making a ruling based on if that picture has wings or not the only way?
Flight (Ex or Su) A creature with this ability can cease or resume flight as a free action. If the ability is supernatural, it becomes ineffective in an antimagic field, and the creature loses its ability to fly for as long as the antimagic effect persists.When looking at the bestiary how do you know whether a creatures flight is Ex or Su? It doesn't seem to specify in the stat block. Is just looking at the artwork of the monster and making a ruling based on if that picture has wings or not the only way?
Pretty much, yeah, make a judgment call. If you have to look at the picture to tell whether or not a creature has wings, though, you might not want to use that creature in your game, since you clearly don't know much about it.
Is there a reason why this matters? About the only way I can see this making a difference is in an Anti-Magic field.
Antimagic field is an important reason. Also, the fly skill itself has some checks that natural flight has to make (taking damage, collision) but magical flight doesn't.
Plus I would think status effects like paralyze work differently between the two modes of flying.
It seems like a pretty important point of information and it's absurd if looking at the artwork really is the only way to tell whether a monster has Ex or Su flight. Is it not possible that there are some monsters that have wings just for show, but actually move around with Su flight? Or are there monsters whose wings are folded up and non-visible in the artwork, but when they fly they unfurl them and go? How are you supposed to know these things without it saying somewhere in the stat block or the text?
99.99999% of the time, it doesn't matter.
And that last .00001% of the time, the difference is probably the result of one Fly check.
So really, it doesn't matter.
Is there a reason why this matters? About the only way I can see this making a difference is in an Anti-Magic field.Antimagic field is an important reason. Also, the fly skill itself has some checks that natural flight has to make (taking damage, collision) but magical flight doesn't.
Plus I would think status effects like paralyze work differently between the two modes of flying.
It seems like a pretty important point of information and it's absurd if looking at the artwork really is the only way to tell whether a monster has Ex or Su flight. Is it not possible that there are some monsters that have wings just for show, but actually move around with Su flight? Or are there monsters whose wings are folded up and non-visible in the artwork, but when they fly they unfurl them and go? How are you supposed to know these things without it saying somewhere in the stat block or the text?
What monster are you referring to?
99.99999% of the time, it doesn't matter.
And that last .00001% of the time, the difference is probably the result of one Fly check.
So really, it doesn't matter.
Are you saying that paralyze and antimagic field only show up in 0.0001% of games? I will admit they probably don't get thrown around every session, but that is still a very low estimate.
I am exaggerating.
Note that the Flight universal monster rule says:
"Flight (Ex, Sp, or Su) A creature with this ability can cease or resume flight as a free action. , and it is ineffective in an antimagic field; the creature loses its ability to fly for as long as the antimagic effect persists."
LazarX, why would paralysis drop a creature that flies via a Sp or Su ability? Prevent them from moving, yes, but not cause them to suddenly fall.
- Gauss