Melee vs Flyers


Advice

Lantern Lodge

Hello,

What options do melee characters have to counter-act flyers in terms of either equipment or consumable gear? What about in terms of weapons or tactics?

More specifically, I am playing a Cavalier 4/Bard1/Battle Herald and will have UMD at max ranks per level.


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Potion of fly


Some other options - pack a bow, you're proficient in it; tanglefoot bags might help, but they're short range with low save DCs; reach weapons can stop fliers from fly-by attacking you unless they've also got reach, in which case you ready attacks to smack them when they get within reach.


A net is seems like a good way to deal with flyers. Even without proficiency, you are aiming against touch AC. It only has a maximum range of 10 feet though.


Uh or just a potion of fly


If you are are worried about the cost of potions of fly, you could try UMDing scrolls of fly


High Jump.

Potion of fly is your answer if you have to go melee something. Personally I think everyone should have at least 1 ranged weapon that goes beyond 10ft.

Likewise an archer should have a melee weapon to fall back on.

And if your weapon is not light, always carry a light one as well.


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But potions of Fly cost 750 gp! Instead, buy a cannon for 6000 gp to fire your melee at the target. Potions of Feather Fall only cost 50 gp- that's a 700 gp savings! After 9 uses, the cannon will pay for itself!


Quote:

Ammunition (Bow): Arrow(s), Tangleshot

This arrow is topped with a small bottle containing a small quantity of tanglefoot goo. Elves frequently use these arrows to slow or stop fleeing opponents or to capture animals without killing them.

Benefit: You fire a tangleshot arrow as a ranged touch attack; the arrow deals no damage when it hits, but the target is splashed with the alchemical adhesive. The reduced amount of the glue means this arrow is less effective than an actual tanglefoot bag (DC 10 Reflex save, DC 12 Strength check to break, 10 points of slashing damage to cut through, DC 10 Concentration check).

Drawback: The weight of a tangleshot arrow reduces its range increment to half normal.

Sure it drops your range, but you should still be able to hit things, and when you do they'll possibly fall flat out of the sky.


You stand there all sad panda because you are going through all this effort to do osmething when the wizard just blows them all away.


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Get the wizard to cast fly on you.

Party synergy, guys.


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Those that live by the sword get shot by those that don't.


It would be nice if we could use Acrobatics for this. Run up walls and leap off of rooftops and whatnot.

Shadow Lodge

Get Celestial Armor for a 1/day fly spell. And get a Longbow to fight with. You need light armor anyway. As for your mount, have a bunch of scrolls of fly. Or you could try being this guy.


Boots of flight are nice. If the wizard casts fly on you, that's cool too. It is a teamwork game after all. Bows help, although if they aren't the main weapon I'm using and I'm playing more of a strength guy, javelins and spears are a fine, cheap alternative. Also, at least for creatures with non-magical flight, if I'm flying or the wizard summons a flier, I like to bull rush the flier (or have the summoned flier bull rush) as it forces a harder Fly check to stay up.

Honestly, though, a bow (or thrown weapon) should be more than enough to take on a flier. You won't need Precise Shot and Improved PS because chances are A) they won't have cover because they are in the air and B) they won't be in melee, or else, y'know, you'd be in melee too.

Hope this helps.


I agree on the need for SOME sort of missile weapon...


tonyz wrote:
I agree on the need for SOME sort of missile weapon...

That's what Halflings and Kobolds are for.

Silver Crusade

Now where did I leave that Halfling Rocket Launcher....


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Lurk3r wrote:
But potions of Fly cost 750 gp! Instead, buy a cannon for 6000 gp to fire your melee at the target. Potions of Feather Fall only cost 50 gp- that's a 700 gp savings! After 9 uses, the cannon will pay for itself!

Ah yes, the infamous Wiley E. Coyote ACME semi-portable personal aerial launch unit with gunpowder assist.


I agree that a competent adventurer should always have a secondary weapon to hand. Ranged for melee, melee for ranged. However, that should also be the competent adventurer's last resort. It's bound to be much less powerful than his primary, both in terms of enchantments and skill-in-use (feats invested, class abilities, etc.)

Any melee-focused adventurer with half a brain will know that if he survives his early career, he's almost certain to start encountering flying foes, and should make it a priority to secure some means of flight. Others have given several good options for this:

*a deal with a party caster to cast fly on you when appropriate, this can be from scroll or if the caster is particularly generous, via spellslot.

*boots of flying

*potions of fly

*scrolls of fly

*various other magic items that allow fly X/day

Flying is an absolute necessity for every mid- to high-level adventurer. Possibly less important for ranged, but still important, even for them.

Silver Crusade

Or you can just Craft Wondrous Item, "A-10" :)


Umm... Pegasus Mount?


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master_marshmallow wrote:
Umm... Pegasus Mount?

SHHH! You! Talking about logical things like that! We should all obvioulsy be discussing ACMEs recently released personnel aireal launch unit!


Boots of Flight.

Kiting (running away) to a spot where they have to fight you melee in tight confines.


Sling is never a bad back up plan, although I wouldn't want it as my primary.


But what if the flying creature has a greater speed then a potion of fly? Say if taking on a dragon. What then folks?

Silver Crusade

Grappling Hooks.

Barbed Arrows with ropes on them.

Small sized creature being thrown by Med - Large sized companion.

Monk can Dimensional Door onto their back, then grapple (I've seen this done twice, with the same GM, hilarious)

If the flyer is also meleeing, ready a grapple action.

Grand Lodge

It depends on the flyer. If it's someone like a harpy who's going to melee, then you ready an action to strike. If they're staying completely ranged, than it's time to break out the composite strength bow you've saved for such occasions.

There's also make use of terrain. If you can get clefts or trees to work with... you do so. You can deny the flyer line of sight and/or line of effect. The rest depends on what your fellow party members are doing as well. IF you have a small group of flyers you deal with and your options are only single point ranged damage, then you all focus on one target and bring it down. rinse and repeat.

If the targets are swoopers, then melee who fights smart should have it in the bag. Vital Strike then becomes your friend.


Hyperlance wrote:

But what if the flying creature has a greater speed then a potion of fly? Say if taking on a dragon. What then folks?

Retreat and choose a battleground that favors you instead of the dragon?


I've always been fond of the ballista for the equivalent of AAA. Pendragon's advice is the best though if you're short on combined arms (in this case, ranged firepower).

Silver Crusade

master_marshmallow wrote:
Umm... Pegasus Mount?

Replying to a fairly old post, but... how would you get one, other than the Leadership feat? I would very much like to know this.


the adaptable composite longbow is the easiest idea to work with, and should be just fine as long as you take at least deadly aim, and if you are a fighter, your second weapon training group.


Celestial Pegasus wrote:
master_marshmallow wrote:
Umm... Pegasus Mount?
Replying to a fairly old post, but... how would you get one, other than the Leadership feat? I would very much like to know this.

A quest?


Emphasizing and elaborating on what Skull and others have said carry a melee weapon, a ranged weapon and a weapon you can wield in a small confined/squeezed space (dagger, kukri, gauntlets, etc.). And if I were a melee type I'd probably try to add in some sort of reach weapon.

If you (the party) really can't force it down or find a way to injure it while it's airborne then time to withdraw and choose another day (or another place) to fight.


There is also the carpet of flying.


Celestial Pegasus wrote:
master_marshmallow wrote:
Umm... Pegasus Mount?
Replying to a fairly old post, but... how would you get one, other than the Leadership feat? I would very much like to know this.

From the Monster Manual: "Pegasi lay eggs—they are worth 2,000 gp each on the open market, while young are worth 3,000 gp per head. However, as they are intelligent, good-aligned creatures, selling eggs and young is essentially slavery and is looked down on or outlawed in good societies.

Pegasi mature at the same rate as horses. Professional trainers charge 1,000 gp to rear or train a pegasus, which serves a good or neutral master with absolute faithfulness for life."

You can buy a young Pegasus and have him trained for 4000gp. If you train him yourself, you just need a good Diplomacy score(no Handle Animal since Pegasi are intelligent) to make the Pegasus helpful and you can ride them. It's also in their entry in the MM.

_____________________________________________________

Other ways to get a Flying Mount are:

-Figurine of Wondrous Power: Bronze Griffin 10 000gp
-look atthe prices for animals and buy a flying Mount: Combat Trained Griffon is 8000gp, a Hippogriff 5000gp, a Giant Owl 6000gp, and a Giant Vulture or a Pteranodon would be only 750gp.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
I3igAl wrote:


Other ways to get a Flying Mount are:

-Figurine of Wondrous Power: Bronze Griffin 10 000gp
-look atthe prices for animals and buy a flying Mount: Combat Trained Griffon is 8000gp, a Hippogriff 5000gp, a Giant Owl 6000gp, and a Giant Vulture or a Pteranodon would be only 750gp.

Combat trained dire bat is 450gp. Probably the cheapest flying option.

Grand Lodge

Lord Pendragon wrote:
Hyperlance wrote:

But what if the flying creature has a greater speed then a potion of fly? Say if taking on a dragon. What then folks?

Retreat and choose a battleground that favors you instead of the dragon?

Somtimes you have a battle where the only real option is to cut and retreat. And you can't expect to address every single situation with a single character. That's why adventurers travel in parties, to meet more options than any adventurer can do alone.

Dragons are actually fairly simple. They have to get to either breath range, or spell range. Either way, that means they're going to be in range for you to respond in turn. If the response you give isn't going to be sufficient, choose discretion as the better part of valor.


Hyperlance wrote:

But what if the flying creature has a greater speed then a potion of fly? Say if taking on a dragon. What then folks?

Well it needs more than twice your Speed to not be caught and still be able to attack, right? Even than it loses many actions trying to outmaneuver you, while your allies will bomb it.


Vital Strike: Gives options with both melee and range. Making that arrow deal 2d8+Str damage on the one attack that should hit even with a backup weapon. If fighter bows should be your second weapon group. Remember it is not a good ideal to dump dex.


This is a common issue that players run into. The "potion of fly" response is fine if your only reasonable battle tactic is to melee in some way. It is generally better to be able to have some legitimate ranged attacks. I don't think I've ever played a character in 35+ years to an enemy flying is "OMG! It's FLYING! What do I do now?" Every character I have can do SOMETHING against flying creatures.

In many cases if you find yourself in a situation where you have to fight a flying creature, you can just run away and find some way to force the creature to come to you.

But if you can't, and your character is, for some reason, stuck with his/her only viable combat option being to swing a pointy stick, then you better buy some potions of fly or just stand there and root for the characters that haven't put all their eggs in one easily overcome basket.

Silver Crusade

Definitely a good set of options for me to consider. Thank you!


Not sure how you guys get that much golds in that level, but I'm about that level with my character and we barely have roughly 700gp worth of gear each and about 300gp. We can't afford those fancy magical items so we use stuff like net, pepper, flour, oil, rope and chains to get pass encounters that we don't have magic for. Which works fine so far,


SiuoL wrote:
Not sure how you guys get that much golds in that level

The GM puts the gold into the campaign, as recommended in the rulebook.


SiuoL wrote:
Not sure how you guys get that much golds in that level, but I'm about that level with my character and we barely have roughly 700gp worth of gear each and about 300gp. We can't afford those fancy magical items so we use stuff like net, pepper, flour, oil, rope and chains to get pass encounters that we don't have magic for. Which works fine so far,

At 1000gp total wealth for each PC your group is at the assumed WBL for a 2nd level party (and nowhere near that for a party of 5+). That is fine but the GM also then needs to consider that when designing an appropriate encounter for your party.


Adamantine Dragon wrote:

This is a common issue that players run into. The "potion of fly" response is fine if your only reasonable battle tactic is to melee in some way. It is generally better to be able to have some legitimate ranged attacks. I don't think I've ever played a character in 35+ years to an enemy flying is "OMG! It's FLYING! What do I do now?" Every character I have can do SOMETHING against flying creatures.

In many cases if you find yourself in a situation where you have to fight a flying creature, you can just run away and find some way to force the creature to come to you.

But if you can't, and your character is, for some reason, stuck with his/her only viable combat option being to swing a pointy stick, then you better buy some potions of fly or just stand there and root for the characters that haven't put all their eggs in one easily overcome basket.

I kinda have to agree here. You need to look at your chars strengths and work out how to play to those strengths and what to do if something tries to avoid your strengths. Doesn't matter what your building, this should be something you think about.

Building a melee monster that has no option to deal with chars that are 'at range' (be it up a 100 foot cliff, flying, or over a chasm), is a sure way to fail Sooner or later, your going to encounter something that can either stay at range, or something similar. Unless you planned for this and have a backup, your contribution to the engagement is going to be limited to being an overpaid cheerleader.

Single focus works as long as you can bring the focus to bear. Same as a sorc or wizard needs to plan for the day when the GM sends something resistant / immune to fire against them, a fighter needs to plan for what to do if the GM doesn't play to his build's strengths.

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