Do wings aid in magical flight?


Rules Questions

Silver Crusade

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Hello all,

Considering the Tiefling 'vestigial wings' racial trait, I tried to find rules about how much actual, functional wings would aid in magical flight. But I couldn't find any.

Although this could arise in many ways, the case I found was the following: A kineticist with the 'wings of air' wild talent gains, through greater eldritch heritage, the 'on dark wings' infernal bloodline power.

I can fully grasp that the wings themselves only give an average maneuverability and a speed of 60'. But what if they are used to aid in the magical flight granted by the 'wings of air' power? In my mind they should then give a bonus to maneuverability, and probably even to speed, also, but I can't find anything about it in the rules.

It warps my mind to think that vestigial wings would give a +4 bonus to checks, because they help with balance, and that fully functional wings would not help at all.

If no rules exist: what would you think about a +8 racial or circumstance bonus to the skill, and an speed increase of 50%, up to a maximum of double the speed the wings would give by themselves?

Would love to hear your thoughts!


They don't interact.

You have completely separate abilities and use them in completely separate ways. Magical flight doesn't aid wings and wings don't aid magical flight (in terms of maneuverability or speed).

Silver Crusade

Ok, thanks, so I read the rules correctly.

But doesn't this seem ridiculous to anyone else? Shouldn't there be some interaction? Or am I in the wrong thread to discuss this?


This might be the wrong place to discuss it, but it's certainly an interesting topic for a different thread.


It's a pretty niche thing, overall, so I'm not surprised the designers overlooked it.

Silver Crusade

Thanks, Brew Bird, I agree. Where should I bring it up?

I don't think it's that niche, Korlos.

Alchemist: fly spell and wings discovery
Sorcerer: fly spell and wings from bloodline
Aasimar angelic wings with any kind of fly spell
Dragons, angels, fiends, other magical creatures with wings!

I think this appears quite often.

And since they appearantly thought about the effect that 'vestigial wings' have on flying, I think it's a strange oversight.

And once we know how fly interacts with wings, what about levitation? I can imagine those wings would become much more versatile if they're freed from the burden of having to carry all weight.

Talking about flying interactions. I've seen magical flight in other surroundings than air (like water) discussed, but why are there no rulings on it? It would be a simple addition to state that magical flight would offer a swim speed of half its fly speed, or whatever. But... nothing!

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