So, I didn't read the Players Guide until after our first session, my mistake. I made an Animal Instinct Barbarian, and now I realize that may have been a terrible choice. Since dragons are the main bad guys in AoA and Animal Barbarians have no way to fight flying creatures, I'm worried I may be screwed. How prevalent are flying creatures in the AP? Do I need to change characters?
He can use ranged weapons if he isn't raging, but he is going to be hosed if he needs a ranged attack after he has already started. This happened to an animal barbarian player in my game. He raged at the beginning of the fight as usual, then the creatures flew up out of reach. He still had enemies in sight and couldn't end the rage voluntarily. All he could do is stand and watch helplessly, very frustrating.
The group is only 5th level now, so they don't have any means of grounding flying creatures for a while.
That's exactly the kind of thing I'm afraid of. It didn't help that the very first fight was against a flying critter (the fire mephit). I'm thinking of switching to Giant Instinct so I can use my reach and the Raging Thrower feat to fight flying creatures.
Items that allow you to fly are pretty available at higher levels.
And flying creatures show up in the AP, certainly, but IMO no more often than in most APs.
Great, thanks!
Yes, there's still lots of non-fliers for your barabrian to smash. Also, there is planty of available downtime between modules, so retraining a bit is always another option as well.