Mostly ttrpg stuff and a lil art.
It pulls one of the most cowardly game designer moves, limiting a heritage's base feature by making them suffer a condition or spend a resource.
If you're gonna have a heritage that can fly, just let them fucking fly. There's ways of handling it that aren't shitty.
A familiar that's only around when you spend a resource and lasts until you go to sleep sucks. What kinda caster wants a lil buddy that's only around sometimes?
Softly, I'd push back on this. Like I'm good on this for certain games and settings. If folks are flying around in Masks it's fine that's a common enough power. But flight is such a powerful mobility tool that when only one character has it, it completely unbalances things. The closest other ability I've seen is the midnight decks shadow walking move which also requires resources.
Because otherwise it logistically gets too strong too quick. Narratively it makes sense for flying to cost you because shit cannot fly forever it does get tired and need to rest. But more than that... I'd personally rather have mechanic shackles than narrative ones:
If someone lets me fly but there's a cost, alright I can use that tool in my arsenal as hard as I can imagine. If there isn't a cost then I'm going to start limiting what I can do to keep things feeling more equal and fun for everyone at the table. And it's a terrible feeling when you realize you are having to use the kid gloves because your character is too cool.
In my experience, flight has always been a liability. If you're the only with it, then you frequently isolate yourself. That's the mechanical restraint.
Fly around an obstacle? Cool, rest of your party is still on the other side. You either find a way to help them or put yourself at risk without them.
Fly above a combat? Rest of your team can utilize positioning or cover to protect themselves. You're an open target and taking fall damage if you're knocked down.
Also the image of a lil fairy spending more time walking than flying sucks.
i mean, you can also just fly in and out as you please. get a longbow and snipe from extreme range and then move back. keep darting in and out. hell if you are a magic class throw some fireballs in...
hell you could be really strong and just... dropping rocks on dudes from above their heads. what are they going to do.
also i didnt see the familiar ability you mentioned but my guess would be the reason it summons/unsummons is that its you know... easier when it inevitably gets killed
The range thing also works without flight and dropping rocks still falls under being an open target. Unless you're carrying a rock large enough to hit multiple people. Then the system has other problems going on.
The thing with range without flight is that there are generally obstacles on the ground that will trip you up, can allow people to maneuver or box you in... could even perceivably chase you down.
A faerie can choose a long bow as their starting weapon and be able to strike at very far range. and none of the enemies in the earlier tiers even have a weapon that goes that far. it's an easy enough change to give them a weapon that can. but that's the thing as written- a flying opponent could just stay outside of their range and snipe them to their heart's content.
it's not the kind of thing i'd pull on a player, so it's also not the kind of thing i'd let a player do.
Enemies not having access to weapons with the same ranges as the players is a system problem and most systems have some sort of readied action, so if the player is doing the in and out dance, they can ready an attack for that.
On top of that, there's usually a penalty for attacking from that far away. Unless they're able to move into and out of their optimal range without being attacked, which would again be a system problem.
They've isolated themselves again by staying so far away. If the rest of the party isn't in the fray, the enemies can run for cover. This could mean they escape, or pin them down. The latter meaning the flying player is using their abilities for teamwork.
If the rest of the team is in combat, then there's one fewer target. This can be good or bad. It means the tanks and healers have one less person to worry about. Or the the team gets focused down faster, fucking over everyone.
They're also open to ambush. No one else is near them. They're fucked if something gets a good hit on them.
Look at it this way. When setting up an encounter, you probably have one of two things in mind.
1, the players are going to win. Why does it matter how they win?
2, you want to challenge the players. Why aren't you using things that challenge a flying character?
i never really design encounters assuming my players will win. i'm generally thinking of it as an open ended question to see what they can do. like it's based on chance, i can throw my players a low ball and they can die in the first encounter to a pack of goblins who roll hot.
and while I generally want to provide opportunities for them to highlight what they excel at and see how the struggle with their bad traits.
anyway, if i did say, want to challenge a flying faerie- i would put the adventure inside a building or cavern, give a low ceiling. but then you still have the other aspect of the move which is you are spending stress to enter a stance giving you a +2 evasion which is a HUGE bonus and honestly worth it on its own.
The evasion bit is a separate issue. It's entirely reasonable to put a cost on that.
My problem was specific to a flying heritage not being able to fly whenever.
It'd be like a bird that can only fly sometimes.
