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I have a player who has an Aasimar character. My player argues that the book does not state the Aasimar has to flap its wings, and instead can hover because the wings don't use concentration. This statement and assumption has led to odd arguments. If his character is knocked out or falls unconscious, do the wings stay? If the character is stunned, does it fall?

Kirt
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Skeither7
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2 Answers2

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Your player is correct in that maintaining the wings does not require concentration. If it did, it would say so in the effect description. Once triggered, the wings will exist for 1 minute. Period.

Your player is incorrrect in claiming that the wings give him a Hover effect. If a creature has a Fly (Hover) speed, it is explicitly called out in their Stats. See: Banshee, Beholder, Air Elemental, etc.

Because flight is subject to the following rule:

If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as by the fly spell.

In short, the default assumption is that "if you can fly, you will fall out of the sky if your speed is reduced to 0, unless you have one of these explicitly called out effects keeping you in the air."

The Protector Aasimar simply says "You have a flying speed." It doesn't call out any of the specific effects that let you hover even while unconcious, stunned, or otherwise deprived of the ability to intentionally stay aloft--and thus the general rule for flight applies, such that an Aasimar will fall out of the sky if their speed is reduced to 0. The 'Hover' effect laid out in the Flight Rules refers to the ability to remain airborne even if you are unconscious...not the ability to stay in one place while flying.

To address his point that "it doesn't say they flap their wings," I refer you to the Aarakocra in the Elemental Evil Player's Companion. These bird-people have actual physical wings that they use for flight, but nowhere in their write-up does it specify that they flap to stay in the air. The absence of an explicit explanation does not mean that's not how it works.

guildsbounty
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SPECIFIC BEATS GENERAL This book contains rules, especially in parts 2 and 3, that govern how the game plays. That said, many racial traits, class features, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and other game elements break the general rules in some way, creating an exception to how the rest of the game works. Remember this: If a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule wins. Exceptions to the rules are often minor. For instance, many adventurers don't have proficiency with longbows, but every wood elf does because of a racial trait. That trait creates a minor exception in the game. Other examples of rule-breaking are more conspicuous. For instance, an adventurer can't normally pass through walls, but some spells make that possible. Magic accounts for most of the major exceptions to the rules.

Protector Aasimar's Radiant Soul does not follows the general rules for flying...

FLYING MOVEMENT Flying creatures enjoy many benefits of mobility, but they must also deal with the danger of falling. If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as by the fly spell.

...the wings are "incorporeal" the flying is magical not physical (the flapping of incorporeal wings, if they even flap, would not affect the air in any way much less produce propulsion/flight) so as the text says it is being held aloft by magic, its not a spell but the flying is consequence of a magical effect caused by the ability (This is why we need "Spell Like" and "Supernatural" abilities back on the wording).

Radiant Soul Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to glimmer and two luminous, incorporeal wings to sprout from your back. Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. During it, you have a flying speed of 30 feet, and once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra radiant damage equals your level. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

If rendered unconscious the Aasimar should remain flying in place until the 1 minute duration (10 rounds) of Radiant Soul comes to an end, as long as the wings are present the Aasimar remains flying. Radiant Soul is an specific rule for the racial traits of 1 out of 3 variants of the Aasimar (Protector's Variant) two of which sprout wings but only one get's to fly, you cannot get more specific than that.

If the ability were to end up earlier when the Aasimar was rendered unconscious, paralized or otherwise incapacitated and said Aasimar should fall to the ground, it should said so on the entry for the racial ability.

I've seen other posts and answers were Radiant Soul is tested and declared "non-magical", fine, but what would you call sprouting incorporeal wings of light and taking flight then? It is certainly not a spell, but it's still magical (Spell-like Ability) or supernatural (Supernatural Ability) in nature.

Asylum Overseer
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    Why doesn’t the Aasimar feature follow the general rules for flying? – Thomas Markov Sep 09 '21 at 02:29
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    @ThomasMarkov Because the general rules of flying specifically say they do not apply to creatures that use magic (such as a fly spell) to fly. Asylum Overseer is making the argument that the description of the Aasimar's wings indicates that they are just as magical a means of flight as a fly spell, which is specifically called out as being an exception to the rules for flying because it is magical. – Kirt Sep 10 '21 at 06:39
  • @Kirt Yes, now they are making that argument. When I left that comment this answer was a couple sentences with no support. – Thomas Markov Sep 10 '21 at 08:19
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    "such as by the fly spell." Your argument should really lean on how the feature is like the fly spell - I don't think it is convincing without that support. – Akixkisu Sep 10 '21 at 10:54
  • @Kirt Exactly what I was getting at. – Asylum Overseer Sep 10 '21 at 18:13
  • @ThomasMarkov You are right, I answered with the bare minimum I was on my phone at the time. – Asylum Overseer Sep 10 '21 at 18:13
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    @Akixkisu The point of the Flying being magical like the Fly Spell is made two or three times, maybe I wasn't explicit enough. – Asylum Overseer Sep 10 '21 at 18:14
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    @AsylumOverseer so your agument is that that holds true for any magical flying, not flying that is like that granted by the fly spell? – Akixkisu Sep 10 '21 at 18:16
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    This answer buries the lede. It needs a tl;dr like, "The aasimar stays aloft because it's flying is magical." The specific beats general is a footnote to the flying movement rules, as to why that provision should be followed. – GcL Sep 10 '21 at 18:24
  • The aasimar does follow the rules for flying by this logic. It follows the part where it's flying is magical, and thus doesn't fall when knocked unconscious or movement reduced to 0. – GcL Sep 10 '21 at 18:26
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    Although the description of the Asimar's flight is certainly fantastical and supernatural, there are some defined ways to determine whether or not something in DnD is "magical.". It would help your answer have credibility if you referenced them. Then again, by those definitions in the link, I don't see how this feature is magical. Am I missing something? – Gandalfmeansme Sep 10 '21 at 18:31
  • @Akixkisu The mention of the Fly Spell is an example, the text says "or it is held aloof by magic, such as by the Fly Spell" any other magic, spell or otherwise that allows a creature to fly that requires no concentration by the caster or if it's cast by other creature on the affected creature, or that doesn't specify conditions for an early termination of the effect (and if it does, this does not includes incapacitation, with the exception of petrification), then it should benefit from that exemption to the rule. – Asylum Overseer Sep 10 '21 at 18:35
  • It's a very interesting idea that the duration of an Asimarr's flight speed, without conditions stated that end it early, is meant to indicate that the Asimarr can remain aloft during that time, circumventing features that would normally cause it to fall. I'd love to see that incorporated into the answer. Still, I'm not sure I find it convincing. For example, the Polymorph spell has a duration. But if a character was Polymorphed into a bird, and then rendered unconscious by the Sleep spell, would you say that the bird hovers in the air? – Gandalfmeansme Sep 10 '21 at 18:47
  • @Gandalfmeansme Part 1: I wont modify my answer anymore, the rules are very clear on the exception to be made.

    As for Polymorph, the spell does not cause Magical Flight, if the spell transforms a creature into another let's say a bear, the bear doesn't fly 'cause it has no flying speed, now if it was transformed into a Bird, let's say an Owl for example, then it would fly not because of Polymorph but because the new form has a flying speed, and that form would follow the normal rules for flying. The transformation is magical the resulting form is not.

     – Asylum Overseer Sep 10 '21 at 21:06
  • @Gandalfmeansme Part 2: Radiant Soul's transformation is magical and gives a pair of Incorporeal Wings (key word, Incorporeal, as in not physical, as in not real, as in flapping them won't do a thing in the physical word like push air and produce flight) and the Aasimar gains a (magical) flying speed, if the wings are incorporeal the flying is not produced by the wings, but rather their manifestation and presence as part of the Radiant Soul racial ability. – Asylum Overseer Sep 10 '21 at 21:12