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| Aarakocra art from Tomb of Annihilation (2017) |
this post specifically deals with 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons content.
Bird people are a cool concept. They combine the speed, gracefulness, keen eyesight, and predatory drive of a raptor with thumbs. Wizards of the Coast exploited this niche with the introduction of aarakocra as a player race, added to 5th edition in Princes of the Apocalypse. These hexapodal avians became the first player race in 5e to have an innate flying speed - giving them 50 ft of flight, provided they aren't wearing medium or heavy armour.
Since then they have been systematically banned from almost every D&D table I've sat at and every online game I've taken part in. The same goes for games across the globe, as the notion of a player race that can move vertically instead of horizontally is declared time and time again to be an unwelcome addition to the game. Personally, I think this is a shame, as aarakocra strike me as such an interesting player option that opens up various doors of gameplay and campaign design to both players and the DM. What's worse, the way that some DMs have gone about trying to "correct" this issue for their tables both completely negates player expectations and is arguably a more work-intensive method of getting the result they initially wanted of not having to deal with aarakocra in the first place.
So, before we "fix" these wonderful bird people, let's ask: "Why do DMs not allow aarakocra in their games?" The answers that I see most often roughly fall into two categories: balance and compensation.
