Flying in 5e
Flying mechanics in 5e are woefully underdeveloped. The ability to fly is a massive weight on the scale of combat. A player character or NPC with the ability of flight has a huge advantage over ground dwellers, which is most creatures. This is made even more game breaking by the fact that the brief and underdeveloped mechanics of flight described on page 191 of the player’s handbook leave a lot of loopholes to exploit.
In order to balance this mechanic I’d implement a sort of flight concentration requirement, similar to that of spells with a concentration requirement. Each time a flying creature takes damage, they make a concentration saving throw against 1/2 of the damage or 10, whichever is higher. On a failed save the creature is knocked prone and falls to the ground.
It’s a mechanic that doesn’t remove the advantage of flight, while also tipping the scale back to balance by ensuring a way to combat flying creatures. PCs with flight have to watch out for arrows knocking them to the ground but can also use ranged attacks to ground a flying opponent.
