Flight Skill for DragonQuest

While DragonQuest does include some brief guidelines for aerial combat under the rules section for Avians, these rules are pretty limited.  Characters wishing to fight from horseback must improve their Horsemanship skill or risk losing control of their mount.  So it follows that a character, whose flight ability is not natural, but granted through magic, would also need to gain skill in Flight.  To that end I put together some house rules for my campaign.
As can be seen below, Flight skill is based on the existing Horsemanship rules in DragonQuest.  The formula is similar, being [(modified Agility + Perception)/2 + (Rank x 8)].  I had considered using Magical Aptitude (MA) in the formula in place of one of the two characteristics but decided instead to let Rank with the particular flight spell in use be used as a positive modifier to the skill roll.  This allows Adepts that have cast the spell upon themselves to be inherently better at controlling their flight and to have an advantage over those characters dependent upon enchanted or invested items, or just spells cast by friendly adepts.  Modified Agility is used as a character's Agility represents their ability to control their bodies position and react to forces.  Perception was chosen instead of Willpower as it is not about exerting control over another entity but is more about accurately judging your speed and altitude relative to other stationary and moving objects or targets.
Unlike Stealth and Horsemanship, only those characters who are Adepts and have learned a spell of flight gain Rank 0 automatically.  All others must be acquire Flight skill through the expenditure of time (4 hours) and experience.  Flight skill also requires that a character spend time practicing their flight skills in order to improve.  The time required is 4 hours times the rank to be acquired.
As with Horsemanship, rolls against Flight skill are only required when attempting to perform complicated maneuvers or trying to use flight in combat.  A short list of modifiers to Flight skill is also shown below.
The attack modifiers given are from section 67 of the DragonQuest rules and that section is included for reference.
Some time ago I posted charts for converting MPH to Yards/Minute and TMR.  They can be found here:  Movement Rates
Less than a day ago, Kaith Athanes on the Yahoo! DQ groups posted a campaign description that also included a Horsemanship derived Flight skill.  That inspired me to finish updating my version and finally get a new blog post up.  Thanks for getting me off my butt!

The complete rules as a PDF file can be downloaded here.  Pasting from the original OpenOffice document into Blogger made for some pretty hideous formatting.  The PDF is much more readable than the version below.

DragonQuest Flight Skill

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Flight	250	125	250	375	500	625	750	875	1000	1125	1250

[83.6] A character will use Flight Skill to maneuver in the air when granted the power of flight through the use of magic.

Whenever a flying character wishes to perform an aerial maneuver, such as flying through a constrained space, the character's player shall make a percentile roll against their Flight skill ability. A character's Flight skill ability is calculated by [(modified Agility + Perception)/2 + (Rank x 8)], rounding down any fractions and applying the modifiers listed in the table below. Adepts that have learned a spell granting the power of flight automatically gain Flight skill at Rank 0. All others must expend experience and practice while under the effect of a flight spell for a minimum of 4 hours in order to achieve Rank 0. The skilled flier may make melee and ranged attacks while flying.

Characters without Flight skill may take only the most basic of actions while flying. They must make a Flight ability roll for any action taken while flying including landing. The unskilled Flight ability roll is at (modified Agility + Willpower)/3 rounding any fractions down.

As the character increases in Rank with Flight skill they gain the following abilities:

Rank	Weapon Use	Spell Use
1	May use one-handed melee weapons	May use invested spells
3	May use two-handed melee weapons and one-handed thrown weapons	May prepare or cast while stationary
5	May use bows, crossbows or spear-throwers
7	May make ranged attacks at targets in any direction.	May prepare or cast while moving

To increase in rank with Flight requires that the character practice the skill in an active fashion. The character must spend 4 hours times the rank to be achieved flying. At least one half of those hours must be spent practicing with weapons and performing maneuvers. Flight spells of sufficient duration must be cast on the character cover the time required and cast checks must be made for each of the spells.

Flight Skill Rolls

Action	Modifier
Every hex moved more than character's normal TMR	-1%
Every hex facing change after the first	-5%
Diving	-10%
Doing a flyby attack or grab	-10%
Flying through window, door or other opening 5 foot or less in width. Penalty is per hex traveled to reach opening.	-3%/hex
Per rank with spell when flying character is the caster of the spell and spell was not from an investment or item.	+1%
Modifiers are cumulative.

Roll is...	Result is...
Less than or equal to modified Flight ability	Maneuver successful.
Greater than modified Flight ability but less than modified ability plus modified Agility	Roll is Odd = overshoots target hex by 1 hex, collides with anything in path. Roll is Even = stopped too soon, short by 1 hex No other actions this pulse.
Greater than modified Flight ability plus modified Agility	Roll is Odd = overshoots target hex by D-5 hexes, collides with anything in path. Roll is Even = stopped to soon, short by D-5 hexes, may have moved backwards. No further actions allowed until successful Flight roll is made.
100	Roll D100 <= 3 * WP to avoid collision along path of flight or other catastrophic failure at GM's discretion.

Using Flight Skill in Combat

During combat, a Flight skill roll must be made each round that a character uses flight to move, makes an attack, or takes any action other than a Pass action. Failing a roll could result in a collision with objects or figures along the direction of travel. If a collision occurs, both the parties take damage as if from a Shield Rush [16.5] with one additional point of damage for every 3 hexes of intended movement that pulse. If two flying figures collide, the movement rates for both are added together to determine the additional damage. A figure that is standing on a solid surface when the collision occurs must make a roll against 3 x modified Agility or fall prone and be knocked back 1 hex for every additional point of damage from the flying figure's movement rate. In the case of a Shield Rush attack by a flying figure, if the attack is successful, the flying figure will take only the additional damage, if any, from the movement rate.

Melee attacks made while flying are considered Charge attacks and suffer the usual penalties[17.6]. As with collisions, 1 extra point of damage is done to the target for every 3 hexes of movement by the flier. This also increases the chance of breaking the weapon by 4% for each extra point of damage. The skilled flier can reduce the extra damage done, and thus reduce the increased break chance, by 1 point per rank with the skill.

Ranged attacks made while flying add the movement rate of the flier to the range to determine any penalty for range. Thrown weapons gain additional damage for movement rate as with collisions but only for targets in the ranged attack zone based on direction of travel.

Per rules section 67, attacks made while flying or against flying targets are subject to the following modifiers.

Modifiers to Strike Chances for Aerial Combat
Action	Modifier
Attack against an airborne target	-20%
Airborne attack against target on ground	-15%
Airborne attack against airborne target	-30%

See section 67 for additional information on aerial combat.

Attacks against Flying Figures

Attacks made against flying figures incur penalties for both melee and ranged attacks. Reduce Strike Chance by the movement rate of the flier for melee attacks. For ranged attacks, add the movement rate to the distance to determine range penalty. The penalty for a moving target also applies.

A flying figure that passes through the melee zone of another figure may be subject to a free attack at that figures discretion. If the free attack is taken, the normal modifiers for melee attacks against fliers apply.

Flight Outside of Combat

When not in combat, Flight rolls are only required when performing complicated maneuvers or flying nape-of-the-earth. A complicated maneuver might be landing on a moving vehicle, the deck of a ship, a narrow ledge or a tree branch. Grabbing something, or someone, in mid-air would also require a skill roll and the GM should assign situational modifiers when appropriate.

Excerpted DragonQuest rules section:

67. AVIANS

Avians include only those species listed in this rule Section, though other Species have a flying capacity and the rules governing flying in this section apply to all species using that option.

Whenever an avian (or any other entity that is a flier) is air-borne, the character's height above the ground and/or any obstacle may have to be noted (especially in the case of combat situations). When calculating the range between two characters when one or both are airborne, the following formula is used: A² + B² = C². A = the distance between the two characters in feet. B = the difference between the height of the two characters from the ground. C = the range between the characters. A character may not attack another character in Melee Combat when one or both are airborne unless the Range between them is 5 feet or less. A character may not attack a character in Close Combat when one or both are airborne unless they occupy the same hex and the height difference is 3 feet or less. A character may not attack another character in Ranged Combat when one or both are airborne unless the range to the target as calculated in this Section is within the maximum range of the weapon or spell the attacker is using.

The Base Chance of hitting an airborne character is always reduced by 20. The Base Chance of an airborne character hitting a target on the ground is reduced by 15 and the Base Chance of an airborne character hitting another airborne character is reduced by 10. These reductions apply to all physical combat, but not to magic.

Whenever an airborne character occupies the same hex as another conscious, unstunned character and the height differential is 3 feet or less, they are automatically in Close Combat. An air-borne character will be pulled from the air and made to adopt a Prone Position in Close Combat if the combined Physical Strength and Agility of the airborne character are less than the combined Physical Strength and Agility of the character on the ground. If both characters are flying or if the combined Physical Strength and Agility of the airborne character is equal to or greater than that of the non-airborne character, the Close Combat will be conducted with the airborne character remaining airborne and, possibly, with both characters airborne (GM's discretion as to how much weight a flying character can carry into the air in such circumstances).

An airborne character can enter the same hex as a stunned or unconscious character or as a character who is 5 feet or more above or below him without having to enter Close Combat. An air-borne character can make a Charge Attack by "diving" on the target.