Fly: Come Fly with Me

Usable By: Artificer, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Spell Level: 3

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

Components: V, S, M (A wing feather from any bird)

You touch a willing creature. The target gains a flying speed of 60 feet for the duration. When the spell ends, the target falls if it is still aloft, unless it can stop the fall.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 3rd.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Fly speeds used to be something special, something that set wizards apart from everyone else. In editions of old, wizards were known for flying around blasting spells with an army of elementals below them, functionally reaching godhood while the barbarian contemplated their stack of numbers they add to their handful of attacks a turn. Today, Fly still has a home at a lot of tables, but isn’t quite the all-star it used to be. Concentration makes the spell far riskier, and often leaving it as a neat idea, but not something many builds actively seek out. Between all four of the classes that can take Fly, especially given how popular they are, it’s wild to me just how infrequently this spell is regularly getting cast at my tables.

A fly speed offers a variety of advantages, most clear and obvious being a constant means of staying out of reach of land locked melee attacking creatures. Tactically, a fighter built around attacking with a greatsword is going to have a really bad time if their opponent can Fly 60 feet off the ground and pepper them with cantrips while keeping pace with them. Countering this style normally involves wacking the wizard at range until they drop concentration, causing them to plummet to the ground. Shield helps mitigate this, as it can provide you an AC bump when you’d need it, as can other defensive features like War Caster. That being said, this range advantage is only really valuable in this void vacuum of space against a single target. D&D is a cooperative game with other players weaponizing other builds that aren’t able to fly. Fly, in many of those instances in combat, has no real bearing on improving your character sheet, and is often more detrimental, as the fall is more likely to matter than the freedom from melee attacks.

Out of combat, Fly getting a decent up-cast to offer more creatures a fast fly speed makes it a reasonable utility warlock spell. Artificer struggles to justify their upper tier slots on this, as they need to be 9th level to get their first 3rd level slots. Flight out of combat does open up a lot of doors for exploration, and expands the kinds of environments your DM can start throwing at you knowing you have the tools to navigate more complex vertical realms. It isn’t alone in this department, though; teleportation effects like Misty Step offer this kind of navigation early, as does Levitate and Jump. There are cheaper ways to even get fly speeds by simply playing an Aarocockra or Owlkin. Players have no shortage of ways to take flight, and dedicating your concentration and a spell slot on it these days doesn’t necessarily feel “worth it”. Why just fly when you can summon a flying companion for an hour at the same cost?

I don’t think Fly will ever be bad, but its time in the sun has certainly waned. If you like thematically or mechanically the benefits Fly offers, I think you’ll find some instances where it’ll shine brightly for you. Most character builds don’t want, nor need, Fly to function. You can likely get what it offers for cheaper in other places, or as part of more powerful options down the road.

5e Spells

Fly: Come Fly with Me