The Aarakocra, or Bird Man, is precisely what you envision they are; a race of avian humanoids. These humanoid creatures are a group of monsters that the DM can throw at lower-level players in the same vein as kobolds, orcs, and lizardfolk. What makes the Aarakocra uniquely more challenging is their ability to fly. Too often, our intrepid adventurers slash away with a sword or cast their spells with a range of 30 feet and call it a day. Forcing them to think outside the box because a flying eagle-looking creature is bearing down on them from the heavens with javelins in their talons will add spice to any game.

So let’s dive deep and soar through the air, this time exploring the Aarakocra.

AD&D - Aarakocra

Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1-10
Armor Class: 7
Move: 6”/36”
Hit Dice: 1 + 2
% in Lair: 5%
Treasure Type: D
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-3/1-3 or by weapon type
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral good
Size: M (20’ wingspan)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Level/X.P. value: II/28 + 2 per hit point

The Aarakocra are the first creatures found in Fiend Folio (1981) and have a whole page devoted to them. It's pretty shocking, considering they aren't even evil creatures. In fact, the Aarakocra are a race of sound and intelligent humanoids that just happen to fly about. It's nice to see since, as we have documented many times in this series, every monster just wants to eat you and suck the marrow from your bones.

Though, don’t take this to mean that the Aarakocra are a friendly race of flying folk; they just aren’t going to murder you for no reason. They can be found high in the mountains where they can avoid other humanoids, especially elves, dwarves, and other demi-humans. They’ll work for humans, provided you bring them enough gold or gems, though it isn’t a guarantee. Flying is their passion, and we will be the first to admit it. If we could soar through the skies, we’d be doing that all day, too. It helps explain why the Aarakocra are incredibly claustrophobic and dislike being on the ground for too long. Many of them spend most of their day simply soaring the air currents and watching the world far below them.

If you do happen to run, or fly, into one of the birdfolk, you aren’t going to be able to mistake it for anything else but an Aarakocra. They stand 6-feet tall with an impressive 20-foot wingspan. Their feather coloring varies widely, with the Aarakocra easily able to identify what tribe another belongs to by their color. Just like many birds, the male Aarakocra are crested and ostentatious, and it only gets worse during mating season as they become even more dazzling in color, so it isn’t just humans where the male ego runs rampant. They have eyes toward the front of their face, providing keen binocular vision, and their beak is only 5-inches long and a cross between an eagle and a parrot. They have hands about halfway down their wings, which provides them with a lot of manual dexterity, as well as hands for feet. Looking at the artwork, you’d be forgiven if all you saw were deadly talons. Those talons can be ‘flipped’ up to reveal delicate fingers that they use to grasp onto spears while they are flying through the sky.

Some of their best friends are giant eagles and can speak the language of the eagles. They also have their own tongue, and about 10% of them will even learn common, which are probably the same ones who are willing to do business with surface walkers. They also make friends with air elementals, and five of the birdfolk can fly in complicated patterns in the sky and summon an elemental to join them in ripping you apart. The summoned elemental isn’t completely under Aarakocra control, as it won’t let itself get killed for them, but is willing to do a bit of fighting and help with various other tasks.

Speaking of ripping you apart, they probably aren’t going to do that until they know you are dead. The Aarakocra hate fighting on the ground and instead prefer to stick to the skies where they can launch javelins at you from their nether-hands, the ones located where their feet should be. They are especially deadly with these light spears, with exceptional accuracy while flying about safely out of reach of your measly swords and spells. A favored attack for them is to plummet towards you from over 200 feet up in the air, shrieking and launching two spears at their target at the last moment as they pull up. They gain a bonus to the attack, and if they hit, deal double damage to their target, probably putting you in the deadbook immediately. So not only can they fly, they can scare the living crap out of you as they fling multiple javelins into you at a time. Fantastic.

In Dragon #124 (August 1987), we get our first taste of the Aarakocra as a playable character race. In J. E Keeping's article, The Wings of Eagles, Keeping creates a set of rules that allows you to use the Aarakocra as an NPC and player race if the DM allows it. Much of the Aarakocra remains similar to that found in the Fiend Folio, though a few alterations are made to keep them balanced in the game.

If you are hoping to make an Aarakocra character, you get a bonus to your Strength but a penalty to your Dexterity. The bonus is because you have to be quite strong to be flying all the time, while the penalty is because, while they do have hands, they aren’t quite as dextrous as other humanoids are. Classes are limited to cleric, fighter, thief, and fighter/thief, though it is only the thief that they can level up past 9th-level. Though with that said, we are informed that they make poor thieves; so we have to wonder why that is their best class in the first place.

An interesting tidbit about the Aarakocra is what can happen to them when they end up in a dungeon, cave, or other enclosed space. When they find themselves in one of these locales and engaged in combat, they have a 10% chance of, for lack of a better term, losing their shit. When this happens, the Aarakocra starts screaming in panic, curls up into a ball on the ground, or thinks they are a barbarian, becoming completely reckless and violent. This disorder is no joke either, as it lasts for up to 60 rounds, which in this edition means it is an hour. If you think being in a city is any better, it’s not. The Aarakocra will also become highly claustrophobic there, per the rules in the Fiend Folio. So if you've got an Aarakocra in your group, we recommend sticking to forest adventures.

Finally, we are provided with the god to whom our feathered friends pray and where their cleric gets their divine powers. Krocca is the diety the Aarakocra worship, a lesser god with the abilities of a cleric, fighter, and thief, and is the perfect embodiment of an Aarakocra. He is resplendent with his fine golden wings, crimson plumage, and piercing blue eyes. The father of all Aarakocra, he created the race from eagles, blessing them with the brains and defensive abilities beyond a typical eagle.

2e - Aarakocra

Climate/Terrain: Tropical and temperate mountains
Frequency: Very rare
Organization: Tribal
Activity Cycle: Day
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Average
Treasure: D
Alignment: Neutral Good
No. Appearing: 1-10
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 6, Fl 36 (C)
Hit Dice: 1+2
THAC0: 19
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-3/1-3 or 2-8 (weapon)
Special Attacks: Dive +4
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: M (20’ wing span)
Morale: Steady (11)
XP Value: 65

**Monstrous Compendium Vol. 2**, 1989 TSR Inc.

The Aarakocra are found in Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989) and reprinted in Monstrous Manual (1993). While there is very little new information, we can take this chance to talk about a few things we skipped in the last edition. The Aarakocra reside in small tribes of 11 to 30 birdfolk and claim a hunting territory of 10,000 square miles, an area that is 100 miles by 100 miles. They live in massive communal nests on top of mountain peaks made from vines and dried grass. If you were wondering who makes the nests, it is the females as they handle every task within the tribe except for hunting.

If you are wondering how to tell the difference between an Aarakocra nest and a giant eagle nest, the easiest way is that they all have banners and pennants flying over their nest. This is to identify their tribe to outsiders, and probably because it just looks nice. These are produced by females who spend a lot of their time lying on their backs, not to take a nap, but because they can use their four hands simultaneously while incubating their eggs in this position. They craft weapons, weave pennants, prepare food, keep their eggs warm, and more, using their four hands to finely and quickly manipulate objects. With everything the females do for the tribe, the males bringing back a dead carcass and a couple of silver pieces pale in comparison.

In the Complete Book of Humanoids (1993), the Aarakocra is presented as a player option race, along with other creatures like bugbears, kobolds, and pixies. It can be played as either a fighter, shaman, or thief. They are usually an outcast when you encounter such an Aarakocra since not many can imagine abandoning their giant nest in the clouds. The most significant advantage to playing an Aarakocra is, you guessed it, being able to fly. They'll probably arm themselves with lots of javelins, but a flight lance is a new option for them to skewer you with while in flight. However, you'll still want your campaign to be based outdoors, as their fear of enclosed space is still a real thing.

**Complete Book of Humanoids**, 1993 TSR Inc.

We find out more about the primary god of the Aarakocra, Syranita, in the book Monster Mythology (1992). Syrantia's avatar is a beautiful Aarakocra with silver skin and pink gold feathers that cast spells from the druid and wizard lists. She is close friends with the elven god Aerdrie Faenya, the gods of the eagles and giants, and has many friends among the djinni. She maintains these close relationships because her worshippers are seen as fragile creatures. Anyone that has had a javelin hurled at them by an avian humanoid dive-bombing them may disagree. We all know that Aarakocra can summon air elementals, well their goddess can do that too, but she can summon a 24 Hit Die air elemental two times a day and call forth a huge djinni once a week for extra damage. One last tidbit before we move on. The god Kuraulyek stole a pair of Syrantia's feathers and used them to create the urds. If you've never heard of an urd, you may know these creatures by a different name; winged kobolds.

**Monstrous Compendium: Dark Sun Appendix II**, 1995 TSR Inc.

An additional Aarakocra-type pops up in this edition and is found in Monstrous Compendium: Dark Sun Appendix II (1995), bringing the Athasian Aarakocra to the table. For those who have never played in the Dark Sun campaign setting, it's a horrible apocalyptic desert, and these new Aarakocra fit right in. They throw spears and nets rather than javelins, have psionic powers, and are atop the food chain, with only drakes being the creatures they need to worry about. They stand upwards of 8 feet tall, which must be quite the sight, and appear more vulture-like than in any of the other artwork. There are even tribes of evil Athasian Aarakocra who aren't above attacking other humanoids just to break up the tedium of flying lazily through the air. We aren't surprised there are now evil Aarakocra; instead, we are surprised that it took this long for them to be introduced.

3e/3.5e - Aarakocra

Medium-Size Monstrous Humanoid
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative: +2 (Dex)
Speed: 20 ft., fly 90 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 13 (+2 Dex, +1 natural)
Attack: 2 talons +0 melee; or javelin +3 ranged
Damage: Talon 1d4-1; or javelin 1d6-1
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Bite, summon Large air elemental
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +4, Will +2
Abilities: Str 9, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 10
Skills: Craft (any one) +4, Knowledge (nature) +4, Listen +4, Spot +4, Wilderness Lore + 4
Feats: Flyby Ataack
Climate/Terrain: Warm and temperate mountains
Organization: Solitary, flight (3-6), or tribe (11-30 plus 1 cleric or 3rd-5th level)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Often neutral good
Advancement: By character class

We have to wait until Monsters of Faerûn (2001) to find the Aarakocra in 3e/3.5e, and we are left underwhelmed. The description starts off by calling the Aarakocra names, some good, while others not so much. Sky Hunter is excellent, but we're confident that featherhead is not a term of endearment. Once we get past the name-calling, the Aarkaocra has only very minor changes. They stand a bit shorter at 5-feet tall, but still have a massive wingspan of 20-feet. They have a parrot-eagle beak, black eyes with keen binocular vision, hands located halfway down their wings, and the males are vibrantly colorful with oranges, reds, and yellows, while the women are typically brown or gray.

Little else changes for this community of sky hunters, though they now have a new favored class in the fighter. Despite having a great Dexterity score, they aren’t wielding bows, but rather rely on their rather lackluster strength to strike with talons or slam a javelin into you. They’ve even lost their awesome ability to plummet 200 feet down and spear you with two javelins at the same time. At least they can still summon an air elemental if things get tricky for them and they happen to have four other friends nearby, one of which is a cleric, who feels like dancing in the air for 18 seconds. The rest of the information is focused on their placement within the Realms or simply copied over from previous editions, like how the females are still expected to do everything around the nest except hunt.

Races of Faerun (2003) brings back the tradition of introducing the Aarakocra as a playable character race. Downgraded to a minor race, the Aarakocra is lumped together with the centaur and goblinoids, to name a few. If you want to play as an Aarakocra, and who can blame you, they can fly, then be prepared for a few detriments to make up for it. The first major one is that you are going to get class levels two levels behind everyone else due to the power of flight and how much stronger that makes you. Of course, a lot of adventuring is probably going to take you into buildings, dungeons, and other enclosed spaces which… isn’t good for you. All Aarakocra become claustrophobic in places with a roof and you suffer a big -4 penalty to basically everything while trapped there.

But there is more to an Aarakocra than claustrophobia and flying. They are typically hunters of some sort, typically using javelins or their talons to bring down their play. If that isn’t enough, they get bonuses to a variety of abilities focused on perception and their knowledge of nature, as well as even getting a +1 bonus to their AC thanks to having a strong crest that their wing muscles are connected to. Of course, with the good comes the bad. While a character, Aarakocra, can read and write, the rest of your tribe is illiterate or any barbarian characters cause they are just simple brutes.

Dark Sun is limping along in this edition, and the Aarakocra is presented as a character race for the setting in Dragon #319 (May 2004). This issue of Dragon is the entirety of the official Dark Sun setting in this edition, so let's all be proud of the Aarakcora for being included. Still fiercely independent but terrified of enclosed spaces, the Aarakocra have managed not only to survive but thrive in these post-apocalyptic wastelands.

4e - Aarakocra (Diver)

Level 6 Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid / XP 250
HP 66; Bloodied 23
AC 20; Fortitude 17, Reflex 19, Will 18
Initiative +9 / Senses Perception +6; low-light vision
Speed 5, fly 6
Longspear (weapon, At-Will) Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +11 vs. AC Hit: 2d10 + 4 damage.
Flyby Attack (At-Will) Effect: The diver flies 6 squares and uses lon8spear once at any point during the movement. Once during the move, when the diver has combat advantage against an enemy, it can use bite against that enemy. The diver doesn't provoke opportunity attacks for moving away from the target of either attack.
Diving Charge (Recharge 4-6) Effect: The diver charges and makes the following attack in place of a melee basic attack. Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +11 vs. AC Hit: 2d10 + 10 damage, and the target falls prone.
Move Actions
Sly Takeoff (At-Will) Effect: The diver shifts 1 square and then flies 5 squares
Minor Actions
Bite (At-Will, 1/round) Attack: Melee 1 (one creature granting combat advantage to the diver); +11 vs. AC Hit: 1d4 + 4 damage.
Str 15 (+5) Dex 19 (+7) Wis 16 (+6) Con 10 (+3) Int 8 (+2) Cha 8 (+2)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common
Equipment spear

**Dark Sun Creature Catalog**, 2010 WotC

The poor Aarakocra doesn't make the cut in any of the Monster Manuals for this edition, but they do get a chance to appear in Dark Sun Creature Catalog (2010), and in fact, we get three versions of them! We aren't sure what is more incredible, whether we get the new versions or that the Dark Sun setting still exists. Even though their existence is only within the desolate lands of the Dark Sun, it's worth discussing how the Aarakocra evolved, for better or worse.

They are now more closely related to vultures, both in appearance and lifestyle. Scavengers that stake out a territory and defend it ferociously, the Aarakocra are disliked by most creatures and not overly hated by anyone; they are just trying to scavenge a life in the awful wastes of Athas. They demand tribute to those that pass through their region. That doesn't make the Aarakocra evil, just opportunists. They are spiritual creatures, partial to the gods of the Sun and Sky. It makes sense, since the skies are their domain.

The three versions here feature the Aarakocra Diver, Warrior, and the Windcaller, each with different roles in combat to strike down their foes. The Diver specializes in sudden dive attacks, plummeting from the skies, using the sun as camouflage until it is too late for the target. They no longer wield javelins as the long spear is their weapon of choice in the desert. It's bad enough that a long spear does more damage, but it also knocks you prone. Warriors are the grunts of the race, attacking in numbers when they descend from above, long spears pointed in your direction. The last one, the Windcallers, are the shamans of the tribe. The Aarakocra can no longer summon an air elemental, but that's ok when you have a Windcaller with you in battle. Staying on the edges of the battle most of the time, they keep in range of their allies, to provide buffs. The Windcaller can also control the winds through their magic, summoning massive dust clouds. These clouds make the perfect cover for feathered creatures when they attack, making tribes of Aarakocra a true danger to slavers thinking they can come and steal Aarakocra eggs and their young.

In Dungeon #187 (February 2011), we are introduced to Aarakocra number four! For a creature that was ignored by the core books, we sure do end up with more Aarakocra species than all the other editions combined. The Aarakocra Darter flies high above, scouring the Athasian badlands and scrub plains, their watchful eyes on the lookout for prey. What makes these Aarakocra different than the others is their weapons of choice. For them, it's darts and a net, both of which can be deadly on their own or when used together. The barbed nets hurt like hell and trap you in place. This makes you a much easier target for their poisoned darts to be launched into you. It is the equivalent of being stuck in a giant briar patch with poisonous snakes launching at you from a tree. We advise avoiding the Darter at all costs unless you want a painful death.

5e - Aarakocra

Medium humanoid (aarakocra), neutral good
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 13 (3d8)
Speed 20 ft., fly 50 ft.
STR 10 (+0) DEX 14 (+2) CON 10 (+0) INT 11 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 11 (+0)
Skills Perception +5
Senses passive Perception 15
Languages Auran, Aarakocra
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)
Dive Attack. If the aarakocra is flying and dives at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a melee weapon attack, the attack deals an extra 3 (1d6) damage to the target.
Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. , one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) slashing damage.
Javelin. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft ., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.

The Aarakocra returns to its rightful place as the first creature found in the Monster Manual (2014). The Aarakocra may not be as powerful as in the previous editions, but they are still fearsome in their own way. They are given new lore, probably as an attempt to make up for being excluded from the past few editions and their core books. The Aarakocra now reside in the Howling Gyre, a stormy place that circles Aaqa, a peaceful realm on the Elemental Plane of Air. The Aarakocra are protectors of this realm against the evil that comes from Earth, with the gargoyles being the most hated of them all.

When they aren't flying through gale-force winds and rain, they scour the planes looking for the temples of Elemental Evil. They do this in service to the Dukes of Aaqa, even though they hold no political allegiance to them. They are good at their jobs since their ability to fly above the clouds allows them to see everything going on the land below, often for days or even months at a time without setting down on the ground. The Aarakocra's other primary purpose is the search for the seven pieces to the Rod of Seven Parts for the Wind Dukes. The Dukes were once powerful elemental beings, and to regain their proper place and power, they need to find the missing pieces scattered across the multiverse, remake the rod, and rebuild their once-great empire.

Aarakocras also have a major physical change, now appearing more like eagle-humanoids with wings strapped to their backs. They have two arms, two legs, two wings, and a fearsome head with an eagle beak ready to peck at you if you start any trouble. Why they no longer have hands on their wings, we can’t say, and unfortunately for us, they have lost a bit of the specialness they had before. They looked awesome before and were completely different from other humanoids. Now they just look like feathery humans with a set of wings strapped to their backs.

**Elemental Evil Player’s Companion**, 2015 WotC

In the Elemental Evil Player's Companion (2015), the Aarakocra return as a viable playable race. It may strike you odd that no playable races in this book are actually evil. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The Aarakocra protect the Elemental Plane of Air from the evil elementals of Earth, who are usually up to no good when they try to enter the realms of the Wind Dukes.

The text gets back the Aarakocra's roots, they are 5 feet tall, and they have long, narrow legs that taper to sharp talons. They are bird people through and through, standing 5 feet tall and covered in feathers. Males are brightly colored, with red, orange, or yellow feathers. Females have more subdued colors, usually brown or gray. Their heads complete the avian appearance, like a parrot or eagle, with distinct tribal variations. No more vulture features as the Aarakocra once again looks like an eagle with a splash of parrot, probably because Dark Sun has yet to arrive in this edition.

Luckily, if you are hoping to play as an Aarakocra, you don’t have to worry about sacrificing a few levels to play as this race. While some may disagree, the flight of the Aarakocra is balanced to the other races, which ends up with you getting fewer skills, proficiencies, and abilities from this race. You get a fly speed, can make an attack with your talons, and that’s all the extra goodies you are going to get compared to all the other races. It could have been worse, we suppose, you could’ve ended up like the kenku and lose all ability to fly and talk.

The Aarakocra have always managed to flit through the editions, making sure they made an appearance no matter how minor. That appearance always included the chance to play as one of these bird-like creatures, to fly above your enemies and rain death down from above. They are often an overlooked monster, and we hope you can bring these fascinating monsters to your table and teach your players to always have ranged weapons on them.