Is it just me or is it a bit silly that a person riding a flying broom still is required to swim through water? Shouldn't they be skimming above it?

Us mages still have to swim when Levitating, too.

I've always been of the opinion that anything putting you 'above' the ground should do the same for water. Waterwalking, sure, but what about everything else? I've been in both Wiccan guilds and this ahs always bothered me.

Well with levitation you could argue that it only lets you levitate above solid ground, also brooms are odd. All other mounts require you to ford instead of swim also, perhaps you could annoy your envoy to have it work like levitation while you are mounted?

EDIT: erk I mean't waterwalk not levitation (about the brooms)

Don't forget Faelings, either.

Or Trills!

I don't like my feathers getting wet!

Trill don't have to swim in water. Flying over water works like flying everywhere else. You only have to swim if it goes under an object, like a bridge or the ground, since their isn't enough space for a feather winged creature to fly. I've done all my exploring of the Inner Sea and Water Plane so far just by flying above it.

When your in the water, you are in the water, that means your broom is in the water too. When you are above the water in the air, then you can fly, and you are flying above the water.

I am still wondering though, do brooms work as mounts.

I know they don't as far as fording or galloping work as you can't swim or sprint while mounted normally but brooms go with the later.

I'm guessing you can't trample with them. Other than that there is only jousting type things to take into consideration before they are completely different from anyother type of mount.
Which is interesting to me as it brings up images of people trying to swim while still sitting on a broomstick.

Brooms have completely different rules than mounts. Namely when it comes to trees.... so annoying.

from what I have seen the brooms conform to the following facts

Mounting a broom allows you to fly
You can be dismounted
All other attributes of a mount do not count

Sound about right?

Then, eh, what's the point of levitating if it doesn't let you fly? When the name of the room is something like " On The Alabaster Road" (not sure if that's a room or not) then wouldn't you still be on the ground?

With a room name like "On the Alabaster Road", when you are really flying in the air, the room name will change to "Flying above On the Alabaster Road".

Levitating means you don't kill yerself when you fall out of the sky. Or trees, I think.

And I know you can fly above water. I just meant that wouldn't it be kind of unrealistic that a big angel *cough* I mean Trill would actually want to get it's wings wet? Wouldn't it just hover a few inches above the water? And how come I can fly with sopping wet feathers anyway?

Putting aside for the moment that there have already been topics on this same thing.

Coding another 'level' which would be hovering would be entirely to hard, we already have mountains/trees/sky/burrowing above below and everywhich way. We don't need to institue a differant level into it just because it would be cool.

Not to mention I can see being able to hover and ignore water a bit overpowering against aquamancers.

I don't suppose we could give Wiccan Brooms an ability that they're supposed to have (from witches, and all that)? To remove the "bad energy" from a place or thing. Basically, let them wipe out one random demesne effect for a bit of equi. Assuming they end up getting a basic waterwalk enchant on the broom in the first place. It'd have to be a long bit, though. 6-8 seconds or something.

Edit: Or a random affliction from themselves, I suppose, if they were to beat themselves over the head with it.

It would depend on how the wings are shaped and the weight of the being they're flapping around. My thoroughly biased IC opinion is that Faelings and the flying Fae are the only ones who can actually hover due to their wing composition, but it could be argued that Shadowcasters / Shadowlords, with their more batlike wings and heavier size, also are unable to perform this feat.

Now, a trill could fly in circles just a few inches off the ground...

I don't think the suggestion was to have a hovering level. I was thinking more of the brooms giving waterwalking while mounted.
Though it might be unfair against aquamancers to give trills and faelings racial "hovering" due to waterwalking being a stripable defense and the ability to dismount your opponent.

Umn... perhaps giving a racial ability "Hover"? at a cost of endurance you can float a few feet off the ground perhaps protecting you from certain abilities and allowing you to float above water. Any ability that would knock you prone disables this and you will have to activate it again.

This would allow flying races to get the benefits people are suggesting while allowing Aquamancers and others to strip it as a defense

I completely agree. Trill and Shadowcaster/Lord wings would have to be pretty big to support the body, using a great deal of force to lift off the ground, a force that couldn't be intricately controlled. It is not plausible to have them hover (even Trill going in a circle, because it would need to be a big circle) like Fae or Faelings.