An Aarakocra is a medium humanoid that looks and flies like a big birdman.  They officially look like eagles, but why stop there?  Add some spice and create some Parrot Aarakocra, or maybe peacock, blue jay, or dodo.  You can even go the extra mile and add different attacks or ability stats per species of bird.  They generally reside in the Howling Gyre: basically an endless giant hurricane, and in the eye of that hurricane is Aaqa, their tranquil city in the Elemental Plane of Air.  Their species are generally regarded as lawful good, flying around in patrols in order to keep out gargoyles, their sworn enemy and looking out for their other immortal enemy: The Elemental Evils.

Elemental Evils Beware

While in the Howling Gyre, the Aarakocra are on the constant lookout for the temples of the Elemental Evils.  If found, they kick their ass or they report back to Wind Dukes of Aaqa.  What are the Elemental Evils?  Elemental Evils represent four apocalyptic cults that represent each of the four major elements: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.  Each element has a Prince that acts like an evil god that is led by a crazy ass nihilistic prophet.  You will find these evils primarily in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting , which was created by the OG Ed Greenwood. The Forgotten Realms mainly focuses on Faerun, a continent on the earth-like planet of Toril. 

While on the material plane, the Aarakocra are a bit…lost.  Although they do reach the material plane from time to time in order to seek out and destroy the Evil Elements, they rarely interact with anyone on the ground and instead reside on mountain tops near their portals.  They don’t believe in ownership like the majority of the material plane and will take what they require, being it livestock or shiny things.  After all, the birdmen display many of the same mannerisms as ordinary birds. Cleaning their feathers, relaxing by pools, speaking in chirps, and finds any sort of confinement as their personal hell.

The Seven Shards

The Wind Dukes come from a race called the Vaati.  Basically, sexy seven foot tall immortal air gods that once ruled many worlds.  Then some ugly ass creature called the Queen of Chaos rose up and kicked their asses in a giant interplanar war.  In an attempt to combat her armies, seven Vaati combined their mighty powers to create THE ROD OF LAW.  In one battle against one her generals, Miska the Wolf Spider, a Vaati stabbed and killed the Queen of Chaos’s lover in dramatic fashion.  Ultimately, the rod shattered and scattered across the multiverse, never to be seen again.  Why does this matter?  Well, the Wind Dukes are the Vaati who command the Aarakocra who wants to find the seven shards in order to put the ROD OF LAW back together because it’s a fucking badass weapon that sent an insane general into Pandemonium. 

Let’s take a closer look at the numbers

Having just  12 Armor class and 13 hit points, they have relatively comparable stats to a normal humanoid person. However their attacks consist of a dive-bombing into their enemies dealing 1d6 damage then attacking with their talons (1d4+2) or throwing a javelin (1d6+2), the Aarakocra are just a race of flying birdmen with a distinct purpose in life.  Personally, I would treat them as such. 

However, they do have one cool ability that you can use to surprise your PC’s in a battle.  The Aarakocra can just straight up summon an Air Elemental.  (Officially it takes five to summon one, but fuck it you’re Dungeon Master.  Do what you think is cool.) Have them actively summon the air elemental while they are flying in the sky.  This will force your players to be a bit more creative, especially if you don’t have any good ranged players.  Have the Aarakocra take two or three turns to summon it with full concentration like any other spellcasting concentration spell.

Alright cool…Now what the hell do I do with them?