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Homebrew
I have a bit of a wild idea. A setting where intelligent (humanoid) races are avian in nature and generally live in the sky. It's a cool idea, but I don't know if 5e can handle it.
My main concern is balance. I have to assume something like Hold Person would be an easy way to insta-kill enemies when you're 100s of feet in the air. I think I could easily institute a glide rule so being paralyzed doesn't just instantly smash you into earth. I'm also unsure how something like being prone would work when you're in the sky. In short, I guess 5e has so many features that it could be impossible to be sure none of them absolutely break aerial combat. And many might just not do much in that type of game.
Another concern is just actually running aerial combat. I have a hard enough time with Theater of the Mind when it's on X and Y axises. Throw in the Z axis, and I'm lost. I don't know how you would handle that on a map with minis, either. Maybe it would be best done with very general theater of the mind without emphasizing on exact heights and such. I don't know.
So, can this bird-brained idea even be done in 5e (without too much tweaking)? Is there an existing system that would better suit it, or should I just consider making my own system if I really want to play out my Hawkmen fantasy?
The mechanics for such an idea are definitely tricky, but the worldbuilding would be so fun. Bird people would have an entirely different relationship with our planet. They'd live on mountain and tree tops, drink from clouds (probably impossible), have limited urban civilization... I can't imagine they would have extensive agriculture or mining. I'm not even sure how they would have civilization beyond seasonal migration...
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This one’s easy. According to the basic rules:
But I think a lot of your questions can be answered with worldbuilding. Even in a world of mostly avian creatures, they can’t fly indefinitely, and would thus probably stay within a reasonable distance of ground. Settlements may be airier and more vertical, but will still have plenty of platforms and surfaces.
How would wars have been fought in this world? Surely the residents have centuries of aerial combat experience, and know the dangers of getting knocked out of flight. The feather fall spell and rings of feather fall may be common, or for a lower magic setting, the equivalent of parachutes.
Maybe the world has lower gravity to begin with, so falling is slower in general and fall damage is lessened. This would be a relatively minor numerical tweak; currently falling is either instant or 500 feet in a round (according to Xanathar’s, iirc). So just change that to 100 feet a round, or 60, or whatever you choose. And fall damage, instead of 1d6 per 10 feet, becomes 1d6 per 30 feet, or 1d4 per 50 even. Something evenly divisible into the fall distance.
Maybe in that case, replace feather fall with a similar spell that grants any airborne creatures a temporary hover speed, to prevent them from falling.
I don’t think this actually requires a huge system overhaul, if you just ask the logical worldbuilding questions and develop your world from there.