Can I charge and use jump in acrobatics to avoid terrain, and other such obstacles?
I am 20 ft up from ground level. I start my turn next to a ledge and I want to grab the ledge to go 5ft closer to the ground, then I want to drop to the ground level. I do this to avoid 20 ft fall, and negate the 1d6 nonlethal upon an acrobatics check. What actions/skills must I use to accomplish all of this, and how much distance is used just to grab the ledge, then to fall 15ft?
Falling counts as distance on your turn?
Bump
A charge needs to be a straight line, jumping over obstacles would violate that.
Generally, climbing is done at 1/4 your base speed. So climbing down 5 ft would consume one move action. Falling, or intentionally dropping, doesn't count toward your movement.
So to perform your action you would need a Climb check and a move action, this would put you 15 ft up clinging to the wall. With a free action, you can let go of the wall. With an Acrobatic checks you can negate the fall damage, if you fail the acrobatics check, you would take 1d6 nonlethal damage. After all that you are on the ground with a stard action left.
Straight line charge is a misconception, and it's actually a clear path to nearest square. The restriction says that nothing can hinder your movement, so I'm asking if you jump over things that hinder your movement then can you complete the charge.
Climbing isn't an entire move action, but rather part of a move action that takes up distance. Let's just say I have 200 ft I can move, so no one is worried about running out of movement in my hypothetical.
The 15 ft drop I want to know if it counts against my movement for the turn, or if it's free.
Getting on the ledge I figure that my character is not climbing down, but initiates a climb check just to hold on (no climb speed movement) then just falls. What about falling to grab onto the ledge rules for the first part? Those rules exist?
|
First thing.
You must have a clear path toward the opponent, and nothing can hinder your movement (such as difficult terrain or obstacles). You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can’t charge. If any line from your starting space to the ending space passes through a square that blocks movement, slows movement, or contains a creature (even an ally), you can’t charge. Helpless creatures don’t stop a charge.
If you're talking about "running fast and jumping" (and not about attacking which is what charge is) that's a separate matter and is an acrobatics check to be able to jump farther.
Walking up to the ledge and falling grabbing the ledge on the way down wouldn't be part of the move action and would interrupt your movement right there.
I'm not sure if landing would stop your movement or not. If it counts against your or not depends on the GM, but it should count against you. The 30' per round is based off of how fast you can move in a single round. Falling 15' still takes times, and should count against the time you have left to move within your 6 seconds.
You can't jump over impediments as part of a charge. Jumping over them is the same as moving around them, moving vertically is not any different than moving horizontally. Reading the bold portion above (thank you Claudekennilol), you can see that the existence of the impediment is the test, not necessarily your ability to avoid it.
It would be a move action to climb down to the ledge, unless you are just walking off. In which case the fall would be 20 ft. Actually climbing over the ledge saves you 5 ft of the potential fall, and in this case saves potentially 1d6 points of damage. Actually climbing over the ledge would require a move action, UNLESS your GM thinks a 5 ft step would be appropriate, however if they do, you can't move from that spot.
The rules are unclear as to whether a fall counts as part of your movement. In my group, a fall of that distance would not count, as the effort and time it takes to fall that far are inconsequential. If the fall was 150 ft? Different story. If there are clear rules on that topic, my group hasn't found them. More often than not, in those situations we make up rules on the spot, with reasonable DCs.
Perhaps more important than than the distance a character falls, would be if the character took damage. If you take any lethal damage in a fall, you fall prone, and your move action ends.
You can't jump over impediments as part of a charge.+1
Janni Rush lets you jump as part of a charge (3rd in Style chain)
Technically, Janni Rush doesn't say you can do that. Janni Rush lets you do extra damage when you do that.
(Emphasis mine)
Notice that it does not say "You can jump as part of a charge" or have the note "Normal: you cannot jump as part of a charge." This implies that you can jump as part of a charge, or else this feat is not very useful.
HOWEVER:
The velociraptor has an ability called "Leaping Charge":
This clearly implies that other creatures cannot jump while charging.
It will all come down to whether your GM puts more faith in Bestiary 4 or Ultimate Combat, so expect table variation.
I think more GMs will rule that you cannot jump as part of a charge. Some GMs might rule that Janni Rush still does not let you do it.
One of the GMs in our area came up with a compromise position: if you cannot fail the Acrobatics check (even if you roll a 1), then you can jump on the charge. The reasoning is that since you can't possibly fail the check to jump over the object, it doesn't really present any "obstacle" to you.
|
|
It will all come down to whether your GM puts more faith in Bestiary 4 or Ultimate Combat, so expect table variation.
I don't see how this makes any difference. Janni Rush doesn't say anything about negating the need for the path to be clear of obstacles. It just says that you "can jump to increase damage." It doesn't say anything about "you can jump over obstacles while charging."
Solid point, you don't necessarily jump to clear obstacles with Janni rush. It just says if you jump you do extra damage. Though, this brings up the question whether you are allowed to jump at all during a charge.
I think there is more evidence for the side that says "Without some special ability or feat you cannot jump during a charge".
|
|
Solid point, you don't necessarily jump to clear obstacles with Janni rush. It just says if you jump you do extra damage. Though, this brings up the question whether you are allowed to jump at all during a charge.
I think there is more evidence for the side that says "Without some special ability or feat you cannot jump during a charge".
I would agree with this. Though, since jumping doesn't let you clear obstacles, I wouldn't care if any PCs did it while charging so long as they know they can still only charge if the path is clear and it doesn't actually provide them any benefit (unless they have Janni Rush).
There are spells and abilities that have your character ignore difficult terrain, but charge states if it exists then you can't go ahead. Jay wrote pretty much before the fact obstacles and terrain exist is enough to negate a charge, but I figure if you can ignore then you may proceed.
Jumping doesn't really mean you moved out of your vertical square, but that you just jumped over some squares. So jumping is more grey area?
Just falling down is also grey area? Anyone know where I can find any helpful rules on this? In pfs gm's seem to rule the drop costs movement, and I disagree. Normal movement is up to your normal speed, so why not have falling not count or be at increased speeds above normal?