Was thinking about this the other day, and with Ninja on the way it seems timely, ideas for rules governing wall jumping Ninja Gaiden style.
Basic idea I had was to treat the second surface as Severely Unsteady, +10 to DC, and the second jump is without running start regardless. Although, in the case where the second surface is actually Severely Unsteady, the two factors would compound, so probably best to give call it something else.
So to jump up the 5ft wide chimney chute to a ledge 30ft up would require 6 DC 30 Jump checks, each one representing a 5ft vertical jump, and 60 ft of movement for each jump being 5ft up and 5 ft back towards opposing wall. Of course this could also be done by just a series of rolled jumps without a set DC and take the check divided by four as vertical progression, using 10ft of movement each jump.
As in any movement or jump, you can't end turn in air or on wall, so movement speed should keep this in check well enough. Other than that, a lot of common sense, needing semi opposing face for angles and the like.
This all seems possible for a level 2 acrobatic ninja with a double move action, or for my case a Flame Oracle in Agile Breastplate.
Anyhow, I'm open to ideas or impressions, +10 to DC may be too much, additional movement for the 180 degree momentum shift might make sense. Its nothing game breaking other than the ability to possibly scale a sheer surface without magic. If some one already posted something similar, my apologizes, and I'd be curious to read it.
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This all seems possible for a level 2 acrobatic ninja with a double move action, or for my case a Flame Oracle in Agile Breastplate.
Anyhow, I'm open to ideas or impressions, +10 to DC may be too much, additional movement for the 180 degree momentum shift might make sense. Its nothing game breaking other than the ability to possibly scale a sheer surface without magic. If some one already posted something similar, my apologizes, and I'd be curious to read it.
In my opinion with how the movement and system is setup. 60 feet would the be most a ninja would be able to move, but with a possible Super-Ki action enhanced movement.
In other words i think Ki should be involved in what you are suggestion to augment the movements and only with the use of a Ki power.But that's my opinion because looking at something from our reality like "Parkour". They need a great moment to scale surfaces that are near each other, and even then they are only able to scale up to a certain height within a certain time limit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour
In my opinion with how the movement and system is setup. 60 feet would the be most a ninja would be able to move, but with a possible Super-Ki action enhanced movement.
In other words i think Ki should be involved in what you are suggestion to augment the movements and only with the use of a Ki power.But that's my opinion because looking at something from our reality like "Parkour". They need a great moment to scale surfaces that are near each other, and even then they are only able to scale up to a certain height within a certain time limit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour
I'd prefer wall jumping to be not a ninja exclusive idea, but more an advanced use of the acrobatics skill. The ninja ki use already grants a +20 to the check enabling more difficult feats, I'm just trying to establish rules for more difficult feats. Although the idea of possibly adding movement speed for the round exclusive to jumping is interesting to make more difficult feats possible.
My original thoughts were based less in reality and more on video games, but I like the contrast to Parkour. The mechanics already stipulate a maximum in air time of 6 seconds as the beginning and end of a round, and you can not end movement on a not solid surface.
The big difference in what is possible in reality and Pathfinder can be seen in the jump distances. In reality, the record holding vertical leap is 61", let alone the average NBA player at 28". While in Pathfinder, the ninja using Ki Power can clear 60" rolling a 1, and 120" rolling a 20. Combine with actual ranks in the skill from levels and the possibilites are far out of this world.
However movement speeds which are just as important are a bit more in line with reality, a human double move being around 7 mph, or full x4 run at ~14mph. So to outperform the world record you need haste, and even then you're not too far ahead, or be a monk. Which I sadly kind of forgot about, but is the best jumper in the game.
Anyhow, that was a lot of reality that helped me conceptualize wall jumping being possible, and not nearly as difficult for Acrobats as in reality. Although in watching Parkour videos and old Ninja Gaiden clips, I realized what I was imagining was more akin to the parkour jumping, where Ninja Gaiden is more a jumping and clinging to a wall. This however lead me to wonder about DCs concerned with this maneuver, staple to Assassin's Creed.
How hard is it to catch yourself on a wall?
Climb check with Climb DC of Wall +10 for instability, would be my first thought.
If the walls are with arms reach of each other than call it a climb check and save yourself some trouble.
A walljump ability's not that hard to get going mechanically. We already have one for wall-running(a feat for Monk or the climb skill technically could do it). Since you're bouncing between 2 points, I'd have to say the DC should be 2x intended jump distance. That's higher than the 1x for the fairly easy horizontal jump & lower than the more physics-hindered 4x for vertical jump. From a mechanics standpoint, it's essentially a...
Ok, the simplicity is nice, makes a lot of crazy things possible, but this is High Fantasy. I'd still prefer more difficulty for the rebound jump, so personally might use something like this, (Total DC of Vert Jump / 1+Rebound Points) + 10 and each rebound consumes 5 ft of movement for shifting momentum. So to jump up the 30 ft chute in 2 Jumps would be DC 70 and 35ft, 3 Jumps DC 50 for 40ft, 4 DC 40 for 45ft, 5 DC 34 for 50ft, 6 DC 30 for 55ft.
That is probably overly complicated, Multiplication and Division in DC determination, so 2x really may be the better way to go for a Fantasy game, thanks.
Trying to simplify things a bit:
Wall Jumping: A user trained in Acrobatics that possesses the Skill Focus (Acrobatics) feat may use walls when jumping to improve how far they can go. When within 10 ft. of a wall, the user gains a +2 bonus when making jump checks. If he is between two opposing walls and none of them is farther away than 10 ft., he gains an additional bonus equal to the number of acrobatics ranks he possesses.
If the walls are with arms reach of each other than call it a climb check and save yourself some trouble.
That's an excellent idea. Maybe, as a house rule, you could let the ninja/monk spend the ki point to get the +20 to make it easier.