I was looking at interesting ways to challenge the gaming group and ran across the 'evil eye' beholder wannabe. I realized that the creature could stay moving around and stay 40 to 50 feet above the party and the group would have a horrible time of it.
The group 9th level and has a barbarian two handed weapon fighter, a two weapon melee fighter, a bard, an oracle healer, a pretty generic rogue with a hand crossbow, a grapple monk. Well, none of them are great with ranged and couple with low savings throws on some characters, we're looking at some very bad off characters pretty quickly.
So how would you suggest the group deals with the threat? I've checked the first thought that the monk can only get to about 29 feet with max rolls and anklets of translocation. So how would you roll for something like the big strong barbarian giving a hand support and helping toss up the monk when he jumped?
Or just the let the encounter be rather long and nasty?
With the aid another item you usually only give a +2 to the roll. However in some cases you can modify that for good character planning or RP elements.
I would allow two characters to assist someone with a jump by performing a STR check. DC 10 to give a +2 and for every 5 points over 10 giving another +2. So if two strong players rolled an average final score of 15 the jumper would get a +8 to their jump check. If they rolled really well and were very strong they could get as much as a +12 or +16 to the jump check.
However in your case the height really is to the point that ranged weapons or flying will be needed. 50 feet is very high for ground based characters.
On a related note with some thread necromancy. There is this as well.
In case your players want to pick up large object Hulk style to throw at the bad guys.
On a related note with some thread necromancy. There is this as well.
In case your players want to pick up large object Hulk style to throw at the bad guys.
Just occurred to me, the party has access to the enlarge person spell. But then, I can't find any rules as far as being bigger increasing jump distance, thought it seems like it should.
How would you rule that?
Just occurred to me, the party has access to the enlarge person spell. But then, I can't find any rules as far as being bigger increasing jump distance, thought it seems like it should.
How would you rule that?
Being large in and of itself doesn't increase jump size, but it does increase how far you can reach while jumping. A 20 foot tall creature can reach higher than a 10 foot tall creature even if they both jump 5 feet in the air. Any increases to a creature's mobility when enlarged would be balanced out by the creature's increase in mass. (Your legs may be longer, but you weigh four times as much.)
Even enlarge person isn't an "I win" button against flying creatures, but it can give more of an edge than not using it.
A human has about 8 ft of vertical reach. So he would need to jump 32 ft to reach the evil-eye that is 40 ft up. A large creature would have about 16 ft of vertical reach, so would not need to jump as high.
For a boosted high jump, I would allow the character to give +2 as per aid another but would also add his own height to the jump. So about 6 ft for a human. This would represent the jumper running up the helper's shoulders. Remember, the helper has to be capable of lifting the jumper. Look up the "lift above head" encumbrance value.
Example:
Monk: Acrobatics of +15. 5ft tall + 3ft reach with hands
Barbarian: 6ft tall
Total jump height: 6 + 5 + 3 + (1/4)*check result
On the roll of a 10 that gives you 20 ft.
For bonus points, let them build a cheerleader pyramid :)