Acrobatics to move farther


Rules Questions


If an Acrobatics check can be used as part of a move action, then by RAW could someone with a 30 ft movement speed move 30 feet and jump at the end to go 20 feet further and attack an enemy that was 50 feet away?


ACROBATICS wrote:

Jump DC Modifiers

Faster Base Movement: Creatures with a base land speed above 30 feet receive a +4 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump for every 10 feet of their speed above 30 feet. Creatures with a base land speed below 30 feet receive a –4 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump for every 10 feet of their speed below 30 feet. No jump can allow you to exceed your maximum movement for the round.


From the skill's text...

"No jump can allow you to exceed your maximum movement for the round."

So if you've got move 30, and you move thirty feet then jump as your second move action, that jump cannot - regardless of what DC you hit - allow you to jump more than an additional 30 feet.


I disagree.... If the jump is down.

/cevah


Also if you jump up while within range of a Reverse Gravity spell.


Something to note, you can jump as part of a run action, potentially allowing you to jump up to 4 time your speed.


You can also jump as part of a charge, potentially avoiding some obstacles like pits.

/cevah


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Cevah wrote:
I disagree.... If the jump is down.

As usual, the specific overrides the general. Using jump during movement is the general. Invoking the falling rules transitions into that specific. The jump itself doesn't allow a character to move more than their move distance; it explicitly forbids it. However, the falling rules apply to the specific type of movement they're named after, and it is those rules that cause further movement.

Nice edge case though.


We interpret the rule using the following paradigm: despite the "round" abstraction, everything happens at the same time... roughly.

It means that, even if your speed limits the number of squares you can move during one round, it doesn't limit a jump you might initiate at the end of said move. You'll just end your jump on your next turn (note that your landing square is fixed when you roll your jump check).

Between the end of your turn and the beginning of your next, you are just "in the air", waiting for the end of your jump to be processed (much like a heavy lag in any given MMO). You must start your next turn with at least a move action towards your landing spot (and some squares afterwards, if you have some left in your move action - or actions).

Home-brewed rules in addition to the above:

We also play it fluid, allowing creatures to attack mid-jump. Either before or after the move, though (unless you have Spring Attack... or Flyby Attack). Supposing that your jumping distance was enough, you might even be still airborne after your turn.

It opens many interesting strategies, we found (limited flight for landbound creatures, evading charges, intercept real fliers) as well as counter-measures (moving pikemen or summoning spikes/swarms/pits/ice/soap/etc on your landing area).

With that in mind, people have the option of fudging their landing: it allows them to land, prone, one square away (in the direction of their choice) from their intended spot, potentially avoiding a bad situation.

$0.02 + $0.02 (edits)


Louis IX, that's pretty much against the rules. At the end of your turn if you aren't on the ground, you will fall to the ground. You can't jump further than your movement speed allows.

But you could theoretically jump to a cube not on the ground and then fall after your turn back to the ground, involving all the normal penalties for falling.

Sovereign Court

Claxon wrote:

Louis IX, that's pretty much against the rules. At the end of your turn if you aren't on the ground, you will fall to the ground. You can't jump further than your movement speed allows.

But you could theoretically jump to a cube not on the ground and then fall after your turn back to the ground, involving all the normal penalties for falling.

That's not true either... if you are still in the air at the end of your turn you have to use your first action in the next round to complete the move. You don't fall like a cartoon character.

--School of Vrock


The rules require you to end your turn in an eligible space, so that other creatures turns can be then adjudicated.

Of course in reality people don't move, swing a sword and then stand there for six seconds until they get to go again, but to make the game playable that is how it works. This applies to jumping just like anything else.


King of Vrock wrote:
Claxon wrote:

Louis IX, that's pretty much against the rules. At the end of your turn if you aren't on the ground, you will fall to the ground. You can't jump further than your movement speed allows.

But you could theoretically jump to a cube not on the ground and then fall after your turn back to the ground, involving all the normal penalties for falling.

That's not true either... if you are still in the air at the end of your turn you have to use your first action in the next round to complete the move. You don't fall like a cartoon character.

--School of Vrock

NO, by the rules you can't jump farther than your movement would allow in a turn. So there is no jumping such that you "need" to use a move the next round. In fact you can't.

The best you do (let's make some assumptions):
You have 30ft of movement remaining (you only have a single move action left). You can jump 30ft. Trying to make a jump more than 30ft is an invalid action.

Let's assume you jump straight up. Now the rules aren't quite clear, either you would jump up 30' (assume you can make the check) or 15' because movement upward costs double (not sure).

Now that's the end of your turn. After your turn, you fall down however far you jump up, and take falling damage as appropriate.


Normal jump forward is 1' per point rolled.
Normal jump forward is 1/4' (3") per point rolled.

/cevah, with acrobatics 29


Normal jump forward is 1' per point rolled.
Normal jump forward upward is 1/4' (3") per point rolled.

/cevah, and intelligence 2


Cevah wrote:

Normal jump forward is 1' per point rolled.

Normal jump forward upward is 1/4' (3") per point rolled.

/cevah, and intelligence 2

Just to clarify, you don't have to jump 29 feet if you roll a 29.

The length you want to jump sets the DC, eg: "I want to jump over this 10 foot pit."

Then you roll to see if you hit that DC, eg: "I rolled a 29."

This doesn't mean you jump 29 feat, it means you passed the DC to make the jump distance you set, so you jump 10 feet.


This idea of allowing a jump to carry over into a new turn interests me as a potential house rule. What problems could it cause?


Can I attack this NPC?

/cevah


Cevah wrote:
Can I attack this NPC?

Does anything go wrong if I just say yes, provided you have the reach bearing in mind their position in 3d space?

Sovereign Court

Ok, to be fair I misremembered the rule in Pathfinder vs D&D 3.5, which specifically called out finishing the jump next round. Imo, the older rule was more cinematic and fun so I continue to use it. A jump is really just uncontrolled flying and we allow flying creatures to suspend in midair between turns. How is it unreasonable for an acrobatics check. It makes jumping across incredibly long chasms impossible in Pf without magic flight.


Yeah I don't really have a problem with it. I was remembering that as the rule as well, but as you say it's probably DnD.

I guess if it's a DnD rule we should say "No" because we're in the Rules Forum, but if you ask in the advice forum we'll say "why not?"


King of Vrock wrote:
Ok, to be fair I misremembered the rule in Pathfinder vs D&D 3.5, which specifically called out finishing the jump next round. Imo, the older rule was more cinematic and fun so I continue to use it. A jump is really just uncontrolled flying and we allow flying creatures to suspend in midair between turns. How is it unreasonable for an acrobatics check. It makes jumping across incredibly long chasms impossible in Pf without magic flight.

Even flying creatures are required to make a fly check if they fail to meet certain movement requirements during their turn.

Fly Skill wrote:
Without making a check, a flying creature can remain flying at the end of its turn so long as it moves a distance greater than half its speed.

Creatures don't just get to hover unless they have the feat or are flying via magic which explicitly allows it.

It's worth noting that technically you have to make fly checks while using the fly spell. However, the spell gives you a bonus to fly checks equal to half your caster level and good maneuverability, meaning that even without ranks you can hover on a check on a 9 or less at min caster level. Alternatively, if you move at least 5 feet then you only need a 4 or better to stay in the air. Since fly is a class skill for wizards (most likely for this exact reason) you can see that spending a rank or two in the skill makes rolling largely unnecessary.

I think DMs tend to forget that the flying rules apply to all flying creatures not just those with wings.


King of Vrock wrote:
Ok, to be fair I misremembered the rule in Pathfinder vs D&D 3.5, which specifically called out finishing the jump next round. Imo, the older rule was more cinematic and fun so I continue to use it. A jump is really just uncontrolled flying and we allow flying creatures to suspend in midair between turns. How is it unreasonable for an acrobatics check. It makes jumping across incredibly long chasms impossible in Pf without magic flight.

It's all good.

I actually like it as a cinematic rule. If you have a good enough acrobatics check to successfully make the jump allow you to use up your movement over multiple turns would be fine with me, as a house rule.


LordKailas wrote:
It's worth noting that technically you have to make fly checks while using the fly spell. However, the spell gives you a bonus to fly checks equal to half your caster level and good maneuverability, meaning that even without ranks you can hover on a check on a 9 or less at min caster level. Alternatively, if you move at least 5 feet then you only need a 4 or better to stay in the air. Since fly is a class skill for wizards (most likely for this exact reason) you can see that spending a rank or two in the skill makes rolling largely unnecessary.

The fly skill is a class skill for all classes that can cast it except for bloodragers and those who cast it as a domain spell. Since Dex is usually an important stat for casters, it will likely have a positive modifier. So placing 1 rank into fly will likely add 4 to your check and with a positive stat modifier, making that 15 for hover should be easy.

/cevah


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Lucy_Valentine wrote:
This idea of allowing a jump to carry over into a new turn interests me as a potential house rule. What problems could it cause?

Can a sufficient Acrobatics check cause a long jump to carry over to more than one future turn--e.g., jump on round 1, land on round 3? If so, that pretty much means the character is floating for at least six seconds, which pretty much murders any verisimilitude between how gravity works when falling and how it works when jumping.

Lest this seem unlikely, it's not hard for a halfling to boost Acrobatics into the twenties. A total roll of 42 is enough:

Round 0: Cast animal aspect (frog) to ignore having to run.
Round 1: Move 29 feet, jump 1 foot.
Round 2: Sail 40 more feet through the air. Wheeee!
Round 3: Sail 1 more foot, land.

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