The Quick Jump feat allows you to make a long jump spending only a single action.
Movement you make while you are jumping ignores the terrain you’re jumping over.
So, does this mean that with Quick jump and a good enough Athletics modifier you can effectively ignore difficult and greater difficult terrain?
I'm asking because this looks better even than the general feat Feather Step and the Rogue feat Light Step.
Should work, yeah. maybe add Assurance Athletics to the mix so you always know exactly how far you can jump.
Yes, you can leap over difficult terrain.
Yes, it can often be faster, especially with severe terrain, water, pits, etc. Or caltrops!
You can auto-jump over a 5' gap, getting 10' of movement, which is about the same for normal difficult terrain, but better than when it's worse.
If you have 30'+ movement (which is a good target number), then you can auto-jump over a 10' gap, getting 15' of movement.
That's just automatic on 1 action w/ Quick Jump, so pretty nice given the iconic 10' x 10' pit.
This is also the distance you leap on a jump failure.
Add 5' more to all of that w/ Powerful Leap (level 2, Expert in Athletics)
Expert w/ Assurance & Powerful Leap at level 6 can jump 25', so clear a 20' chasm automatically. Then 5' more every 5 levels w/ a 2' burst for Master & Legend (though by then magic items & other skill feats open up more leaping options).
Leaping up is a lot harder, but several martial classes have an attack feat that lets you use your vertical jump to jump horizontally, which is pretty astounding if you've been boosting your leaps.
And once you get Cloud Jump, you're bouncing around like Hulk where your speed becomes the cap for your jumps more than your ability to jump.
Athletics is pretty much a must have for somebody w/o class abilities, spells, or some magic item to help their mobility.
And it helps w/ Escape & maneuvers.