D&D 5E Non-trivial climbing during combat

Rya.Reisender · Oct 11, 2018

Let's say it was established that climbing something requires a successful DC 10 Athletics check and the PC failed that check during combat. Would you allow the PC to roll again on the same turn when he uses the Dash action to retry?

5ekyu · Oct 11, 2018

Rya.Reisender said:
Let's say it was established that climbing something requires a successful DC 10 Athletics check and the PC failed that check during combat. Would you allow the PC to roll again on the same turn when he uses the Dash action to retry?

It would depend on the resolution of the failure *and* if there was going to be a second roll for dash anyway.

If the character in climbing uses dash, do you normally require a roll for the regular move and dash? Does he require two climbing checks? If so, then if the first failure was "did not advance" then yes a second roll is fine - it would have happened either way.

But if you have shown only one climb check is needed to cover the long climb, regular plus dash, then one fail means no go for both just like one success would cover both.

I am more a fan of "progress with setback" myself, especially when near a mechanical guagmire.

Kobold Stew · Oct 11, 2018

I would say no.

A case could be made that the player's action that round should have been the Athletics check itself. The fact that it was rolled into the move (which I infer because they then chose to Dash), would essentially give hem two "free" attempts at the non-trivial climb.

Rya.Reisender · Oct 11, 2018

5ekyu said:
It would depend on the resolution of the failure *and* if there was going to be a second roll for dash anyway.

If the character in climbing uses dash, do you normally require a roll for the regular move and dash? Does he require two climbing checks? If so, then if the first failure was "did not advance" then yes a second roll is fine - it would have happened either way.

But if you have shown only one climb check is needed to cover the long climb, regular plus dash, then one fail means no go for both just like one success would cover both.

Good point! Since I allow to use dash without extra roll, then failure also mean no extra roll when dashing.

I am more a fan of "progress with setback" myself, especially when near a mechanical guagmire.

I usually do lower than 5 = fall, 5-9 = can't move and 10 = succeed (that's the handling that's suggested in Lost Mine of Phandelver for a particular situation).

It's hard to think of a setback that still involves progress. Like "you manage to climb the rope, but you burned your hands, let's roll 1d6 fire damage" doesn't seem to make much sense. And I'm not a big fan of randomly make monsters appear as setback either. Basically wasting time is progress with setback too, but in combat it just means setting out a round.

Li Shenron · Oct 11, 2018

It's never come up...

Normally climbing is treated as part of movement, so it makes sense that a PC using her action to Dash i.e. move again would be allowed to try to climb again, probably in the same way as allowing 2 jumps in the same round.

OTOH there is also a possibility within the rules for the DM to declare that something significant and important enough requires an action of itself, in which case there is only one per turn.

Either way sounds fine to me, but I'd prefer if a DM who chose the second would rather tell the player beforehand that an action is required, even if it's not really that important, otherwise it can feel like the DM cheating on the player.

iserith · Oct 11, 2018

I consider climbing just a subset of movement so a Dash would be fine. Failure means no progress at the cost of the move or the Dash action. Failure by 5 or more means falling.

As for progress combined with a setback, you can also have them drop stuff from their inventory or perhaps a weapon or shield.

billd91 · Oct 11, 2018

Rya.Reisender said:
Let's say it was established that climbing something requires a successful DC 10 Athletics check and the PC failed that check during combat. Would you allow the PC to roll again on the same turn when he uses the Dash action to retry?

I would certainly allow it. The Strength (Athletics) roll to climb something doesn't make much sense as a separate action for the round anyway since it's part and parcel of trying to spend your movement while climbing. So I wouldn't even charge you an action for coming in the first place - just movement. And Dash gives you another shot at movement, so it gives you another climb check.

the Jester · Oct 11, 2018

Rya.Reisender said:
Let's say it was established that climbing something requires a successful DC 10 Athletics check and the PC failed that check during combat. Would you allow the PC to roll again on the same turn when he uses the Dash action to retry?

Yes, usually. However, there are circumstances where you wouldn't be able to- for example, if you failed by enough to fall, and the wall you fell from didn't go all the way to the ground, so you couldn't reach it again. Generally, though, I treat Dash as "move your speed again", and climbing is just another type of moving your speed that requires a check, so, yeah.

aco175 · Oct 11, 2018

I was trying to come up with other scenarios where this action may come into play. I can see where a check uses your action and moving is just a result getting through the check, but I also can see where it seems something like climbing a rope ladder is simple (DC10). It slows you down enough to make you need your action to make the roll. If you want to hurry up the ladder to attack it makes sense that the deed is now more difficult and the DC would be higher.

S'mon · Oct 11, 2018

If the player had not, for whatever reason, already used their Action, then yeah in practice I would allow them to use their Action for another attempt.

D&D 5E Non-trivial climbing during combat

Rya.Reisender

Explorer

5ekyu

Hero

Kobold Stew

Last Guy in the Airlock

Rya.Reisender

Explorer

Li Shenron

Legend

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)

the Jester

Legend

aco175

Legend

S'mon

Legend

Similar Threads