How do I run on water?

Think of those martial arts movies where people run so fast they can cross water without sinking. How are they doing it?

The SRD section on epic skills says that it is a balance check (DC 90) to walk on a surface that normally cannot support your weigth, like water or a fragile branch.

Balance, however, is penalized when you move; it is easier, according to the rules, to walk on water if you are moving slowly. Whatever water-running is, you need to go fast to do it. Anyone have any ideas of mechanic that will model this?

You can assume that class abilities or magic items will give bonuses more or less like a high level monk under the effects of the jump spell. So at least +30 bonus to some skill (maybe jump, maybe balance), and maybe a 60 or 90 move speed. What rules would this character use to run on water? Could the same rules allow him to engage in a tree-top chase like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

Cheiromancer said:

Think of those martial arts movies where people run so fast they can cross water without sinking. How are they doing it?

The SRD section on epic skills says that it is a balance check (DC 90) to walk on a surface that normally cannot support your weigth, like water or a fragile branch.

Balance, however, is penalized when you move; it is easier, according to the rules, to walk on water if you are moving slowly. Whatever water-running is, you need to go fast to do it. Anyone have any ideas of mechanic that will model this?

You can assume that class abilities or magic items will give bonuses more or less like a high level monk under the effects of the jump spell. So at least +30 bonus to some skill (maybe jump, maybe balance), and maybe a 60 or 90 move speed. What rules would this character use to run on water? Could the same rules allow him to engage in a tree-top chase like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

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Water Walking: I'd use balance as the skill, but modified for speed as the jump skill: +4 for every 10' faster (forget about the fast balancing penalty in this case, doesn't make much sense). The DC would have to be appropriately high so that only epic characters can do it, but avoid the ridiculous DC 90.

Lev 20 monk= 23 (ranks)+6(Dex)+2 (Synergy)=+31
add the speed bonus= +24(90' speed)

And he has a balnce of +55

Add slippers of balance for a +10 bonus and the monk has a +65 to his balance check.

Setting the DC at 75 would allow this character to race on water half the time. So set the DC according to how easy (DC 70) or hard (DC 80) you want to make it. I'd just leave it at DC 70.

For the tree fighting: balance as well, but no speed benefit and the fast balance rules apply (-5 to move fast). Actually, from what I remember of the movie, balancing on the branch wasn't that hard , the cool part was the relative movement of the trees (the swaying).

So take a thin branch (DC 20) and add 10-20 to the difficulty (from the swaying) for a DC 30-40. Say the branches moving emulates the Spring attack feat: (each character has only one attack per round since they move-attack-move).

I can see that working. How it helped.

Neighboring water molecules are attracted to one another. Molecules at the surface of liquid water have fewer neighbors and, as a result, have a greater attraction to the few water molecules that are nearby. This enhanced attraction is called surface tension. It makes the surface of the liquid slightly more difficult to break through than the interior.

When a small object that would normally sink in water is placed carefully on the surface, it can remain suspended on the surface due to surface tension. The Basilisk lizard makes use of the high surface tension of water to accomplish the incredible feat of walking on water's surface. The Basilisk can't actually walk on water; rather, it runs on water, moving its feet before they break through the surface.

'Jesus' Lizard

So... become a Basilisk Lizardman.

And old movie, Remo Williams, has a guy walking on water (Even how he trains to do it).

I'd make it a feat that allowed you to try it in the first place, and make the DC then somewhat doable (30 for calm water and short distance (10'), more for rougher water or longer distance). That's however if you don't want to make it an epic ability (Depending on the flavor of the campaign).

As far as the treetop jumping, I'd make it a jump/tumble check and a feat, similar to the walk on water, if you don't want it to be epic. There are actualy feats that work well with this (Roofwalker for one), but don't simply allow you to do it.

I'd just make it a new feat and put it in the same progression as speed of thought and up the walls

Bront said:

And old movie, Remo Williams, has a guy walking on water (Even how he trains to do it).

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As master Chiun explains it, "You have to run very fast."

There is a Feat in one of the Scarred Lands Books that can allow you to run on water.
For the life of me I cant remember the name of it.

I have Multi-classed Monk with Psionic Classes before to get that "Wuxia" effect I was looking for. Body Equilibrium works wonders

The psion power 'body equalibrium' allowed you to walk on water. Maybe they discovered wild talents!

Seriously, there is a Dragon Mag out featuring asian mythos and wuxia style game play.It even had a template for Kaiju (Godzilla anyone??)!! It provided a system where classes reaching a certain level could fly/walk on water. It also provided feats to improve on those abilities. This mag came out when the systenm was 3.0, but it's easy enough to convert.

ANyone rememberwhat issue this was in? Had a bald headed monk with pieces of parchment surrounding said head.

I'd maybe use Tumble instead of Balance. You're not carefully making sure you're not sinking, you're running like Hell's gates have just opened behind you.

iwatt's suggestion started some wheels turning;

This would be an ability for a mid to high level monk (at least 9th level).

Run on Water (Ex): Instead of the normal bonuses or penalties due to movement, you get a bonus to your balance checks equal to your base movement rate. If you do not get a 20 foot running start this bonus is halved. Walking on water is a DC 90 balance check.


This would allow the kind of tree-fighting stuff as well, but the branches can't be too thin. Furthermore, if you allow the bonus to apply to jump checks, you can easily get a wuxia kind of feel; monks will be able to get from the floor to a 20 foot balcony fairly easily using the high jump rules (DC 80). I would rule that a surface that the monk could run against/bounce off of (within 5 feet) would allow the jump distances to be doubled; this would allow monks to run up fairly high walls, or across low ceilings. The power would thus be described thus:

Wuxia (Ex): Instead of the normal bonuses or penalties due to movement, you get an enhancement bonus to your balance checks equal to your base movement rate. If you do not get a 20 foot running start this bonus is halved. Walking on water is a DC 90 balance check. The same bonus applies to your jump checks. You can jump twice as high as normal if you have a surface within 5 feet that you can run up/bounce off of.


I wouldn't ever allow the bonus to apply to tumble checks- the main use of tumble is to get through opponents without provoking an attack of opportunity, and a huge bonus would make this far too easy.

The water-walking pretty much requires a base speed of 60+, which is in line with Staffan's remark. A speed of 90+ makes it possible to run across clouds (balance DC 120).

How does this sound?