D&D 5E Boots of Striding and Springing.......kinda lame

[flametitan]

My cleric liked being able to keep up with the rest of the party and being able to jump over a deep ravine... right up to the part where he was alone against six bugbears.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Sounds very like they were in the classic game, when (IIRC, YMMV) they were pretty desireable. 5e encumbrance isn't as harsh as it used to be, or the value would be more evident.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

5e encumbrance isn't as harsh as it used to be, or the value would be more evident.

It is true that the encumbrance rules of this edition aren't as harsh as those some prior editions used... but on the topic of encumbrance, do you think anyone realizes that the average number of coins found in a CR 5-10 treasure hoard weigh nearly 200 pounds?

 

[Willie the Duck]

The guy playing a halfling rogue in my game doesn't think they suck.

Well that's it, kinda like the headbands of intellect or other 'stat to 19' items, it serves to shore up a specific weakness and is quite good at it, but doesn't wow like some magic items that completely change what one can do.

Sounds very like they were in the classic game, when (IIRC, YMMV) they were pretty desireable. 5e encumbrance isn't as harsh as it used to be, or the value would be more evident.

Depends on whether you use the optional encumbrance rules. 5lbs. x Str is pretty steep if you have to carry your rations and armor at level 1 before you get a mount or bag of holding. Especially if you dumped strength because "Dex is the optimal combat stat" or whatever I keep hearing.

 

[Caliban]

They give a permanent 1st level spell (the Jump spell), plus a speed boost if you are slow.

They are part of the hierarchy of mobility items.

Boots of Striding and Springing -> Slippers of Spider Climb -> Winged boots.

1st) Jump spell -> 2nd) Spider climb spell -> 3rd) Fly spell.



Do they really need to do anything more?

 

[jasper]

They give a permanent 1st level spell (the Jump spell), plus a speed boost if you are slow.

They are part of the hierarchy of mobility items.

Boots of Striding and Springing -> Slippers of Spider Climb -> Winged boots.

1st) Jump spell -> 2nd) Spider climb spell -> 3rd) Fly spell.



Do they really need to do anything more?

Self spit shining would be good drill sergent!

 

[Kobold Stew]

They are part of the hierarchy of mobility items.

Boots of Striding and Springing -> Slippers of Spider Climb -> Winged boots.

1st) Jump spell -> 2nd) Spider climb spell -> 3rd) Fly spell.

This is a good observation, and true, but given that all three of these items have the same rarity (and therefore approximate gp value), and all require attunement, for questions of accessibility the hierarchy breaks down.

It's also interesting because here (and not with the rules for long jumping) there is a ruling for what happens when a jump exceeds a characters' movement. I've seen it ruled that the movement carries over into the next round. For this magic item, though that is specifically forbidden. If the sentence does anything, then, it reduces the effectiveness when measured against a Jump spell. In contrast, with Spider Climb and Flight, it increases the effectiveness of the item compared to the spell, since concentration is not required with the items. So again the parallelism breaks down.

Where the boots really fail, though, is seen best through two examples.

a. Imagine a character with Strength 10, move 30'.
Without boots, this person has a standing jump of 5', running jump (assuming 10' run) of 10'.
With boots, this person has a standing jump of 15' and can move 15' afterwards, and a running jump of 20' (no move afterwards).*

[[* 10 runup, + 30' jump, but that exceeds her move for the turn, and so total jump is only 20'.]]

Now imagine a character with 15 strength, move 30'.
Without boots, this person has a standing jump of 7', running jump (assuming 10' run) of 15'.
With boots, this person has a standing jump of 22' and can move 8' afterwards, and a running jump of 20' (no move afterwards).

Conclusions:
* The person with the 15 Strength is no more effective with the boots on a running jump than the person with 10 Strength.
* The person with 15 strength does not get "3x jump range" but only "+5' jump" because of the limit.
* The person with 15 strength can travel further with a standing jump than with a running jump.

All 3 of these conclusions go against what the magical ability to Jump should confer, and any one of the results is enough to show that the description does not maintain the hierarchy of spells that's been pointed out.

 

[Caliban]

True enough, except that you would still be able to move afterward (or jump farther) if you used your Action for Dash. Or if you had anything that increased your speed (Haste, monk or barbarian levels, mobility feat, etc) .

That being said, I don't think it would really unbalance anything to remove Attunement from the boots. They are useful, but less so than the other mobility footwear I listed.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

With boots, this person has a standing jump of 15' and can move 15' afterwards, and a running jump of 20' (no move afterwards).*

[[* 10 runup, + 30' jump, but that exceeds her move for the turn, and so total jump is only 20'.]]

Aside from dashing to increase your move speed, you could also do your run-up in the previous round, or outside of combat where the abstraction of rounds is not necessary. If you need to make a 30' jump across a chasm, you can still do it, even if the specific wording here makes it unlikely to work during combat.

 

[discosoc]

It's not just the boots. A whole lot of magic items in 5e are just crappy, and the disappointment of rolling something like an Amulet of Proof Against Detection is obvious around the table.