D&D 5E Chase scene: Ending turn on jump

[Xombiemike]

My players will be chased and every square of movement is important. If there is a 10' gap to jump and they start 50' from it's beginning, can they end their turn on a jump?

 

[jaelis]

I think the rules intent (backed up by Twitter) is that you can't end your turn in the air; the distance you can jump is limited by your speed. But the rules themselves are a bit vague, so I'd say play it how you think best.

 

[Xombiemike]

Ah, see that's tough because if they don't get a running 10' start on the next turn it messes them up big time.

 

[Satyrn]

My players will be chased and every square of movement is important. If there is a 10' gap to jump and they start 50' from it's beginning, can they end their turn on a jump?

I would totally let them end their turn in the air.

 

[Oofta]

The problem is action economy. Either they have enough time to make the movement or they don't. You don't want to give people "extra" movement.

However ... I allow people to end their turn in mid-air. Rounds and turns are an abstraction because we can't have everybody acting simultaneously. So having someone not be able to end their turn in mid-air is really artificial. Of course that does give the person(s) being chased an opportunity. They see the person jumping and throw something heavy at them. If it works, they may knock the person out of the air or at least need to make an athletics check to still land on the other side.

So yeah. Leave people in mid-air. Describe it as a freeze frame where the camera does the pan around their character in mid jump and time seems to freeze for just a moment. They'll just have to accept that they've committed to the jump, no changing direction!

Also, if they ended a previous turn moving towards the edge, I consider that having moved 10 feet for the jump. They didn't suddenly stop because their turn ended.

 

[Xombiemike]

Ah, the freeze frame camera pan... I love it. Rules or not, I'm allowing ending on a jump and forcing a movement as their next action.

 

[guachi]

Oftentimes, movement is secondary to the action so "no ending your turn in mid air" is a useful abstraction.

But if I'm running a chase, movement is the primary part of the action so spending the extra time determining if people are in mid air or not seems like it would be a good thing.

 

[Satyrn]

The problem is action economy. Either they have enough time to make the movement or they don't. You don't want to give people "extra" movement.

However ... I allow people to end their turn in mid-air. Rounds and turns are an abstraction because we can't have everybody acting simultaneously. So having someone not be able to end their turn in mid-air is really artificial. Of course that does give the person(s) being chased an opportunity. They see the person jumping and throw something heavy at them. If it works, they may knock the person out of the air or at least need to make an athletics check to still land on the other side.

So yeah. Leave people in mid-air. Describe it as a freeze frame where the camera does the pan around their character in mid jump and time seems to freeze for just a moment. They'll just have to accept that they've committed to the jump, no changing direction!

Also, if they ended a previous turn moving towards the edge, I consider that having moved 10 feet for the jump. They didn't suddenly stop because their turn ended.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to imply . . .with my one sentence

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I agree with the majority here. I would automatically use their movement next turn, so they aren't gaining "extra" movement, but that's it. I'd do this outside of chase scenes as well, and most effects which require you to end your turn on a normal surface just require that your next turn"s movement automatically be used to finish the movement instead, at my tables.

 

[Xeviat]

My players will be chased and every square of movement is important. If there is a 10' gap to jump and they start 50' from it's beginning, can they end their turn on a jump?

I'm with most everyone here too. Rounds are an abstraction. For things like the monk's wall and water running, I'm okay with the turn limitation. But, the Incredible Hulk can leap so far that it takes multiple rounds to get where he's going.