D&D 5E Hang Time - What if you jump farther than your speed?

[MechaPilot]

While working on some homebrew material I was confronted with the question of what to do when a character or monster jumps and the distance they can jump is longer than their remaining movement.

I see a few potential decisions people can make here:

1) You can't go farther than your movement. If you have no movement remaining when you're in mid jump, you fall. Example: If you can jump 40 feet and you can move 30 feet, then you can really only jump 30 feet.

2) You have to make a Strength (Athletics) check to cover the remaining distance, failure means falling when you've expended all your movement for the round.

3) The jump continues from one round to the next, with the character effectively hanging in the air until her next turn, whereupon the remainder of the jump uses up some or all of your movement.


I realize it's pretty rare for this to come up in most games (unless perhaps a PC has boots of striding and springing) but I was curious how you handle it.

 

[Oofta]

I believe the official rules are that it simply doesn't work - you can't jump further than your movement.

I handle it as the person jumping is in a "freeze-frame" in mid-air. If they get hit while in mid air, they need to make an acrobatics check or be knocked prone (and fall on their turn). I just think it's more fun and cinematic.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I'll admit I like option 3, but the Sage Advice answer is that the jump is completed in the same turn.

So, if you have a move of 30' but jump 40', you either
a. only jump 30, or
b. you jump 40, but it uses both your Move and a Dash action, and you have 20' or movement left.

Fun.

(

 

[Shiroiken]

By RAW, you can't jump further than your movement in a turn. As the DM, you can easily hand-wave that aside, and it shouldn't have significant impact on the game. You could simply mark the height of the character between turns, no different than a flying creature. Remember, a round is only 6 seconds long, and all characters are acting simultaneously. Turns and initiative are constructs used to help break it down, so a character isn't "hanging" in space for any actual length of time.

As for [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION] 's idea, while it is cinematic, I wouldn't advise it unless you grant the same problem to non-hovering flying characters. Disadvantage against a shove attack seems appropriate, however, and knocking flyer's prone is amusingly effective.

 

[MichaelSomething]

choice number 3 of course!

 

[delericho]

#1 for me.

It's another one of those theory/practice things: in theory, I prefer #3 because as [MENTION=6775477]Shiroiken[/MENTION] says the round structure is just a game structure. But in practice, enough people seem to have difficulties with #3 that it breaks the mood.

 

[Blue]

While working on some homebrew material I was confronted with the question of what to do when a character or monster jumps and the distance they can jump is longer than their remaining movement.

EDIT: Found something that invalidated what I said. Rewriting.

--

Okay, this can happen fairly easily if someone moves then jumps - because you subtract it from your movement speed. Amusingly, the same thing is listed for swimming, which seems to invalidate swim speeds > land speeds for aquatic creatures.

Technically, your move is up when you reach the end of your move speed, leading to option #1 as the strict RAW reading.

I'd allow #3 in my game - you both have completed your move for the round as per the rules on PHB 190, and yet have not reached the distance of your jump (PHB 182). But that would be a table ruling.

 

[jaelis]

#3 seems like the most sensible way to play, but it can be abused. For instance, a Str 20 character under the effect of the jump spell can leap 24 ft straight up. So you could do something like attack a ground-based foe, move 10 ft, leap 20 feet in the air, and end your turn out of your foe's reach. So you either have to be OK with that kind of tactic, willing to just say it doesn't work, or not have players who think of that kind of thing.

 

[Pauper]

I'd go with #1, making the ruling that the Jumping rules are telling you what your 'maximum' jump distance is based on your Strength score, not what your 'jump speed' is. (The rules themselves don't make that distinction, but treating the calculation as 'max jump distance' capped by move speed makes more logical sense to me than having jump be its own speed.)

--
Pauper

 

[smbakeresq]

#3 seems like the most sensible way to play, but it can be abused. For instance, a Str 20 character under the effect of the jump spell can leap 24 ft straight up. So you could do something like attack a ground-based foe, move 10 ft, leap 20 feet in the air, and end your turn out of your foe's reach. So you either have to be OK with that kind of tactic, willing to just say it doesn't work, or not have players who think of that kind of thing.

Then you just ready an action to hit them as they come straight down, and I would grant a bonus if it’s a weapon you can set against a charge like a spear.