D&D 5E Climbing a tower rules 5e

Hriston · Feb 12, 2021

Charlaquin said:
Wouldn't it be 8 to 16 miles (assuming they did no traveling besides climbing that day)? A slow pace is 2 miles per hour, halved to 1 mile for the "difficult terrain" and a fast pace is 4, halved to 2.

I was thinking of the distance per day divided by four, but I think I had that wrong. Each foot of climbing in difficult terrain costs two extra feet, so that’s three feet all together, right? Which would make it between 6 and 10 miles per day.

Edit: And which I think is reasonable considering some guy climbed about six miles of rope albeit over 24 hours rather than eight. He was probably not pushing it as hard as he could’ve. World record rope climbing speeds would be between eight and 27 miles per eight hours, depending on the length of climb, and of course these speeds were achieved on much shorter climbs.

Charlaquin · Feb 12, 2021

Hriston said:
I was thinking of the distance per day divided by four, but I think I had that wrong. Each foot of climbing in difficult terrain costs two extra feet, so that’s three feet all together, right? Which would make it between 6 and 10 miles per day.

Oh, I see. You were compounding the movement penalty for climbing and the movement penalty for difficult terrain. I thought you were using “difficult terrain” figuratively since both difficult terrain and climbing make each foot cost two feet of movement.

Hriston · Feb 12, 2021

Charlaquin said:
Oh, I see. You were compounding the movement penalty for climbing and the movement penalty for difficult terrain. I thought you were using “difficult terrain” figuratively since both difficult terrain and climbing make each foot cost two feet of movement.

Yeah, I was, but the rules actually state climbing (and swimming and crawling) costs two extra feet (for a total of three) in difficult terrain, not three as I had supposed.

SkidAce · Feb 12, 2021

iserith said:
I'm inferring no secret rules. Length of climb isn't in the list or even like the things in the list. Further, a Strength (Athletics) check for length of climb really just belongs in other games. It's "if climb, then climb check." As you know, I think trying to jam it into D&D 5e and claiming the DM is playing RAW is just trying to justify legacy approaches that haven't been examined in the current edition. It's quite common for DMs to do that. There's no shame in it per se because the DM can do as he or she likes, but I'll not be convinced otherwise.

This is the only thing I actually disagree with you on. I might call for a strength check based on complications.

I am not doing it because I am blind to the change of editions. It feels like this is where you have hung your hat so to speak, when to me, it doesn't matter.

We agree, there is no "if climb, then climb check".
Its actually "if climb, there is normally no check, but there might be depending on the situation".

iserith · Feb 12, 2021

SkidAce said:
This is the only thing I actually disagree with you on. I might call for a strength check based on complications.

I am not doing it because I am blind to the change of editions. It feels like this is where you have hung your hat so to speak, when to me, it doesn't matter.

We agree, there is no "if climb, then climb check".
Its actually "if climb, there is normally no check, but there might be depending on the situation".

Sure, and I would add the kinds of situations in which that might happen are spelled out in Chapters 7 and 8. I call for Strength (Athletics) checks in those situations myself.

DND_Reborn · Feb 12, 2021

WOW, I am amazed this is still going on... I really thought it had been settled last night.

Well, since this is still going, I made a quick little visual aid:

This shows a 6-foot tall person and the top horizontal line is 80-feet.

Any DM who doesn't want to call for a check due the stress involved and danger of such a climb, knock yourselves out. Performing a task, even climbing a rope, is influenced by the stress involved.

A warhorse has a STR 18. According to the rules, it can make a long jump of 18 feet. So, if the PCs are riding warhorses and come to a chasm 15 feet across, but plummets 200 feet down, would you have them make any sort of Animal Handling check to get the horse to make the jump and for them to not fall off?

Odds are, if you won't ask for a climb check in the 80-foot tower scenario, you won't ask for a check in the warhorse jumping scenario, either. Of course, I would.

Sure, add in your "factors": being chased by enemies, in a raging storm, or whatever floats your boat.

Anyway, continue the back and forth.

iserith · Feb 12, 2021

6ENow! said:
WOW, I am amazed this is still going on... I really thought it had been settled last night.

Well, since this is still going, I made a quick little visual aid:

This shows a 6-foot tall person and the top horizontal line is 80-feet.

Any DM who doesn't want to call for a check due the stress involved and danger of such a climb, knock yourselves out. Performing a task, even climbing a rope, is influenced by the stress involved.

A warhorse has a STR 18. According to the rules, it can make a long jump of 18 feet. So, if the PCs are riding warhorses and come to a chasm 15 feet across, but plummets 200 feet down, would you have them make any sort of Animal Handling check to get the horse to make the jump and for them to not fall off?

Odds are, if you won't ask for a climb check in the 80-foot tower scenario, you won't ask for a check in the warhorse jumping scenario, either. Of course, I would.

Sure, add in your "factors": being chased by enemies, in a raging storm, or whatever floats your boat.

Anyway, continue the back and forth.

According to the rules, the DM may call for a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to resolve attempts to control a mount when making a risky maneuver. This has no bearing on the specific rules for climbing. I'm not sure why you even mention it.

Nebulous · Feb 12, 2021

As the OP, asking my simple question about climbing a tower, my conclusion after 20 pages of arguments here is that the core 5e rules could be a LITTLE bit clearer so nerds don't argue about this stupid stuff.

Charlaquin · Feb 12, 2021

6ENow! said:
WOW, I am amazed this is still going on... I really thought it had been settled last night.

I had thought so too.

6ENow! said:
Well, since this is still going, I made a quick little visual aid:

View attachment 132590
This shows a 6-foot tall person and the top horizontal line is 80-feet.

I’m not saying such a climb wouldn’t be difficult. I’m just saying I wouldn’t call for a Strength (Athletics) check based on the height alone, and I don’t think the rules suggest you should (as always, feel free to rule differently if you want to).

6ENow! said:
Any DM who doesn't want to call for a check due the stress involved and danger of such a climb, knock yourselves out. Performing a task, even climbing a rope, is influenced by the stress involved.

It is t up to me to decide whether the players’ characters are stressed. If they want to express that stress via roleplay, they certainly can. They could even invoke a relevant personality trait or flaw to gain Inspiration if they wish.

6ENow! said:
A warhorse has a STR 18. According to the rules, it can make a long jump of 18 feet. So, if the PCs are riding warhorses and come to a chasm 15 feet across, but plummets 200 feet down, would you have them make any sort of Animal Handling check to get the horse to make the jump and for them to not fall off?

Maybe. Depends how well-trained the horse is, and what consequences might come of the horse not jumping.

6ENow! said:
Odds are, if you won't ask for a climb check in the 80-foot tower scenario, you won't ask for a check in the warhorse jumping scenario, either. Of course, I would.

I mean, if as in the 80 foot tower scenario, there is no time pressure, external threat, or other factor preventing the character from taking as long as they need to coax the horse into jumping? No, I probably wouldn’t call for a check, because I don’t see any consequence for failure.

6ENow! said:
Sure, add in your "factors": being chased by enemies, in a raging storm, or whatever floats your boat.

That changes the scenario though. The horse jumping thing is already a dubious analogy to the tower scenario, adding such external pressure makes it even more disanalogous.

Charlaquin · Feb 12, 2021

Nebulous said:
As the OP, asking my simple question about climbing a tower, my conclusion after 20 pages of arguments here is that the core 5e rules could be a LITTLE bit clearer so nerds don't argue about this stupid stuff.

Haha if we learned anything from 3e it’s that nerds will argue about this stupid stuff no matter how clearly you (try to) word the rules.

D&D 5E Climbing a tower rules 5e

Hriston

Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (he/him)

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

Hriston

Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (he/him)

SkidAce

Legend

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

DND_Reborn

The High Aldwin

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

Nebulous

Legend

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

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