RigaMortus2 said:
Say I am trying to cross a chasm, but I don't have access to fly, just Levitate... Can I levitate high up, then while levitating make a standing verticle jump? Keep levitating and standing verticle jumping until I make my way over?
My gut reaction is "what the heck are you thinking?" But, on further reflection, I really admire your ability to think outside the box. There could be a loophole in there, so let's look more closely.
The Jump skill says, "If your speed is less than 30 feet, you take a -6 penalty for every 10 feet of speed less than 30 feet." What's your speed while levitating? Your speed is 0 or -, take your pick. Any land movement speed is irrelevant. If your speed is -, then you can't jump and that's that (this is probably sufficient to just say no). If your speed is 0, then you get a -18 on the Jump check. Furthermore, the DC is doubled because you cannot get a running start.
Another interesting line the Jump skill, "If you attempt a Jump check untrained, you land prone unless you beat the DC by 5 or more." If you levitate and (somehow) jump, but do not beat the DC by 5 or more, you land prone. This means that regardless of the height at which you levitate, you fall to the ground (presumably taking damage) prone. This is based on the definition of prone.
That should be enough to say that you can't jump while levitating, but let's look at the levitate spell, "Levitate allows you to move yourself, another creature, or an object up and down as you wish." Up or down, not side to side. Levitate explicitly doesn't allow movement across the chasm. Can levitate allow you to move horizontally, but 'pushing' off whatever force is holding you up? No, because the spell explicitly calls out the means by which horizontal locomotion is achieved, "You cannot move the recipient horizontally, but the recipient could clamber along the face of a cliff, for example, or push against a ceiling to move laterally (generally at half its base land speed)."
So, no, you cannot jump while levitating. But, keep up the good questions.
