Charging and Balancing

[kreynolds]

Right here Balance provide an exception for slopes, the terrain rule also provide an exception for a handful of others, but those exceptions are called out. A balance check is not a cure all.

SRD, Balance Skill, Accelerated Movement, says you can charge across such a surface though.

Accelerated Movement: You can try to walk across a precarious surface more quickly than normal. If you accept a –5 penalty, you can move your full speed as a move action. (Moving twice your speed in a round requires two Balance checks, one for each move action used.) You may also accept this penalty in order to charge across a precarious surface; charging requires one Balance check for each multiple of your speed (or fraction thereof ) that you charge.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

I still think you're applying Balance to something it doesn't apply to.

You cannot charge across difficult terrain - i.e. you move slowly across that terrain normally (no balance check).

Accelerated movement of the Balance skill is used to move quickly across surfaces that require a balance check to move at all.

Check: You can walk on a precarious surface. A successful check lets you move at half your speed along the surface for 1 round. A failure by 4 or less means you can’t move for 1 round. A failure by 5 or more means you fall.

Note that this is not the case for difficult terrain. There is no stated use of the Balance skill to move normally across difficult terrain, therefore you cannot use it to charge across it.

The only explicit exceptions to this are the exceptions frank pointed out - surfaces you can cross normally, but require balance to cross if you charge. Note that you can walk across them normally, therefore they do not count under the difficult terrain limitation on charging.

 

[kreynolds]

There is no stated use of the Balance skill to move normally across difficult terrain, therefore you cannot use it to charge across it.

I see it in the Balance DC table...

http://srd.plush.org/skillsDex.html

The specific example I'm referring to is this from the table...

[B]Difficult Surface 	Balance DC[/B]
Uneven flagstone 	10 (2)
(2) Only if running or charging. Failure by 4 or less means the character can’t run or charge,
but may otherwise act normally.

The table indicates you can charge across uneven flagstone with a Balance check. This is confirmed by the quote above from Frank about Uneven Flagstone, and further confirmed by the Accelerated Movement passage from the Balance skill.

This could be one of those days where I'm just not putting something together, so I'll look at it again tomorrow.

 

[frankthedm]

This could be one of those days where I'm just not putting something together, so I'll look at it again tomorrow.

Most Narrow Surfaces and Difficult Surfaces aren’t Difficult Terrain.

Uneven flagstone &Hewn stone floors don’t reduce movement. There are enough of a problem that you would need to use the balance skill to conduct a charge over them, but the defining thing of difficult terrain is that it costs 2 squares of movement, something uneven flagstones and hewn stone floors don’t do.

 

[kreynolds]

Ah, I see now. Thanks, Frank. I just could not seem to put that together.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Most Narrow Surfaces and Difficult Surfaces aren’t Difficult Terrain.

Uneven flagstone &Hewn stone floors don’t reduce movement. There are enough of a problem that you would need to use the balance skill to conduct a charge over them, but the defining thing of difficult terrain is that it costs 2 squares of movement, something uneven flagstones and hewn stone floors don’t do.

Yeah, this is what I was trying to say... I don't think I'm communicating well today!

 

[kreynolds]

That's okay, I'm not processing well today! If you put a jigsaw puzzle in front of me right now, I'd probably drool, bang my head on the desk in frustration, and just eat the pieces.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

That's okay, I'm not processing well today! If you put a jigsaw puzzle in front of me right now, I'd probably drool, bang my head on the desk in frustration, and just eat the pieces.

http://www.jigzone.com/

I double dog dare you!

 

[afbeer]

Terrain rules to the rescue

Not exactly. A successful balance check ONLY allows charging over Uneven flagstone, a Hewn stone floor or a Sloped or angled floor. And it looks like that one ONLY gets to use balance to enable a charge down the slope. In all other instances difficult terrain still negates charging.

HI,
looking up the previous cited terrain rules, there are more difficult terrains that can be charged or run over than the Steep slope (downwards):

Dense Rubble
Steep Stairs (downwards)
Ice Sheet

Therefore i conclude that the table under the Balance skill is not complete in naming all terrain but lets us infer the terrain.
Thanks for pointing me to the terrain rules.

 

[frankthedm]

HI,
looking up the previous cited terrain rules, there are more difficult terrains that can be charged or run over than the Steep slope (downwards):

Dense Rubble

No, dense rubble does not have that option. It only penalized balance checks.

Dense Rubble
The ground is covered with debris of all sizes. It costs 2 squares of movement to enter a square with dense rubble. Dense rubble adds 5 to the DC of Balance and Tumble checks, and it adds 2 to the DC of Move Silently checks.