Haffrung Helleyes
First Post
A few more things:
I've done just what you describe, in real life (crossed recent landslide with pack mules, in the himalayas). I don't think the DC of the balance check would be anywhere near 25. I certainly don't have 15 ranks in balance!
In general, even when something like this is really dangerous, the chance for a single person to succeed would be high. It's still a dangerous day if you take a 5% chance of sliding down a mountain to your doom!
Also, 30' is awfully narrow for the avalanche. I would make it 3 or 4 times as wide, with a much lower (15?) DC. And I concur that it should be a climb check, not a balance check. Climbing is all about balance anyway. So the party should have to make multiple climb checks, at a much lower DC. A rope won't help here, until someone gets across to fasten the rope to something at the other end.
And in the situation you describe, the up slope from the trail should be way more than 20' high. If they are on a trail on a mountainside, the slope above them probably goes for hundreds of feet, and below them it's either straight down or another slope, for hundreds more. If it was only 20' up to the next wide spot, they would have built the trail there in the first place, probably.
A good film to watch if you want to see an example of navigating around a rock slide is the french film Himalaya.
Ken
I've done just what you describe, in real life (crossed recent landslide with pack mules, in the himalayas). I don't think the DC of the balance check would be anywhere near 25. I certainly don't have 15 ranks in balance!
In general, even when something like this is really dangerous, the chance for a single person to succeed would be high. It's still a dangerous day if you take a 5% chance of sliding down a mountain to your doom!
Also, 30' is awfully narrow for the avalanche. I would make it 3 or 4 times as wide, with a much lower (15?) DC. And I concur that it should be a climb check, not a balance check. Climbing is all about balance anyway. So the party should have to make multiple climb checks, at a much lower DC. A rope won't help here, until someone gets across to fasten the rope to something at the other end.
And in the situation you describe, the up slope from the trail should be way more than 20' high. If they are on a trail on a mountainside, the slope above them probably goes for hundreds of feet, and below them it's either straight down or another slope, for hundreds more. If it was only 20' up to the next wide spot, they would have built the trail there in the first place, probably.
A good film to watch if you want to see an example of navigating around a rock slide is the french film Himalaya.
Ken