Jump question

[Vocenoctum]

Okay, I'll post this on here.

Do high jumps seem majoryly gacked to anyone else?

If you run, to jump up 4' is a DC18.
DC 10 is 2', every extra foot is another 4 on the DC.

I had a Nezumi barbarian berserker (base move, 60') with a ring of jumping (total jump mod was +42) try to jump up a wall 14' high.
The DC is 58' for that!
With his movement rate, he actually would have been better off climbing. Since he's a Psychic Warrior, maybe he'll just learn to run up walls

 

[Magic Rub]

...Because jumping doesn't increase your movement rate. It is simply another method of moving.

Otterscrubber, it's true...

 

[kreynolds]

Do high jumps seem majoryly gacked to anyone else?

Nope. Jumping up is much harder. Gravity's a real pain in the arse.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Because jumping doesn't increase your movement rate. It is simply another method of moving.

Why wouldnt jumping increase your movement rate if you were amazing at it, please explain? Especially in a fantasy game setting like D&D? I agree is it another form of movement, that is not in doubt. Perhaps if we only allowed 20ft of running and then the jump to count as the movement action, no more, no less.

 

[Christian]

Okay, I'll post this on here.

Do high jumps seem majoryly gacked to anyone else?

If you run, to jump up 4' is a DC18.
DC 10 is 2', every extra foot is another 4 on the DC.

I had a Nezumi barbarian berserker (base move, 60') with a ring of jumping (total jump mod was +42) try to jump up a wall 14' high.
The DC is 58' for that!
With his movement rate, he actually would have been better off climbing. Since he's a Psychic Warrior, maybe he'll just learn to run up walls

With his movement rate, the DC is a heck of a lot lower than you just calculated ...

The distances listed are for characters with speeds of 30 feet. If the character has a lower speed (from armor, encumbrance, or weight carried, for instance), reduce the distance jumped proportionally. If the character has a higher speed (because the character is a barbarian or an experienced monk, for instance), increase the distance jumped proportionally.

So, per the SRD, your 60' move berserker needs to meet a DC of 30 to leap that wall. (Roll of 30 gives [2' + ({30-10}/4)'] x [60'/30'] = 7' *2 = 14') Hope he didn't die for failure to make that roll with his +42 Jump check ...

The real problem with the Jump check numbers are the Chinese math you have to do to figure out how far/high a given roll takes you.

 

[AuraSeer]

Why wouldnt jumping increase your movement rate if you were amazing at it, please explain?

Simply put, moving through the air still takes time.

You start out moving horizontally at a certain speed. When you jump, you convert some of your horizontal movement into upward movement. You're not suddenly moving faster; you're just moving in a different direction (i.e., up).

In D&D, an ordinary human can sprint 120' in six seconds. If he took a running jump and covered the same distance, it would still take six seconds before he hit the ground.

 

[Lord Ben]

You don't speed up when you lift off the ground, your forward movement is still X per round.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Simply put, moving through the air still takes time.

You start out moving horizontally at a certain speed. When you jump, you convert some of your horizontal movement into upward movement. You're not suddenly moving faster; you're just moving in a different direction (i.e., up).

In D&D, an ordinary human can sprint 120' in six seconds. If he took a running jump and covered the same distance, it would still take six seconds before he hit the ground.

I love it when people use physics to explain things in D&D terms. Keep in mind that anyone with jumping abilities on the order of what we are talking about is usually magically enhanced ( same way that a human who is running with haste is magically enhanced) to levels outside the norm for purposes of in game play.

To reply to your comment though some creatures can jump farther and faster than they can run in a given period of time. Ever seen a bullfrog run? Jump? Which was faster for it? Jumping ability can increase your locomotion even without magic. The key thing here is what height do you reach. If I could jump very fast but at a low trajectory I would cover a long distance but only leave the ground for a split second. It all depends on how hard you can push off the ground, and I would assume someone with a +45 (mostly magic) jump skill can jump pretty hard. The key is not just to jump up, but forward. This will result in a charcter being able to move a decent distance within a combat round. I really hadn't given it much thought until now, but if that explanation makes it easier to contemplate in a realistic D&D world then swell.

 

[Christian]

Do high jumps seem majoryly gacked to anyone else?

If you run, to jump up 4' is a DC18.

Oh, and BTW, your superleaping problems aside ... the low-level character's jumping targets are actually too easy. Per the rules, an untrained human with Strength 12 has a 20% chance of making a 4' vertical leap with a running start. If he's, say, 5'8" and has an additional overhead reach of, say, 1'4", that's enough of a jump to make a slam dunk, easy.

I recommend raising the basketball hoops to at least 12' if you're going to put together a league in Greyhawk. And don't let the dang ogres play.

 

[kreynolds]

Why wouldnt jumping increase your movement rate if you were amazing at it, please explain? Especially in a fantasy game setting like D&D?

Because it would be illogical to do so in the first place. According to the rules, your distance jumped counts against your movement for the round. If you succeed at jumping 180 feet, you will complete your jump in the next round (or later). Why? Because jumping doesn't make you move any faster. Jumping is merely another way of moving.

If you really wanted to apply a movement increase with jumping, you would have to take into account the arc of the jump and gravity. Personally, I'd rather not.

In the simplest terms, when you jump through the air, your speed decreases as you reach the apex of your jump, but then increases again as you come back down. So technically, you couldn't possibly have moved faster, unless you're jumping straight down, in which case your speed would increase to a rediculous amount.