The Jump skill has scads of silliness both in 3.0 and 3.5. 3.5 is slightly easier to work with, but not by a lot.
The core silliness I find is that someone with a bonus of +0 in Jump can take 10 and jump a 10-foot ditch, but if they don't take 10, they might jump 1 foot or 20 feet. The variance is too huge. Further, it implies Olympic-class jumpers should be randomly jumping either really badly (only 20 feet) or sometimes superhumanly (40 feet). Finally, figuring out what the DC is for which case becomes kind of ridiculous after a while.
Rather than have Jump being a random skill, my concept is to treat it as a movement rate, for purposes of normal jump attempts, spells, and magic items.
Here's the rewrite:
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Jumping -
Almost all creatures have a base Jump movement. In general, this base jump movement is 1/3 of land movement, rounded to the nearest 5' increment (to keep the math easy). So a halfling has a base jump of 5', a human can jump 10' and a light horse can jump 20'. If a creature has a magical bonus to its movement rate, every +30 feet of movement increases the base Jump movement by 10'.
The Jump skill modifies this movement rate by its bonus (and equally so for all creatures). Every +1 bonus of the jump skill increases the jump movement by 1 foot. For standing leaps, this movement rate is halved. For high jumps the movement rate is 1/4.
To use jumping, you note the distance that you want to jump. If the distance is within your jump movement rate, you make the jump. If the distance is over 10 feet, a Balance check (DC 15) is necessary to stay standing and keep moving in a coordinated fashion. If you fail by 10 or more, you fall prone, and your turn ends. If you fall prone next to the gap you were jumping, you might fall in (DC 10 Balance check to avoid falling in). If you fail by 9 or less, you are dazed for the rest of this turn and may take no further action. You may act normally next turn, unless of course you are abnormal, in which case you may act abnormally next turn.
If the distance you wish to jump is up to 5' greater than your jump movement, you may attempt to grab for the ledge. This works like normal jumping, except that instead of a balance check, you make a Climb check (DC 15) to avoid missing and falling.
It is possible in a non-stressful situation to take 10 on any of these balance or climb checks.
If your jump movement is greater than your normal movement rate, you may jump that far, but doing so is a full-round movement. For example, if your movement rate is 30 feet, but you can jump 35 feet, then you can run 20 feet, jump 35 feet,
and then move another 5 feet (for a total of 60 feet). If your jump movement is equal to or greater than the distance you can cover in a hustle, you can make the jump, but you may not move any further after landing.
For example, a very athletic human with a +20 Jump bonus has a base jump movement of 30 feet. He seeks to jump over a 20-foot-wide pit trap. He can take a running jump by moving 20 feet, jumping 20 feet (well within his jump movement of 30 feet), and then move another 20 feet after that if he succeeds on his DC 15 balance check.
For purposes of magic item creation, the cost of an item that improves jumping is (bonus)-squared times 20 gp. A +10 ring of Jumping costs 2000 gp, +20 is worth 8000 gp, and +30 is worth 18000 gp.
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Aside from the randomness, the other thing I sought to address was the absurd cost of a ring of Jumping, because the 3.5 pricing scheme bases its price on Jumping being a skill. But when you get right down to it, a +5 to the jump skill is only 5 more feet to move, and is not comparable to increasing a +15 Hide bonus to +20 (reducing the chance of being spotted from merely "unlikely" to "pretty much impossible". For a normal skill, each extra +5 DC that you can make is a major achievement; 5 more feet of jumping pales in comparison. So while I don't quite reintroduce the +30 ring of jumping for a mere 2000 gp, I don't make it cost 90,000 gp as it would under 3.5 RAW.
This skill reaches its ultimate expression with a monk. at mid levels, a monk has a 60' move, for a 20' base jump, and could possibly have a +20 Jump bonus from normal modifiers, and perhaps a full +30 ring of jumping. This would make a 70' jump possible (35' standing long jump, 9' standing high jump). Also, the monk would be jumping often enough to be forced to take a decent Balance skill to keep from falling over or being forced to end his movement. With the magic bonuses, I think this allows for spectacular Martial Arts / Anime-style leaps, without breaking the "normal" part of the rules for those who have only normal levels of jumping. Finally, keeping it as straight movement makes it even easier than the 3.5 system, since you don't even need to look up a DC to roll.
Comments? Suggestions?
The core silliness I find is that someone with a bonus of +0 in Jump can take 10 and jump a 10-foot ditch, but if they don't take 10, they might jump 1 foot or 20 feet. The variance is too huge. Further, it implies Olympic-class jumpers should be randomly jumping either really badly (only 20 feet) or sometimes superhumanly (40 feet). Finally, figuring out what the DC is for which case becomes kind of ridiculous after a while.
Rather than have Jump being a random skill, my concept is to treat it as a movement rate, for purposes of normal jump attempts, spells, and magic items.
Here's the rewrite:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jumping -
Almost all creatures have a base Jump movement. In general, this base jump movement is 1/3 of land movement, rounded to the nearest 5' increment (to keep the math easy). So a halfling has a base jump of 5', a human can jump 10' and a light horse can jump 20'. If a creature has a magical bonus to its movement rate, every +30 feet of movement increases the base Jump movement by 10'.
The Jump skill modifies this movement rate by its bonus (and equally so for all creatures). Every +1 bonus of the jump skill increases the jump movement by 1 foot. For standing leaps, this movement rate is halved. For high jumps the movement rate is 1/4.
To use jumping, you note the distance that you want to jump. If the distance is within your jump movement rate, you make the jump. If the distance is over 10 feet, a Balance check (DC 15) is necessary to stay standing and keep moving in a coordinated fashion. If you fail by 10 or more, you fall prone, and your turn ends. If you fall prone next to the gap you were jumping, you might fall in (DC 10 Balance check to avoid falling in). If you fail by 9 or less, you are dazed for the rest of this turn and may take no further action. You may act normally next turn, unless of course you are abnormal, in which case you may act abnormally next turn.
If the distance you wish to jump is up to 5' greater than your jump movement, you may attempt to grab for the ledge. This works like normal jumping, except that instead of a balance check, you make a Climb check (DC 15) to avoid missing and falling.
It is possible in a non-stressful situation to take 10 on any of these balance or climb checks.
If your jump movement is greater than your normal movement rate, you may jump that far, but doing so is a full-round movement. For example, if your movement rate is 30 feet, but you can jump 35 feet, then you can run 20 feet, jump 35 feet,
and then move another 5 feet (for a total of 60 feet). If your jump movement is equal to or greater than the distance you can cover in a hustle, you can make the jump, but you may not move any further after landing.
For example, a very athletic human with a +20 Jump bonus has a base jump movement of 30 feet. He seeks to jump over a 20-foot-wide pit trap. He can take a running jump by moving 20 feet, jumping 20 feet (well within his jump movement of 30 feet), and then move another 20 feet after that if he succeeds on his DC 15 balance check.
For purposes of magic item creation, the cost of an item that improves jumping is (bonus)-squared times 20 gp. A +10 ring of Jumping costs 2000 gp, +20 is worth 8000 gp, and +30 is worth 18000 gp.
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Aside from the randomness, the other thing I sought to address was the absurd cost of a ring of Jumping, because the 3.5 pricing scheme bases its price on Jumping being a skill. But when you get right down to it, a +5 to the jump skill is only 5 more feet to move, and is not comparable to increasing a +15 Hide bonus to +20 (reducing the chance of being spotted from merely "unlikely" to "pretty much impossible". For a normal skill, each extra +5 DC that you can make is a major achievement; 5 more feet of jumping pales in comparison. So while I don't quite reintroduce the +30 ring of jumping for a mere 2000 gp, I don't make it cost 90,000 gp as it would under 3.5 RAW.
This skill reaches its ultimate expression with a monk. at mid levels, a monk has a 60' move, for a 20' base jump, and could possibly have a +20 Jump bonus from normal modifiers, and perhaps a full +30 ring of jumping. This would make a 70' jump possible (35' standing long jump, 9' standing high jump). Also, the monk would be jumping often enough to be forced to take a decent Balance skill to keep from falling over or being forced to end his movement. With the magic bonuses, I think this allows for spectacular Martial Arts / Anime-style leaps, without breaking the "normal" part of the rules for those who have only normal levels of jumping. Finally, keeping it as straight movement makes it even easier than the 3.5 system, since you don't even need to look up a DC to roll.
Comments? Suggestions?
