Jumping while Charging

[Peter Gibbons]

Any chance you're thinking of the Leap Attack feat in Complete Adventurer?

The wording of this feat suggests that you cannot normally jump over rough terrain as part of a Charge. As I said above, it wouldn't surprise me to find that the "official ruling" is exactly that, but I don't see a problem with it under the RAW.

 

[Tellerve]

Err, I'm the DM whore

As for the Leap Attack feat, no I'm not thinking about that. What I am trying to do is use skills more often in the game. I noticed that Balance talks about using it to go over difficult terrain in the link to the SRD I gave above. Seeing as that skill, if you make it allows you to alter the circumstances typically allowed for charging, I was wondering what people felt about the Jump skill thrown in. I'm fairly inclined to allow someone who wants to charge over some rough woodland terrain and hurdle over a fallen tree trunk to be able to, provided he makes the balance and the jump check. Failing either and he doesn't get his charge off.

The various feats, PrCs and others that allow these things make them much much easier, but it is nice for people to not have to get into all sorts of PrCs to do cinematic moments.

I should edit this though and say, I have another post about the Stable Footing feat from Races of Eberron: We couldn't decide how much the benefit was, were 2 movement squares downgraded to 1, and higher ones moved down one rank, or was it like the Scout's Flawless Stride and he can move unhindered through all sorts of stuff?

Tellerve

 

[Shallown]

Lepa attack does allow you to jump over rough terrain but it must be at the end of your movement. So you could charge over regular terrain 10 feet and jump the last 10. I think you have to jump 10 to use the feat.

later

 

[Infiniti2000]

If the obstacle doesn't hinder your movement, though, how would this rule apply?

It wouldn't apply at all. In that case, the obstacles would be pure flavor and you could just say that you hop/jump over them as you charge, no problem. However, actual obstacles that hinder your movement prevent charging.

I'm fairly inclined to allow someone who wants to charge over some rough woodland terrain and hurdle over a fallen tree trunk to be able to, provided he makes the balance and the jump check. Failing either and he doesn't get his charge off.

I think that's reasonable. IMO, it's not unbalanced (no pun intended) and anything that increases the chance of using more combat tactics is a good thing.

 

[kjenks]

FAQ
===
Can my character make a jumping charge attack, either
with a long jump or a high jump? Do I need the feats Fleet
of Foot or Psionic Charge? If I can make a high jump as
part of a charge, can I use it in conjunction with Battle
Jump?

You can make a long jump as part of a charge. You must
still follow all the normal rules for making a charge, such as
moving in a straight line on the battle grid. This tactic can let
you avoid some of the normal restrictions against charging. If a
square of difficult terrain is between you and your charge
target, you could possibly jump over it with a long jump. (The
fact that your jump means that your movement isn’t a perfectly
straight line doesn’t make the charge illegal—you’re still
moving in a straight line as far as the battle grid is concerned,
and the jump isn’t really changing your direction.)
===

 

[Legildur]

Thanks for the quote kjenks.

Can someone please tell me, for a running jump is the run up to the jump at the run speed (with associated AOO and no Dex bonus to AC issues) or at normal movement rates?

I know that the jump distance counts against movement for the round.

If it is at the run speed, then it all must be in a straight line. If normal movement, then you could change direction and keep your Dex bonus to AC.

I haven't been able to find anything particularly clear about this aspect.

Edit: Thanks Patryn for the clarification. And mind you, I would NEVER ask the DM to allow me to start a running jump 10ft in one direction and then take off in the oppsoite direction. I think my character would meet an untimely meta-gaming death.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Normal movement rates.

You do not need to take the Run action; you need "a running start," which is defined as at least 10' of movement. Many people interpret this to mean "10' of movement in the general direction in which you are going to jump," though this isn't expressly stated anywhere.

Note that you can't change direction if you're jumping as part of a charge, since all movement as part of your charge must be in a straight line.

 

[Pielorinho]

I'm inclined to be fairly liberal with it, too. While it's good for the rules to have features that keep people from doing something cool every round of combat (otherwise, the game gets ridiculous), it's most fun to be able to really do your thang in each round, instead of spending your entire combat action moving into position. Any rules interpretation that facilitates this is a good thing IMO. Let the good guys and bad guys spend as much time as possible actually fighting, and as little time as possible making double-moves.

(Requiring skill-checks to maneuver is fine: even if they fail, at least the player got to roll a die during that round!)

Daniel

 

[kmdietri]

Thanks kjenks, I knew I read that somewhere....

 

[ken-ichi]

Allowing things like this can lead to cool maneuverings where you agile fighters position obstacles in the way of the clumsier enemys to keep them from charging, but when the agile fighter is ready to engage he is able to navigate the obstacles while charging the lumbering thug who was forced to move around the barriers.
Cool swashbuckling type stuff can ensue.
Also check out the skill stunts for Iron Heroes. There is a pretty good example page on monte cook's web site. It has all sorts of additional ways you can use skills in combats and can pretty much be dropped into any d20 game.