D&D (2024) Jumping

[Maxperson]

That's another way of doing it. I have to admit, I don't like the "feel" of everything stopping at round's end, and then starting up again.

On the flip side of it, you could totally do The Matrix moves if you could stop in the air until next round.

 

[Yaarel]

These might be easier formulas to remember

Run-Jump
Easy: Strength score
Medium: +5 feet
Hard: +10 feet

Stand-Jump is half

Height of jump is third

 

[Sir Brennen]

These might be easier formulas to remember

Run-Jump
Easy: Strength score
Medium: +5 feet
Hard: +10 feet

Stand-Jump is half

Height of jump is third

What do Medium and Hard mean in this context? Do they correspond to DC descriptions of Moderate (DC 15) and Hard (DC 20)?

Here's a simple take:

Character makes an Athletics check.
What you roll is how far you jumped in feet, minimum equal to STR, maximum of STR x 2.
Halve, third or triple the distance as appropriate for standing/vertical jumps and magic.

Keep in mind real world athletes can make almost 30' long jumps.

I might adjudicate things some other factors on the fly, like Disadvantage for heavy Encumbrance or Armor, close rolls mean you grabbed the edge (fail by only 1 or 2), or land prone (succeed by right on or only 1 or 2), etc.

Playing 5.5? Have something comically tragic happen on a Natural 1.

And if I'm feeling mean, Small characters treat STR as -2. If I'm particularly mean, Dwarves are included in that.

 

[Bill Zebub]

This is one of those cases where I wish D&D used dice mechanics with degrees of success.

I guess you can use N over/under but that feels inelegant to me.

 

[Cadence]

Sage advice says dash if you want it.

What happens when Jump gives a jump distance greater than walking speed?

D&D Sage Advice ·

www.sageadvice.eu

 

[Benjamin Olson]

How about we just eliminate jump rules altogether. In my experience the current system seems to be that they are looked up the one time per campaign that people need them, and if they don't work for what the table wanted them to do in that instance the DM either feels empowered to make a ruling overriding them or feels bound by them and everyone is dissatisfied. What use are they serving that just setting DCs couldn't?

I think the game only has set jump distances for characters so that the Jump spell can triple them. I would eliminate both the rules and the spell if the amount of use I see of it is typical.

 

[Lanefan]

Unfortunately not, because the bit it needs to override is "Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of Movement." which is stated separately from the stuff for determining distance. So the specific here triples the distance limit (STR or half STR depending on running or standing) but doesn't interact with the costing. It'd probably need a line like "Every three feet you clear on the jump costs one foot of Movement" in the Jump spell description.

Hmmm...there's two possible and conflicting interpretations here (what else is new - all the way back to 1e!).

One interpretation is that once you run out of movement to pay, your jump can't go any further.
The other is that once you run out of movement to pay, your jump keeps going to its full distance but you just can't move any further after you land.

You seem to be going by the first of these interpretations. Me, I'd use the second.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I would just rule you can’t jump more than your remaining movement. Solved.

 

[Yaarel]

What do Medium and Hard mean in this context? Do they correspond to DC descriptions of Moderate (DC 15) and Hard (DC 20)?

Here's a simple take:

Character makes an Athletics check.
What you roll is how far you jumped in feet, minimum equal to STR, maximum of STR x 2.
Halve, third or triple the distance as appropriate for standing/vertical jumps and magic.

Keep in mind real world athletes can make almost 30' long jumps.

I might adjudicate things some other factors on the fly, like Disadvantage for heavy Encumbrance or Armor, close rolls mean you grabbed the edge (fail by only 1 or 2), or land prone (succeed by right on or only 1 or 2), etc.

Playing 5.5? Have something comically tragic happen on a Natural 1.

And if I'm feeling mean, Small characters treat STR as -2. If I'm particularly mean, Dwarves are included in that.

Yes.

The Medium and Hard jumps require Strength (Athletics) checks to successfully clear the extra distance with a tight landing.

The simplification roughly compares reallife averages (from highschool and college) and reallife world records.

For example, an athlete with Strength 18 can easily run-jump 18 feet, but can successfully make a hard run-jump of 28 feet. (The world record is 29-odd feet.)

The Strength 18 standing-jump is 9 feet. A hard standing-jump can reach upto 14 feet. (The world record is 11-odd feet.)



Actually: to determine the height of a running jump, divide the result by 4. Thus a Strength 18 long jump can make a hard jump to clear 7 feet high. (The world record is about 8 feet.) But to determine the height of a standing jump, divide by 3. Thus, Strength 18 makes a hard stand jump at almost 5 feet. (The world record is about 5½ feet.) For the sake of simplicitly, I am dividing any result by 3 to determine the height of any jump.




And I plan to implement fumbles and crits for ability checks.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Hmmm...there's two possible and conflicting interpretations here (what else is new - all the way back to 1e!).

One interpretation is that once you run out of movement to pay, your jump can't go any further.
The other is that once you run out of movement to pay, your jump keeps going to its full distance but you just can't move any further after you land.

You seem to be going by the first of these interpretations. Me, I'd use the second.

I'm pretty sure RAW/RAI is the first (in fact I believe that's been confirmed by the designers), but yeah, the second works better with the spell.