D&D 5E Monks breaking gravity

[Lanliss]

Say a monk(16) runs up a wall, until they are level with a flying enemy. They jump off the wall to reach the enemy. Is this a vertical jump, because the wall is their ground, or a horizontal jump?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Verticle jumps are those which result in an increase in altitude, and thus are going in directly opposite direction to whatever gravity is present.

Jumping off a wall as you describe is a horizontal jump - orientation of perspective doesn't affect the orientation of gravitation forces (in most planes of existence, at least).

 

[Sir Brennen]

That totally sounds like a DM's ruling to me, but I'd go with the more fun\cool option of having it be horizontal (and allowing the run up the wall count towards making it a running long jump).

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Neither. The exact arc should be left as an experiment for the reader.

If you just want a fast answer, then it's more like vertical than it's like horizontal.

 

[Noctem]

Neither. The exact arc should be left as an experiment for the reader.

If you just want a fast answer, then it's more like vertical than it's like horizontal.

Verticle jumps are those which result in an increase in altitude, and thus are going in directly opposite direction to whatever gravity is present.

Jumping off a wall as you describe is a horizontal jump - orientation of perspective doesn't affect the orientation of gravitation forces (in most planes of existence, at least).

Which of you is correct?

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Which of you is correct?

Me!

Monks who jump while running off walls need to make a Strength (Athletics) check with a DC based on how far they are trying to jump!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Which of you is correct?

Both, for different reasons. It's a weird physics thing, and the question lies in which factor supersedes the other in a system that always simplifies down to a binary. We can't know which factor should dominate the equation, because it depends on whatever magic is letting the monk do this in the first place.

For what it's worth, I've had it happen a couple of times in my game that the monk would run up a wall to hit a nearby flying enemy. I just said that he falls straight down, immediately after leaving the wall, because that's how the magic monk physics work.

 

[Lanliss]

The reason for this question is that I was considering both the Gravity direction, as well as the muscles used. By the muscles used, it would be a vertical jump I think. But if you only look at gravity, it is horizontal.

 

[Umbran]

If you just want a fast answer, then it's more like vertical than it's like horizontal.

Never pulled off such a feat myself, but I think you're incorrect here. The primary muscle action in this monk's jump is orthogonal to the direction of gravity - that makes it more like a horizontal jump. Actually, like a horizontal jump off a cliff of the height he'd run up.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*