D&D 5E Reasonable Movement and Athletic Feats?

[doctorbadwolf]

My buddy and I worked out that adding your Strength (Athletics) modifier you your speed is a good baseline for making speed more variable, and if you use an athletics check to multiply your speed by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, you get a range from a brisk walk (4mph) to a good 100m sprint time (20-21mph) on a character with 16 strength and a +3 proficiency bonus.

I think maybe thefloor for sprinting should be times 3, tbh. Or, perhaps the above works for when you dash as an action, but a full sprint (cannot do anything but run, no reaction until your next turn), has a higher floor.

Okay, did some math. If sprint adds 10ft to your base speed, it works out. Even doubled is just like, a pretty slow sprint, but 5x is 26mph! Perfect!

 

[DND_Reborn]

My buddy and I worked out that adding your Strength (Athletics) modifier you your speed is a good baseline for making speed more variable, and if you use an athletics check to multiply your speed by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, you get a range from a brisk walk (4mph) to a good 100m sprint time (20-21mph) on a character with 16 strength and a +3 proficiency bonus.

I think maybe thefloor for sprinting should be times 3, tbh. Or, perhaps the above works for when you dash as an action, but a full sprint (cannot do anything but run, no reaction until your next turn), has a higher floor.

Okay, did some math. If sprint adds 10ft to your base speed, it works out. Even doubled is just like, a pretty slow sprint, but 5x is 26mph! Perfect!

Well if you found a system that does what you want, kudos!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well if you found a system that does what you want, kudos!

It isn’t perfect, buts easy to remember, and definitely closer than the RAW.

 

[Xeviat]

My buddy and I worked out that adding your Strength (Athletics) modifier you your speed is a good baseline for making speed more variable, and if you use an athletics check to multiply your speed by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, you get a range from a brisk walk (4mph) to a good 100m sprint time (20-21mph) on a character with 16 strength and a +3 proficiency bonus.

I think maybe thefloor for sprinting should be times 3, tbh. Or, perhaps the above works for when you dash as an action, but a full sprint (cannot do anything but run, no reaction until your next turn), has a higher floor.

Okay, did some math. If sprint adds 10ft to your base speed, it works out. Even doubled is just like, a pretty slow sprint, but 5x is 26mph! Perfect!

Hmmm ... I kind of don't like it being directly tied to Strength, though. I know weight lifters can be very fast if they're training for strength and not for body building, but I feel like there's a reason we see smaller characters as the swift ones in fiction, and why we see lithe runners and bulky weight lifters. I'm not sure of a good way to model that aside from leaving it to players to stay within genres.

But I do like the idea of something boosting base speed. So since it's Athletics modifier, a Str 16 and a +2 mod, or a Str 14 and a +3 mod, nets a +5 speed, but below that only comes into play when multipliers are applied? I kinda like it. I've seen other systems use a combo of Str and Dex to determine speed, which can help with the genre conventions above (High Str, High Dex characters are leaner and faster, High Str, Low Dex characters are bulky and a bit slower).

 

[Hriston]

Here’s what I worked out for jumping the last time this came up:

DC	running horizontal jump	standing horizontal jump	running vertical jump	standing vertical jump
10	3 feet	1 foot	6 inches	3 inches
15	6 feet	2 feet	1 foot	6 inches
20	9 feet	3 feet	1 foot 6 inches	9 inches
25	12 feet	4 feet	2 feet	1 foot
30	15 feet	5 feet	2 feet 6 inches	1 foot 3 inches

Distances given are in addition to normal jump distance.

 

[Xeviat]

Well, I think the hardest thing is getting a proper balance between accuracy and simplicity.

Following the information on chases, you can dash for 3 rounds + your Constitution modifier. Each round after, you make a DC 10 Constitution check or suffer a level of exhaustion.

Honestly, I think this is too low. First I would increase the number of rounds by your proficiency bonus if you have proficiency in Athletics. Second, I would change it to a DC 10 Constitution (Athletics) check to avoid the level of exhaustion.

Do remember, there are "walking" competitions where people hold what would be move+dash speeds of 6 mph for, like, 8 hours. They're unencumbered and on smooth roads, but "double move" speeds are possible for a really long time. It's what humans are good at. Even I, with my childhood knee problems and my adult foot and knee problems can walk 6 mph for an hour easily.

 

[Xeviat]

Here’s what I worked out for jumping the last time this came up:

DC	running horizontal jump	standing horizontal jump	running vertical jump	standing vertical jump
10	3 feet	1 foot	6 inches	3 inches
15	6 feet	2 feet	1 foot	6 inches
20	9 feet	3 feet	1 foot 6 inches	9 inches
25	12 feet	4 feet	2 feet	1 foot
30	15 feet	5 feet	2 feet 6 inches	1 foot 3 inches

Distances given are in addition to normal jump distance.

How would you modify these for Str and Speed?

 

[Hriston]

How would you modify these for Str and Speed?

I’m not sure if I understand the question. The DCs given are for a Strength (Athletics) check, so the check result is modified by Strength. Or do you mean for lifting and fast movement? I’d have to think about that, but I’d probably do something similar for lifting more than your limit. I’m not inclined to grant additional movement in combat, however, and outside of combat, I’d probably resolve something like a race with opposed Dexterity checks.

 

[Xeviat]

I’m not sure if I understand the question. The DCs given are for a Strength (Athletics) check, so the check result is modified by Strength. Or do you mean for lifting and fast movement? I’d have to think about that.

Yeah, since it's an athletics check, it's already modified for Str, somehow I missed that.

But yes, modified for fast movement. Since your growths are linear, having speeds over 30 could grant flat bonuses to your athletics check (clumsy) OR you could work out the multiplier conversions for each of those:

Looks like all of the numbers I pulled for this last time I got the itch to work on it are on my desktop, so I'll have to check in with it later.

 

[Hriston]

Yeah, since it's an athletics check, it's already modified for Str, somehow I missed that.

But yes, modified for fast movement. Since your growths are linear, having speeds over 30 could grant flat bonuses to your athletics check (clumsy) OR you could work out the multiplier conversions for each of those:

Looks like all of the numbers I pulled for this last time I got the itch to work on it are on my desktop, so I'll have to check in with it later.

Oh, okay. (Sorry about the cross-editing.) I don’t think I’d want to get that granular. The running jumps require only that you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump, so they aren’t affected by how fast you’re moving. I don’t think I’d want to mess with that.