Slow Fall and Tumble

[PrinceZane]

I don't have my books with me atm, but I was sitting in class and this came to mind.

As a new DM for the group, I've had some fun making traps etc. The monk of our group is incredibly stupid, and I'm trying to train him by thinking a little bit. He's fell in more pits than a dalmation has spots, but he's never really been bothered because of his "slow fall". So now his mindset is, "if I fall, I use slowfall and that's it". Is there a limit to how many times a day he can do it, or is it unlimited?

Also a question about tumbling...
The 2 rogues and monk of the group are tumbling all over the place in battle which is cool, that's their job etc. But they've convinced me that the DC to tumble w/o provoking aoo is "15". Does this change depending on situation, or is it a flat 15? The way their chars are set up, as long as they don't "crit fail" on their roll (nat 1 = -10 penalty) then they'll always make it.

 

[Thanee]

Slow Fall is unlimited.

Tumble is DC 15, with the following to keep in mind:

Tumble at one-half speed as part of normal movement, provoking no attacks of opportunity while doing so. Failure means you provoke attacks of opportunity normally. Check separately for each opponent you move past, in the order in which you pass them (player’s choice of order in case of a tie). Each additional enemy after the first adds +2 to the Tumble DC.

Bye
Thanee

 

[PrinceZane]

Sweet... +2... heh.... So all those times they tumbled to the back..

Does size of the creature/player matter?

To me it seems kinda hard for a monk that quaffs an "Enlarge person" potion tumble through a med creature, w/o bumping into it. I was thinking there should be some modifiers or such but wasn't sure.

 

[Len]

Slow fall: He can use this each time he falls. Put spikes at the bottom of the pits - they can still do some damage even if he falls on them gently. Or put a second trap down there.

Tumbling: Check out the Tumble skill in the PHB. The DC goes up on uneven or slippery ground and also if you're tumbling past multiple foes. Also, encourage him to tumble at full speed or through an opponent's square now and then. The DC is a lot higher but it's cool when you pull it off, so I (as a rogue player) often choose to roll the d20 instead of "taking one".

Personally I found I was tumbling with impunity for a few levels, until I put some more points into tumble and started rolling again for the more difficult maneuvers.

Some people advocate opposing the tumble check by the enemy's attack roll instead of DC15, but I think that makes tumbling too difficult in most cases. Opposing it by the enemy's tumble check is better - you can tumble easily by most foes but sometimes you'll get a nasty surprise.

 

[Doctor Shaft]

Does size matter?

Hm... I believe it does. Basically, someone gets an AOO every time you threaten. The tumble check is to see if the AOO even counts. The DC increases for every threatened square a tumbler goes through... so if a Dragon takes up 10ft, or the monk decides he wants to flip through two squares that belong to the dragon, he must tumble check both times he crosses (I think).

However... if the tumble check fails in one square, and the dragon takes the AOO... the dragon wouldn't threaten anymore.... so the monk would be able to tumble the rest of the way freely.

I think.

 

[jerichothebard]

Slow fall: dig a deeper pit. Make it more, say, chasm-like. Slow fall is, after all, limited in its max falling height... Unless your monk is approaching epic levels, that

 

[PrinceZane]

Hmm.. I like the opposed tumble check thing... All this tumbling into insta flank is just killin my good ideas left and right

Btw, unrelated question:

When I go into my settings, and look at the subscribed threads to navigate through, it only shows the 1st one I made. Am I supposed to update it somehow or what?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Does this change depending on situation, or is it a flat 15?

It changes.

Surface Is . . . DC Modifier
Lightly obstructed (scree, light rubble, shallow bog, undergrowth) +2
Severely obstructed (natural cavern floor, dense rubble, dense undergrowth) +5
Lightly slippery (wet floor) +2
Severely slippery (ice sheet) +5
Sloped or angled +2

-Hyp.

 

[Legildur]

House rule warning: Our live games use a house rule for tumbling and concentration checks for casting on the defense where a successful check does not prevent an AOO but allows you to add your skill ranks to AC as a Dodge bonus for the AOO.

With sufficient ranks you are usually in the clear, but not always, and a natural 20 still hurts. We've been playing that way since 3.0 and we're really happy with the balance.

 

[myradale]

Does size matter?

Hm... I believe it does. Basically, someone gets an AOO every time you threaten. The tumble check is to see if the AOO even counts. The DC increases for every threatened square a tumbler goes through... so if a Dragon takes up 10ft, or the monk decides he wants to flip through two squares that belong to the dragon, he must tumble check both times he crosses (I think).

Actually, I believe you only have one DC per opponent, not per threatened square. Same with AoO... you only provoke an AoO form the FIRST threatened square you move out of (for each opponent)

As for the size thing, it helps to remember that "tumble" doesn't mean "roll around" so much as "move acrobatically". It would obviouslly be difficult for a huge monk to diveroll through the halflings legs, but doing an aerial over his tiny little head should be pretty simple... looks good too!