ToB, Shadow Jaunt and non-melee situation

[catsclaw227]

Can a PC with the Shadow Jaunt (Tome of Battle) ability use their manuever in a non-combat situation? This effectively gives them the ability to "teleport" 50' every minute.

Generally, then, can maneuvers be used in non-combat situations?

Catsclaw

 

[DogBackward]

It gets a little tricky adjucating, but yes, you can use maneuvers outside of battle. Really, why wouldn't you? It just doesn't make sense to say no. As for Shadow Jaunt, it's not that big a deal. You've got to have line of sight, so it's essentially like having a very high Jump check*, with a slightly bigger benefit, with the stipulation that you can only use it once every 12 seconds. (Your Swordsage can take a FRA to refresh it.)

Bottom line, it makes no sense to say "You're not in a battle for your life, so you've suddenly forgotten how to use your abilities." I guess you could technically say that it's a sort of "overdrive" mode, but that just seems like a DM copout to me.

 

[hong]

Hm, never noticed the LOS and LOE requirement before.... in which case, it's not quite as powerful as I thought it was. A high-level character with a ring of jumping and haste could easily jump more than 50 ft.

 

[jasin]

Yes, I missed LoE/LoS at first too and it bothered me, because I didn't want mid-level swordsages walking through walls at will, but I didn't want to limit it in combat because it sounds silly.

But once I noticed the requirement on LoE/LoS, it's just fine even out of combat. In fact, I don't think I'd have a problem with it even if you just needed LoE.

 

[DogBackward]

Hell, if you really want to, you can get pretty close even at lower levels. Ninja 4: +7 Ranks, +3 Skill Focus, +5 Item, +4 Great Leap, +5 Dex (Agile Acrobat and +2 Dex race). That's a +24 right there. It takes a FRA instead of a SA, but your minimum jump is 25ft, giving you 50ft jumping per round.

If you go level 5, you've got enough cash for Boots of Striding and Springing, which gives another +4 (from the +10ft speed) and another +1 from ranks, to +29. That's 60ft per round, 90ft if you roll really lucky (20/20). That's also an average of 70-80 ft per round, rolling 10-11.

Anyway, point is, no it's not bad at all. You could probably actually do better with the Tiger Fang stuff, Sudden Leap, and Leaping Dragon Stance. -4 from losing the Great Leap still gives you +35, and you get three jumps per round.

Anyway, I'm kinda rambling here, if you didn't notice, so I'll shut up.