Tumble Skill help

[Jhaelen]

So I apologize that my two DM friends are stupid when it comes to things that make sense and refuse to believe it because they believe no one can 'know' what should be the case and thus no one is right on what should be done.

If the right rule is unknown, the DM gets to decide. That's exactly why the game has a DM!

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If the right rule is unknown, the DM gets to decide. That's exactly why the game has a DM!

And that's exactly why it's tough to find a good DM whose rulings I agree with, or at least tolerate enough to enjoy the game.

 

[radmod]

If the right rule is unknown, the DM gets to decide. That's exactly why the game has a DM!

Even when the right rule is known, the DM gets to decide!

 

[radmod]

I'll just argue that by the letter of the law, "check separately for each opponent..." doesn't have to mean "roll a separate skill check."

I'm thinking it does. PH p.163 bottom left:
" To make a skill check, roll 1d20 ..." so
"check separately for each opponent" = "roll 1d20 for each opponent"
Doesn't mean I like it, though. One problem I have with it is the idea of diminishing returns, that is the more rolls required the more likely it is to fail. However, that just may be intention.

The bigger problem you all are ignoring, is the part that states ‘Failure means you stop before entering the enemy-occupied area and provoke an attack of opportunity from that enemy’ So if you are moving throughsay, 3 guys and end in the white square:
X X X X X
The DC’s (Assume you DO roll separately) would be 25/27/29.
If you make it past the first two, but not the third one, what happens? You can’t Occupy the same square as the second guy (Short of being prone). Do you then wind up prone? (3.0 actually stated that you did, 3.5 removed that part).

PH p. 138: Special Movement Rules
"Sometimes a character ends its movement while moving through a space where it’s not allowed to stop. When that happens, put your miniature in the last legal position you occupied, or the closest legal position, if there’s a legal position that’s closer. "

Okay, I have two friends, both of them DMs and they keep telling me that the rules are not clear and that there is no way to KNOW what the rule is for this since Apparently Tumble is not clear on the actual instance of this.

Is THERE any rule clarification officially posted on Tumble? All of what you guys have said makes perfect sense to me, but they keep refusing to believe me because A) I apparently know nothing.. B) None of this is 'official', it's all opinions, and C) Well I don't remember, but I'm sure it had to do with I'm stupid and it all of this doesn't make sense.. So I apologize that my two DM friends are stupid when it comes to things that make sense and refuse to believe it because they believe no one can 'know' what should be the case and thus no one is right on what should be done.

Trust me, in 30+ years of gaming I have never, ever known anything. Even when I did. (For example, I just recently discovered that literally dozens of people I know have for decades been playing Glitterdust wrong.)

I did not see anything on Tumble in the faq as you asked. That said, semantically (e.g. RAW) in your original example and with what I posted above:
You have to make six tumble checks against the six white guys and a single one against the red guy.

Arguments can be made:
1) the extra person penalty applies to ALL the tumble checks. That is you have to make six DC 15+10 checks against the whites,
2) a) the extra person penalty applies only when you actually tumble past the opponent (so leaving the first space and not physically past anybody yet you need only a DC 15 against everyone who can AoO),
2) b) in that case, the AoO's occur at the most optimal time, e.g. when you are past the opponent thus the first two guys need a DC 17 tumble check (for two people) and the second guys need a DC 21 check, etc.

I''ll ignore those for now and say my feeling is the RAI meant an increasing difficulty for each person being encountered:

When you leave the space you suffer a DC 15 on the first guy and a 17 on the second guy. You also suffer a 19 and a 21 on the next two guys.
Moving into the second space, you make a DC 25 to tumble through the red guy.
Leaving the second space (assuming you can) you then have to make a DC 23 and 25 check (though some DM's will add the guy you tumbled through to get 25 and 27).

In the end, though, it is YOUR DM's choice.