Tumbling confusion

[Kannik]

A question came up in our game last night. From the SRD:

Tumble at one-half speed as part of normal movement, provoking no attacks of opportunity while doing so.

This has obviously changed quite a bit from 3.0. The question arose as to the interpretation of the phrase normal movement. Does that mean tumble may only be used on only good'ol standard walking movement, or does it mean it can be used on any 'non-exotic' movement (flight, swimming, charging, bullrush?)

The specific instance in this case was about a double move. Could one tumble (at 1/2 speed) for the 'first movement', then move normaly their 'second movement' (ie, 1.5x movement total)? Or could they move 1/2 speed overall for the double movement (in other words, going 1x movement, but tumbling all/part of the way)?

Of course, knowing the rest of the interpretations would be good too. }

As long as I have your attention... anyone else notice past a certain level of tumbling you never have to worry about AoOs again, assuming your target is near enough?

Thanks,

Kannik

 

[DanMcS]

As part of normal movement means that for every 5' you want to tumble, use up 10' of movement and you're good. So as a double move, you could tumble the first 5' to avoid an AoO from the guy you start next two, cross another 40' at regular speed, and then tumble the last 5' to get under the reach of an ogre, for instance.

Don't forget to make a tumble check versus every opponent.

You're right, past about level 7, tumbling to avoid AoOs (DC 15) is free-ish. In our game, my monk and another guy's rogue weren't really having any problems with it from around 6th level. To solve this, we instituted a skill check rule where a 1 counts as a -10 and a 20 counts as a 30, so you can still fail if you roll a one typically. We also started tumbling through squares instead of around people, either because we had to or because we felt like it. That's DC 25, and it's fun.

Long term, though, I think the correct solution is to make it an opposed check versus the AoO. It would be d20 + tumble skill + dex + any dodge bonuses to AC (like dodge and mobility) versus the attack roll.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Long term, though, I think the correct solution is to make it an opposed check versus the AoO. It would be d20 + tumble skill + dex + any dodge bonuses to AC (like dodge and mobility) versus the attack roll.

That's the house rule I use (although I don't include dex, as that's already factored into tumble skill). Thus, one's AC when tumbling is the higher of one's normal AC or a roll of d20 + tumble check + dodge bonus to AC. It means tumbling monks and rogue are no longer immune to AoOs from creatures with high attack rolls. Monks and rogues continue taking ranks in tumble instead of letting it wither on the vine after they can make a DC 15 check on a roll of anything except a 1 (one of my other house rules is that a 1 in any activity during combat is an automatic failure).

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[DanMcS]

That's the house rule I use (although I don't include dex, as that's already factored into tumble skill).

That's what I meant, I stated dex explicitly since when I said "tumble skill", I meant "tumble ranks".

You let it be the higher of the tumble result OR ac? Interesting. I guess I figured if they're tumbling, they're letting down their guard, and kinda turning their backs on the opponent to boot, so armor class doesn't factor in at all. If their AC is high enough that it might be better than their tumble, they're better off walking away the normal way and not tumbling. Tumbling is a risk.