Useful Jump Skill Abilities

[escaflowne777]

So I've just started playing after a very long hiatus, so I've had a bit of time to think about my next character. I've decided I want to play a class with lots of mobility options, like a scout or ninja. I decided on a spear as my weapon of choice, but the thing I really want is the ability to use jump in a multitude of ways. I know there is a feat that allows you to double your power attack or something with jump, and I was wondering, can anyone else think of any way to make jump a fairly integral part of my character? Jump better?

 

[frankthedm]

Leap attack is the feat you speak of involving power attack.

Boost your speed. Each 10' over 30' nets you +4 to jump.

 

[escaflowne777]

Yeah, been thinking about that. Other than class abilities, any way to do that? And what can I utilize this boosted skill for?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

You should really check out the Tiger Claw discipline from Tome of Battle. You can get maneuvers from it once/encounter as feats and items, but you'd really be best off playing one of the book's base classes so you get many of them and can recover them mid-fight to use again. For tiger claw, you'd want Warblade or Swordsage class. Warblade is a high hp, low AC, high damage type like a Barbarian, but also gets Tumble and some uses for int. Swordsage is like a mix of ninja, monk, and rogue, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Hard to really explain, but a lot of the available disciplines reward mobility and you get extra benefits from a good wisdom score. (If you do take Swordsage, Adaptive Style is almost as critical a feat to you as Natural Spell is to Druids, btw)

Another powerful option is Battle Jump (I think? something close to that in name...) from Unapproachable East.

 

[frankthedm]

the d20 final fantasy book has the Dragoon PRC with some tricks for this, though it has other non jumping baggage as well.

 

[blargney the second]

Tiger Claw looks to be your bread and butter for a jump-based character. If you don't mind adding wings, I can propose a very fun dragoon-style build...

 

[Alzrius]

If you play a psionic character, you can take the Mental Leap feat.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

For a fast PC with a super-high Jump score, Cometary Collision (Players Handbook 2) works nicely with Leap Attack and opens up interesting tactical options.

 

[escaflowne777]

Thanks for all the replies. I checked out battle leap and cometary collision, seem to be very much what Im looking for. As for tome of battle, maneuvers really annoy me. I know that it would work well for what Im trying to do, but in the hope of keeping my sanity, I'd rather not use that book.

 

[milo]

Simple things to remember is to not overlook ranks in tumble for the synergy bonus and boots of striding and springing. That would grant a +11 to jump. I know there are some skill tricks in complete adventuer or complete scoundrel, not sure if there are any for jump.