Why is Jump skill so useless?

[Yig]

Well Jump got a little more useful now with the Leap Attack feat.

What is the DC to clear a 10' jump while running ?

 

[Kilroy]

Wait a minute, 3 skill points a level as a monk? Wow, you have Int penalties? Monk gets 4 points/level.

Average int, 1 for human, Sacred Fists get 2/level.

And that's all fine unless there's time pressure. (And you've been bending the DimDoor rules if you're bringing 2 fighters, a rogue, and a monk at your level).

With Practiced Caster a 12th level caster can drag along 4 people.

 

[Kilroy]

I can see how that would be frustrating. How much terrain does your DM use? I found that games I run are MUCH more jump (and balance and tumble, etc) friendly when I use preprinted tiles with lots of details than when I just draw the outlines of a room on a battlemap.

What is 'terrain'? Is that like the thin black lines our characters step over when they move somewhere?

 

[frankthedm]

I think that the problem some of you have with jump you only use it to do exceptional leap as I use it for most mundane jump

Yep.

The Jump skill is for mundane jumps and is supposed to be semi-realistic. If a DM wants wire-fu he can adjust the rules for jumping as needed. If a player wants wire fu, then he needs to discuss it with the DM. If a player wants to sneak wire fu into a game, the 3.5 rules put a stop to those shennanigans.

 

[Johnny Angel]

I'd have argued that running against the trees counted as a Wall Jump, as per Dragon #301:

Wall Jump: If you are at least 5 feet away from a wall, you can roll a Tumble check (DC 20) to run up the wall 5 feet and backflip off of it. If you succeed at this check, you may roll a Jump check from the wall as if you had made a running jump. This stunt can help you reach a parapet you can’t quite get to otherwise, or flip right over your opponent’s head.

I have yet to use this in play to bounce back and forth between obstacles, but this rule certainly makes it feasible to Jackie Chan your way up trees, or alleys or even inside corners by making your tumble checks.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Correct, but in useful RAD languages (BASIC is the first thing to come to mind, but there are many, many others), you use = for both since there is no real use using different operators since a compiler can infer what you mean.

No, a compiler can OFTEN infer what you mean. And usually it's not inferring, it's just that there is one and only one way of doing something. With ==, it's possible to do stuff like if(c=malloc(p)==-1) which is not possible in basic.

 

[reanjr]

No, a compiler can OFTEN infer what you mean. And usually it's not inferring, it's just that there is one and only one way of doing something. With ==, it's possible to do stuff like if(c=malloc(p)==-1) which is not possible in basic.

Sure you can:

c = (malloc(p) = -1): if c

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

So I had to make a jump check, admittedly not by much but not something this character usually does. And for a standing vertical leap to boot. Somehow I made the jump check, grabbed onto the dwarf, and then made the concentration check to cast teleport while threatened by the displacer beasts, porting to safety. All in all a fun, tense moment out of what we had expected to be a routine escape to end the session.

I love the drama of the moment but you did it the hard way. Delivering touch spells in odd situations is your familiar's job.

 

[JoeBlank]

Excellent point, Ridley's, and one I had not even considered. I had not really thought of teleport as a touch spell, but more as a personal spell that lets you take others you are touching. Checking the description, it does indicate a range of "personal and touch." I'll keep that in mind.

In my defense, this appeared to be the end of the session, and when we figured the logistics of who would go on which trip I failed to specifically mention that Sully's familiar would return with him for the second trip. The DM managed to hit us with some dramatics when we thought the action was over. To make things worse the familiar, Red, is a fox and has no ranks in jump or climb. He does at least have an 11 Str and a speed of 40', so he would still have had a better chance than the poor gnome.

 

[UltimaGabe]

Well Jump got a little more useful now with the Leap Attack feat.

What is the DC to clear a 10' jump while running ?

It's a DC 10. Not too much difference there, as you don't even need ranks in it to be able to do that.