Niche D20Associated Ability Modifier: Strength
Your athletic ability allows you to more easily swim, jump, or even climb.
Common Uses
The Athletics skill has four distinct uses:
- Climb ropes, ladders, or even walls.
- Swim in calm and stormy waters.
- Jumping vertically or horizontally.
Climbing
A successful Athletics check to climb allows a creature to advance in any direction on a slope, wall, or other steep incline, even a ceiling. A creature without a climb speed must move at one-quarter their normal speed. A Athletics check that fails by less than one degree results in no progress but does not fall, while a failure by one degree or more causes the creature to fall. The DC of a Athletics check to climb varies based on conditions as well as the type of surface that is attempting to be climbed upon. A creature may choose to accept a -5 penalty to their climb check to instead climb at half their normal speed.
A character usually needs both hands to climb, though some creatures may have additional limbs to assist with climbing. A character may cling to a wall with one hand to perform some other actions with one hand (such as casting a spell or making an attack with a one-handed weapon). A creature that is climbing cannot use a shield and is Flat-Footed while climbing.
Climbing is made as part of movement, usually a move action, though can be made as part of any type of action that involves movement.
| DC | Examples Of Surfaces or Conditions |
|---|---|
| -10 | A location you can brace against two opposite walls. |
| -5 | A corner location where you can brace against two perpendicular corner walls. |
| +2 | Surface is slippery (such as by being wet) |
| +5 | Surface is very slippery (such as being icy) |
| 0 | A slope (45°-60° angle), or a knotted rope with a wall to brace against. |
| 5 | A rope with a wall to brace against, or a knotted rope. |
| 10 | A surface with ledges that can be held or stood on, such as an extremely rough wall or a ship’s rigging. |
| 15 | A surface with handholds or footholds but not always both, such as a rope, a tree, or a rough rock surface. |
| 20 | A surface with some narrow handholds or footholds, but not enough to stand on; usually a wall in a dungeon, or a buildings upper-story wall |
| 25 | A surface with nearly no handholds or footholds but just enough to be able to grab onto something, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall. |
| 30 | An overhang or ceiling with handholds, or a typical city wall |
| — | A smooth, flat, or vertical surface without any potential handholds or footholds cannot be climbed without special tools, abilities or magic. |
Climbing Tools
You can make your own handholds or footholds by using pitons and pounding them into the wall or surface. This process usually takes 1 minute per piton, with one needed per 5 feet of distance traveled. Some other equipment may also be useful in climbing on different types of surfaces.
Catching A Ledge While Falling
It is usually impossible to catch yourself on a wall while falling. While on a wall the DC becomes the wall’s climb DC + 20. If falling off a ledge, you may instead make a Physical save, DC 15, to avoid falling and immediately catch yourself; failing this you may then attempt to climb with the previously mentioned DC to avoid the fall.
When falling a great distance you make a single climb check for the entire fall, and may apply that check against any valid surface on the way down, thus should a section be easier to climb than then rest you simply apply your check against that portion of the fall rather than rerolling for each type of wall you’ve fallen past.
Catch Another While Climbing
If a creature above you or adjacent to you fails, you may attempt to catch the falling character if they are within your reach. You must make a melee touch attack against the falling character (though they are considered flat footed against this touch attack). A successful hit allows you to make a Climb check at the current wall’s climb DC +10. If successful you catch the creature, but the caught character cannot exceed your heavy load. Failure by less than one degree fails to catch the creature but you do not lose your grip on the wall, failure by 5 or more causes you to also begin to fall.
If you are the one falling, you may attempt to grab onto another creature, this also requires a melee touch attack, though the creature in question can willingly be denied their dexterity against this attack if they are not already flat-footed. If you succeed you grab onto the creature and the creature must make a climb DC as if they had caught you to determine if they can hold on or fall.
Climb Speed
A creature with a climb speed gains a +8 racial bonus to all Athletics checks made to climb. The creature must still make an Athletics check to climb but may choose to take a 10 in any situation. Such creatures are also not considered flat-footed while climbing.
Swimming
You must make a Athletics check to swim once per round while in water to not only move but stay afloat. Success allows you to swim up to half your speed as a 4 AP action, or a quarter of your speed as for 2 AP. Failure by less than one degree does not allow you to move but you do not sink. Failing by one degree or more causes your head to be below the surface of the water, and subsequent failures can cause you to sink by an additional 5 feet.
While underwater you must hold your breath if you lack a way to breath underwater (see suffocation under environment rules).
The DC to swim is dependent upon the conditions of the water with calm water being a DC 10 and increasing in difficulty the more severe the condition.
| Water | Swim DC |
|---|---|
| Calm water | 10 |
| Rough water | 15 |
| Stormy water | 20 |
Each hour that you are swimming, you must make a DC 20 Tenacity check or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage from fatigue.
Swim Speed
A creature with a swim speed gains a +8 racial bonus to all Athletics checks made to swim. The creature must still make an Athletics check to swim but may choose to take a 10 in any situation. Such creatures can move as normal using their swim speed, and may make a run or charge action while swimming.
Jumping
You can use Athletics to jump. The DC to make a jump is equal to the distance to be crossed horizontally (in feet), or four times the height jumped (in feet). The DC is doubled if you do not have a running start (at least 10 feet of space to get a running start). Athletics modifiers only apply from the surface being jumped from.
Failing the check by 4 or less allows for a DC 15 reflex save to grab hold of the other side despite having missed the jump, requiring a climb check to climb up the surface. Failing by 5 or more causes you to fall.
You cannot jump beyond twice your land speed. When performing the run action this is multiplied to three times your land speed.
Vertical Jump
A vertical jump is more difficult than a long jump. When reaching for something above yourself a creature’s vertical reach is roughly 30% higher than their height (assuming human proportions).
The following table can assist with roughly estimating the vertical reach of a creature when performing a vertical jump.
| Creature Size | Vertical Reach |
|---|---|
| Colossal | 128 ft. |
| Gargantuan | 64 ft. |
| Huge | 32 ft. |
| Large | 16 ft. |
| Medium | 8 ft. |
| Small | 4 ft. |
| Tiny | 2 ft. |
| Diminutive | 1 ft. |
| Fine | ½ ft. |
Performing a high jump is four times the distance jumped, so 1 foot of height is a DC 4, increasing by an additional 4 for each foot. When a medium creature performs a high jump one could usually assume a 2 foot jump (DC8) is needed to reach a ledge 10 feet from the ground. Grabbing a ledge still requires a Athletics check to climb to successfully climb up the surface.
Hop Up
Jumping onto an object as tall as your waist, such as a table, rock, or other such surface is a DC 10 athletics (jump) check. This counts as 10 feet of movement, and does not require a running start. This is generally treated as both jumping and climbing onto the surface as one action rather than the normal action made to do a high jump.
Additional Jump DC Modifiers
- If a creature has a land speed above 30 they receive a +4 bonus to Athletics checks to make a long jump for every 10 feet of their speed above 30, while creatures with a speed below 30 receive a -4 penalty on Athletics checks made to jump.
- This bonus applies when an ability grants a bonus to your speed while performing a specific action, such as charging, giving you a bonus to jumps made while performing that action.
- When you move at least 20 feet before attempting a running jump you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on the Athletics check to make a long jump; using the run action increases this bonus to +4.
- If making both a vertical and horizontal jump you roll against the DC for each separately, but due to the effort required to combine both jumps you take a -2 penalty to both checks.