Expanded Thief-Acrobat (PEACH)

[adriankas]

With the popularity of urban freerunning acrobatics (aka "Parkour") on the rise with films like District B13 or Yamakasi, I wanted to try and integrate some of the moves of Parkour and Freerunning into D&D. I wanted to create a new prestige class, until I realized that it was too similar to the already existing Thief-Acrobat. So I decided to expand upon that.

Take the class skills, BAB and Saves progression from:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=3
and then add these additional five levels onto that, with these new special abilities:

Level 6: agile fighting +3/+4, falling roll, crossdive, slow fall 40 ft.
Level 7: vertical wall run, cat vault, defensive roll 3/day
Level 8: agile fighting +4/+5, slow fall 50 ft., horizontal wall run
Level 9: defensive roll 4/day, wall kick
Level 10: agile fighting +5/+6, slow fall 60 ft., windmill

Falling Roll (Ex): As long as there is room in the Thief-acrobat’s landing spot to tumble, they may negate some of the damage from falling, even when there is no wall in reach. The Thief-acrobat must concentrate on his landing as much as possible in the precious amount of time afforded him during his fall, and so may not use this ability in conjunction with slow fall. If there is 10 feet of room in their landing area for the Thief-Acrobat to roll into, they may negate a number of feet in their fall equivalent to half of the height they can slow fall.

Crossdive (Ex): The Thief-acrobat can dive through any opening larger than one fifth of their height in diameter while moving through at his running speed.

Vertical Wall Run (Ex): The Thief-acrobat can run up any vertical surface, provided it has enough friction, and ascend up to three times the height of his vertical jump.

Cat Vault (Ex): The Thief-acrobat can negotiate over any obstacle that is up to half his height while at his running speed.

Horizontal Wall Run (Ex): The Thief-acrobat can run along any vertical surface, provided it has enough friction, and clear up to three times the distance of his horizontal jump.

Wall Kick (Ex): The Thief-acrobat can kick off from a wall while performing a wall jump. The Thief-acrobat can make a jump of his normal distance and height at a direction perpendicular to the wall which he is running on.

Windmill (Ex): As a full attack action, the thief-acrobat may make an unarmed trip attack against all enemies adjacent to him.

comments welcome

[kanachi]

i love the wall running stuff, its a great idea. A few (possibly noob) questions though about how it functions?

1) what squares are you considered to occupy whilst performing a wall run? the squairs agasent to the wall? or none at all?

2) is it possible to wall run past someone if they ocupy the squair adjasent to the wall?

3) can you combine a verticle and horizontal wall run and if you could would it be possible to move up and over a creatures thret range

4) and you combine a wall run with a tumble?

5) can you run up a wall and launch yourself off at a great hight to kick a flying creature that would normally be out of your reach? could you launch yourself into a flying grapple against such a foe?

6) how would this combine with a ninjas climbing ability?

[adriankas]

i love the wall running stuff, its a great idea. A few (possibly noob) questions though about how it functions?

1) what squares are you considered to occupy whilst performing a wall run? the squairs agasent to the wall? or none at all?

Since 3d grids come into play when climbing/jumping/vertical ascension is used, I would imagine that a vertical wall run would put the thief-acrobat in the square directly above them, adjacent to the wall. For a horizontal wall run, he would occupy the square adjacent to the wall, even if there is no ground beneath him.


2) is it possible to wall run past someone if they ocupy the squair adjasent to the wall?

I think the Thief Acrobat would need a jumping start so that they occupy the level above that someone before starting their horizontal wall run, or else they would run into them. And if the jump isn't high enough it would put the TA inside the threat cube of the someone, thus provoking an attack of opportunity. But a horizontal wall run would be equivalent to a long jump, meaning (I think) a move action, so a "wall run attack" could be pulled off, I think, but unless combined with say, Spring Attack, the wall run would terminate next to the someone.


3) can you combine a verticle and horizontal wall run and if you could would it be possible to move up and over a creatures thret range

A vertical and horizontal wall run have very different foot movements, since gravity is pulling at different directions in both cases, and a diagonal wall run would cover too much distance as to make it unbalanced. Not to mention that the mechanics for the arc of the diagonal wall run would be a pain to calculate... so no I don't think that's possible. With a Thief-Acrobat's (likely) insane tumble skill, it shouldn't really be a problem anyway to have to move through threat range.


4) and you combine a wall run with a tumble?

Err... no. I can't imagine someone *rolling* along a wall. But if the movement is incorporated into an attack, I don't think it would provoke an attack of opportunity, so the tumble skill wouldn't be needed anyways.
But I think the wall runs aren't built for combat. They're really much more for negotiating obstacles and getting to places that the thief-acrobat otherwise couldn't reach.



5) can you run up a wall and launch yourself off at a great hight to kick a flying creature that would normally be out of your reach? could you launch yourself into a flying grapple against such a foe?

I don't see why not, but remember, they only get three times their vertical jump distance, so unless the creature is flying pretty low and is also at a perfect spot perpendicular to the wall, I would imagine it'd be pretty difficult.


6) how would this combine with a ninjas climbing ability?
I think they would be seperate abilities. They probably could be used in succession: wall run up to a good ledge to grab hold onto, for example.

[kanachi]

Thanks for your explanations :)

I really like the idea of a wall running style.