Pathfinder Free Running; suggestions and advice needed.

[tommy19]

Hello Everyone,

I have a player in my current pathfinder game that has just started playing Assassin's Creed 2 and has expressed an interest in making his character very agile and very much the free running type. However, his background and their starting city was quite small so he wouldn't have access to these abilities already.

I'm planning to include an NPC at a later time from a larger city who is very adept at the free running/climbing and having the PC take training from him on the subject.

The thing is that I'm really wanting a system for these types of things rather than a batch of successive jump checks. I was considering a feat that gives you a certain small number of "tricks" that you can perform. At later levels you can then invest skill points (this rouge has lots of those) to improve your jumping/climbing/falling abilities.

Any suggestions on what type of benefits these abilities might give? or if there is a system in place like this already that would be a great place for me to begin.

Thanks in advance.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

You could use the chase mechanics - which is on pg 232 of the GameMastery Guide.

It still breaks down into acrobatics and climb checks, but explains how to write parallel paths for a chase.

Also, the rogue talents in the core rules build up a good free runner - take ledge walker, and skill mastery (acrobatics, climb, and whatever else you want too).

To cap that off with something special, you can invent something...

Catch Wall
You are skilled at grabbing handholds after a jump or fall.
Prerequisite:
Climb 4 ranks
Benefit:
You gain a +10 competence bonus to climb checks made to save yourself when falling. See "catching yourself while falling" in the Climb skill entry.
You can use this feat if your jump brings you close enough to a wall while falling - for each 20 feet fallen, you move 1 foot forwards for every 5 feet of the jump you "succeeded".
For example, if you try to jump a 20 feet wide gap, above a 200 feet drop, your acrobatics check must normally beat 20. With this feat, you may attempt to catch yourself while falling if you only get a 15 (as you are within 5 feet 0f the wall). If you only get a check of 10, you travel 10 feet forwards before you start to fall. You fall 100 feet, travelling forwards another 5 feet (100 divided by 20 is 5), bringing you within reach of the wall. You may attempt to catch hold.

Improved Catch Wall
You excel at grabbing handholds in the most difficult situations
Prerequisites:
Climb 8 ranks, Catch Wall
Benefit:
You gain a +20 competence bonus to climb checks made to save yourself when falling. See "catching yourself while falling" in the Climb skill entry.
You can use this feat if your jump brings you close enough to a wall while falling - for each 20 feet fallen, you move 1 foot forwards for every 5 feet of the jump you "succeeded".
For example, if you try to jump a 20 feet wide gap, above a 200 feet drop, your acrobatics check must normally beat 20. With this feat, you may attempt to catch yourself while falling if you only get a 15 (as you are within 5 feet 0f the wall). If you only get a check of 10, you travel 10 feet forwards before you start to fall. You fall 100 feet, travelling forwards another 5 feet (100 divided by 20 is 5), bringing you within reach of the wall. You may attempt to catch hold.

EDIT: added more free running aceness.