Jumping as far as you can?

[aza9999]

The rules in the players handbook/srd talk about long jumps in terms of jumping over a chasm etc, what if you want to simply jump as far as you can on flat ground?

From the SRD

Long Jump

A long jump is a horizontal jump, made across a gap like a chasm or stream. At the midpoint of the jump, you attain a vertical height equal to one-quarter of the horizontal distance. The DC for the jump is equal to the distance jumped (in feet).

If your check succeeds, you land on your feet at the far end. If you fail the check by less than 5, you don’t clear the distance, but you can make a DC 15 Reflex save to grab the far edge of the gap. You end your movement grasping the far edge. If that leaves you dangling over a chasm or gap, getting up requires a move action and a DC 15 Climb check.

If you want to jump as far as you can do you have to specify a distance then make the DC, or can you simply say "im jumping as far as i can", make a roll and thats how far you go?

If you have to specify a distance what happens if you fail, do you fall flat on your face? make a balance check not to trip?

The specific use i am looking at is the 'sudden leap' manoeuver from tome of battle which allows you to jump as a swift action. I want to run up to someone, attack them and then as a swift action jump as far away from them as possible (basically a poor-mans spring attack until i can get the proper feat)

[olelia]

I figure if you jump as far as you can then there is no failure rate...if you pick a square and fail...I figure you'd just simply go as far as you actually rolled.

[Sith_Happens]

The specific use i am looking at is the 'sudden leap' manoeuver from tome of battle which allows you to jump as a swift action. I want to run up to someone, attack them and then as a swift action jump as far away from them as possible (basically a poor-mans spring attack until i can get the proper feat)

You have it backwards: Spring Attack is a poor man's Sudden Leap. The latter lets you perform a strike in the same round, the former does not. The former lets you move a total of up to your speed, the latter lets you move your speed plus your jump check. The former takes a total of three feats to get, the latter you already have. The latter has many additional uses beyond letting you move-attack-move, the former does not. I could go on, but I won't.

[aza9999]

I'm not sure why spring attack couldnt be used in conjunction with strikes? It simply allows you to move before and after an attack action which is what a strike is as far as i can see? Unless strikes are a special action and don't qualify as an 'attack action'

From SRD

When using the attack action with a melee weapon, you can move both before and after the attack, provided that your total distance moved is not greater than your speed

Spring attack you can use every single round, whereas sudden leap you have to recover after each use.

[Curious]

I'm not sure why spring attack couldnt be used in conjunction with strikes? It simply allows you to move before and after an attack action which is what a strike is as far as i can see? Unless strikes are a special action and don't qualify as an 'attack action'

From SRD


Spring attack you can use every single round, whereas sudden leap you have to recover after each use.

Strikes are standard actions.

Also, recovering a maneuver is as easy as making another attack, so it is not much of an inconvenience. Plus, it did not cost you three feats to get it.

[aza9999]

For warblade it is just an attack to recover, but swordsage (which i'll be using) requires a full action to 'meditate' to recover a maneuver (or all his maneuvers if he has adaptive style)

Dodge and mobility are pre-req's for other classes i am putting into my build so im not getting them specifically for spring attack alone.

Looking at the SRD rules again im now noticing the specific wording "the attack action" not B]an[/B] attack action so i guess that does rule it out, although i'll be asking my DM if he will houserule that one.

[tyckspoon]

Looking at the SRD rules again im now noticing the specific wording "the attack action" not B]an[/B] attack action so i guess that does rule it out, although i'll be asking my DM if he will houserule that one.

Strikes still aren't 'an attack action'. They're specific actions of their own, usually a Standard, that often include an attack. But that's not the same thing in D&D rules (for the most part, the easiest way to understand the difference is that an attack action or equivalent is anything you could do as part of a full attack sequence- the combat maneuvers [trip/disarm/sunder] are equivalent to attack actions. Special abilities, even ones that let you attack, generally aren't.)

If you want to ask to houserule Spring Attack to allow any Standard action (and remove the melee weapon qualifier while you're at it), that'd do what you want, and it'd help reduce some pointless feat proliferation; a houserule like that would fold Shot On The Run/Mobile Casting/Flyby Attack into Spring Attack.

[aza9999]

another question (didnt want to start a new thread) how far can you jump as part of a swift action? Normally when jumping as part of a move action your jump is limited to your move distance, if you jump further than that it carries on to next round. A swift action 'consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action'

Sudden leap however is an 'extraordinary' ability, with it's duration listed as 'instantaneous'. The text also state you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal and that you cannot move through an occupied square unless you make a the usual tumble check.

So as this is an 'extraordinary' ability would people interperet it as being you move extremely fast and its distance is in addition to a normal movement or would it still be under the constraints of a normal movement?