Battle Jump [D&D 3.5, Feat Rewrite]

[Ziegander]

Battle Jump1
Prerequisites: Jump 5 ranks
Benefit: You may make a charge attack at the end of a jump so long as you moved at least 10ft or more with your jump.

Furthermore, if you attack a creature after jumping down on them, if your jump check was successful, then you avoid all falling damage and add that much damage to your attack. If you are able to make more than one attack after your jump, then you only add this damage to the first successful attack. If the attack was a Trip attempt, then you are treated as one size category larger for the attempt.

Special: A fighter may select Battle Jump as one of his fighter bonus feats.

[bobthe6th]

man... this could be scary. thri-keen for +30 to jump, magic item of +30 to jump, max ranks in jump(23), +10 strength modifier... a 103 on a ten, so 10d6 bonus damage...

[silphael]

I think the base feat was more balanced, in fact... It was a "double damage". Coupled with a whole dragoon build, that brought to something like x11. Bringing it down to only x10, but with an easy +70 to jump, that's a free even bigger damage...

[Ziegander]

man... this could be scary. thri-keen for +30 to jump, magic item of +30 to jump, max ranks in jump(23), +10 strength modifier... a 103 on a ten, so 10d6 bonus damage...

A Jump check of 103, for a high jump with a running start (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/jump.htm), would only get you 25ft off the ground. Which would translate to 2d6 bonus damage.


I think the base feat was more balanced, in fact... It was a "double damage". Coupled with a whole dragoon build, that brought to something like x11. Bringing it down to only x10, but with an easy +70 to jump, that's a free even bigger damage...

Uh... what the heck are you saying? You think that ten to eleven times standard damage, or even merely double damage, rather than adding fall damage to your attack, is more balanced?

The most damage this feat could ever add to an attack is 20d6 (which is terminal velocity in D&D). An average of 70 damage and a maximum of 120. Compare that to ten times the damage of a simple longsword swing from a character with 16 Strength. 1d8+3 (x10) = an average of 75 damage and a maximum of 110.

Or let's compare some more common numbers. Let's say, two 6th level Fighters, both with Power Attack, both with 18 Strength, both using a Greatsword, but one has the normal Battle Jump, while the other uses my version.

Both jump down to attack a foe from 30ft above. Both of them Power Attack using a -4 penalty, taking their attack bonus from +12 down to +8. Both will deal 2d6+14 damage before accounting for Battle Jump. Now, the first uses the normal version of Battle Jump. He deals 4d6+28 damage with his attack (an average of 42, a maximum of 52). He also deals himself 2d6 damage from the fall (avg 7, max 12). The second uses my version of Battle Jump. He deals 5d6+14 damage with his attack (an average of 31.5, a maximum of 44). The second doesn't hurt himself from the jump. Of course, the first could have dealt the same amount of damage had he jumped from 10ft above the target. If the second had only jumped that far he'd have dealt 2d6 less damage with his attack, lowering his damage to an average of 24.5 and a maximum of 32.

[bobthe6th]

um... wow, I forgot how much high jumps were harder then long jumps...

[Chambers]

This seems overly complicated. Why not make it a Style feat and break it down into three separate tactic? That might help clear it up, and you might include a bit that says only one tactic can be used on a single charge.

[silphael]

Uh, sorry, I understand your feat wrong, I understood it like "and add the result of your jump check to your damage"...

But as it is, it's a truly weak feat, needing serious optimization to receive only a +2d6 to damage.