Jumping and tumbling dervish: mid-air attack

[darioun]

Hi!

I have this gorgeous new char, Nilakina Tantarella, a scout6/fighter2/barb1/dervish2 with a nice jump bonus from her speed (28 on jump on lvl11), and I'd like to use this during fights. The dervish can take 10 on jump checks even when distracted (= in fights) with her movement mastery skill, leaving me with 35ft jumping distance on a running start.

On my turn, I wanted to jump over an opponent (conveniently placed behind a 5ft high and wide wall with 5ft jumping distance to clear before the opponent) and mid-air attack said opponent using my dervish dance ability.
The DM ruled that out saying that I need to be on the ground to attack, but I don't really believe there is a rule saying so (or better said, I couldn't find one).

Ideally, I'd like to incorporate my tumbling to avoid AoOs pulling off this maneuver as well, but I could live without that just as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Darioun

[Segev]

Well, your DM house-ruled that you couldn't, otherwise I'd say you could. The rules say nothing about HOW you have to be moving, only that you can attack each person you pass while moving. Jumping and tumbling is perfectly valid.

[darioun]

Yeah, I thought the same! The DM decided quickly for keeping up the pace of the fight and he already said that we can discuss this again. If I had some rules behind me, that might make my case easier...

[Segev]

This really is a case of, "It doesn't say you must be on the ground to attack, so you don't have to be." In fact, there's precedent in the Piercer Cloak from the Magic Item Compendium for being able to "attack from above." I could be misremembering, but it might even grant a +1 higher ground bonus to hit!

[darioun]

This really is a case of, "It doesn't say you must be on the ground to attack, so you don't have to be." In fact, there's precedent in the Piercer Cloak from the Magic Item Compendium for being able to "attack from above." I could be misremembering, but it might even grant a +1 higher ground bonus to hit!

The piercer cloak is for attacking from above, giving extra damage (+1d6) and even more if you charge (+2d6 for a 10ft+ charge), so not quite the same.
But you are right, it makes sense as a precedence, because you charge from the top, for charging you need to get to the closest possible field (still above the enemy), attack, then drop to the ground since you can't just float in the air. More or less the same move. Thanks!