Jump House Rules

[carrdrivesyou]

So according to the rules, you have to be able to move a certain distance per turn, in order to jump that distance. So if you have strength of 18 and the Jump spell, your long jump is 54 feet with a 10ft running start. This doesn't match up particularly well with current movement rates, leading to chunky movements.

Given this issue, or set of issues, I was curious if it would be gamebreaking to implement the following house rule.

Apply current jump mechanics with the following change: if you are capable of jumping further than your speed allows, you may continue to move through the air, in the same direction you jumped in previously, until you land or collide with an obstruction. This may take several turns, as you are considered as having used your full movement for each round.



The idea is that a high strength character with the Jump spell or Boots of Striding and Springing (possibly both), could theoretically leap impossible distances with magical aid. You still suffer from fall damage as normal, and are limited to a single direction of movement, potentially for several turns.

Using the calculator here https://fexlabs.com/5ejump/ you could get some ludicrous distance on a jump, which kind of fits the idea of the spell or boots.

What do you think Playground?

[Naanomi]

The danger of leaving yourself suspended in the air for several turns seems like a risky tactical maneuver in many situations

[carrdrivesyou]

The danger of leaving yourself suspended in the air for several turns seems like a risky tactical maneuver in many situations

Yea, but I'm not really thinking of this in terms of combat, so much as just being able to do it. I mean, given that ruling, it WOULD be a poor tactical choice.

[Mellack]

If it is for out of combat, couldn't you already do it? Turns are only for when you need specific timing. OoC, if you can jump the distance, you jump it.

[JonBeowulf]

I think it's important to stop the cheese before someone brings it to the table. As others have said, this only matters during combat (when movement speed is a thing) and the method you propose makes it a poor tactical choice -- which is a good thing or you'll have high STR chars or chars with appropriate gear abusing it to cover more ground during their turn than they could with a Dash.

Keep it simple.. regardless how you move, you can only 'move' your speed or 'dash' for 2x speed. If they jump for speed or less, it's a move and they can take an action. If they jump for 2x speed, it's a dash and they don't take an action. If they jump for > 2x speed, it's a dash and they don't take an action and they end their turn above the ground and they continue the movement on their next turn.

edit:
That calculator is fun. A tiger barb w/ Athlete, a pair of fancy magic boots, and a friend with Jump prepared can cover 270 feet with just a 5-foot running start. Reminds me of the protagonist in John Carter.

[Teaguethebean]

I like it a lot honestly, people are mentioning how bad of a tactical decision it is and I think that is perfectly fine. It should be a bad idea to jump 60 feet in an intense fight as you become a pretty clear target. This makes sense thematically and adds just another option to use jumping.

[strangebloke]

I would say that your solution is pretty clunky in combat. Who wants to commit to spending two turns flying through the air in a straight line? What if I get hit by a spell that halves my movement speed while I'm jumping, am I just stuck in the air for many more turns? Does this make an encumbered character with reduced movement somehow move slower through the air? My barbarian is carrying a horse and the high winds make the air 'difficult terrain' so he just kind of... lazily floats forward at 15 feet a turn?

All of these edge cases are very obviously silly.

My ruling is

vertical movement doesn't count unless you're flying
if you want to jump further than your movement, well... you can't
you can do a running long jump if you moved accordingly on your previous turn.
You are allowed to take an action partway through your jump, such as attacking
your speed (and thus your ability to complete the jump) doesn't change until you land.


The 54' movement here would then be impossible without a dash. Which is fine imo, its a weird edge case anyway.

[JonBeowulf]

I like it a lot honestly, people are mentioning how bad of a tactical decision it is and I think that is perfectly fine. It should be a bad idea to jump 60 feet in an intense fight as you become a pretty clear target. This makes sense thematically and adds just another option to use jumping.

I don't think we're saying "don't ever do it" or "there's no situation where this is a good idea", I think we're saying "be sure you understand the potential consequences of what you're about to do".

And if you decide to do it... then be a freakin' hero and go for it!

[Yakmala]

This came up recently in a game due to the ridiculous distance a Beast Totem Barbarian with a Ring of Jumping can cover. The DMs' solution was similar to what you mention, that it can take multiple turns to complete a jump that exceeds your normal ground speed, leaving you hanging in the air and tactically vulnerable.

[Damon_Tor]

I allow hang time in jumping. However, the trajectory of the jump is determined when you begin the jump, and you have an arc with an apex 1/4 the distance of your jump. So if you jump 80 feet horizontally, you also go up 20 feet vertically, and fall damage is applied. Functionally, this means any jump longer than 40 feet will result in you falling prone and taking damage at the end of it unless you're a monk or have some other ability to mitigate fall damage.

You can also jump "wildly", using (1d20+strmod+proficiency(athletics)) instead of strength score to determine your jumping distance, but jumping in this way means you MUST jump that distance. You cannot choose to jump LESS than that distance (and the 1/4 jumping height is applied possibly resulting in falling damage) nor can you abort the jump if you didn't get enough distance to clear the chasm.

Taking an action is possible mid-jump with an acrobatics check. Attacks with light weapons have a DC of 6, attacks with heavy weapons have a DC of 12, all other attacks have a DC of 8. Casting a spell mid-jump has a DC of 8+the level of the spell. If you fail the acrobatics check, the action occurs but without effect, and any resources spent are wasted.

In theory someone optimized for jumping could use this to create a sort of pseudo-flight, where they begin combat with a mighty leap and make ranged attacks from the air as they sail above the heads of their enemies. A player of mine created a kensei archer with the intent to play with this idea, though that campaign stalled out for unrelated reasons, so I can't report on how it really works in practice at this time.

[Segev]

I think this is a pretty common resolution to this occurrence.

[kingcheesepants]

Isn't this exactly what happens when Belkar uses his halfling leap rage attack in that one strip? I can't remember which one at the moment but I remember there being the punchline of his jump exceeding his movement and then he lands the next turn to kill the guy.

[Segev]

Isn't this exactly what happens when Belkar uses his halfling leap rage attack in that one strip? I can't remember which one at the moment but I remember there being the punchline of his jump exceeding his movement and then he lands the next turn to kill the guy.

It is, because those were the rules in 3.5. I forget whether 5e is explicit or not, but if it is, I believe it actually does say you can't jump further than you have movement available to travel. I, personally, would still run it the 3.5 way, because it makes more sense to me.

There's some speculation, based on some things Jeremy Crawford said implying that Otherworldly Leap somehow increased your speed, that an older version of the 5e rules before it got finally published had jumps not count against your movement at all, but that would get insane very quickly.

[Zhorn]

I too go for the 'hang time' ruling. Lock in the direction and intended distance at the start of the jump, remaining distance to cover is locked into consuming your movement from subsequent turns till the jump has ended (vie either completion or obstruction).

Yeah the rules can get a little wonky with how others on the battlemap would be able to interact with them since they are not on the ground, not staying still, moving from their own power, but no longer as a controlled movement, etc etc etc
But at the same time it's also odd to rule you can jump X distance outside of combat, but when in initiative order you are suddenly limited to dumps of a different distance.

Nah, leave it as hang time and don't over think it.

[Segev]

It boosts the power of jumping, but another way you could do it is to let them complete the jump, but reduce their next round movement by the amount they exceeded their remaining move allowance on this turn.

A possible tuning is to require them to take the dash action on the next turn as well as consuming some of their movement. (Thus would make rogues and monks better at jumping for speed, since they could merely use a bonus action for that dash.)

The use of a mandatory dash represents the wind down from a headlong hurl and/or that they dashed to get that extra speed last round.