Ways to Jump Good?

[Greywander]

What are some ways to leap tall buildings in a single bound, short of actual flight? I know there's the Jump spell, but it only lasts for 1 minute. You can get it at-will on a warlock, but not until 9th level. There's Remarkable Athlete, but it requires 7 levels in Champion fighter. Eagle barbarians have their limited flight, but not until 14th level. Spiderclimb and various teleportation effects also exist, but the former doesn't help with crossing a gap and the latter usually requires higher level spells to get decent range.

Basically, if I had a character concept where the character needed to be able to jump like an anime character, what options would I have that require minimal investment? Otherworldly Leap would be fine if I was planning to be a warlock anyway, but if I wasn't then a 9 level dip is way too much. Maybe a racial trait?

[Asmerv]

Maybe Boots of Striding and Springing can help?

[Zuras]

The best way to jump ridiculous distances is to be a Grung. They have an ability called Standing Leap which lets you jump up to 25 feet without a running start. Cast Jump on yourself and you’ve got serious hops.

[Zhorn]

agreed on grung as your starting race for the immediate jumping ability.
2 levels into Monk x2 modifier with Step of the wind.
6 Levels into Beast Barbarian for adding Athletics check totals to your jump distances.
Use 4th level ASI in Barbarian on Skilled Expert to get Expertise on Athletics.
also worth noting at this stage your base movement has a +20 ft increase (+10 from Monk, +10 from Barbarian)

Augment with magic items
Boots of Striding and Springing for a x3 modifier (though it limited to available movement)
Ring of Jumping for a x3 modifier

would take a couple of turns to set up, but expect to be jumping between 90 to 150 ft in combat, more with further investment.

[Christew]

The best way to jump ridiculous distances is to be a Grung. They have an ability called Standing Leap which lets you jump up to 25 feet without a running start. Cast Jump on yourself and you’ve got serious hops.

I believe high jump is only 15ft, but yeah -- if you want mad ups at low levels, this is the path. Alternatively Satyr let's you add a d8 to jump distance/height.

[Zhorn]

I believe high jump is only 15ft, but yeah -- if you want mad ups at low levels, this is the path. Alternatively Satyr let's you add a d8 to jump distance/height.

There's also the new Harengon giving 5 x Proficiency as a jump distance, but it does chew up your bonus action, locking it out from the Step of the Wind multiplier.

[Hytheter]

Seek out a Ring of Jumping.

[Unoriginal]

The Harengon has the jump good, too.

[Kane0]

- Champion Fighter (7+)
- Beast barbarian (6+)
- Monk (2+)
- Thief rogue (3+)
- Glory Paladin (3+)
- Grung, Satyr or Rabitfolk race but theres more options below
- Athlete feat
- Athletics proficiency/expertise (class or feat)
- Jump Spell
- Ring of Jumping
- Boots of srriding and springing

There would be a point where your jump distance becomes limited your movement so you might want to invest in Haste, Longstrider, Mobile feat, maybe Taxabi or Wood Elf race and more bonus action dashing like expeditious retreat or 2 levels in Rogue. Hell even Orc come to think of it.
A ring of spell storing loaded up with these spells would be very helpful since theyre mostly lower level and the mage of the party wont be able to or wont want to concentrate on them for you.

[Cheesegear]

What are some ways to leap tall buildings in a single bound, short of actual flight?

Tabaxi for the movement. Failing that, Wood Elf, I guess.

Barbarian 6 (Path of the Beast; Tasha's). When you Jump, extend the length by a number of feet equal to an Athletics check (potentially +25< ft.). Rage will also give you advantage on Strength checks. Extra movement is also important.
Rogue 3 (Thief); Expertise (Athletics). Add a number of ft. to your running Jump equal to your Dex.
Paladin 3 (Oath of Glory; Tasha's). Channel Divinity. Increase Jump by 10 ft.
Monk 4. Dash as a Bonus Action is big deal, and your jump is doubled. Equally as important, as high as you're jumping, you need Slow Fall to be able to come back down.

Level 16, for 4 levels of wiggle room, or to add something I've missed.

The main problem with Jumping is that it still costs movement. Which means that you need several levels in Monk and/or Barbarian to make it worth it. If not Tabaxi. At the very least, Wood Elf for the +Dex and +Wis which you'll need for the entire build.

There's Remarkable Athlete, but it requires 7 levels in Champion fighter.

Remarkable Athlete only adds to your long jump. It doesn't do what you want.

[Kane0]

Rogue 3 (Thief); Expertise (Athletics). Add a number of ft. to your running Jump equal to your Dex.

Could you use a pole vault with thief rogue bonus action use an item?

[Cheesegear]

Could you use a pole vault with thief rogue bonus action use an item?

I'm sure you probably could.
But wouldn't you be using your Monk Bonus Action to Dash and double-jump?

[Kane0]

I'm sure you probably could.
But wouldn't you be using your Monk Bonus Action to Dash and double-jump?

Oh yeah certainly, especially since there are no rules regarding polevaults anyways. Just a funny thought

[Garfunion]

Storm sorcerer can fly 10ft as a bonus action after casting a 1st+ spell

[da newt]

This doesn't match your question/purpose but:

I find most of the time spider climb is more useful and easier to get than massive hops. Dhampir, slippers of, spell, etc then all you need to do is boost your movement speed and you can get most anywhere (and stay on a wall/ceiling too).

I'd assume there are some wildshape / polymorph options out there that would increase your jump too.

[Dork_Forge]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet so:

Be a Str based Githyanki Psi Warrior, take the Mobile feat at your convenience.

Githyanki gets a racial casting of Jump

Psi Warrior gets an on their turn fly speed of 2x their walking speed at 7th level, if you pick up Mobile then you're looking at being able to 'jump' 240ft in a single turn if you really want that investment.

[strangebloke]

I'll just point at the acrobat from MM's happy fun hour back in the day, as I was pretty fond of it.

Starting at 3rd level, you gain the ability to move with incredible speed, precision, and power. Few obstacles can prevent you from reaching your destination.

When you move, you can instead take two short movements by flying. Each movement is at half your speed, and you must end each one on a creature, solid object, or ground. If you do not, you fall and your movement ends.

It's not the flashiest option here but it is pretty low level and because its based on your movement you can enhance it a lot. Tabaxi Dash, mobile feat, two monk levels for the movement.... You can get 2 50' jumps every turn, and 2 100' jumps whenever you use the Tabaxi speed bonus.

Obviously nobody uses the MMHFH subclasses but I quite like them.

[Segev]

Seek out a Ring of Jumping.

Maybe Boots of Striding and Springing can help?

Seconding the Ring of Jumping as the best "low-investment" choice: it's an uncommon item, so relatively cheap for a magic item, and though it costs attunement, it lets you cast jump at will for a bonus action.

The Boots of Striding and Springing are another good second investment if you really, really want to jump high (less so for far): they also require attunement, so this is getting hefty on that resource, but they triple your jumping distance all the time, and don't reference the jump spell, so between the ring and the boots you'd have x6 to your jumping distance. Just be aware that the boots explicitly won't let you exceed your remaining movement with your jumps, while the jump spell has no such restriction, so don't use the boots' extra jump distance if you've got less movement than jump distance left. (Your DM will have to rule on how jumping further than your movement works in his game.) But for high jumping, which has a much lower base distance, the x6 probably will let you jump your full movement speed straight up!

[Zhorn]

Just be aware that the boots explicitly won't let you exceed your remaining movement with your jumps

I've always been puzzled on the 'why' of such a restriction when other jump increases do not.
Was it just a case of this item being designed early on in 5e development and they were wanting to emphasize jumping in combat shouldn't let to exceed the movement limit, or were there other reasons?

In any case I tend to ignore that in the games I DM. Still limited by your movement in the distance you can cover in a turn, but if someone can jump beyond their remaining movement, I'll let them have their crazy long jump, just completed over multiple turns. Usually I place a dice at the intended end location to lock in the trajectory and at the start of their next turn there's the remaining movement being completed before anything else.
Outside of combat it's just point A to point B.

[Christew]

I've always been puzzled on the 'why' of such a restriction when other jump increases do not.
Was it just a case of this item being designed early on in 5e development and they were wanting to emphasize jumping in combat shouldn't let to exceed the movement limit, or were there other reasons?

In any case I tend to ignore that in the games I DM. Still limited my your movement in the distance you can cover in a turn, but if someone can jump beyond their remaining movement, I'll let them have their crazy long jump, just completed over multiple turns. Usually I place a dice at the intended end location to lock in the trajectory and at the start of their next turn there's the remaining movement being completed before anything else.
Outside of combat it's just point a to point b.

RAW, I don't think you can ever exceed your remaining movement speed via jumping. Both long jump and high jump in the movement rules include the caveat: "Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of Movement." So no matter what effects/items are modifying the way you calculate your jump, the jump is subject to that base rule unless otherwise noted.

I think some item designers just include this point for emphasis while others assume it is known.

[Segev]

RAW, I don't think you can ever exceed your remaining movement speed via jumping. Both long jump and high jump in the movement rules include the caveat: "Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of Movement." So no matter what effects/items are modifying the way you calculate your jump, the jump is subject to that base rule unless otherwise noted.

I think some item designers just include this point for emphasis while others assume it is known.

The difference is that, with the boots, you're limited on your maximum jumping distance by your movement speed.

With the rule you cite, you can still jump 1000 feet if you somehow have a 1000 strength score, it just would consume 60 feet (if you dashed) of movement every round for 20ish rounds.

[Naanomi]

Warlock invocation (which can be grabbed by a feat) grants unlimited Jump spell

[Segev]

Warlock invocation (which can be grabbed by a feat) grants unlimited Jump spell

Can't be grabbed by the feat. Not only does the feat have the prerequisite of "spellcaster feature" that I often forget is part of it, but it also has a(n insane) prerequisite of "9th level," which means it's ineligible for the feat if you're not a warlock and you couldn't meet the prerequisite without 9 levels in warlock, anyway.

[Naanomi]

Can't be grabbed by the feat. Not only does the feat have the prerequisite of "spellcaster feature" that I often forget is part of it, but it also has a(n insane) prerequisite of "9th level," which means it's ineligible for the feat if you're not a warlock and you couldn't meet the prerequisite without 9 levels in warlock, anyway.

Sorry, shows me to post reflexively without checking

[Christew]

The difference is that, with the boots, you're limited on your maximum jumping distance by your movement speed.

With the rule you cite, you can still jump 1000 feet if you somehow have a 1000 strength score, it just would consume 60 feet (if you dashed) of movement every round for 20ish rounds.

I suppose that is not a strictly precluded interpretation, but I'd say allowing multi-round jumps seems to add unnecessary complexity and open avenues for abuse.

How you value Crawford's interpretations is up to you, but: "Every foot jumped costs movement, so you can jump farther than your current speed if you take the Dash action."

Either way, kind of an edge distinction since the general max STR of 20 and average move speed of 30 align to a general long jump max of 60.

[Segev]

I suppose that is not a strictly precluded interpretation, but I'd say allowing multi-round jumps seems to add unnecessary complexity and open avenues for abuse.

How you value Crawford's interpretations is up to you, but: "Every foot jumped costs movement, so you can jump farther than your current speed if you take the Dash action."

Either way, kind of an edge distinction since the general max STR of 20 and average move speed of 30 align to a general long jump max of 60.

But the jump spell and the monk's Step of the Wind both extend that. The monk, admittedly, has more movement speed, too, but not sextuple. Even with dashing twice in a round. Also, the idea that you only jump at the start of your movement is silly, especially since you need a 10 foot running start to get full jumping distance.

Outside of combat, there's not even a reason to question what happens when you jump further than your movement speed, because there's no need to track rounds. You just make the jump. Why would being in combat suddenly truncate your jumping distance? If you treat jumping further than your remaining movement the same way you'd treat any statement of, "I run over there," that is beyond the normal limits of movement - i.e., they get as far as they can on their turn and then move more on their next one - it works just fine.






Aside self-correction: The boots and the ring together give you x9, not x6. It's Step of the Wind with the ring that gives you x6.

[Christew]

But the jump spell and the monk's Step of the Wind both extend that. The monk, admittedly, has more movement speed, too, but not sextuple. Even with dashing twice in a round. Also, the idea that you only jump at the start of your movement is silly, especially since you need a 10 foot running start to get full jumping distance.

They both modify your jump distance calculation. Whatever value that gives you is still subject to your movement speed. I'm not saying you can only jump at the start of your round, I'm saying jumping is one of many ways to use your movement speed which is a limited resource in a given round. I don't ask for realism from rules abstractions -- I think it comes out weird from that perspective either way so I default to the simpler understanding.

Why would being in combat suddenly truncate your jumping distance? If you treat jumping further than your remaining movement the same way you'd treat any statement of, "I run over there," that is beyond the normal limits of movement - i.e., they get as far as they can on their turn and then move more on their next one - it works just fine.

Because being in combat modifies the passage of time and the relative agency of the actors involved. To use your example, you don't just automatically run to your initially stated destination on your second turn, you have your position at the start of your second turn and then decide what to do (continue to run or do something completely different based on what has happened on other's turns). It is an imperfect abstraction that doesn't really hold up to questions like "why" beyond "because we thought it was relatively balanced in terms of what we were trying to accomplish with the rules here."

[Segev]

They both modify your jump distance calculation. Whatever value that gives you is still subject to your movement speed. I'm not saying you can only jump at the start of your round, I'm saying jumping is one of many ways to use your movement speed which is a limited resource in a given round. I don't ask for realism from rules abstractions -- I think it comes out weird from that perspective either way so I default to the simpler understanding.

Because being in combat modifies the passage of time and the relative agency of the actors involved. To use your example, you don't just automatically run to your initially stated destination on your second turn, you have your position at the start of your second turn and then decide what to do (continue to run or do something completely different based on what has happened on other's turns). It is an imperfect abstraction that doesn't really hold up to questions like "why" beyond "because we thought it was relatively balanced in terms of what we were trying to accomplish with the rules here."

That's the thing, though. While jumping consumes movement, nothing in the jumping rules says you have to land at the end of your movement. All it says is that you can't jump and cover distance without expending movement.

[Christew]

That's the thing, though. While jumping consumes movement, nothing in the jumping rules says you have to land at the end of your movement. All it says is that you can't jump and cover distance without expending movement.

Yup. That's why I said:

I suppose that is not a strictly precluded interpretation

I think that system logic, the common relevant values, and the designer interpretation all heavily imply that you do have to land at the end of your turn. I also think the alternative interpretation causes more problems than it solves. You are more than welcome to interpret otherwise at your table.

[Segev]

Yup. That's why I said:

I think that system logic, the common relevant values, and the designer interpretation all heavily imply that you do have to land at the end of your turn. I also think the alternative interpretation causes more problems than it solves. You are more than welcome to interpret otherwise at your table.

I think the notion that turns exist outside of combat is a bit strange and invites problems. Do you assert they do and that actions and movement should be limited by the turn-based action economy when not in combat? If not, do you then forbid, or not forbid, a character in a belt of giant strength (score set to 25) with a ring of jumping from leaping across a 70 foot gap, since he can't dash to move more than 60 feet in a round even though his jump distance is 75 feet? Consider this outside of combat. He's just come across this 70-foot wide river and wants to leap across it.