Skills/Acrobatics

Acrobatics is the representation of your capability in traversing surfaces, be it narrow or treacherous. Acrobatics also may allow you to deftly dodge past your foes. An Acrobatics check is usually made as part of another action or as a reaction to a situation.

The following table details modified that may be applied to Acrobatic skill checks. These modifiers may stack with one another, but only the most severe modifier for a type of condition (such as a severely unsteady being taken over mildly unsteady).

Common Uses
The Acrobatics skill has four distinct uses:


 * 1) Cross Narrow Surfaces/Unstable Ground
 * 2) Move Through Threatened Squares
 * 3) Jumping
 * 4) Falling

Cross Narrow Surfaces/Unstable Ground
You may use Acrobatics to move on a narrow surface or unstable ground without falling. A successful acrobatics check allows you to move up to half speed across the surface with only one check needed per round. When using acrobatics this way, you become flat-footed. If you take damage while using Acrobatics, you must make an additional Acrobatics check at the same DC to avoid being knocked prone, or falling from the surface. Use the following table to determine the DC, which is then further modified by the Acrobatics skill modifier table. No Acrobatics check is needed unless the modifiers increase the DC to 10 or higher. Cross Narrow Surface DC Modifiers


 * Counterbalance: Using a balancing pole, or a weapon with the counterbalance property while traversing a narrow surface grants a +1 circumstance bonus to the Acrobatics check.

Moving Through Threatened Squares
You can move through a threatened square without provoking an attack of opportunity by making an Acrobatics check. You may move up to half your speed, or at full speed by increasing the DC 10. You may use this ability while prone, but requires a full-round action to move 5 feet, increasing the DC by 5. This DC is used to avoid an attack of opportunity due to movement. This penalty increases by +2 for each additional opponent avoided in one round. The DC of this ability is equal to the CMB check of the foe you are attempting to pass through.

You may also use this ability to pass directly through an opponent’s square but doing so increases the DC by an additional 5.

Failing this acrobatics check provokes an attack of opportunity as normal and your movement immediately ends.

Jumping
You can use Acrobatics to jump or soften an intentional fall. The DC to make a jump is equal to the distance to be crossed horizontally (in feet), or four times the height jumped (in feet). The DC is doubled if you do not have a running start (at least 10 feet of space to get a running start). Acrobatics modifiers only apply from the surface being jumped from.

Failing the check by 4 or less allows for a DC 15 reflex save to grab hold of the other side despite having missed the jump, requiring a climb check to climb up the surface. Failing by 5 or more causes you to fall.

You cannot jump beyond your maximum movement for the round (usually 2x your land speed).

Vertical Jump
A vertical jump is more difficult than a long jump. When reaching for something above yourself a creature’s vertical reach is roughly 30% higher than their height (assuming human proportions).

The following table can assist with roughly estimating the vertical reach of a creature when performing a vertical jump. Performing a high jump is four times the distance jumped, so 1 foot of height is a DC 4, increasing by an additional 4 for each foot. When a medium creature performs a high jump one could usually assume a 2 foot jump (DC8) is needed to reach a ledge 10 feet from the ground. Grabbing a ledge still requires a climb check to successfully climb up the surface.

Additional Jump DC Modifiers

 * If a creature has a land speed above 30 they receive a +4 bonus to acrobatics checks to make a long jump for every 10 feet of their speed above 30, while creatures with a speed below 30 receive a -4 penalty on acrobatics checks made to jump. You cannot jump beyond your maximum movement for the round (usually 2x your land speed)
 * When making a double move, withdraw, charge, or other move as a full-round action to attempt a running jump you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on the acrobatics check to make a long jump; using the run action increases this bonus to +4.
 * If making both a vertical and horizontal jump you roll against the DC for each separately, but due to the effort required to combine both jumps you take a -2 penalty to both checks.

Falling
Falling either deliberately or as part of a missed jump, you may make a DC 15 Acrobatics check to ignore the first 10 feet; taking damage from a fall still causes you to fall prone.

Hop Up
Jumping onto an object as tall as your waist, such as a table, rock, or other such surface is a DC 10 acrobatics (jump) check. This counts as 10 feet of movement, and does not require a running start. This is generally treated as both jumping and climbing onto the surface as one action rather than the normal action made to do a high jump.