So, I know that this is a fairly edge case, but there are some situations where a character’s jump distance exceeds their total movement for a round, such as spells like jump or a very high strength score. In situations like these, how do you rule it? I personally say that the character is midair at the end of their turn and will complete the jump in the start of their next turn, but I have also heard of people ruling that you simply can’t jump that far even if you would otherwise be able to.
I prefer the first ruling because I have always thought of the turns of all creatures in combat as nearly simultaneous, meaning that one turn flows evenly into the next one. This lets the characters jump far without granting extra movement, but it also means that creatures on the ground could hit them mid jump. If such a thing happened, there would probably need to be an acrobatics check to keep from landing prone and not continuing the jump on the character’s next turn because they were knocked out of the air.
I dislike the second ruling myself because I have a hard time visualizing it in a way other than jumping, hitting an invisible wall, then falling to the ground. This strains my suspension of disbelief a little.
anyway, neither way is “the one true way for all the tables” unless WotC states that one of them is. Have fun playing!
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Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
The official answer is that you can't jump that far. You can't leave your character in mid-air for 6 seconds.
In situations like that I defer the jump until the next turn but let them use their current turn's movement as their running start and also credit their leftover movement towards the jump's cost. That keeps the total distance over both turns the same without leaving them in mid-air or letting them exceed their normal movement.
There's a possible third ruling which does not allow a creature to start a jump in their turn if they don't have enough movement to complete it, and this is what I would use.
I hadn’t thought of that. If you normally rule like that, what happens when say a character really min-maxes for jump distance, and ends up with more than their movement speed? Would they only be able to jump their farthest out of combat? (Actually, now that I think about it that way, it seems quite reasonable. After all, who does their best long jumps during a sword fight😂)
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Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
I dislike the second ruling myself because I have a hard time visualizing it in a way other than jumping, hitting an invisible wall, then falling to the ground. This strains my suspension of disbelief a little.
anyway, neither way is “the one true way for all the tables” unless WotC states that one of them is. Have fun playing!
I visualize it as just a shorter jump. If you only have 15 feet of movement left, you jump 15 feet and land normally. You don't hit an invisible wall and drop.
As for WotC stating "the one true way," they have printed this in SAC:
What happens when a jump spell gives a creature a jump distance greater than its walking speed?
Your jump is limited by how far you can move; each foot jumped uses a foot of movement. You can take the Dash action if you want to extend how far you can move on your turn.
For example, if you have a Strength score of 15, you can normally leap 15 feet when you make a long jump if you move at least 10 feet immediately beforehand. If the jump spell is cast on you, that potential jump distance is tripled. That’s a jump of 45 feet! If your speed is 30 feet, you can use only 30 feet of that jump distance on your turn, unless you take the Dash action, which allows you to leap the full 45 feet.
Which makes no mention of an invisible wall, because if you can only jump 20 feet instead of the potential 45, you jump 20 feet.
People making big jumps line them up and prepare to put the effort of their movement into that jump; when you're asked to jump when you're off balance or haven't lined up properly, you don't jump as far. That's all this system is doing, narratively, not asking you to Wile E Coyote your player into an invisible wall. If they go for a big jump with lots of movement available, congrats, they lined up the jump well. If they try to make a big jump while they only have 5 feet of movement left, too bad, they were off balance and only jumped 5 feet.
I dislike the second ruling myself because I have a hard time visualizing it in a way other than jumping, hitting an invisible wall, then falling to the ground. This strains my suspension of disbelief a little.
anyway, neither way is “the one true way for all the tables” unless WotC states that one of them is. Have fun playing!
I visualize it as just a shorter jump. If you only have 15 feet of movement left, you jump 15 feet and land normally. You don't hit an invisible wall and drop.
As for WotC stating "the one true way," they have printed this in SAC:
What happens when a jump spell gives a creature a jump distance greater than its walking speed?
Your jump is limited by how far you can move; each foot jumped uses a foot of movement. You can take the Dash action if you want to extend how far you can move on your turn.
For example, if you have a Strength score of 15, you can normally leap 15 feet when you make a long jump if you move at least 10 feet immediately beforehand. If the jump spell is cast on you, that potential jump distance is tripled. That’s a jump of 45 feet! If your speed is 30 feet, you can use only 30 feet of that jump distance on your turn, unless you take the Dash action, which allows you to leap the full 45 feet.
Which makes no mention of an invisible wall, because if you can only jump 20 feet instead of the potential 45, you jump 20 feet.
Would they fall in the middle of the pit they could have been jumping?
I think I would let them jump as far as they can, but only to the extent that their movement takes them. So if their run speed was 30 and their jump was 50, they can't go farther than 50.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
So you treat Jump distance as another Speed modality?
While that isn't RAW, I do think that that's an excellent houserule. It solves the most abusive parts of the problem of players moving 25 feet and then jumping to go further, while respecting that if a player has features that give them big jumps, you should let them use them. It doesn't even require much tinkering under the hood, just give everyone an implied Jump speed that is calculated based off of Strength and modified by other features, as it is currently, and then follow the regular movement rules for multiple speeds.
I like it. I guess it also would require a little tinkering under the hood, because the order of which speed you use in which order apparently is significant (with a Walk 30/Fly 10 you can Fly 10 and then walk 20, but not the reverse), but... generally, I think I'm stealing this idea!
I dislike the second ruling myself because I have a hard time visualizing it in a way other than jumping, hitting an invisible wall, then falling to the ground. This strains my suspension of disbelief a little.
anyway, neither way is “the one true way for all the tables” unless WotC states that one of them is. Have fun playing!
I visualize it as just a shorter jump. If you only have 15 feet of movement left, you jump 15 feet and land normally. You don't hit an invisible wall and drop.
As for WotC stating "the one true way," they have printed this in SAC:
What happens when a jump spell gives a creature a jump distance greater than its walking speed?
Your jump is limited by how far you can move; each foot jumped uses a foot of movement. You can take the Dash action if you want to extend how far you can move on your turn.
For example, if you have a Strength score of 15, you can normally leap 15 feet when you make a long jump if you move at least 10 feet immediately beforehand. If the jump spell is cast on you, that potential jump distance is tripled. That’s a jump of 45 feet! If your speed is 30 feet, you can use only 30 feet of that jump distance on your turn, unless you take the Dash action, which allows you to leap the full 45 feet.
Which makes no mention of an invisible wall, because if you can only jump 20 feet instead of the potential 45, you jump 20 feet.
Would they fall in the middle of the pit they could have been jumping?
If you jump 10 feet out into a 20 foot gap, yes you fall.
If they dash, they can clear it. A DM can also let them make an athletics check for a little extra distance.
I think I would let them jump as far as they can, but only to the extent that their movement takes them. So if their run speed was 30 and their jump was 50, they can't go farther than 50.
Thanks everyone for the responses. I consider myself more educated now. I especially liked the idea of running out of movement being more like an off balance jump and think that makes a lot of sense.
thanks!
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Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
You subtract the movement from the next turn of course. Why? Because rounds are not like rounds in boxing....everyone doesn't go to their corners and come out again when the bell rings. it is just a sequence of actions that each person is doing during a 6 second clip. Someone running, walking, flying, jumping continue to run, walk, fly, jump during the real life pause. A break down of the action does not mean that all motion stops. If I roll a boulder down a steep hill on my turn towards something a good distance away....The boulder doesn't stop moving because the round/turn is over.. It may take another 1-3 rounds before it reaches its target or misses it, either way the boulder is in motion for the entire time, so is your character and all the NPC's. If the potential to run the distance in 2 or more turns is there, then the character is running that entire 12 + seconds. Same as if they have the potential to jump the distance they will make it.... it just may take another round to land. The camera just cut away to other things that have been happening at the same time and the camera will come back to see them finish the jump.
If your jump lets you jump 50, you can jump 50 ft, period. A walk speed of 30 means you clear 30 in one move, 60 if you dash. It does NOT mean you cannot walk/dash 40 ft and then jump for 50. It just means you need to use up your NEXT move to complete that movement.
Note, to people you are NOT doing your move, action, bonus then sitting around waiting for everyone else to do their turn. That is what we as people are doing while playing the game.
In the game, the characters are moving at the same time and there is no limit at all about only jumping if you have enough move left.
What is going on is not that you are hanging in mid air, (nor are you falling) instead the DM is simply leaving you in a cliff hanger moment, to go deal with the other players.
The reason movement works the way it does is because the game isn't sophisticated enough to have phased movement. That's just the way it is. You start at a point and end at a point. Somewhere before, during, or after that you can do stuff attack, cast spells, whatever. But when your move is done, it's done.
Many monster, magic item, and spells are based around the mechanic of starts turn at X distance or ends turn at X distance. That's just how it is.
Regarding rolling balls, it still starts the turn someplace and ends the turn someplace. I may or may not continue on the following round.
Jumping over a chasm? Better have enough jump to make it to the other side or you're falling into the crack.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
D&D is turn based game, not a realism simulation. You don't subtract the movement from the next turn, only current one.
Someone running, walking, flying, jumping stop at the end of the turn and won't continue to run, walk, fly, jump during the next turn unless they specifically choose to do so.
Turn action & movement mean that all motion stops at the end of a creature's turn and start at the beginning of another only if wishing to move again
If a creature jump all it's movement and is in midair at the end of t's turn, it immediately falls whether it intended to keep moving on it's next turn or not.
As Sage Advice Official Ruling say, "Your jump is limited by how far you can move; each foot jumped uses a foot of movement."
At the end of your jump, if it doesn't end on a surface that can support you... you immediately fall.
1) The end of your jump occurs when you have moved your full jump speed, not at then end of your turn. Your turn is something for us the players, not the characters.
2) Also, do birds fall? They are not supported. Birds are using a movement form that supports you in the air, called flight. Humans are using a movement form that supports you in the air, called jump.
At the end of your jump, if it doesn't end on a surface that can support you... you immediately fall.
1) The end of your jump occurs when you have moved your full jump speed, not at then end of your turn. Your turn is something for us the players, not the characters.
2) Also, do birds fall? They are not supported. Birds are using a movement form that supports you in the air, called flight. Humans are using a movement form that supports you in the air, called jump.
If the bird lacks a fly speed it does indeed fall. That's why being knocked prone while in the air causes them to fall. They temporarily lose their fly speed. Only a creature with Hover avoids that fate, specifically and only because it intentionally carves out this exact exception to normal falling rules.
So yes, a bird whose fly speed is unavailable or becomes 0 does fall.
Also there is no such thing as a "Jump Speed" so anything you're basing on this concept is void.
The RAW does not actually state what happens if you run out of movement mid-jump, nor does the SAC...it only says you cannot jump more than your movement speed on a turn. But if you are running, its not like the rules force you to actually stop at the end of your movement, you just keep moving on your next turn. Otherwise a chase sequence would be a series of stop and go, stop and go, stop and go instead of a seamless chase. So to me it would be perfectly in the realm of RAW to say you could jump more than your movement speed, it would just take multiple turns to do so.
Unless someone can clearly find a rule that explicitly says you fall if you fail to complete a jump on your turn, that is.
The RAW does not actually state what happens if you run out of movement mid-jump, nor does the SAC...it only says you cannot jump more than your movement speed on a turn.
That IS it telling you what happens. If you run out of movement speed your jump is over. Welcome to falling.
Unless someone can clearly find a rule that explicitly says you fall if you fail to complete a jump on your turn, that is.
Yeah, you just did.
You can only jump a distance equal your remaining movement allows. So if you try to jump further than that, and your jump is over now. But you're up in the air.
You better have a fly speed.
Because only one thing happens when people can't fly and find themselves unsupported in midair.
They fall.
Immediately.
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So, I know that this is a fairly edge case, but there are some situations where a character’s jump distance exceeds their total movement for a round, such as spells like jump or a very high strength score. In situations like these, how do you rule it? I personally say that the character is midair at the end of their turn and will complete the jump in the start of their next turn, but I have also heard of people ruling that you simply can’t jump that far even if you would otherwise be able to.
I prefer the first ruling because I have always thought of the turns of all creatures in combat as nearly simultaneous, meaning that one turn flows evenly into the next one. This lets the characters jump far without granting extra movement, but it also means that creatures on the ground could hit them mid jump. If such a thing happened, there would probably need to be an acrobatics check to keep from landing prone and not continuing the jump on the character’s next turn because they were knocked out of the air.
I dislike the second ruling myself because I have a hard time visualizing it in a way other than jumping, hitting an invisible wall, then falling to the ground. This strains my suspension of disbelief a little.
anyway, neither way is “the one true way for all the tables” unless WotC states that one of them is. Have fun playing!
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
The official answer is that you can't jump that far. You can't leave your character in mid-air for 6 seconds.
In situations like that I defer the jump until the next turn but let them use their current turn's movement as their running start and also credit their leftover movement towards the jump's cost. That keeps the total distance over both turns the same without leaving them in mid-air or letting them exceed their normal movement.
I hadn’t thought of that. If you normally rule like that, what happens when say a character really min-maxes for jump distance, and ends up with more than their movement speed? Would they only be able to jump their farthest out of combat? (Actually, now that I think about it that way, it seems quite reasonable. After all, who does their best long jumps during a sword fight😂)
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
I visualize it as just a shorter jump. If you only have 15 feet of movement left, you jump 15 feet and land normally. You don't hit an invisible wall and drop.
As for WotC stating "the one true way," they have printed this in SAC:
Which makes no mention of an invisible wall, because if you can only jump 20 feet instead of the potential 45, you jump 20 feet.
People making big jumps line them up and prepare to put the effort of their movement into that jump; when you're asked to jump when you're off balance or haven't lined up properly, you don't jump as far. That's all this system is doing, narratively, not asking you to Wile E Coyote your player into an invisible wall. If they go for a big jump with lots of movement available, congrats, they lined up the jump well. If they try to make a big jump while they only have 5 feet of movement left, too bad, they were off balance and only jumped 5 feet.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Would they fall in the middle of the pit they could have been jumping?
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
I think I would let them jump as far as they can, but only to the extent that their movement takes them. So if their run speed was 30 and their jump was 50, they can't go farther than 50.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
So you treat Jump distance as another Speed modality?
While that isn't RAW, I do think that that's an excellent houserule. It solves the most abusive parts of the problem of players moving 25 feet and then jumping to go further, while respecting that if a player has features that give them big jumps, you should let them use them. It doesn't even require much tinkering under the hood, just give everyone an implied Jump speed that is calculated based off of Strength and modified by other features, as it is currently, and then follow the regular movement rules for multiple speeds.
I like it. I guess it also would require a little tinkering under the hood, because the order of which speed you use in which order apparently is significant (with a Walk 30/Fly 10 you can Fly 10 and then walk 20, but not the reverse), but... generally, I think I'm stealing this idea!
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
If you jump 10 feet out into a 20 foot gap, yes you fall.
If they dash, they can clear it. A DM can also let them make an athletics check for a little extra distance.
I like this a lot too actually.
Thanks everyone for the responses. I consider myself more educated now. I especially liked the idea of running out of movement being more like an off balance jump and think that makes a lot of sense.
thanks!
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
You subtract the movement from the next turn of course.
Why?
Because rounds are not like rounds in boxing....everyone doesn't go to their corners and come out again when the bell rings.
it is just a sequence of actions that each person is doing during a 6 second clip.
Someone running, walking, flying, jumping continue to run, walk, fly, jump during the real life pause.
A break down of the action does not mean that all motion stops.
If I roll a boulder down a steep hill on my turn towards something a good distance away....The boulder doesn't stop moving because the round/turn is over..
It may take another 1-3 rounds before it reaches its target or misses it, either way the boulder is in motion for the entire time, so is your character and all the NPC's.
If the potential to run the distance in 2 or more turns is there, then the character is running that entire 12 + seconds.
Same as if they have the potential to jump the distance they will make it.... it just may take another round to land.
The camera just cut away to other things that have been happening at the same time and the camera will come back to see them finish the jump.
If your jump lets you jump 50, you can jump 50 ft, period. A walk speed of 30 means you clear 30 in one move, 60 if you dash. It does NOT mean you cannot walk/dash 40 ft and then jump for 50. It just means you need to use up your NEXT move to complete that movement.
Note, to people you are NOT doing your move, action, bonus then sitting around waiting for everyone else to do their turn. That is what we as people are doing while playing the game.
In the game, the characters are moving at the same time and there is no limit at all about only jumping if you have enough move left.
What is going on is not that you are hanging in mid air, (nor are you falling) instead the DM is simply leaving you in a cliff hanger moment, to go deal with the other players.
The reason movement works the way it does is because the game isn't sophisticated enough to have phased movement. That's just the way it is. You start at a point and end at a point. Somewhere before, during, or after that you can do stuff attack, cast spells, whatever. But when your move is done, it's done.
Many monster, magic item, and spells are based around the mechanic of starts turn at X distance or ends turn at X distance. That's just how it is.
Regarding rolling balls, it still starts the turn someplace and ends the turn someplace. I may or may not continue on the following round.
Jumping over a chasm? Better have enough jump to make it to the other side or you're falling into the crack.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
D&D is turn based game, not a realism simulation. You don't subtract the movement from the next turn, only current one.
Someone running, walking, flying, jumping stop at the end of the turn and won't continue to run, walk, fly, jump during the next turn unless they specifically choose to do so.
Turn action & movement mean that all motion stops at the end of a creature's turn and start at the beginning of another only if wishing to move again
If a creature jump all it's movement and is in midair at the end of t's turn, it immediately falls whether it intended to keep moving on it's next turn or not.
As Sage Advice Official Ruling say, "Your jump is limited by how far you can move; each foot jumped uses a foot of movement."
If you're in the air unsupported you fall.
At the end of your jump, if it doesn't end on a surface that can support you... you immediately fall.
I got quotes!
1) The end of your jump occurs when you have moved your full jump speed, not at then end of your turn. Your turn is something for us the players, not the characters.
2) Also, do birds fall? They are not supported. Birds are using a movement form that supports you in the air, called flight. Humans are using a movement form that supports you in the air, called jump.
If the bird lacks a fly speed it does indeed fall. That's why being knocked prone while in the air causes them to fall. They temporarily lose their fly speed. Only a creature with Hover avoids that fate, specifically and only because it intentionally carves out this exact exception to normal falling rules.
So yes, a bird whose fly speed is unavailable or becomes 0 does fall.
Also there is no such thing as a "Jump Speed" so anything you're basing on this concept is void.
I got quotes!
The RAW does not actually state what happens if you run out of movement mid-jump, nor does the SAC...it only says you cannot jump more than your movement speed on a turn. But if you are running, its not like the rules force you to actually stop at the end of your movement, you just keep moving on your next turn. Otherwise a chase sequence would be a series of stop and go, stop and go, stop and go instead of a seamless chase. So to me it would be perfectly in the realm of RAW to say you could jump more than your movement speed, it would just take multiple turns to do so.
Unless someone can clearly find a rule that explicitly says you fall if you fail to complete a jump on your turn, that is.
Where is this stated?
End of a jump and end of a turn are not the same thing. No rule in the jumping section says that jumps end with your turn.
That IS it telling you what happens. If you run out of movement speed your jump is over. Welcome to falling.
Yeah, you just did.
You can only jump a distance equal your remaining movement allows. So if you try to jump further than that, and your jump is over now. But you're up in the air.
You better have a fly speed.
Because only one thing happens when people can't fly and find themselves unsupported in midair.
They fall.
Immediately.
I got quotes!