So I was trying to build a "Spider-Man" type character, so I used Simic Hybrid because it allows you to choose different animal enhancements as part of your racial abilities.
I chose "Nimble Climber - You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed". I also chose to do a Wizard to get the various movement spells so I could flavor as web (and the Web Spell of course). This suggests that I have a walking speed of 30ft and a climbing speed of 30ft.
When I got to level four to choose my ASI, I picked the "Athlete" Feat, which includes a section that says "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement."
So does that mean that I now have a climbing speed (From the "Nimble Climber") that does not cost me movement speed to use (From the "Athlete" Feat)
I am not sure how else I would interpret this. Any help? (Still learning so be gentle...lol)
Not bad, but that's not quite what it means. Would be fun if it did though, infinite crawling. From the rules on climbing we get,
Each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain) when you’re climbing, swimming, or crawling. You ignore this extra cost if you have a climbing speed and use it to climb or a swimming speed and use it to swim.
So the extra cost is associated with you climbing without a climb speed. As you already has a climb speed, that part of the Athlete feat doesn't actually do anything for you.
Ok, so let's say I have the first part ( Nimble Climber) for levels 1-3. So I move 30 ft to the wall of the dungeon I am in. The ability says "equal" so I have another 30 ft of climbing up the wall and on the ceiling, correct? Or is it saying normally your climbing cost would cost more than normal movement and not it is just the same number (ie you can move 15 ft to a wall than ft 15 up the wall, instead of it costing more)?
If it is the second one, wouldn't that mean that these are the same thing and makes no sense to take them together?
Because the rule says "While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed."
If not, then what is the difference between these two sentences in terms of actual play?
"You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed" and "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement"
Ok, so let's say I have the first part ( Nimble Climber) for levels 1-3. So I move 30 ft to the wall of the dungeon I am in. The ability says "equal" so I have another 30 ft of climbing up the wall and on the ceiling, correct? Or is it saying normally your climbing cost would cost more than normal movement and not it is just the same number (ie you can move 15 ft to a wall than ft 15 up the wall, instead of it costing more)?
If it is the second one, wouldn't that mean that these are the same thing and makes no sense to take them together?
Because the rule says "While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed."
If not, then what is the difference between these two sentences in terms of actual play?
"You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed" and "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement"
It means that if you have a walking speed of 30 ft, you now have a climbing feet of 30 ft. as well and when moving there's no extra cost for each feet moved cost 1 foot.
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed, which can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move.
As for the difference between "You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed" and "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement" is not much.
It is mostly a semantic difference and the former means that you have an explicit climb speed, and the later means you can use your walking speed to climb without paying the extra movement cost doing so normally incurs.
For climbing a DM might take this distinction into account when deciding to call for an Athletics check or determining the DC. But this would be purely DM fiat as there are no rules that treat a creature climbing with a climb speed differently from a creature climbing with their walking speed.
Similarly, you can use your walking speed to swim and there are features that either give you an explicit swim speed or negate the extra cost of using your walking speed to swim. With swimming though there are rules that treat these two scenarios differently, specifically the underwater combat rules: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#UnderwaterCombat
The thing is these two abilities don't both help you.
Once you have a full on climb speed you're not using the same type of climbing rules as someone without a climb speed. And those are what the Athlete feat is modifying.
The Athlete feat gives you a budget-version of vlimb speed, basically. But you already have the real thing from your race.
I'd skip the Athlete feat for you. It isn't going to help much at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
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So I was trying to build a "Spider-Man" type character, so I used Simic Hybrid because it allows you to choose different animal enhancements as part of your racial abilities.
I chose "Nimble Climber - You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed". I also chose to do a Wizard to get the various movement spells so I could flavor as web (and the Web Spell of course). This suggests that I have a walking speed of 30ft and a climbing speed of 30ft.
When I got to level four to choose my ASI, I picked the "Athlete" Feat, which includes a section that says "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement."
So does that mean that I now have a climbing speed (From the "Nimble Climber") that does not cost me movement speed to use (From the "Athlete" Feat)
I am not sure how else I would interpret this. Any help? (Still learning so be gentle...lol)
Not bad, but that's not quite what it means. Would be fun if it did though, infinite crawling. From the rules on climbing we get,
So the extra cost is associated with you climbing without a climb speed. As you already has a climb speed, that part of the Athlete feat doesn't actually do anything for you.
As ShinobiIceSlayer say, moving still cost you movement, but climbing cost no extra movement when moving this way.
Ok, so let's say I have the first part ( Nimble Climber) for levels 1-3. So I move 30 ft to the wall of the dungeon I am in. The ability says "equal" so I have another 30 ft of climbing up the wall and on the ceiling, correct? Or is it saying normally your climbing cost would cost more than normal movement and not it is just the same number (ie you can move 15 ft to a wall than ft 15 up the wall, instead of it costing more)?
If it is the second one, wouldn't that mean that these are the same thing and makes no sense to take them together?
Because the rule says "While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed."
If not, then what is the difference between these two sentences in terms of actual play?
"You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed" and "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement"
When you move the amount you move is deducted from all of your available speeds. See the Using Different Speeds section of the Basic Rules/PHB: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#UsingDifferentSpeeds
It means that if you have a walking speed of 30 ft, you now have a climbing feet of 30 ft. as well and when moving there's no extra cost for each feet moved cost 1 foot.
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed, which can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move.
As for the difference between "You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed" and "Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement" is not much.
It is mostly a semantic difference and the former means that you have an explicit climb speed, and the later means you can use your walking speed to climb without paying the extra movement cost doing so normally incurs.
For climbing a DM might take this distinction into account when deciding to call for an Athletics check or determining the DC. But this would be purely DM fiat as there are no rules that treat a creature climbing with a climb speed differently from a creature climbing with their walking speed.
Similarly, you can use your walking speed to swim and there are features that either give you an explicit swim speed or negate the extra cost of using your walking speed to swim. With swimming though there are rules that treat these two scenarios differently, specifically the underwater combat rules: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#UnderwaterCombat
The thing is these two abilities don't both help you.
Once you have a full on climb speed you're not using the same type of climbing rules as someone without a climb speed. And those are what the Athlete feat is modifying.
The Athlete feat gives you a budget-version of vlimb speed, basically. But you already have the real thing from your race.
I'd skip the Athlete feat for you. It isn't going to help much at all.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.