Our group had an interesting situation and there was some question of how to rule it. My character is on a raised area 10' from a balcony. The railing is 4' high and the floor below the balcony is 20' below. I say I can run towards the balcony, jump over it, and end up 20' from the base of the raised balcony. I would assume some falling damage in this case and maybe even have to make an Athletics check to leap over the balcony. Others in the group say that I would not go so far out from the base of the balcony because I would fall to the floor first. I argue that it's diagonal movement (similar to flying) though there's no fly speed, so I don't know. I was thinking of using an Acrobatics check to help in some way, but I don't know how since that doesn't lessen falling damage nor is it necessary for a running jump. Thoughts?
Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.
This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn't matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your DM's option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump's distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.
There's no mechanics for calculating your rate of descent, so RAW, you travel your jump distance horizontally, possibly with an athletics check to clear the railing if the "raised area" isn't high enough. Once you've moved your full jump distance horizontally, you fall.
This doesn't match physics, but that's pretty typical for D&D. Momentum makes things complex, and can usually be ignored. The occasional weird result is made up for by the fact that we don't have to do anything complex the rest of the time.
Jumping down is not covered in the rules specifically. RAW a long jump is what is attempted here, which assumes you would be jumping in straight line 20 feet above the floor once you clear the balcon's railing. Since you're still in the air at the end of the jump you should fall.
According to Xanathar’s you fall up to 500 ft more or less instantly but only if you start your turn in mid air.
To end up 20 feet out from the balcony like you describe you would technically need to make a running long jump. You could only cover a maximum horizontal distance equal to your Str score. If your Str is 20 that would mean up to 20 feet. If your Str score is only 14 you could only cover 14 feet of horizontal distance.
Since the balcony railing is 4 feet high and the maximum height you can possibly clear is one quarter of the horizontal distance you would have to be making a running long jump of 16 feet at minimum. That means you need a Str score of at least 16 to clear the railing at all or you hit it instead of jumping over it. Then, you also need to pass a DC 10 Str (Athletics) check to clear the railing.
Assuming you have a Str of 20 and pass your athletics check then you would clear the railing and cover 20 feet of horizontal distance on your long jump. Then I think you would technically freeze in mid air and hang there until your next turn started when you would instantly fall the 20 feet to the ground and take 2d6 falling damage.
In this case it's not a fall from a great height from XGtE: The rule for falling assumes that a creature immediately drops the entire distance when it falls.....When you fall from a great height, you instantly descend up to 500 feet. If you’re still falling on your next turn, you descend up to 500 feet at the end of that turn.
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Our group had an interesting situation and there was some question of how to rule it. My character is on a raised area 10' from a balcony. The railing is 4' high and the floor below the balcony is 20' below. I say I can run towards the balcony, jump over it, and end up 20' from the base of the raised balcony. I would assume some falling damage in this case and maybe even have to make an Athletics check to leap over the balcony. Others in the group say that I would not go so far out from the base of the balcony because I would fall to the floor first. I argue that it's diagonal movement (similar to flying) though there's no fly speed, so I don't know. I was thinking of using an Acrobatics check to help in some way, but I don't know how since that doesn't lessen falling damage nor is it necessary for a running jump. Thoughts?
So, the rules for jumping say:
There's no mechanics for calculating your rate of descent, so RAW, you travel your jump distance horizontally, possibly with an athletics check to clear the railing if the "raised area" isn't high enough. Once you've moved your full jump distance horizontally, you fall.
This doesn't match physics, but that's pretty typical for D&D. Momentum makes things complex, and can usually be ignored. The occasional weird result is made up for by the fact that we don't have to do anything complex the rest of the time.
Jumping down is not covered in the rules specifically. RAW a long jump is what is attempted here, which assumes you would be jumping in straight line 20 feet above the floor once you clear the balcon's railing. Since you're still in the air at the end of the jump you should fall.
According to Xanathar’s you fall up to 500 ft more or less instantly but only if you start your turn in mid air.
To end up 20 feet out from the balcony like you describe you would technically need to make a running long jump. You could only cover a maximum horizontal distance equal to your Str score. If your Str is 20 that would mean up to 20 feet. If your Str score is only 14 you could only cover 14 feet of horizontal distance.
Since the balcony railing is 4 feet high and the maximum height you can possibly clear is one quarter of the horizontal distance you would have to be making a running long jump of 16 feet at minimum. That means you need a Str score of at least 16 to clear the railing at all or you hit it instead of jumping over it. Then, you also need to pass a DC 10 Str (Athletics) check to clear the railing.
Assuming you have a Str of 20 and pass your athletics check then you would clear the railing and cover 20 feet of horizontal distance on your long jump. Then I think you would technically freeze in mid air and hang there until your next turn started when you would instantly fall the 20 feet to the ground and take 2d6 falling damage.
In this case it's not a fall from a great height from XGtE: The rule for falling assumes that a creature immediately drops the entire distance when it falls.....When you fall from a great height, you instantly descend up to 500 feet. If you’re still falling on your next turn, you descend up to 500 feet at the end of that turn.