Balance
Key Ability: Dexterity
Use Untrained: Yes
Armour Check Penalty: Yes
You can keep your balance while walking on a tightrope, a narrow beam, a slippery ledge, or an uneven floor.
Check: You can walk on a precarious surface. A successful check lets you move at half your speed along the surface for 1 round. A failure by 4 or less means you can't move for 1 round. A failure by 5 or more means you fall. The difficulty varies with the surface, as follows:
| Narrow Surface | Balance DC 1 |
|---|---|
| 7 - 12 inches wide | 10 |
| 2 - 6 inches wide | 15 |
| Less than 2 inches wide | 20 |
| Difficult Surface | Balance DC 1 |
|---|---|
| Uneven flagstone | 10 2 |
| Hewn stone floor | 10 2 |
| Sloped or angled floor | 10 2 |
| Surface | DC Modifier 3 |
|---|---|
| Lightly obstructed | +2 |
| Severely obstructed | +5 |
| Lightly slippery | +2 |
| Severely slippery | +5 |
| Sloped or angled | +2 |
1: Add modifiers from Narrow Surface Modifiers, below, as appropriate.
2: Only if running or charging. Failure by 4 or less means the character can't run or charge, but may otherwise act normally.
3: Add the appropriate modifier to the Balance DC of a narrow surface.
These modifiers stack.
Being Attacked while Balancing: You are considered flat-footed while balancing, since you can't move to avoid a blow, and thus you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). If you have 5 or more ranks in Balance, you aren't considered flat-footed while balancing. If you take damage while balancing, you must make another Balance check against the same DC to remain standing.
Accelerated Movement: You can try to walk across a precarious surface more quickly than normal. If you accept a -5 penalty, you can move your full speed as a move action (moving twice your speed in a round requires two Balance checks, one for each move action used). You may also accept this penalty in order to charge across a precarious surface; charging requires one Balance check for each multiple of your speed (or fraction thereof ) that you charge.
Action: None. A Balance check doesn't require an action; it is made as part of another action or as a reaction to a situation.
Special: If you have the Agile feat, you get a +2 bonus on Balance checks.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you get a +2 bonus on Balance checks.
