D&D4 Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Armor Check Penalty
Athletics is a Strength-based skill.

Make an Athletics check to attempt physical activities that rely on muscular strength, including climbing, escaping from a grab, jumping, and swimming.

Climb[]

Make an Athletics check to climb up or down a surface. Different circumstances and surfaces make climbing easier or harder.

  • Climb: Part of a move action.
    • DC: See the table. If you use a climber’s kit, you get a +2 bonus to your Athletics check. If you can brace yourself between two surfaces, you get a +5 bonus to your check.
    • Success: You climb at one-half your speed. When you climb to reach the top of a surface, such as when you climb out of a pit, the distance to reach the top includes allowing you to arrive in the square adjacent to the surface. The last square of movement places you on that square.
    • Fail by 4 or Less: You stay where you started and lose the rest of your move action, but you don’t fall. You can try again as part of a move action.
    • Fail by 5 or More: You fall and lose the rest of your move action.
    • Grant Combat Advantage: While you are climbing, all enemies have combat advantage against you.
    • Uses Movement: Count the number of squares you climb as part of your move.
    • Taking Damage: If you take damage while climbing, you must make a Climb check using the DC for the surface you’re climbing. If that damage makes you bloodied, increase the DC by 5. If you fail the check, you fall from your current height. If you try to catch hold when you fall, add the damage you take to the DC to catch yourself.
    • Catch Hold: If you fall while climbing, you can make an Athletics check as a free action to catch hold of something to stop your fall. The base DC to catch hold of something is the DC of the surface you were climbing plus 5, modified by circumstances. You can make one check to catch hold. If you fail, you can’t try again unless the DM rules otherwise.
    • Climb Speed: While climbing, creatures that have a climb speed (such as monstrous spiders) use that speed, ignore difficult terrain, do not grant combat advantage because of climbing, and do not make Athletics checks to climb. Note that you still have to make an Athletics check when attempting to climb across an overhanging horizontal surface, unless you have the ability Spider Climb (not to be confused with the Warlock power of the same name).


Surface Athletics DC
Ladder 5
Rope 10
Uneven surface (cave wall) 15
Rough surface (brick wall) 20
Slippery surface +5
Unusually smooth surface +5

Escape from a Grab[]

Make an Athletics check to muscle out of a grab (see Escape). You can also make escape attempts to get away from other immobilizing effects, as directed by your DM.

Jump[]

Make an Athletics check to jump vertically to reach a dangling rope or a high ledge or to jump horizontally to leap across a pit, a patch of difficult terrain, a low wall, or some other obstacle.

  • High Jump: Part of a move action.
    • Distance Jumped Vertically: Make an Athletics check and divide your check result by 10 (round down). This is the number of feet you can leap up. The result determines the height that your feet clear with a jump. To determine if you can reach something while leaping, add your character’s height plus one-third rounded down (a 6-foot-tall character would add 8 feet to the final distance, and a 4-foottall character would add 5 feet).
    • Running Start: If you move at least 2 squares before making the jump, divide your check result by 5, not 10.
    • Uses Movement: Count the number of squares you jump as part of your move. If you run out of movement, you fall. You can end your first move in midair if you double move.

Example: Marc, a 6-foot-tall human, attempts a high jump to catch a rope dangling 12 feet overhead. His check result is 26. With a running start, he leaps the distance (26 ÷ 5 = 5 feet, plus his height and one-third for a final reach of 13 feet). If Marc leaps from a standing position, he can’t quite reach the end of the rope (26 ÷ 10 = 2 feet for a final reach of 10 feet).

  • Long Jump: Part of a move action.
    • Distance Jumped Horizontally: Make an Athletics check and divide your check result by 10 (don’t round the result). This is the number of squares you can leap across. You land in the square determined by your result. If you end up over a pit or a chasm, you fall and lose the rest of your move action.
    • Distance Cleared Vertically: The vertical distance you clear is equal to one-quarter of the distance you jumped horizontally. If you could not clear the vertical distance of an obstacle along the way, you hit the obstacle, fall prone, and lose the rest of your move action.
    • Running Start: If you move at least 2 squares before making the jump, divide your check result by 5, not 10.
    • Uses Movement: Count the number of squares you jump as part of your move. If you run out of movement, you fall. You can end your first move in midair if you double move.

Example: Marc attempts a long jump to clear a 5-foot-high wall of thorns and the 10-foot-wide pit beyond it. His check result is 24. With a running start, he easily jumps the distance (24 ÷ 5 = 4.8 squares or 24 feet) and clears the wall (24 ÷ 4 = 6 feet). If Marc jumps from a standing position, he can’t quite make it across the pit (24 ÷ 10 = 2.4 squares or 12 feet) and doesn’t clear the wall (12 ÷ 4 = 3 feet). He hits the wall of thorns and falls prone before reaching the pit.

Swim[]

Make an Athletics check to swim or to tread water. Different conditions make swimming harder. See the Endurance skill for information on swimming or treading water for an hour or more.

  • Swim or Tread Water: Part of a move action.
    • DC: See the table.
    • Success: You swim at one-half your speed, or you stay afloat and tread water.
    • Fail by 4 or Less: Stay where you are and lose the rest of your move action. You can try again as part of a move action.
    • Fail by 5 or More: Sink 1 square and risk suffocation by drowning.
    • Uses Movement: Count the number of squares you swim as part of your move.
    • Swim Speed: While swimming, creatures that have a swim speed (such as sahuagin) use that speed and do not make Athletics checks to swim.


Water Athletics DC
Calm 10
Rough 15
Stormy 20

Athletics powers[]

Characters trained in athletics may obtain a skill-based utility power instead of one from their class (but not their paragon path or epic destiny):

See also[]

  • Climber's kit, which gives a +2 bonus to athletics checks for climbing.
  • Dagger boots, which give a +2 bonus to climbing at the cost of -2 to stealth to move silently.
Advertisement