Jump
Range: touchDuration: 1 jump per level; see below
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Casting Time: 1 round
Saving Throw: none
Level: mage (1st)
Enables a recipient to make great leaps forward, backward, upward or downward, as desired. A forward jump can be anywhere up to six hexes, or 30 feet. If the character jumps opposite to their facing, the distance jumped can equal up to three hexes, or 15 feet. Jumping upwards enables a jump upwards anywhere up to 15 feet; and a jump downwards can measure up to 30 feet. All jumps regardless of distance or direction, cost 3 action points (AP), launch and sailing time included.
Landings are presumed to be safe, unless the recipient chooses to deliberately leap to a place where there is no sufficiently sized horizontal surface on which to land. If the recipient decides to rely upon gaining hold of, say, a tree limb or outcropping of rock, or similar feature, the recipient must make a dexterity check or fall. Naturally, additional skills such as surefootedness, scramble, mountaineering and the like are bound to be helpful in ensuring purchase is obtained.
Before jumping, recipients of the spell can change their orientation freely, just as with melee combat, unless the recipient has been stunned. If stunned, it is possible to make an automatic jump backwards, since stunning usually causes an individual to be thrust or thrown back; a recipient of this spell can take advantage of this situation and use the jump (as a reflex) in addition to the normal movement associated with being stunned.
While in the air, the recipient can hurl a weapon. It is also possible to fire a bow, sling or crossbow ~ provided that each has already been fully loaded prior to making a jump.
I take a deep satisfaction from the idea of bouncing over a fortress wall and dunking on the defenders with a point-blank javelin.
ReplyDeleteI want to incorporate a troop of 200 fighters who have just enough spell ability to cast this one spell.
ReplyDeleteI badly want to post a gif of Vince Carter dunking on Frederic Weiss in response to Pandred's comment
ReplyDeleteI got all worried about the firing an arrow mid-jump part of that description. I looked into various arrow weights, bow pull strengths and distances, and arrow speeds. It all varies considerably, but in the end the arrow typically has something like 20 to 25 pounds/foot/sec of momentum leaving the bow. Non-monks would need to be traveling at a little more than 4'/sec to cover the 30' distance in and with 220 pounds of person and equipment it works out to more than 900 pounds/foot/sec of momentum that the arrow loosing works against. If the character is slowed by the arrow's 22 lb/ft/sec recoil immediately after beginning the jump with those parameters he still travels 29.28' in that time.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely close enough to ignore in my book.
Well, that and the momentum of the jump is ruled by the Laws of Magic, not Physics.
ReplyDeleteMy argument would be, if the jump happens from mental will to jump, and not pushing off from the ground with physical force, and the character is in the air for a total of 7.2 seconds, none of which is necessary to ensure a safe landing, since the spell also manages that, then the character is effectively "riding a horse" in the air; a really smooth one. And we're moving much slower than a horse to boot. It's perfectly possible to fire an arrow or throw a weapon from a horse; so why not this?
Oh, that's cool. Hmm. I like that a lot. A mass version at a higher level wouldn't go amiss, I think.
ReplyDelete