Balance (DEX)

Balance (DEX; Armor check penalty)
(Player's Handbook v.3.5 variant, p. 67)

Description
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]	Difficult Surface	Balance DC [1]
7–12 inches wide	10	Uneven flagstone	10 [2]
2–6 inches wide	15	Hewn stone floor	10 [2]
Less than 2 inches wide	20	Sloped or angled floor	10 [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.

Narrow Surface Modifiers

Surface	DC Modifier
Lightly obstructed (scree, light rubble)	+2
Severely obstructed (natural cavern floor, dense rubble)	+5
Lightly slippery (wet floor)	+2
Severely slippery (ice sheet)	+5
Sloped or angled	+2

Add the appropriate modifier to the Balance DC of a narrow surface. These modifiers stack.

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.