Balance (Dexterity; Armour Check Penalty)

This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.

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 DC1	Difficult Surface	Balance DC1
7-12 inches wide	10	Uneven flagstone	102
2-6 inches wide	15	Hewn stone floor	102
Less than 2 inches wide	20	Sloped or angled floor	102
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 Modifier1
Lightly obstructed	+2
Severely obstructed	+5
Lightly slippery	+2
Severely slippery	+5
Sloped or angled	+2
1 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.

Liber Mysterium

The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks

By Timothy S. Brannan and The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks Team

Any bonuses in balance can aid a witch while standing on a broom in flight.