Balance - (Dex; Armor Check Penalty)
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 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 (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 |
| 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 does not 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.
Expanded Description - Complete Adventurer
You can run across narrow surfaces or resist being tripped.
Resist Trip: If you have 10 or more ranks in Balance, you can make a Balance check in place of a Strength or Dexterity check to avoid being tripped by an opponent. You take a -10 penalty on your Balance check. If you succeed on this check, you are nor tripped. When you succeed on a Balance check to resist being tripped, you may not attempt to trip your opponent.
Sprinting Balance: You can try to run across a narrow surface by accepting a -20 penalty on your Balance check.
Expanded Description - Races of the Wild
Life in the wild often obliges elves and raptorans to perch in or move through the tops of trees. Halflings, too, often find themselves precariously balanced somewhere.
Moving through Trees: Use Balance checks to move horizontally along a branch or tree trunk leaning over at an angle of up to 60 degrees. To move vertically in a tree, or to move along a branch or trunk with an angle of greater than 60 degrees, use the Climb skill.
| Balance DC | Forest Type |
| 10* | Dense Forest: Trees are older with strong branches and are close together, including many massive trees. There are lots of branches to choose from, letting the character select the widest, flattest branches with the most support or hand holds. |
| 15 | Medium Forest: Trees are farther apart or not as old and the selection of branches is not as great, forcing the character to use some narrow branches or branches without support. |
| 25 | Sparse Forest: Trees are farther apart and not very old. The character has to use a lot of narrow branches without support or hand holds. The character is often moving across branches that are barely wide enough to move on. |
| *only when running or charging. Failure by 4 or less means the character can't run or charge but may otherwise act normally. The character is not considered balancing when not moving. | |
| Condition | DC Modifier |
| Moss, fungi, or slightly wet | +2 |
| Snow or ice | +5 |
Moving Along an Unstable Surface: Use Balance to walk or crawl along a pitching or heaving surface, such as the top of a moving wagon, the backs of animals while they pull a vehicle, or a bouncy tarp or tent top.
| Balance DC | Example Surface |
| 10* | Loose gravel or wobbly bricks or stones |
| 15 | Awning, dune face, or snowdrift |
| 18 | Top of a vehicle traveling over a fairly smooth road |
| 20 | Top of a vehicle traveling over a rough road |
| 22 | Top of a vehicle traveling over a poor road, trail, or unimproved surface |
| 25 | Ship's deck in a storm, galloping horse, or top of a vehicle traveling over rocks, pot holes, logs, or rubble |
| *Only when running or charging. Failure by 4 or less means the character can't run or charge but may otherwise act normally. The character is not considered balancing when not moving. | |
Expanded Description - Stormwrack
Boats and ships offer clumsy characters a variety of ways to fall. Many characters who spend time on or around boats pick up a rank or two in Balance, simply because you never know when your life could depend on it.
Difficult Surfaces: Some of the more common difficult surfaces found in seafaring environments include the following:
Green Waler: A ship's deck that is washed by a violent wave that covers the deck to a depth of 1 foot or more.
Heeling Deck: A ship that is heeling over (the deck is sloped sharply due to the way it's running with the wind or the ship's maneuvers) is the same as a sloped floor.
Roll, Heavy: A ship that is violently rolling from side to side, as opposed to simply heeling in one direction and staying there.
Sargasso: Floating mats of seaweed come in two varieties: light and heavy (see page 19, Stormwrack). Only those who are truly light of foot can remain standing on light mat sargasso, but heavy mat sargasso is thick enough to support anyone walking with a little care.
Surf: Moving water between 1 foot (light surf) and 4 feet deep (heavy surf); see page 17, Stormwrack.
Yardarm: The horizontal spar suspended from a ship's mast. Deckhands taking in or setting sails generally stand on sturdy lines below the yardarm and lean into the yardarm for support; walking on top of a yardarm is a real stunt, since there isn't anything to brace against.
Difficulty Modifiers: Wet decks and icy decks are treated just as lightly slippery and severely slippery surfaces.
Underwater: Characters attempting to balance on things while completely submerged have a much smaller chance of falling off, simply because water resistance gives one an opportunity to correct for a mistake.
Check Modifiers: Characters can reduce their odds of losing their footing by bracing themselves with their hands or body. For example, characters reefing a sail often have to edge out on the yardarm while standing on a rope, a DC 20 Balance check. However, the character can brace herself with both hands while sliding along the rope, gaining a +10 bonus on the Balance check.
| Narrow or Difficult Surface | |
|---|---|
| Heeling deck | DC 10 |
| Sargasso, heavy mat | DC 10 |
| Surf, light | DC 10 |
| Roll, heavy | DC 15 |
| Surf, heavy | DC 15 |
| Yardarm | DC 15 |
| Green water | DC 20 |
| Sargasso, light mat | DC 30 |
| Difficulty Modifiers | |
| Wet deck | DC +2 |
| High winds | DC +2 |
| Icy deck | DC +5 |
| Severe motion | DC +5 |
| Underwater | DC -10 |
| Check Modifiers | |
| Body brace | +5 |
| One-hand brace | +7 |
| Two-hand brace | +10 |