Movement
Swimming across a rushing river, sneaking down a dungeon corridor, scaling a treacherous mountain slope—all sorts of movement play a key role in fantasy gaming adventures.
Speed
Every character and monster has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk in 1 round. This number assumes short bursts of energetic movement in the midst of a life threatening situation.
Movement through dangerous dungeons or wilderness areas often involves more than simply walking. Adventurers might have to climb, crawl, swim, or jump to get where they need to40 go.
Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling
While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs double movement (tripled if also in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the GM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.
Burrowing, Flying, and Hovering
Burrowing and Flying speeds each allow creatures to move in unorthodox ways, digging through terrain and flying through the air respectively. A Hovering speed denotes that the creature hovers a small distance above the ground, and doesn't sink into liquids or hazards such as quicksand unless they choose to do so or are forced to do so.
Unequal Movement
Some creatures have multiple types of movement speeds, and the pace they can travel using those speeds needn't be the same. Typically these different movement speeds are multiples of each other, and thus can be divided by ratio to determine the creature's total speed when it uses multiple unequal movement speeds per turn.
For example, a Green Dragon can swim 40 feet in a single turn, but can fly 80 feet in a turn. If the dragon uses 40 feet of its Flying speed to fly to a river, it has used half its Flying speed, and can thus only use 20ft of its Swimming speed- half its normal swimming speed- to swim to a location in the water.
Jumping
In Project 5.5, there are two variants of Jumping. The first is more realistic but more complicated, while the second variant is more game-y but simpler.
Realistic Jumping
Realistic jumping is based on your Strength score.
Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.
This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your GM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.
When you land in difficult terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land prone.
High Jump. When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. In some circumstances, your GM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can.
You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1.5 times your height.
Simple Jumping
When you jump using simplified rules, you can jump up or straight a number of feet equal to your Strength modifier x 5, to a minimum of 5ft, provided you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing jump, you can only jump half that distance.
Jumping costs the normal amount of movement as if you had walked. In some circumstances, your GM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can.
When you land in difficult terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land Prone.
Difficult Terrain
Adventurers often face dense forests, deep swamps, rubble-filled ruins, steep mountains, and ice-covered ground- all considered difficult terrain. Difficult terrain is any terrain that is more difficult to travel through for one or many reasons, forcing you to be slower and/or extra careful to traverse it effectively.
You move at half speed in difficult terrain— moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed—so you can cover only half the normal distance on a turn or when traveling.
Forced Movement
Sometimes a character is subjected to effects that move them against their will, or move them outside their normal movement speed, such as being pushed by a river current or strong winds. Creatures can be moved by this ability without expending any of their movement on their turn, but may be subjected to environmental effects such as difficult terrain as normal. Spells and other effects that rely on creatures moving to certain positions, such as an Opportunity Attack, are not triggered by any kind of forced movement, unless specified otherwise.
Squeezing into Smaller Spaces
A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than it. Thus, a Large creature can squeeze through a passage that's only 5 feet wide. While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space.
Chasing
Sometimes, characters might pursue- or perhaps be pursued by- other creatures. Usually this can be done without rolling, but the GM might decide that the pursuit is more challenging than simply walking after them. The pursued might try to obstruct the pursuer, try to evade through shortcuts, or even break out in a sprint. In these scenarios, a chase begins.
The Skill Challenge
The following rules function off of a specialized version of a Skill Challenge. In a Skill Challenge, characters compete with another creature or the environment in a series of ability checks to determine success or failure. To win a Skill Challenge, creatures must accumulate a specified number of successful rolls, whilst avoiding any failed rolls as best they can.
In a chase, the characters compete with another party in a special form of Skill Challenge to either catch the pursued or escape the pursuer. Each character in one of the two parties can contribute to the character's pool of successes and failures. Generally, the pursuing party must succeed the skill challenge to catch the pursued, and the pursued must cause the pursuing party to fail to escape.
These rules assume there are only two parties involved in a chase. If the pursued is a group of creatures that split into separate groups, the pursuers must either choose a target to pursue or split into groups themselves, turning the single group check into individual chase sequences.
Starting the Chase
At the start of a chase, the creature with the lowest Dexterity score in each party of the chase rolls initiative, determining the initiative of their entire group. If a group of creatures later divides into multiple chases, the DM may decide they retain their original initiative, or might have them reroll.
Playing the Chase
As the chase progresses, a member of either party can propose actions they would like to perform on their group's turn or react to something the other party does to contribute to the character's success/failure pool. When they do so, have the player describe how they are attempting to act or react to the situation, and roll an appropriate ability check to add to the group's success/failure pool.
The following table lists some recommended success/failure requirements for a Skill Challenge.
| Difficulty | Successes Required | Failures Required |
|---|---|---|
| Very Easy | 3 | 6 |
| Easy | 4 | 5 |
| Medium | 5 | 4 |
| Hard | 6 | 4 |
| Very Hard | 7 | 3 |
| Almost Impossible | 10 | 3 |
Sometimes, an action is performed that might just end the chase on the spot. Collapsing a mine behind the party or suddenly grounding a pursuing ship might just end the chase early. This is entirely DM discretion.
At the DM's discretion, at the end of Initiative, a “chase complication” may occur, where both parties must react to some added variable (Determined by the DM or a random table). The character with the lowest stat required for the save must make the roll, adding or subtracting from the group's total successes and failures as normal.
If the chase ends as a result of the pursuers catching up to the pursued, combat might begin as normal if your DM decides.
Vehicles and Speed
While chasing in vehicles or when a party can move at a higher pace than normal, unless both parties can move at similar speed as a whole, one group will have the upper hand in speed. For instance, the pursuers may have be riding on a cart, while the pursued may only be walking. In this scenario, the faster group starts the chase with 1 success towards the Skill Challenge if they are the pursuers, and the pursuers start with 1 failure if the pursued are the faster group.