Grip
Plummet to your death or awe your onlookers with your fearsome scaling abilities? These are the kind of questions presented to characters with an exceptional Climb skill. It can be used to effectively ascend or descend vertical distances, ranging from trees and rope ladders to cliffs and glaciers. Climbing characters move at one-quarter speed. Characters trying to climb quickly move at half of their normal speed (with the DL penalty listed below). If a party member climbing above you falls, you can attempt to catch him or her with a successful Hold check of 5 + 1/every 10 lbs. of the character. If you fail, the character continues falling. If you slip the roll, you follow suit in proper arm-flailing fashion. This check requires no Action Points, but you must succeed at a Reaction check against a DL of 10.
Characters cannot defend themselves adequately while climbing, and take a -10 to their dodge and parry rolls to attackers in such circumstances. A character cannot use a two-handed weapon while climbing (unless, say, the character has more than one set of arms).
Difficulty
The difficulty for a climb check depends on the conditions of the surface. Detailed below are a few examples of common climbing difficulties.
| Example | DL |
|---|---|
| A ladder, a very steep hill | 0 |
| A knotted rope, monkey bars | 5 |
| A tree with few branches | 10 |
| A flat rocky cliff, a pole, an unknotted rope | 15 |
| An uneven wall with small handholds | 20 |
| A wall with a very rough surface (cave wall, brick wall) | 25 |
| A rough wall with an inverse slant | 30 |
| A nearly smooth wall with incredibly tiny handholds | 35 |
| The surface is slippery (ice, grease, slime) | +5 |
The following table lists situational bonuses and penalties to the Climb check.
| Situation | Check |
|---|---|
| The character is trying to move quickly (see above) | -10 |
| The character can brace him or herself against a parallel surface | +10 |
| The character uses climbing equipment | +5 |
A smooth, flat surface is impossible to climb short of using magic spells. Magnetic boots, while not magical, allow for climbing of flat, metal surfaces at a DL of 15.
Characters who employ the use of a grappling hook with attached rope during their climb and can brace their feet against a wall assume a difficulty of 10. If the rope is knotted, assume a difficulty of 5.
A character that cannot meet the DL for a climb check is resultantly unable to begin scaling a surface. If he or she is already climbing and fails a check, the character is unable to continue without another check. A botch usually signifies falling.
