Athletics
The athletics skill can draw on any of the three physical attributes.
Strength
Athletics checks based on Strength cover difficult situations that you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming. Examples include the following activities:
- You attempt to climb a sheer or slippery cliff, avoid hazards while scaling a wall, or cling to a surface while something is trying to knock you off.
- You try to jump an unusually long distance or pull off a stunt mid-jump.
- You struggle to swim or slay afloat in treacherous currents, storm-tossed waves, or areas of thick seaweed.
- Another creature tries to push or pull you underwater, or otherwise interfere with your swimming.
Dexterity
Athletics check based on dexterity cover attempts to stay on your feet in a tricky situation, such as when you’re trying to run across a sheet of ice, balance on a tightrope, or stay upright on a rocking ship’s deck. The GM might also call for a Dexterity-based athletics check to see if you can perform acrobatic stunts, including dives, rolls, somersaults, and flips.
Constitution
Athletics checks based on Constitution are made when your character needs to push their bodies beyond normal limits. Holding your breath, marching for days, going without sleep or food, and resisting the effects of alcohol are all times when one would roll an athletics check.
Untrained Actions
Trained Actions
Strength-based Subskills
Climbing
Scaling cliffsides or reaching rooftops, few players have lasting careers without the use of climbing out of trouble.
Jumping
Jumping allows players to leap in great bounds horizontally, or try to attain great heights vertically.
Mining
Extracting minerals and metals from the ground is a staple in worlds where iron and steel see kingdoms rise and fall. This is a new use of the Athletics skill. GMs should set DCs based on how long or difficult it would take to extract valuables. Failure results in half yields.
Swimming
Crossing rapid streams, delving into the lair of a black dragon, or communing with mermaids, few are the players who stay dry forever.
Dexterity-based Subskills
Aerobatics
Tumbling and swimming are great for players darting around foes on the ground and underwater, but Aerobatics helps airborne players do the same. GMs should set DCs similar to those skills for flying creatures.
Balance
Crossing narrow bridges, riding choppy seas, or running across ice, most players actively avoid trying to fall prone.
Diving
Sometimes a belly flop is fine, but most players want to avoid taking damage when falling into water. Slipping unnoticed into water to evade a dock guard might come in handy for port rogues.
Tumbling
Avoiding damage from a big fall or sliding through an opponents legs, mobile characters often need to tumble.
Constitution-based Subskills
Distance Running
Sprinting short distances is fine, but sometimes players need to cover vast distances without rest. Distance Running allows you to maintain your pace. GMs should use Distance Running to allow players to cover greater distances overland than usual, with failure resulting in exhaustion.
Environmental Adaptation
Over time, your body and mind have adapted to an environment. When using your Athletics skill to resist the naturally occurring effects of that terrain, you can use adaptation instead. For example, in a desert, you could use it to resist lack of water or overwhelming heat.
When picking this subskill, select one type of terrain or environment. You can take this expertise multiple times, selecting one new environment each time. The terrain available to Rangers via the Natural Explorer trait (Player’s Handbook, pg. 91) are the options you can choose from, each time you take Environmental Adaptation expertise.
- Arctic
- Coast
- Desert
- Forest
- Grassland
- Mountain
- Nautical
- Swamp
- Underdark
- Nautical
Pain Tolerance
Information is power, and to that end torturers consider information extraction an art. Pain Tolerance allows you to resist their craft. The GM should use Athletics or Pain Tolerance as the skill to resist Torture.