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: 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.
| Narrow Surface | Balance DC† | Difficult Surface | Balance DC†‡ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-12 inches wide | 10 | Uneven flagstone | 10 |
| 2-6 inches wide | 15 | Hewn stone floor | 10 |
| Less than 2 inches wide | 20 | Sloped or angled floor | 10 |
†Add modifiers from Surface Modifiers, below, as appropriate.
‡Only if running or charging. Failure by 4 or less means the character can’t run or charge, but may otherwise act normally.
| Surface Modifiers | DC Modifier |
|---|---|
| Lightly obstructed | +2 |
| Severely obstructed | +5 |
| Lightly slippery | +2 |
| Severely slippery | +5 |
| Sloped or angled | +2 |
None. A Balance check doesn’t require an action; it is made as part of another action or as a reaction to a situation.
If you have the Agile feat, you get a +2 bonus on Balance checks.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you get a +2 bonus on Balance checks.
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