Serious Skills: Athletics

Let’s look at the mechanical abilities that Athletics gives you.

Climb: You can move against gravity up various surfaces and objects, such as ropes, ladders and walls.  Without any special alterations, you climb at half your speed as part of a move action.  If you fail a Climb check by more than 5, you fall though you can sometimes catch yourself on the way down.  Though three-dimensional combat in flight can be difficult to visualize and adjudicate, giving a character with a good Athletics skill an advantage in combat by having lots of scalable objects (stacks of crates, ladders, statues, etc) and platforms can add that third dimension back in pretty cleanly.

Escape From a Grab or From Restraints: Like its cousin Acrobatics, Athletics lets you bust your way out of a grab against the opponent’s Fortitude.  You’ve probably used this a lot in combat.  Once again:

“You can also make escape attempts to get away from other immobilizing effects,as directed by your DM.”

Do this.   Often.

Jump: This is even more common than the Escape.  A standing high jump clears a distance equal to your Athletics check divided by 10.  If you can get 2 squares of running room, the divisor drops to 5.  A standing long jump clears distance horizontally by the same factors, but you also move 1/4 of your horizontal distance vertically.  In other words, make sure you have clearance before you jump!

Swim: You can move in water with an Athletics check based on the turbulence of the water.  Without any special alterations, you swim at half your speed as part of a move action.  If you fail a Swim check by more than 5, you begin to sink.  What differs greatly in 4E from previous editions is that the weight and type of your armor has no effect on your ability to swim other than the possible -1 armor penalty to the skill.  Big deal.  A Paladin in plate is just as happy in the pond as a Rogue in a robe in a river.  Unless you know there’s something lurking beneath the surface, a body of water is no match for a strongly Athletic character.  Just imagine it’s difficult terrain and plow through it.

What activities tie easily to Athletics?  Who are the types of people who train in Athletics?

Athletes: This seems pretty obvious, but consider how broad a topic this really is.  A rugby player, a synchronized swimmer, a discus thrower, a relay sprinter, a second baseman, a tennis player and a cheerleader (among hundreds of others) ALL use Athletics to perform their sport.  Your Athletic character isn’t just strong or fast.  They might have reflexes, spatial orientation, strategy and rules knowledge that all matter as well.

Enforcement: If you don’t need to run, jump, swim and climb for competition, you probably need it for your occupation.  Military, police, bounty hunters and rescue personnel (if your world has them) need to lift heavy objects, cross hazardous ground effectively, react to situations quickly and lay down the hurt when necessary.  For these people, the body will sometimes think faster than their mind, with muscle memory kicking in and doing the job before a thought gets processed completely.  This may not always be the best outcome ever but if you think your character has the training to knock an innocent out of the way of a falling beam or a crossbow bolt without forethought, Athletics is the skill to do so with.

The Displaced: On the other side is the drifter, the squatter and the miscreant.  Living on the streets is tough.  Fights break out, buildings are old and decrepit, and the long arm of the law is never too far away.  When you have to live by your wits, a strong arm makes for a good plan B.  Perhaps your character trained in Athletics ‘inadvertently’ – climbing gates, running from debtors, knocking over carts and bystanders as obstacles for the town guards.

Your skill becomes a metaphor for the world when you dedicate yourself to it.   A strongly Athletic character lives in a highly competitive world.  Whether that competition is friendly or not is your decision as a player, based on how the character came to his or her Athletic training.  The Elven Ranger who competed in footraces with her tribesmen as a youth, tearing through the forest, bowling over saplings while hunting for food has a different understanding of competition than the hired goon in the criminal underworld where a moment of letting one’s guard down can equal shame or death.  Even more different would be the strength trainer, competing only against his personal best lifts and squats.

A master Athlete enters a scene with confidence and presence.  He knows his strengths and instinctively evaluates the strengths of others.  Could I outrun that dog?  Could I wrestle that dwarf?  Who do I want on my team and who I am I content to simply not make an enemy of?  Even without insignia, without formal knowledge of a culture or species, the Athlete can smell who is the leader and who are the followers.  Watch who the Athlete pays attention to, for that is where the power often lies.

An athlete speaks a very primal language, more basic than Common, older than Supernal – strength.   Cats use it to divide territory.  Dogs use it to determine hierarchy.  Most all animals, including humanoids, use it to some extent or another to attract mates.  An orc and a goliath who can’t speak each other’s verbal language but can each throw a javelin 200 yards have a certain rapport and respect.  Conversely, nothing says “I don’t like you” in quite the same way smashing a table to bits with your bare hands does.

Using Athletics socially might be the result of not being able to use Diplomacy or Intimidate for lack of common speech. A neutral party may determine whether you are a worthy ally by your skill at swimming or sprinting.  There could even be certain sports metaphors that are useful for describing complex situations and strategies concisely like “handing off the baton,” “stealing home” or “calling an audible.”  Athletics may not be the skill of choice for the first round of social encounters, but as things break down, it shows its usefulness more and more.

Hope you enjoyed that breakdown of Athletics!  Next up:  Arcana.

“Make an Athletics check to attempt physical activities that rely on muscular strength, including climbing, escaping from a grab, jumping, and swimming.”