Skill | Athletics (Dexterity)

Athletics measures your ability to exert physical force and sustain movement under strain—running, climbing, swimming, jumping, lifting, and enduring punishing conditions. It reflects coordination and conditioning, not finesse. Use Athletics when you’re applying power, speed, or brute determination to overcome a physical challenge.

Athletics is distinct from Acrobatics, which is used for controlled, graceful, or precise movements—such as flips, rolls, balance, or evasive agility. If you’re trying to move fast or push through, use Athletics. If you’re trying to move gracefully or land clean, use Acrobatics.

Typical Uses:

• Sprinting or long-distance running

• Climbing walls, ropes, trees, or unstable surfaces

• Swimming against current or with encumbrance

• Jumping gaps or descending from heights without flair

• Escaping grapples or keeping your footing under pressure

• Pushing, pulling, or hauling heavy loads

• Withstanding cold, fatigue, or harsh exposure (at GM discretion)

Situational Modifiers:
Use the Difficulty Ladder to reflect terrain, load, conditions, or urgency:

• Trivial (+50%): Jogging on flat ground, unburdened

• Effortless (+40%): Swimming in calm water, climbing a ladder

• Easy (+30%): Sprinting on firm ground, climbing with aid

• Routine (+20%): Vaulting a fence, swimming in a calm river

• Favorable (+10%): Mild incline, light gear, clear conditions

• Everyday (0%): Climbing dry rocks, swimming moderate distances

• Challenging (–10%): Muddy slopes, armor, moderate wind or current

• Hard (–20%): Heavy gear, poor footing, swift water

• Very Hard (–30%): Ice, deep snow, vertical ascent, rough surf

• Extreme (–40%): Pulling another character while climbing or swimming

• Near-Impossible (–50%): Free-climbing an overhang while exhausted or injured

Working Without Training:

• Base chance is half Dexterity, rounded down

• One difficulty step harder than normal

• GM may bar untrained attempts for extreme or hazardous tasks (e.g., swimming in armor, climbing in a storm)

Companion Skills:

• Strength (for raw lifting, bracing, or dragging)

• Survival (for coping with exposure, wild terrain, or fatigue)

• Dodge (for repositioning under pressure or in chaos)

• Unarmed Combat (for breaking holds, throws, or grappling escapes)

• Acrobatics (for flips, rolls, balance, or soft landings)

Narrative Examples:

• A soldier barrels through mud and blood, vaulting a barricade to join the front line.

• A ranger climbs a craggy hillside, bow across her back, searching for a better vantage.

• A druid swims a flood-swollen river, dragging a half-conscious ally to safety.

• A barbarian leaps from one boulder to the next, crossing a broken ravine through sheer force and momentum.

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File Created: 04/30/2025
Last Modified: 04/30/2025