Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Problems with Jump based only on Strength

The first problem is that in D&D 5e, Jumping is based on Athletics, not straight strength. But that is not the case in BG3 - it's based on your Strength modifier, and your Athletics is not considered. I verified this by comparing the difference between Rogues with the same STR score, one Proficient in Athletics and the other one who wasn't. They had the same jump distance.

The second problem will become apparent once you're allowed to roll dice for your ability scores. Right now, 8 (-1 mod) is the lowest you can go for a Strength score. The gap which you MUST jump across is designed to be a barely passable leap with 8 Strength. 7 Strength, and a -2 modifier? Forget it. With rolling, the theoretical minimum roll will be 3. Pity the poor sap who spends 15 minutes carefully building their character and getting their appearance juuuuust right, only to reach a game-ending block as soon as they step through the hull breach. This can probably be solved, though, if the minimum jump distance is fixed at 4.5 meters even if the STR modifier is -2 or lower.

Another issue is that this has the odd design quirk of a clanking cleric in heavy armor being much more agile and nimble than a swift, lightly armored Rogue. There IS supposed to be a reason why heavy armor gives disadvantage to stealth checks, guys. Rogues who don't want to be awful at jumping are forced into pumping STR, which tends to be their dump stat in tabletop play. (As I said above, proficiency in Athletics does absolutely nothing for their jumping.

There are also other issues with Jump, such as how it doesn't seem to break stealth, which may be fine in some cases, but in others it can seem ridiculous. And the well known discussion about disengaging being too easy, but there are other topics on that already.

Actually your jump distance is based on your STR score in 5e. Athletics is used if the jump may be difficult for you/you're under pressure to make the jump.

That's a level of granularity which doesn't exist in BG3. Here, there is one type of Jump, and Athletics is not taken into account. If nothing else, this makes proficiency in Athletics a trap option for Rogues.

I mentioned in another thread that the Rogue Thief subclass is suppossed to gain a bonus to their jump equal to their dexterity modifer, which currently is not implemented in the game. Though the problem you are mentioning is at the very begining, it would be nice to see other jump modifying abilities working.

I'm sorry, I guess I don't understand the point you are trying to make (it's still morning over here so please be patient with me. Your STR score does affect how far you can jump, and it even says so under the description of STR. That is also how it works in 5e, so I'm not understanding the issue. Are you saying you would want to change it so that unlike 5e, this should allow you to do an athletics check to see if you can jump on all occasions? How would doing that NOT make Athletics a trap option?

You said that Jumping is for everyone, and Athletics is ONLY used for jumps which are difficult or under pressure. Jumps which are difficult or under pressure might exist, but as skill checks in dialogue. I have not found any of those at this time.

In normal gameplay of BG 3 though, there are no jumps which are difficult or under pressure. You can either make it, or it's out of range. There is nothing to roll Athletics for. Because Athletics is not apparently used for normal jumping, being proficient in Athletics is not as useful as it could be, and at this time, I don't see any use for it on a Rogue, even though they could take it because of their class.