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So I was just wondering whether I'm reading this correctly. Path of the Beast Barbarians get the level 6 feature "Bestial Soul" which has the following option:

  • When you jump, you can make a Strength (Athletics) check and extend your jump by a number of feet equal to the check’s total. You can make this special check only once per turn.

At level 20, a barbarian can reach a Strength of 24. With proficiency in Athletics they can, on a natural 20, roll 33 on the check. With a base long jump distance of 24 feet, this becomes a whooping 57 feet. Is that right?

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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Alden Forlen
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1 Answers1

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Yes, they can

You already outline all the calcuations.

Long Jump from running start is Strength feet (24), d20 adds 20 to the Strength (Athlethics) check ability check on a natural 20, proficiency at level 20 adds +6 and the Strength bonus adds +7, for a total of 57.

However, jumping counts against movement (except when you are a harengon with a special jump action), page 182 PHB, Jumping:

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

So to realize this they would need to have a speed of equal or greater than 10+57, for example from haste, which grants double speed. Or you could use the Dash action, which also increases your movement for the turn. Otherwise your jump would be limited to your normal movement speed, wich for a Barbarian starting with 30 feet, at level 20 would be 40 feet (if not wearing armor, due to the extra 10 feet from the level 5 feature Fast Movement), or 30 feet after the 10 foot running start. As a tabaxi Barbarian, you could use your Feline Agiliy to double your normal speed and achieve the full jump without external help or dashing.

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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    Or you could dash – Dale M Nov 20 '22 at 23:08
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    @DaleM, yes, that is actually even simpler. I will add it in. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Nov 20 '22 at 23:33
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    And of course the jump distance can be further extended with things like bardic inspiration and Guidance, for another 12 + 4 feet. Stone of Good Luck for another one foot, etc. Many of the ways to pile bonuses onto another party member's ability checks in general can be found in Gaining the maximum bonus to your Counterspell check?. – Peter Cordes Nov 21 '22 at 13:34
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    Of course if you want to build a character with insane jumps, you'd multi-class into Monk and have someone cast Jump on you, that gains you way more than the extra +2 from having Str24 instead of Str20. And you'd better be a Hasted Tabaxi to have the movement to cover all that distance: https://fexlabs.com/5ejump/ doesn't have an option for Beast Barbarian, but an Str20 Monk with the Jump spell can cover 120 ft horizontally. With all the things (boots of striding and springing + jump spell for 3x each (9x), plus tiger barbarian, monk, champion fighter, rogue second story work dex20), 720ft. – Peter Cordes Nov 21 '22 at 13:38
  • Ok, before multipliers, beast barbarian (6th) is an Athletics check, vs. Totem Warrior tiger (3rd) is a flat +10 ft while raging. So it's potentially much farther. Especially with expertise in athletics (from a feat, or from a dip into rogue 3 for second story work to add your dex mod), that's huge at high level: 2x +6 plus str mod. With Str 20, that's also 57 feet (20 ft base + d20 + 12 + 5). And lets you multi-class, like into Monk and/or artificer (boots and/or the Jump spell). – Peter Cordes Nov 21 '22 at 14:03
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    In case anyone cares about real-world humans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_jump says the current men's world record for running long-jump (landing in sand) has stood since 1991, at 29 ft 4.25 inches. With tailwinds larger than the IAAF allows, the same guy went an inch farther. – Peter Cordes Nov 21 '22 at 14:28
  • Related: What is the fastest a character can move in one turn, you can get to some pretty long jumps (although not with a plain Barb 20)... – Nobody the Hobgoblin Nov 21 '22 at 14:52