Posted!!!

Yes, your character's move was rational with his background. Elves are light, and you would know that. You've easily held him too, so you get to blame the others for his fall. Now, I wouldn't advise doing so with Seigfried.

Riaharan: you're at 0hp and unconscious (failed fortitude). You would've made the climb if you'd have quit making it harder on yourself. I'm sure they'll get you out.

Haha, I suppose it serves me right for being so confident in my strength that I forget my weakness in coordination and thus--balance.

The pit is 5 feet across, and 15 feet wide, just wide enough to ensure that 5 feet across is the shortest distance. Seems the person who put it there didn't want people intruding....or maybe it was just a weak piece of stone that had been worn away by the storms and finally gave today....you never know.

The balance check/jump check are doable, they are not even a 20. Put simply, the elf just botched his rolls.

The tree is not stationary in the other room. It is being forced in further by other objects piling up outside (your guess). Siegfried had trouble navigating it because a spear is not a branch-cutting weapon. That's not to say it wouldn't still be treacherous to navigate. But he didn't exactly have an edge on it.

- Sui

Could I reach the door handle over the pit?

not without help D&D rules means a person is a 5-foot square (I don't follow that explicitly). You're only like 6 feet tall or whatever....think about it!

Sorry for the delay. I didn't want to kill Addy when he hadn't posted. Since you didn't post Valerick simply used a cure minor spell.

That means all party members are conscious and above 0hp. Time to post everyone!

You guys keep making this WAY too complex. You are standing in front of the hole. The hole is 5 feet across, and 15 feet wide. The door is inset into the wall, on the other side of the hole. By D&D standards, it is 5 feet wide. That is to say, the 'ledge' is only what exists with the inset. It does NOT go across the entire back of the hole.

The check is simple, and has been from the beginning. It is a climb check (which you can't take any extra on) and a balance check (which you can't take any extra on). Those two rolls will get you to the door, and open it, making it relatively easily for the other party members to jump/climb in.

EDIT:
Addy told me this post sounded rather mean. I apologize. I may have worded things badly, and I probably wasn't clear to begin with. I tried to make it sound less mean, so I hope this is decent enough.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. It was an easy mistake. I'm just trying to watch out for assumptions since that's what got Riaharan into this mess in the first place. I'll just edit my post to get the same result from different actions.

I completely forgot to forewarn people here that I would be in Orlando from last Tuesday (Nov 13) to this Tuesday (Nov 20). Heh, in truth, I wasn't even home until 12:15 in the morning today...
On the way to the Busch Gardens on Monday, it suddenly occured to me that there are a number of people who I forgot to inform and may actually wonder where I vanished to for a week.
In my defence (as I must alway make excuses, even if they are pitiful) It was crazy here the few days before I left for Orlando. (I even got to beat on my friends with a foam sword for the first time).
Heck, my English teacher forgot for the sleightest of moments that she gave me permission to be away. I would like to say I am back now, in case you hadn't figured from the dates above.

I live 30 seconds from Busch Gardens...

Dude, what the hell? Do you remember the "you guys are making this way too complicated, it's easy speech?" You know the first time I wrote in a take 10 on the balance check. It must have slipped my mind when I was retyping my post that I wouldn't have had to retype if the description was good enough. So your basically saying I failed the balance check and whatever check to grab the door handle because I forgot to put the take 10 on there. Well, from now on, unless I say otherwise I'm taking 10 on everything. "I" might forget to type something, but my character wouldn't forget something like that considering the type of character he is.

And I'm assuming you also "forgot" to apply my tumble check because you were so focused on killing me. All I needed was 8 or better for no damage at all. If something that stupid happens again you won't half to worry about killing me, I'll grab an arrow and shove it in my ear as hard as I can, and if that doesn't do the trick, I'll fall on it to finish the job. I'm not kidding. The only reason for this speech is because I had previously put a take 10 on a balance check and changed it because of your wording and then to add insult to injury you bragged about how easy the checks were and we were making things to complicated. Well, obviously not.

By the way, I changed my post (and thus reality), you can change yours too.

There is no need to get stressed out, seriously. You can take 10 on some rolls, but not on all rolls. You cannot take 20 on listen checks or on search checks, as these are ALWAYS under duress. Additionally, the nature of this particular balance check is the same. I gave you the 10 on the two climb checks, and your character only needed to roll an 8 on the balance check to succeed. The roll was a 7.

Now, you are absolutely right about the tumble check. That was an error on my part. I am more than happy to reroll it and....your character nailed the roll there. I will give you back the hitpoints, but please try to remember that this IS A GAME!!! There is nothing here worth getting upset over. I appreciate you being a part of this game because you're a regular poster, as I've already lost one player and another has ceased to post almost entirely. I thank you for that, but I do not see any need to get upset. I really don't.

I was having a really bad day. It wasn't all that bad. But for what it's worth. Here's what the SRD says:

"Taking 10
When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10."

So it's not that I'm under stress. It's about that no one is attacking me and nothing else is distracting me. The only thing on my mind is the skill at hand. But regardless, you're the DM and thus God and the SRD is never worded well enough anyway so it can all be debated.

That and you said the elf "botched" his rolls. I just took that as he rolled a 1. An 8 or better is not great odds. It's only like 60%. But regardless let's move on.

I actually specified the inability to take extra on these rolls. I figure, based on the skills of your character and his background, he might manage taking 10 on the climb checks despite the water pouring into the pit (which means anyone can). However, the combination of the water pouring and the nature of the balance check (you are no longer in a position to climb because of the door, so it is a matter of one shot fail or succeed, rather than check the foothold and retry) This equals a distraction, a one time chance to succeed, so no taking anything. I have confidence you will succeed. But those extra rolls are killing ya man.

On a side note, no reason was given, but it seems we have lost RealStGeorge. He will be missed. I may put his character up as cannon fodder and lower the CRs of the monsters here or I may offer it to someone else. We'll see if you two ever get past this pit.

- Sui

I think one of my misunderstandings was based off of "the inability to take extra on rolls." I didn't really know what that meant since I didn't think taking 10 was extra. Next time I'll ask if I don't understand something. As I said before, I was having a really bad time when I made that complaining post. I'll try not to have that happen again and if I get injured or die because of tricky choices or bad rolls, so be it. Let the dice fall where they may.