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Table of Contents
Climbing
Route Types
Abseiling Climb
Rope (already fastened up there) & Peace & Quiet
No roll needed.
Fighting or Distraction
Athletics (study for DC).
Level three thief Second Story Work get advantage.
Level nine monk Unarmored Movement can run here without if they are unencumbered but when their movement ends they need to roll to grab hold, or be on solid ground.
No rope?
Counts as Hard Climb, see below.
Sloping Climb
Peace & Quiet
No roll needed.
Fighting or Distraction
Athletics (study for DC).
Level three thief Second Story Work get advantage.
Level nine monk Unarmored Movement can run here without if they are unencumbered but when their movement ends they need to roll to grab hold, or be on solid ground.
Hard Climb
Encumbered
No chance.
Rope (already fastened up there) & Peace & Quiet & Unencumbered
No roll needed.
Fighting, Distraction or lack of Rope
Athletics (study for DC).
Level three thief Second Story Work get advantage.
Level nine monk Unarmored Movement can run here without if they are unencumbered but when their movement ends they need to roll to grab hold, or be on solid ground.
Tip! If you make it, set a rope for your friends with hammers, pitons etc.
Very Hard Climb
Encumbered
No chance.
Unencumbered
Athletics (study for DC).
Level three thief Second Story Work get advantage.
Human Limit Climb
Encumbered or no Second Story Work
No chance.
Unencumbered & Second Story Work
Athletics (study for DC).
Superhuman Climb
Encumbered or no Second Story Work
No chance.
Unencumbered & Second Story Work
Athletics (study for DC).
Climbing on a Giant or other monster
No route studying needed.
For the initial climb, "athlobatics" vs their acrobatics. (They are trying to shake you off.) One you're up there, "athlobatics" vs their athletics to stay on there. (They are trying to scrape you off or knock you off.)
Vice versa when tiny creatures climb on you.
Studying
Unencumbered
Six seconds or less: DC 20 with disad
One minute or less: DC 20
10 minutes or less: DC 15
1 hour or less: DC 10
More than 1 hour: DC 5
(Memory trick: Limits are at 1 round, 10 rounds, 100 rounds, 1 hour, and you need to go strictly longer than the limit to go to the next difficulty class.)
You can only study what you have light. If you come to a dark patch you need to re-light it so you can study more and make a new roll.
Why are the DCs the same even for harder routes? Don't worry about it being too easy, even though the DC is the same, the consequences are more dangerous.
Encumbered
Encumbered adds 5 to DC. Heavy encumbered instead adds 10 to DC. This is only for abseiling or sloped climbs, harder climbs you can't be encumbered.
DC capped routes
Some routes have a minimum DC that you can't go under. You'll know as soon as you hit it.
For example if there's a DC 15 wall. You would see as soon as you had studied it for more than one minute that there is no way to climb it easier than 15 and wouldn't have to waste more time studying it. (Because the DM will tell you.)
These come from modules (Tomb of A have some routes like this), never from the natural veins.
Spider Climb spell, or monster with Climbing speed
Don't worry you can easily traverse any of these w/o rolling, except climbing on a Giant or other monster.