Back to 2e Cheat Sheets

Climbing Chance: All characters are able to Climb. Climbing requires a check against the character’s Muscle score, in the same manner as a Non-weapon Proficiency. This check is subject to the following modifiers:

Aside from jumping or flying, the quickest way to get down from a height is to rappel. This requires a rope attached at the top of the climb and a skilled Mountaineer to set up the rappel and to hold the rope at the bottom. When rappeling down a surface, a Climbing check with a +10 bonus must be rolled. Free rappels (with the end of the rope unsupported at the bottom) are also possible, but the modifier is only +6. Of course, a failed check results in a slip sometime during the rappel (the DM decides on the damage suffered). A character can rappel at a speed equal to his normal movement (120 feet per round for an unencumbered human). One other thing to bear in mind is that there must be a landing point at the end of the rope. Rappelling 60 feet down a 100-foot cliff means the character is either stranded at the end of the rope or, worse still, rappels right off the end and covers the last 40 feet much faster than he did the first 60!