Check: You can attempt to stay on your feet in a tricky situation, such as when you’re trying to run across a sheet of ice, balance on a tightrope, or stay upright on a rocking ship’s deck. The Acrobatics check is also used when you try to perform acrobatic stunts, including dives, rolls, somersaults, and flips.
Balance on a Precarious Surface: A successful check lets you move at half your speed along the surface for 1 round. A failure by 4 or less means you can’t move for 1 round. A failure by 5 or more means you fall. The difficulty when balancing on a narrow surface varies with the surface width, as follows:
| Surface width | Acrobatics DC | Difficult Surface | Acrobatics DC1 |
| Greater than 3 feet wide | 01 | ||
| 1-3 feet wide | 51 | ||
| 7–11 inches wide | 10 | Uneven flagstone | 102 |
| 2–6 inches wide | 15 | Hewn stone floor | 102 |
| Less than 2 inches wide | 20 | Sloped or angled floor | 102 |
| 1 No Acrobatics check is needed to move across these surfaces unless the modifiers to the surface increase the DC to 10 or higher, see Situational Acrobatics Modifiers, below. | |||
| 2 Only if running or charging. Failure by 4 or less means the character can’t run or charge, but may otherwise act normally. | |||
You are considered flat-footed while balancing, since you can’t move to avoid a blow. If you take damage while balancing, you must make another Balance check against the same DC to remain standing.
Entertain: You can tumble, escape from rope or balance on rope to entertain an audience (as though using the Perform skill).
Escape from Restraints: For ropes, your Acrobatics check is opposed by the binder’s Use Rope check. Since it’s easier to tie someone up than to escape from being tied up, the binder gets a +10 bonus on his or her check. The DC to escape from manacles is set by their construction.
You get out of a grapple or out of a pinned condition (so that you’re only grappling) by making an Acrobatics check opposed by your enemy’s grapple check.
The action and DC varies with different kind of restraints, as follows:
| Restraint | Action | Acrobatics DC |
| Ropes Binder’s | 1 minute of work | Use Rope check at +10 |
| Net, animate rope spell, command plants spell, control plants spell, or entangle spell | Full-round action | 20 |
| Snare spell | Full-round action | 23 |
| Manacles | 1 minute of work | 30 |
| Masterwork manacles | 1 minute of work | 35 |
| Grapple | 1 standard action | Grapple check |
Get through Tight Space: The DC for getting through a space where your head fits but your shoulders don’t is 30. If the space is long you may need to make multiple checks. You can’t get through a space that your head does not fit through.
Roll landing: You can land softly when you fall. The DC to treat a fall as if it were 10 feet shorter than it really is when determining damage is 15.
Tumble: You can tumble past opponents or through occupied area without provoking an attack of opportunity from an enemy. When moving this way, you move at half speed. You can move at full speed by increasing the DC of the check by 10. You cannot use Acrobatics to move past foes if your speed is reduced due to carrying a medium or heavy load or wearing medium or heavy armor. If an ability allows you to move at full speed under such conditions, you can use Acrobatics to move past foes. You can use Acrobatics in this way while prone, but doing so requires a full-round action to move 5 feet, and the DC is increased by 5. If you attempt to move through an enemy’s space and fail the check, you lose the move action and provoke an attack of opportunity.
| Situation | Acrobatics DC1 |
| Move through a threatened area | 15 |
| Move through an enemy’s space | 25 |
| 1 This DC is used to avoid an attack of opportunity due to movement. This DC increases by 2 for each additional
opponent avoided in 1 round |
|
Many conditions can affect your chances of success with Acrobatics checks. The following modifiers to target DCs apply to all Acrobatics checks. The modifiers stack with one another, but only the most severe modifier for any one condition applies.
Situational Acrobatics Modifiers
| Surface | DC Modifier1 |
| Lightly obstructed (scree, light rubble, shallow bog2, undergrowth) | +2 |
| Severely obstructed (natural cavern floor, dense rubble, dense undergrowth) | +5 |
| Lightly slippery (wet floor) | +2 |
| Severely slippery (ice sheet) | +5 |
| Slightly sloped (<45°) | +2 |
| Severely sloped (>45°) | +5 |
| Slightly unsteady (boat in rough water) | +2 |
| Moderately unsteady (boat in a storm) | +5 |
| Severely unsteady (earthquake) | +10 |
| Move at full speed when balancing on a precarious surface | +5 |
| Move at full speed when charging on a precarious surface | +5 multipled3 |
| Move at full speed when tumbling | +10 |
| Tumbling while prone | +5 |
| 1 Add the appropriate modifier to the Acrobatics DC.
2 Acrobatics checks are impossible in a deep bog. 3 The penalty to your Acrobatics check is multiplied for each multiple of your speed (or fraction thereof) that you charge |
|
| These modifiers stack; use any that apply. | |
Action: Varies. An Acrobatics check to balance on a precarious surface or to tumble doesn’t require an action; it is made as part of another action or as a reaction to a situation. Escaping from restraints, see text.
Try Again: Varies. You can make another check after a failed check if you’re squeezing your way through a tight space, making multiple checks. If the situation permits, you can make additional checks, or even take 20, as long as you’re not being actively opposed.
You cannot try again on a failed Acrobatics check to roll land, tumble or entertain. An audience, once it has judged a tumbler as an uninteresting performer, is not receptive to repeat performances.
Special: If you have the Agile feat, you get a +2 bonus on Acrobatics checks.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC when fighting defensively instead of the usual +2 dodge bonus to AC.
If you have 5 or more ranks in acrobatics, you gain a +6 dodge bonus to AC when executing the total defense standard action instead of the usual +4 dodge bonus to AC.