7.3 Balance (Dex)
The Balance skill represents your ability to maintain your balance and poise on unsteady terrain. It also represents your ability to precisely position your movements, such as to avoid touching traps that you are aware of. Generally, creatures only have to roll Balance checks if the terrain is unsteady for some reason.
7.3.1 Common Balance Tasks
Agile Charge: You can make a difficulty value 10 Balance check while using the charge ability to change directions while charging (see Charge). Success means you can make a single turn of up to 90 degrees during the movement.
Creature Balance: As part of movement, you can make a Balance vs. Reflex attack against a creature you touch. The target must be two or more size categories larger than you. On a hit, you can balance on the target’s body, allowing you to walk on or jump from its body. You must repeat this attack at the end of each subsequent round to stay balancing on the creature. For each consecutive round that you balance on a non-ally in this way, you take a cumulative -5 penalty to this attack.
Maintain Balance: If you take physical damage while on an unsteady surface, you must make a Balance reactive check based on the surface. Failure means that you fall prone (half speed, -2 Armor and Ref). You only need to make this check once per round, even if you take damage from more than one source.
Rapid Stand: You make a difficulty value 15 Balance check as a movement to stand up from a prone position. Success means that you stand up so quickly that you can immediately make another movement. Failure simply means that you stand up.
Walk While Balancing: When you move using your land speed on an unsteady surface, you must make an Balance check based on the surface. If you choose to move at half speed, you gain a +5 bonus to the check. Success means you move along the surface.
7.3.2 Common Balance Modifiers
The base difficulty value to balance on a normal terrain is 0. There are four common circumstances that make Balance checks more difficult: slippery, mobile, narrow, and uneven surfaces. Slightly impaired surfaces increase the difficulty value by 2. Significantly impaired surfaces increase the DV by 5 or more. If a surface is impaired for multiple reasons, add all relevant modifiers. Some specific examples are listed below.
| Ice | DV |
| Rough, hardpacked ice, like a frozen lake | +2 |
| Typical ice | +5 |
| Recently frozen or ultra-smooth ice | +10 |
| Liquid | DV |
| Water-covered ground, such as from rain | +2 |
| Ankle-deep moving stream | +5 |
| Knee-deep static water | +5 |
| Oil-coated ground | +5 |
| Knee-deep moving stream | +10 |
| Narrow Surface | DV |
| About two feet wide | +2 |
| About one foot wide | +5 |
| About six inches wide | +10 |
| About two inches wide | +15 |
| Less than than two inches wide | +20 |
| Sand | DV |
| Water-logged beach sand | +2 |
| Hard-packed desert sand | +2 |
| Typical beach or desert sand | +5 |
| Quicksand | +10 |
| Unusually smooth, wind-tossed desert sand | +10 |
| Uneven Ground | DV |
| Infrequent ankle-high bumps and dips | +2 |
| Constant ankle-high bumps and dips | +5 |
| Infrequent knee-high bumps and dips | +5 |
| Constant knee-high bumps and dips | +10 |