Complete Guide to the Athletics Skill in D&D 5e
As the only Strength-based skill, Athletics covers a wide variety of actions that your character can take. Everything from jumping, climbing, lifting, grappling and shoving, and that’s not even everything. There’s a lot to break down here, and I feel it is worth going over these options. Many Strength-based characters often feel lacking in the utility department, and understanding the options you do have can alleviate that feeling.
What Mechanics use Athletics Checks?
Grappling: Grappling is done by replacing one attack of your attack action with a contested Athletics check. You and your target both roll Athletics, and if you win, the target is grappled. Notably, characters with extra attack can replace one or even both of their attacks with a grapple, though keep in mind that grappling requires a free hand. Also, your target can be no more than one size larger than you, meaning spells and abilities that increase your size will assist in grappling huge and larger targets.
It only takes a small investment into Athletics to be a good grappler, as the vast majority of monsters don’t have proficiency in Athletics. Only 234/2624 printed monsters have proficiency in Athletics. This is fantastic, as a monster with a massive +8 Strength modifier can still be reliably grappled by a character with a +4 Strength modifier and proficiency in Athletics. You could spring for Expertise in the skill to ensure you basically never fail, though that’s probably overkill.
I don’t have time to go through all the benefits of grappling here, but there are a ton. Just as an example; the ability to grapple and drag an enemy and place them exactly where you want them on the battlefield has amazing potential for teamwork, allowing you to meaningfully contribute in fights where an ally (or yourself) has set up a damaging or controlling AoE of some kind. Seriously people, look for opportunities to grapple, I promise you’ll find it as a really fun and effective way to spice up combat. Also note that investing in Athletics is a great way to avoid being grappled, as monsters usually follow the same rules as players here. Just watch out for enemies that automatically grapple on hit like the Kraken.
Shoving: Shoving works exactly like grappling does, contested Athletics check and all. Shoving has less uses than grappling, but at least doesn’t require a free hand. A simple 5ft push can act as a disengage tool or to move an enemy where they don’t want to be. That Wall of Fire is likely going to deal more damage to your enemy than a single strike from your Greataxe, especially because you probably have a better chance at succeeding on the shove than you would be to attack.
Of course, there’s always the old classic of kicking your foe into a bottomless pit Sparta-style. Alternatively, you can instead knock your target prone, which handily grants advantage on all your subsequent attacks. This is especially useful if you’ve got other melee party members or summons, or if you’re facing an enemy whose AC is too high to reliably hit. Like grappling, keep an eye out for opportunities to use this, and you’ll be surprised at how often it comes up.
Climbing: Climbing doesn’t always require an Athletics check. The DMG recommends that one is called for when attempting to climb a difficult or slippery surface, such as a sheer rock wall with little to no handholds. Obviously, it’s up to your DM to determine both when to call for this roll and to set the DC, but there are some real advantages to climbing up high, especially if you have a climb speed. Without a climb speed, every foot you climb counts as two feet of movement speed, but this penalty is ignored if you’ve got a climbing speed.
However, even creatures with a climbing speed may still be asked to make an Athletics check if the surface they want to climb is especially tricky. Creatures with Spider Climb such as spiders or the Dhampir playable race basically never require any checks to climb, and don’t even need to have free hands to do it. With climbing, you can reach areas that may be difficult for your enemy to reach, allowing you to safely attack at range with weapons or spells. This gives ranged attackers a good reason to invest a little bit in Strength and get proficiency in Athletics.
Swimming: Much like climbing, swimming doesn’t always require an Athletics check. The DM is encouraged to call for one when you are attempting to swim quickly, chasing or fleeing from something, or swimming against a current.
Jumping: Jumping distance is typically determined by your actual Strength score rather than Athletics, but your DM is encouraged to call for a check when you attempt to make an especially difficult jump or to clear an obstacle while jumping. Exactly how useful jumping is depends heavily on how vertically inclined you and your party are able to think, and truthfully the rules for it are so obtuse and strange that I have to look them up every time I want to refer to them.
Lifting/Pushing: It always feels great to be the guy called on to pick up that really heavy thing that’s in the way. It’s just such a shame then that most DMs seem to call for a basic Strength check when these situations come up. Why is this a problem? Well, a character can have a maximum of a +5 to a basic Strength check, and on a D20 roll, that will lead to wildly varied results.
It feels pretty bad for your 20 Strength Adonis of a Barbarian to walk up to that heavy boulder in the way and roll a 6 for a total of 11, failing to do the one job you’re actually good at. To all the DMs out there, use Athletics for this stuff. Let the big dumb muscle man live out his Herculean fantasies. If the Wizard can stop time, the Fighter should be able to pick up heavy things.
In Summary
Athletics is one of those skills that comes up about as often as you want it to come up. Most of the things that would call for an Athletics check are player-initiated actions, so if you don’t want to take those specific actions, you can largely ignore this skill. However, for those of you who are already committed to playing a Strength-based character, I would say Athletics is one of the best skills for you. Look for opportunities to take advantage of it, and you’ll find your enemies flying in all directions.
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