Balance Skill

Check
You can walk on a precarious surface. A successful check lets you move at half your speed along the surface for 1 turn. A failure by 4 or less means you can’t move for 1 turn. A failure by 5 or more means you fall. The difficulty varies with the surface, as follows:

Add modifiers from Narrow Surface Modifiers, below, as appropriate.

Includes any other surface that couldn’t support the character’s weight, such as a fragile branch.

Narrow Surface Modifiers
Add the appropriate modifier to the Balance DC of a narrow surface. These modifiers stack.

Being Attacked while Balancing
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.

Accelerated Movement
You can try to walk across a precarious surface more quickly than normal. If you accept a –5 penalty, you can move your full speed as a movement action.

Action
A Balance check doesn’t require an action; it is made as part of another action or as a reaction to a situation.

Special
If you have the Agile feat, you get a +2 bonus on Balance checks.

Synergy
If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you get a +2 bonus on Balance checks.