Élan (sage ability)
Élan is an expert-status sage ability in the study of Sure-footedness that grants the character the practiced ability to navigate complex, obstacle-filled terrain at full movement speed without the need for checks under normal or lightly pressured conditions. Walls may be scaled, ledges crossed and sudden drops managed with instinctive precision, whether moving through urban spaces, ruins, forest debris or battlefield wreckage. under pursuit or in dangerous environments, the character may perform extraordinary feats of agility without breaking stride, though magical or clearly supernatural obstacles may still require adjudication.
Characters employing the sage ability cannot be encumbered beyond a penalty of -1 to their action points (AP). Clothing and gear must leave the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles unobstructed. Armour, even padded or leather types, cannot be worn at all — not only is it cumbersome, but the bulk and lack of flexibility disallows the character's free movement through crowds. Characters are permitted a tunic, a smock or other upper-body garments of this sort, that are tight to the body; trousers or hose should fit closely and without binding, particularly at the knees and hips, without cords that have loose ends that may catch on passed objects. Footwear must be soft-soled and flexible, such as slippers, espadrilles or light boots without hobnails or reinforcement. Capes and cloaks must be removed; likewise, anything that wraps or cinches around the joints is forbidden. Jewellery or ornaments must not bounce or swing.
Speed of Movement
Characters with the ability are considered able to move through an urban or dense environment as though the ground were flat and open, with a speed of stride-5. This overrides hindrance from crowding, obstacles like crates, fences, stalls or elevation shifts like stairs or balconies — not by ignoring them, but by treating them as traversable at speed. In denser urban environments, the skill allows vertical changes upwards or downwards, from street-level to rooftops, with a lateral loss of movement of stride-1 per ten foot climb or drop in height.
- For example, Bork is running flat out at stride-5, with 4 AP, or 20 combat hexes per round, in a horizontal trajectory. Deciding to leap upwards to get onto a roof 20 feet above him, his physical speed doesn't change; but the level trajectory suffers a loss of stride-2, so that in terms of a person running below him, he moves only 12 hexes forward; but he's on the roof now, out of reach of a person running on the ground. This action is assumed to be possible, and is done without a dexterity check. The same would be true if Bork were dropping from the rooftop to street level.
Because D&D is a turn-based system, Bork's move is resolved simply as a change of location — from where he was to where he is — in exactly the same manner as any other movement. There’s no need to explain how the vertical change occurred: a pipe grasped, a window-sill reached, a crate vaulted. The assumption of seamless traversal is necessary for practical gameplay, as urban environments can't reasonably be mapped in detail. The ability bypasses that grittiness by treating the space as accessible, allowing the character's movement to flow without interruption.
If the DM wishes to specify what in the environment might cause a roll of 1 to turn up, this shouldn't be done until after the die indicates this applies. But since the DM wouldn't know the malady table's answer to the trouble, this isn't suggested; the DM should just allow the metric to work as is, and perhaps specify details only after full knowledge is obtained.
Impassable Obstacles
There are few obstacles that truly prevent a character from employing élan, but those that exist are absolute. A sheer wall that provides no purchase, such as a citadel tower or curtain, cannot be surmounted with speed and must be navigated with climb walls instead, with the rules applying there.
Open water can be crossed by swimming, but again a different set of rules must cover that movement. Finally, the presence of an open void — a chasm, a broken bridge or an atrium with the floor removed — constitutes an absence of physical medium, denying any possibility for running, leaping or vaulting through. Unless some tangible structure bridges that space, such as a rope, beam or series of fixtures, the movement cannot continue and must be resolved by other means.
In most cases, characters should be made aware of the presence of these obstacles in a given direction, particularly when running with intent — and the DM should feel free to specify, preferably in advance of the character's arrival, that the wall, drop or pond lies somewhere ahead. This prevents the barrier's appearance from seeming arbitrary. While most such obstacles can be avoided or turned away from in time, doing so may still give an advantage to pursuing forces, increasing the chance that the character might be surrounded or trapped.
Escape
Escape can be managed by outrunning pursuers, particularly with the use of élan; but characters may also attempt to evade by finding a place to hide. This is best determined before the chase begins, so that the intention is clear and the opportunity reasonably prepared — darting suddenly into a hiding place might work, but it relies on the assumption that such a space exists and is immediately accessible. As the mechanics for hiding fall under the sage study concealment, they need not be addressed here, except to note that élan may serve as a means of reaching a viable hiding spot that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to reach without it.
Check Requirement
Whatever the character's skill, there's always the unexpected — a cart that rolls into the character's path, a patch of wet around a blind corner, a rail that's loose and comes free when pressure is put upon it. For this reason, excepting the first round of performing the ability, the character must roll a d6 prior to movement. If a "1" turns up, the character must make a dexterity check to avoid the consequences of whatever unexpected obstacle might suddenly occur. Success indicates the character continues forward with a loss of 1 stride due to the obstacle; a failure indicates that the character has crashed, suffering 2-12 damage due to the speed and danger courted by the character in practicing élan.
This might result in a stun, which might in turn might mean the character is caught if being pursued. It might feasibly mean the character's being covered in mud or slop thrown from a window above; it might mean the same damage being caused to an innocent bystander. It might mean any number of things... but for game purposes, the character must again roll a d6, after the check fails; if that, too, comes up a "1", then a roll must be made on the malady table, to see what else might have occurred. Thereafter, the character can rise and initiate élan again, as a fresh start (no check on first round).
