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According to the PHB (p 182) after a 10 foot movement the player is able to make a long jump whose length is equal to their strength score. Each foot jumped costs 1 foot of movement.

I have a character with a speed of 25 who can jump 30 (due to the jump spell tripling their normal jump distance of 10). What happens when he runs out of movement?

  1. The player moves the full distance of the jump
  2. The player stops moving when they run out of movement and fall
  3. The player moves up to their movement speed, then finishes the jump on their next turn
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    \$\begingroup\$ Obviously you've never watched Loony Tunes. \$\endgroup\$
    – aslum
    Apr 8, 2022 at 15:00

13 Answers 13

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From the Movement and Position section on page 70 of the Player's Basic Rules:

On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you like on your turn, following the rules here. Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move. However you’re moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.

Regardless of how you're moving, you can only move up to your speed.

From the section on jumping, page 64:

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump.

So your player can't jump 30 feet if their speed is 25 feet. It's the same as them saying "I want to walk 30 feet with my move." Well, no, you can't. You only have 25 feet, so that's as far as you can move. You're not forced to jump as far as you can possibly jump, so your player should move 10 feet, then jump 15 feet.

A point of non-rules justification: Your jumping distance is constrained by your speed as well as your Strength. A wood elf monk can jump further than a halfling wizard even if they have the same Strength, and that makes sense, because the wood elf monk can run twice as fast. It simply wouldn't make sense for the halfling to be able to jump as far.

As a side note (or the most important part of the answer, depending on your point of view), Jeremy Crawford says the same thing - your jumping distance is constrained by your movement.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Jun 17, 2017 at 3:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ I find this answer is ambiguous as it doesn't reply to the question. It's not explicitly stating if a) player cannot make the jump at all or b) player makes jump and falls or c) player makes jump and continues the next round. \$\endgroup\$
    – briddums
    Nov 29, 2019 at 0:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ @briddums It explicitly states a. "your player can't jump 30 feet if their speed is 25 feet". As dale pointed out, if they want to jump 30 feet, they'll need to Dash. \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Nov 29, 2019 at 1:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @miniman then what about a Thief Rogue with 30 in both Dex and Str; that is under the effect of the jump spell only (no other spells, items). That gives 120ft jump. And unless dashing twice gives 120ft of movement, said character can never jump as far as it can, according to this answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Drejzer
    Aug 3, 2020 at 15:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Drejzer That's how it works, yeah. To pull off a 120ft jump, you'd need 130ft of movement. Simple enough for a character that managed to get one ability score to 30, let alone two. \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Aug 3, 2020 at 21:44
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The character finishes the jump on the next turn.

At the snapshot in time at the end of the character's turn the character is in mid-air. On its next turn, it finishes the jump.

By the Rules

From the Movement and Position section on page 70 of the Player's Basic Rules:

On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you like on your turn, following the rules here. Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move. However you’re moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.

Let's call this the movement rule.

Here's how the movement rule works. You can only walk or run as far in a single round as your speed value (including modifications) will allow. If you are walking or running, for instance, the act of walking or running might span multiple turns, but movement rule says you can only move as far in a single turn as your speed allows. Of course, different modalities have different speed values, which complicate things, but in the end the idea is that an act of moving, even if it spans multiple rounds, can take you only so far in a single round.

Jumping is no different. You cannot jump further in your turn than your speed value will allow.

Jumping is different from most other ways of moving, though, in that the distance a character can jump is given by their strength.

From the section on jumping, page 64:

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs you a foot of movement.

Let's call this the jumping rule.

So when a character jumps, the distance the character can jump in total is determined by the jumping rule, but the distance the character can jump this turn is also determined by the movement rule.

An Example

An example might clarify.

Joey and Wanda are 20' from a 15' chasm. Joey's speed is 30. Wanda has wings and can fly at 30. "Oh no, a monster, we must get across the chasm!" They both react quicker than the monster and take off. Wanda flies, Joey runs to the edge of the chasm and jumps. His strength is 16 so he can jump 16 feet. They both run out of movement over the chasm, both 5' from the far edge. On the monster's turn it does something monsterly, like chase after them. The next round picks up where the first round left off. Wanda flies the remaining 5 feet and lands. Joey finishes his jump and lands. They both have 25' of movement left to use during their turns.

Arguing the Contrary

An argument to the contrary might claim that the distance a character can jump is constrained by the movement remaining in the turn, that the character must finish the turn on the ground. If that were the case, then in the example, Joey either has to 1) stop 10' away from the chasm and wait until next round, 2) get 10' across the chasm and then fall due to lack of support between rounds, or 3) get to complete the jump in a single round thereby exceeding his movement rate for the round. None of those make sense.

Rules as Intended

Interpreting the intention behind the rules can be risky, but I interpret the turn/round system to be a game mechanic intended to simplify the simultaneous actions of combat down to something that can be adjudicated sequentially. Each round is full of creatures moving, swinging, casting, feinting, dodging. A character swings a sword many times, we abstract that down to one (or more) attacks. A character moves over difficult terrain, we have rules for that. A character swims or flies across a 100' moat, we know how long that might take. In all cases, there is action going on at the round boundary. In our minds, we can fast forward and rewind it like a film editor. In our minds, we break it up into rounds of about six seconds in order to resolve actions. In our minds, we can freeze the action at a point in time and see what is happening. A character is flying, another one is jumping, a monster is chasing them. Or maybe swords are clashing, arrows are flying, arcane energies are spliting the air. We resolve it as if it were a chess board and each piece makes a finite move or a single attack. But in game terms it is all happening at once.

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    \$\begingroup\$ +1 If you walk 120 feet in a straight line over 4 rounds, your character doesn't walk 30 feet, stop, walk 30 more feet, stop, etc. If you swim or fly or ride a horse, you don't stop at the "turn barrier" either. Nor does a character, jumping across a chasm with width <= jump distance, cease horizontal movement after reaching his or her movement speed and fall into the chasm. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 13, 2016 at 21:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Jack I fully support that answer and can also add another supporting evidence. if you have flying speed and you are flying 50 feet in the air.. you will not fall back to the ground after every move of your full speed... you will remain in the air at the spot you are until your next turn. I do not see why jump would be any different. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 28, 2019 at 1:03
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    \$\begingroup\$ This interpretation seems to lead to conclusions that would be even more absurd than those for the contrary interpretations. For example, consider two hypothetical characters, Alice with speed 40 and Bob with speed 10, both somehow able to jump 30' and both attempting to jump across a 30' chasm 10' away from them. According to your interpretation, it would seem that Alice completes the jump in one turn, while Bob runs up to the chasm, jumps and then takes three more turns slowly floating across. That seems far more absurd to me than Bob being unable to make the jump (or making it in one turn). \$\endgroup\$ Jun 3, 2021 at 12:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @IlmariKaronen You could interpret it as Alice jumping fast (high horizontal speed), and Bob jumping high (low horizontal speed, made up for by air time). Having Bob have 18 seconds of air time seems extreme, but the example was extreme: Bob would need to have an excessively low speed and a 30 (!!) Strength score. It's all abstractions and approximations to make it easier to rule anyway, so the fact that unusual stats lead to unusual conclusions isn't necessarily a problem. In most cases you should expect to be in air for what amounts to half a round. \$\endgroup\$
    – awenonian
    Jun 4, 2021 at 16:52
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What happens when he runs out of movement?

  1. The player moves the full distance of the jump
  2. The player stops moving when they run out of movement and fall
  3. The player moves up to their movement speed, then finishes the jump on their next turn

I would argue for number 3. If you chose to jump a further distance than you had movement left, you are forced to continue traveling the remainder of that difference on your next turn. It would reduce your total distance moved on the next turn, of course. If you didn't want to jump the full 30 feet afforded by your Strength and the Jump spell, you could choose to jump for a smaller distance, of course, to reduce the amount of distance traveled, and if you decided on the next turn that you didn't want to jump as far as you desired, and there were aspects of the environment that would make it make sense (hanging chains to grab, an enemy to grapple as you pass by, etc), I'd likely let you make a roll of some sort to stop yourself, but that's really kind of getting out of Rules As Written and more into what makes the game fun and interesting.

As for justification, option 1 doesn't make sense to me because it provides an extra benefit to jumping (we'd have bunny-hopping like an FPS with people always moving 29 feet and them doing a long-jump so that they could increase their movement rate). Option 2 doesn't make sense because it implies that the game world is aware of the movement rate and therefore chooses to curtail your movement at a fixed point (which might make sense if you decide your world is aware of the rules, but does not work as a general answer). Therefore, we have option 3, which makes sense enough as it doesn't increase your movement rate by employing a glitch where jumps are counted outside of regular movement, it doesn't curtail your jumping distance based on the game world enforcing an arbitrary "you may only jump this far because the round ended" and it fits common sense that, if you run for 5 seconds, then jump, if you're in the air for more than a second, you'll keep moving.

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    \$\begingroup\$ +1 for doing a great job of finding the Golden Mean on this one. Taking RAW into account is nice only insofar as it makes the game fun and interesting, so I appreciate that you discussed Option 3, a common sense middle ground answer that doesn't abuse arbitrary turn-based granularity. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 16, 2018 at 23:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ Oh wow... I didn't even know there was a bounty on this question. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 30, 2019 at 16:00
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As @Miniman said the rules limit you to moving up to your movement in a turn, so for your example 10 feet of running plus 15 feet of jumping maximum.

However, you can Dash:

Dash

When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The increase equals your speed, after applying any modifiers. With a speed of 30 feet, for example, you can move up to 60 feet on your turn if you dash.

Any increase or decrease to your speed changes this additional movement by the same amount. If your speed of 30 feet is reduced to 15 feet, for instance, you can move up to 30 feet this turn if you dash.

which would give you a movement of 50 for that round, 10 feet of movement that you can use before the run up or after the jump - then those 30 foot chasms had better watch out.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Answers should only answer the question. To critique the question or request clarification, you have enough rep to comment and should use that instead. I've removed the question from this post (and it's been answered now, anyway). \$\endgroup\$ Feb 23, 2015 at 17:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ What about a Thief with 30 in STR and Dex that is under the effect of Jump spell? That gives 120ft of jumping distance with only 30ft speed (and dashing twice would make it 90, which still is noticeably less that possible) \$\endgroup\$
    – Drejzer
    Aug 3, 2020 at 16:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Drejzer just because one limit is higher than the other limit doesn't mean that they aren't both limits. For most characters the lower limit is strength score, but for some it is available movement. \$\endgroup\$
    – Caleth
    Jun 2, 2021 at 14:18
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Solution 2 is correct by RAW

The rules as written are quite clear in that a jump is only possible, if there is sufficient Movement left and it can therefore be completed on the same turn. After running 25 feet, your character could simply jump no further than 5 feet on the same turn and is therefore left with the options of jumping too short or not jumping at all. Miniman's answer quotes and explains all relevant rules perfectly, and I have nothing to add there.

Solution 3 offers ways to be abused

Judging from some comments and the votes on Jack's answer, it seems that Solution 3 is quite popular. None of the existing answers talk about the problems that come with this solution, though. They come from one basic observation: Combat is fundamentally turn-based and hence splitting up jumps can break the game.

Narrative-wise, no time passes between a character's subsequent turns. This may not be 100% correct, but it's close enough and I will not argue this assumption, since time really works in mysterious ways in turn-based combat.

Mechanically however, splitting up a jump over two rounds means that you end your turn hovering in the air and do not change your location until everyone else has taken their turn - which should be reserved to creatures that are capable of flying. I can think of at least the following ways to abuse this:

  • Ending your turn mid-air makes you effectively immune against the Earth Tremor spell or anything that relies on ground contact (unless it is cast as a readied action on your turn).

  • Suppose that you're near an appropriately-sized hole in the ground that your strength score allows you to jump over and you're up against a bunch of enemies with no ranged attacks and insufficient strength score to jump over the whole themselves. Just end your turn with a jump over the abyss that has to "stop" in the middle until your next turn. Nobody will be able to attack you in between your turns without falling to their deaths, even if they could just walk around the whole.

These are very niche situations, and whether they are in fact game-breaking may be a matter of opinion, but they are certainly abuses that one should be aware of before allowing Solution 3.

Solution 1 can be abused to increase your speed

This is relatively obvious and I only restate it for the sake of completeness. Sean Duggan's answer goes into more detail and I don't have much to add. To some degree, the problem could be solved by at least removing the Movement thus gained from the character's Speed for the next turn, but this would still mean exceeding your Speed in the first turn (at no cost action-wise) which can obviously be abused. Also, allowing this would seriously step on the toes of any Tabaxi player, as it would make the Feline Agility feature much weaker.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I like your reasoning on this, even if I like Solution 3 the most. The one thing I would mention is that finishing a long jump next turn is also a restriction, because that's distance that can't be changed and can be anticipated by the enemy. I feel like it's still the best solution, but you bring up good edge cases that are important to keep in mind when ruling at the table. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 17, 2020 at 21:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ Note on abusing #1, especially with it reducing their speed next turn: there are a bunch of mechanisms in game which allow exceeding the normal speed already: Bonus action dash, Misty Step spell and feline agility come to mind, not to mention plain old falling. So the abuse potential here is pretty limited, and not something which already isn't in the game in different forms. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 7, 2022 at 5:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @WakiNadiVellir But those mechanisms come at a cost: They take a (bonus) action, use up a spell slot, and are only available in the first place by choosing the appropriate race and class. This is something completely different than allowing it for free and for everybody. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 8, 2022 at 6:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ About your abuse #2: Can't the enemies just wait with a readied action where you'll land? \$\endgroup\$
    – RHS
    Apr 8, 2022 at 6:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MarsPlastic #1 If gained extra movement is subtracted from future movement, then it's a lot like Feline Agility (which requires full round without movement to recharge). \$\endgroup\$ Apr 8, 2022 at 19:07
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According to the guys who literally wrote the book on it, well, it depends on which one you ask.

Random dude: Can you jump farther than your movement when using magic i.e spell Jump & boots of striding and springing?

Mike Mearls: i'd rule yes - design intent is to make you jump super far

Jeremy Crawford: To be clear, things like the jump spell don't increase speed. You can jump crazy far, but your speed caps it.

From Facebook, "Mike Mearls led the creation of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. He oversees the game's development and leads the creation of D&D's story lines and worlds." While according to Twitter, Jeremy Crawford is "lead designer of the #DnD Player's Handbook, I answer rules questions here and compile answers monthly."

Together they're co-designers of the game, but Mearls tends to answer more along the lines of RAI or his house rules, while Crawford's answers are supposed to be the official RAW. I'm not entirely clear on whether random tweets are considered official, or just the Sage Advice Compendiums.

So, let's look at this from a few different perspectives.

Physics
From a physics perspective, there are three ways to jump farther.

  1. You can increase your vertical speed (and therefore height) during the jump.
  2. You can increase your horizontal speed during the jump.
  3. You can decrease your falling rate after the jump.

The Jump spell says:

(a grasshopper’s hind leg) You touch a creature. The creature’s jump distance is tripled until the spell ends.

Of note is that the material element is a grasshopper's leg. This strongly implies the spell is boosting the recipient's strength while jumping. That is, the extra jump distance is very likely caused by 1 or 2 above, not 3.

Ok, so how do we increase jump distance through extra speed? Well, it's basic kinematics, but the gist is this:
py = ½ A t² + vy0 t
px = vx0 t

We solve the first equation to find out when vertical (y) position is 0, and we get t=0 (we started on the ground) and t=½Avy0. We can substitute this into the second equation to get:
d = vx0½ A v y0 = ½ A vx0 vy0

This means we can triple the jump distance by tripling either vertical or horizontal speed off the jump. If we triple the vertical speed, we also triple the time taken, and the horizontal speed is unchanged. If we triple the horizontal speed, we jump three times the distance in the same amount of time. We could multiply each by about 1.732 (sqrt of 3) so it would take 1.732 times longer.

So mathematically, we could go either way. However, there's a very strong argument for mostly horizontal speed. Jumping higher means your maximum height is increased by a factor of 9=3², and putting all that extra power into a vertical jump would let you jump even higher. A strength 10 character could jump (3+0)×9=27 feet in the air, while a strength 20 character could jump (3+5)×9=72 feet in the air. Or 2.5×9 = 22.5 feet high while jumping 30 feet forwards at strength 10 or 5×9 = 45 feet high while jumping 60 feet forwards at strength 20. Jumping faster means your maximum height doesn't change, and you just go a lot farther, which seems closer to the design intent here.

RAW
So RAW doesn't necessarily help a lot. Clearly, a normal jump is supposed to go about the same speed no matter how long the jump is. But that's because it's a lot easier to just use a fixed movement speed than do a bunch of math, and the approximation isn't that much different from reality. Plus, who's to say a super-long jump doesn't require some extra time to land and re-orient yourself, further mitigating the difference?

One thing that is helpful is this:

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump.

Clearly, a long jump involves a running start. You aren't just moseying along; you're making a short dash. This further reinforces the notion that jumping a long distance is about speed, not height.

Using the numbers from the OP:
Normally, you'd use 10 movement before the jump, spend up to 10 points jumping (based on strength), then have 5 points to allocate before or after the jump. When the Jump spell, you're just tripling the distance you travel during whatever jump you take. So for each movement point you spend jumping, you travel 3 feet of horizontal distance.

RAW vs Physics
Something that really warrants pointing out about now: while the rules are clearly simplified more than the physics equations, they still map pretty nicely to real physics.

Using more physics, based on the numbers above. From Sciencing.com, h = gt²/2. Solving for a height of 8 using 32 ft/s² gives about t=2.8 s on a strength 20 character. Jumping 20 feet in 2.8 seconds means horizontal speed is around 7 ft/s. Normal walking speed is 30 ft / 6s = 5 ft/s, so this isn't crazy. But the character isn't jumping vertically and horizontally at the same time.

From a forum: At your DM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall.

So, while long jumping, your feet are a quarter of the jump distance off the ground, or about 5 feet on a 20-foot jump. This only gives us about 0.56 s of airtime. To clear 20 feet in 0.56 s, the character is moving about 36 ft/s horizontally.

A really fast sprint is about 45 km/h = 41 ft/s, and our guy gets up almost that in 10 feet. In this article, we see the guy with the 41 ft/s speed, Usain Bolt, accelerates really hard off the line, reaching 9 m/s (30 ft/s) in about 2 s, over about 36 feet. So our 20-strength guy is accelerating about 3 times harder than Usain Bolt, but sprint speed isn't too much different.

Similarly, the longest jump recorded was just shy of 30 feet, with more typical really long jumps being around 25 feet, unencumbered. So a 20-foot jump isn't crazy. Note again that real jumpers typically have a greater acceleration distance, giving them take-off speeds between 12 and 35 ft/s, with normal ~20° jump angles being somewhere in the middle. (Also, note that the 20° angle is yet again consistent with the notion that we're mostly looking for forward speed, not vertical height.)

Additionally, this is the kind of physics the game is intended to simulate as accurately as possible within the simplified rule systems. So "it's a fantasy world" isn't a good counter-argument in this case.

So using physics as a guide is a good start.

Gameplay
Ok, so physics plus some RAW plus the spell description says jumping with the Jump spell should mean you're traveling about three times as fast. Other people say you're traveling the same speed. How does that work in practice?

If we assume you travel faster while jumping farther under effects like this, everything seems to work out. You could try to cheat by walking 29 feet then jumping 60, but that doesn't work. You can only use up to your strength in movement points for jumping each round, and you can only use as many movement points as you have; you just travel three times further for each point used. So if you walk 29 feet then jump, you go 3 feet, for a total of 32. If you walk 20 feet then jump, you go up to 30 feet, for a total of 50 feet.

However, if we say your jump distance is limited by your speed, we have a problem. Say you're walking along and you see a ravine. It's 60 feet across. Your wizard buddy casts Jump on you, so you've got an entire minute to leap across. You walk up to the ravine, then in the last 10 feet you dash forward and leap 60 feet, easily clearing the ravine. Woot!

Then, you turn around and realize a goblin assassin is about to ambush your wizard friend! You yell at him so he's not surprised, then proceed to leap back across to help him. Except, you can't. You can't quite figure it out, but due to some meta-game thing called "we're in combat now", you can't go over 30 feet in one round, and 10 of those are the starting dash. So you can only get halfway across before falling in.

Ok, sure, you can use the dash ability to move even farther in a round. But out of combat, you didn't have to. And the jump spell is clearly an automatic dash action for the purpose of jumping. So you shouldn't have to. Plus, dash only gives you 60 feet, and the first 10 are used to start the jump, leaving you 10 feet short. So you have to take a full-round run action, when you should be able to leap across the ravine with your base move, use a dash action to add 30 feet of move and approach the goblin, then whack him in the face with your standard action.

Conclusion
Physics, real-world athletes, extrapolation from basic movement rules, and the spell description, tell us your movement speed should increase while jumping using the Jump spell. Your character's ability to run and jump inexplicably changes between non-combat and in-combat, which is just weird. And one of the game devs says you should be able to jump extra far, because that's the design intent.

So in your example, you could move 10 feet, use 10 of your remaining move points to quickly jump 30 feet, then move up to 5 more feet either before or after the jump, using up your 25 movement.

But, just to put a twist in everything, a different game dev (in this case, the one whose word is likely the official interpretation on RAW) says none of the above is true, and you're stuck at normal movement speed despite it making zero sense here. And the fact that there's no explicit RAW explaining how to deal with partial move distance means some DMs will be leery of calling that an official rule.

But I see it as an obvious interpretation of the RAW.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Crawford has the job on Twitter of giving canonical answers about the rules. Mearls' answers are how he would rule. So you might want to revise the beginning a bit to acknowledge that Crawford's answers are official, not just “well, who knows?” \$\endgroup\$ Mar 4, 2016 at 15:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ on how to interpret Jeremy's tweets vs. Sage Advice Compendium: where do I find the official rules (dnd 5e)? Specifically, Crawford tweets might be official, but it's not clear when one is. (And they're occasionally acknowledged to be wrong....) \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60
    Jun 17, 2017 at 9:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ Also worth noting that now Crawford's tweets are not official rulings - only those in the SAC are "official", whatever that's worth. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Jun 7, 2019 at 4:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not entirely clear on whether random tweets are considered official, or just the Sage Advice Compendiums The latter \$\endgroup\$ Nov 25, 2019 at 16:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ @OmniOptic88: I used the formula from Wikipedia, which in turn came from this blog post, which had the wrong formula. The Wikipedia article has since been updated, with the reference deleted. I updated the math, but it's been 6 years since I wrote this answer, so it's possible I misinterpreted my own answer and wrote something incorrectly. \$\endgroup\$
    – MichaelS
    Apr 8, 2022 at 7:32
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Your speed limits the distance you can move per turn. If you can walk 25 feet in one turn, you can continue to walk another 25 feet in the next turn. Now replace "walk" with "run"/"fly"/"jump".

Note that such an "interrupted" jump/flight does not imply that you hover between turns. In the game's world, zero time passes between two turns (unlike the real world, where you ponder tactics, roll your dice, discuss with the GM...). The time-discrete nature of the turn-based gameplay is meant to limit the number of decisions a character can do per game-world time unit, not to limit the physical laws of the game universe.

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THE JUMP SPELL CHANGES THE TOTAL MOVEMENT CALCULATION

So glad I found this thread, building a Dragoon homebrew sub-class for all martial classes. It indeed looks like RAW you would normally continue your jump into the next round, as silly as that is. Talk about taking away ANY hope of building a Dragoon-type character. Having an Action every other turn and spending half combat in a comical state...But I don't think we're reading Jump rules correctly.

TLDR

Jump distance = jump speed = movement speed. Therefore Jump spell triples your movement speed, but only while jumping, to calculate total movement limit per turn.

Jumping should be treated like falling. You are on a path you have no control over. You cannot change direction or speed like walking or flying. You are at the mercy of gravity and your muscles. It should count for movement ONLY to determine if you have enough movement left after the jump to move any more after landing. Every jump should end on the turn it was made. But if you go over your move by more than 10 feet, you should lose a Bonus Action. Not even Jordan could stay airborne for 6 seconds. An average NFL punt has a hangtime around 7-8 seconds, a creature 1000x the weight of a football would have way less than 6.

My Reasoning

My reading of the rules is "jump" is interchangeable with "movement speed," they both pull from the same resource, your total movement limit/turn which can be used in any combination of walking, swimming, climbing or jumping. The other types of movement besides walking are just how you move: climbing swimming & jumping have additional mechanics that limit how much of your total walking movement they use. The PHB wording is even "costs 1 extra foot of movement for each foot." If something increases a specific type of movement it does so for only that movement, but it also increases total movement limit per turn when using that movement.

Therefore, "walking speed" and "jumping distance/speed" are the same since they both count toward total movement. Your jumping distance is your jumping speed, but the amount of speed you can use to jump is limited by additional factors (your STR score and mod). This means Jump spell actually does the same thing as Longstrider, but it only increases both speed and distance on one type of movement: jumping.

Since it takes movement, jump distance = jump speed = movement speed. The Jump spell should be interpreted to mean "triple your speed and distance when jumping." This would mean, while jumping only, your movement distance each turn is calculated like so under the Jump spell:

A jumped PC with move 30 and 20 STR has a 60' long jump and 24' high jump. As long as you don't move more than 30 with this formula [move before jump + normal jump distance], before jump distance is tripled, you land and can act if before the tripling you were under 30 feet. For a baseline, our 20 STR character, who could normally make a [10' running start + 20 long jump = 30 feet movement] could jump, land, and act in the same turn. The same character under the effects of Jump spell could do the same, but jump up to 60 and still land and take an Action and Bonus Action, but have no movement left. Any more than 60 and the jump caries over. Same with the high jump. The normal would be would be [10' running start + 3 + Str Mod (5) = 18 feet] is under 30 and have 12 feet of movement left. Under Jump, the high-jump would triple from 8 to 24 feet [10 + 24 (3x8) = 34], but because the normal, un-enhanced, movement would be 18, he still has the 12 feet left.

Jumping and Falling

Once you jump, you are no longer in control of the direction of movement, just like falling. In 5e, you fall at a rate of 500 feet/turn (Xanathar's Guide to Everything p. 77). This means under the above, if you jump and fall, say off a cliff grappling an enemy, only the normal jump distance counts toward movement, not the falling which is 500'/turn. Use this insanity at your own peril.

Back to the example above, time a pole-vaulter or NFL punt. Pole-vault is about 4 seconds including running start, NFL punt hangtime is about 7-8 seconds and a Srt-based medium PC is about 200lbs, much heavier than a football.

Actually, now that I think about it, this is enough for me to think that any jump ends on the same turn. It just costs movement, so if you have none left, you can't move after the jump. I appreciate the above logic, but jumping (since you are in the air) and falling are both movement that cannot change direction OR adjust speed like walking climbing, swimming or flying. If we are to apply the 2-turn jump to falling, you could never take any action to break a fall because you would use your movement, action & bonus action every turn to traverse the 500 feet. Which is wrong because you DO get your action when falling (involuntary movement, just like after you jump).

Also, if you end your turn in mid-air, and the enemy acts before you next round and casts Fireball, do you have Disadvantage on the Dex save?

Common Sense Houserule

In no way can I believe, in any discussion, ever, did the developers think it would be fine to leave a jumping character in mid-air between turns. The RAW unless you are making a long jump under the effects of a jump spell or wearing a Giant belt, you will never exceed your total move while jumping.

Just rule a character can jump, but cannot move after landing if the jump used up all his move. If a PC jumps more than 10 feet past his total move, he is forced to take the Dash action. If they are under a Jump spell or have a Giant belt, that extra distance shouldn't be penalized, it's magic after all.

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    \$\begingroup\$ this is literally the only explanation that makes sense to me. nobody else seems to have accounted for the jump spell being magical and ergo you can just handwave away the normal physics you're trying to put on top of things. the ability to cast jump spell is already a cost t was your bonus action, if you were a rogue you could get an extra 30-60 foot with that bonus action so why is it so bizarre that someone using the jump spell as a bonus action would get to go that far but as a jump? \$\endgroup\$ Jun 25, 2021 at 14:29
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Option 3: Jump continues into subsequent turn(s)


The two answers most often referenced seem to conflict, but don't:

Answer 1: @JeremyECrawford, September 2014

  • "Things like the jump spell don't increase speed. You can jump crazy far, but your speed caps it."

  • "Every foot jumped costs movement, so you can jump farther than your current speed if you take the Dash action."

Answer 2: @JeremyECrawford, August 2017

  • "The trigger you choose for the Ready action must be a "perceivable circumstance" (PH, 193). A caster doesn't perceive turns ending".

Answer 1 doesn't directly answer the question. It addresses "speed of movement", but not "total distance of jump", or the transition between turns. Speed is distance moved over a specific time increment. I presume he read the question as, "Can I use all my Movement, then Jump to increase Distance moved in a single turn?" instead of "Can my jump span multiple turns?"

Answer 2 refers to "caster" because the question involved a spell, but the bigger question was triggering a Readied Action (Spell) to go off "at the end of this round". Non-casters can ready actions, so it follows that no character can "perceive turns ending". (This answer was posted nearly three years later, so if the two do conflict, the most recent rulings hold.)

They don't conflict if you consider that "Speed", "Distance" and "Movement" are not identical, and have specific in-game meanings. Distance: how far a character moves. Speed: distance moved per turn. Movement: maximum possible distance moved in a single turn.


Supporting rules:

1) Creatures needn't be on the ground when a turn/round ends

"A strong wind ... makes flying by nonmagical means nearly impossible. A flying creature in a strong wind must land at the end of its turn or fall" (DMG p.110)

A creature flying can end its "turn" in the air (doesn't need to land between), because its movement flows uninterrupted from one turn to the next. Because to characters in the game, turns/rounds don't exist at all.

2) Creatures needn't hover to remain aloft (@JeremyECrawford, July 2015)

"A flyer that lacks the hover trait can stay aloft without moving each round."

A flying creature does not need the ability to stay in one place to stay aloft during the transition from one round to the next. It can remain flying as long as it is in control of itself. This indicates that to the flying creature, it's not moving for six seconds then "waiting" then moving again, it's just moving.

3) Flying creatures remain so unless acted upon

"If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic" (PHB, p.191)

A creature in flight doesn't fall unless one of the listed conditions are met. This reinforces the previous points.


Everything above is consistent with a jump spanning multiple turns

A character that doesn't know its turn has ended has no reason to curtail its movement to something that can be finished in a six-second span. It can jump further than its Speed, but can only move up to its Movement limit in a single turn.

If this were otherwise, no one in the in-game world could ever throw a ball, shoot an arrow, toss a javelin, etc., if the distance from start to finish took longer than six seconds at its speed of travel: the projectile would simply stop mid-air and drop to the ground. Everyone in the world would "perceive turns ending", since anything without flying or under the control of a spell would stop moving and drop to the ground in a predictable steady six-second pulse.

Another angle: Turns don't exist outside of combat. They don't exist to characters at all, only players' minds. If anyone or anything in their world could ever make a long jump or long throw (archers firing arrows at high angle to increase range, giants throwing stones long distances), but couldn't do so while in combat, they would be aware of the six-second "turn/round" pulse, and that doesn't add up.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Every supporting rule you quote is explicitly about flying creatures. I don't think flying rules should apply to jumps. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 28, 2019 at 12:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @MarsPlastic The Guide disagrees (he he he) \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60
    Nov 28, 2019 at 14:06
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You continue your jump on the next turn

The rules for Movement say:

On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed.

The rules for Special Types of Movement states:

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance.

  • On your turn you cannot move further than your speed.
  • In any single jump you cannot jump further than your Strength score (or half for a standing jump).

If you are mid air on the end of your turn, you remain there until the start of your next turn. There is no reason to assume otherwise.

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Specific beats General.

For a regular jump, you use the general rule already quoted in other posts.

For a magically aided jump spell? That specific rule trumps the general rule. The jump spell increases your move speed while jumping while it is active. You move 10, magically jump 30 more which uses and exceeds your remaining 15. You land and your move action is complete. Then you attack, or whatever other action or bonus action you have available if you did not already use them.

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Jump spell increases jump movement by 3x. A magical enhancement to a very specific type of movement. A straight line. Jump consumes movement at a 3 per 1 movement, so if the actor wishes to jump their maximum distance, it must be done in such a way that a proportionate value of movement is consumed. If a human can jump 30' with jump spell active, to make use of the full jump it must use 10' of its movement to do so, leaving 20 feet of normal movement. If the character has a high strength and can jump 60' with spell active, then it will consume 20 feet of total movement, leaving only 10' of movement. The jump is part of the total movement, but is enhanced in a very specific way by the spell. A straight line that the character can not change once declared. (a crafty opponent will make use of that) Similar spells Expeditious Retreat grant Dash (a full extra move without restriction) as a bonus action, while Haste doubles movement outright in addition to other benefits. If the character wishes to consume a spell slot to gain a straight line boost in movement, I can't see what the problem is.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Can you point to a source for your "proportional deduction from move speed" accounting scheme? It's a new interpretation that none of the other answers employ, so I wonder what its source is. \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60
    Jul 15, 2016 at 4:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ I apologize for not being more clear. if you gain three times the normal jump distance with the Jump spell, the ratio would be 3:1 feet of jump per normal movement foot used as jumping is still part of normal movement. So if you want to jump 45 feet (and if you are able) you consume 15 feet of normal movement to do so. The idea is that the jump length must be determined before movement takes place, and the overall movement can not exceed the maximum allowed per turn. I hope that clarifies. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mike
    Jul 15, 2016 at 6:45
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The spell has given the character a movement of 30 for the jump itself. Turns and speed are a function of time. A jump is regulated by gravity, which says you must come down within a certain period of time. If the character was the target of a jump spell, that persons jump speed just increased which means they jump faster, they get there faster. In other words, in the same amount of time as a regular jump that occurred during their turn.

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    \$\begingroup\$ They are still limited by their own speed, even though their maximum jump distance is increased (note it does not give them a jump speed, that would be different). The dash action can be used to extend the jump to your maximum distance. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Feb 23, 2015 at 15:02

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