I’ve pitched this idea a few times now, and with Mod 5 nearly upon us and development probably in full swing for the next update, I thought now would be a good time to make these suggestions again.
Tumble is a useful skill in DDO, but far less useful than it should be. Beyond reducing falling damage, getting +x to your AC (if you have the feat Mobility), and showing off, tumble is rather worthless to most players. Falling is easily remedied by a featherfall item, which are abundant. You only get a bonus to AC if you have Mobility, and can only get more if you have fighter levels. And there are only 3 different levels of tumble animations, spread apart by a large amount of skill points.
Tumbling Through Monsters
My big suggestion to really improve the use of tumble is to emulate PnP’s use of moving through threatened squares. Since we don’t really have threat zones, or attacks of opportunity, tumble has to be slightly altered. But since monsters currently complete block any movement through them this isn’t hard. Whenever one makes a tumbling maneuver through a monster space, a tumble check should be rolled. This would be against a DC dependent on the monsters CR, size, ect. Success means one will tumble as normal, right through the monsters space. Failure means one falls prone for a number of seconds based on how badly one failed. Balance checks could be used to see if you stand up quicker.
Enhancements
Another suggestion is to make Fighter’s Mobility available to nearly all melee classes. Rogues, Rangers, Barbarians, and possibly bards should be able to take a Mobility enhancement. There’s no reason it should be only limited to fighters.
Base AC Bonus
This kinda ties in with the enhancements, but I felt it deserved it's own mention. Tumbling itself should provide a dodge bonus to AC even without Mobility, similar to how shield blocking increases AC. This should scale with the tumble skill. +1 for <10 modifier, +2 for 10-20, +3 for 20-35, +4 for 35-55. Numbers could be different, but it should be some sort of scale, preferably tied to a change in tumble animation.
Animations
Speaking of tumbling animations, the current sets are very lackluster. While the animations aren't really affecting gameplay, they do make the game more enjoyable to play. I’m perfectly fine with a 0 tumble allowing you to only hop, and low tumble allowing you to roll around. What I don’t like is how tumble only has one real progression after that. Around a 31 tumble, you all of sudden are able to do rolling dives. 35 lets you do backflips. First these really should be earned at the same time. But really, I feel these should be achieved much earlier. A tumble of around 20 should be sufficient for dives and backflips, and this will reward players much sooner for investing in tumble. An entirely new set of animation should be designed for a tumble of 40. My suggestion is to expand upon the diving and backflip animations, and add some handsprings into a second flip. A tumble of 60 or so should unlock a new set of animations, but just one new set for a 40 tumble would be fine right now.
I believe these changes will greatly increase the usefulness of tumble. Even if only a couple are implemented, I’ll be happy. Feel free to add your own ideas of how to improve the tumble skill, or comment on the ones mentioned.
Edit: Oh, and YARR!! :D
