Balance

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

Being Attacked You are considered flat-footed while balancing, since you can’t move to avoid a blow, and thus you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). If you have 5 or more ranks in Balance, you aren’t considered flat-footed while balancing. 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 move action. (Moving twice your speed in a round requires two Balance checks, one for each move action used.) You may also accept this penalty in order to charge across a precarious surface; charging requires one Balance check for each multiple of your speed (or fraction thereof) that you charge.

Action None. A Balance check doesn’t require an action; it is made as part of another action or as a reaction to a situation. Check 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. - Sources: &copy;1995-2004 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Revised (3.5) System Reference Document which is considered Open Game Content under the Open Game License. Viewable at: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/20040121a