Uses for high speed

[cartejos]

As far as I know their isn't much in the way of combat bonuses when it comes to high speed.
The high mobility can be used to escape, close distance, and boost jump checks. But that's all I know of for speed benefits.

So the next logical step would be to focus on what you can do with the jump skill.

Battle Jump and Leap Attack make good starts, each of them doubling the damage of a charge, while Battle Jump allows initiation of a charge by dropping onto a creature from the square above them. I assume with a large enough jump check you could clear most enemies.

So that leads into the "Well, I guess I'm playing a charger now" archetype that a lot of melee builds fall into.

Firstly, is there any other way to play a character who just wants to have high speed and benefit (with bonuses and such) from his high speed?

Second, if resulting to jumping is deemed the best route, is a charger the best way to do it?

Edit: Other than Tiger Claw stuff, already plan on including it, but still looking into it.

[Goaty14]

You could get STR/encumbrance boosters and become the party's packhorse, then laugh in the wizard's face when he suggests he teleport everybody.

[Fouredged Sword]

I at one point built a theoretical build for a goblin half giant half minotaur that ended up with something like 70-8p speed and enough carry cappacity to litterally carry a wagon over his shoulder like a bindle.

The idea was the rest of the party would ride in the wagon. Then in combat they jump down before he uses it as a great hammer.

[ViperMagnum357]

There are a few specific uses, but they tend to be niche, like the Strafing Breath feat. More speed is always good, but at what point you hit diminishing returns depends on where you are typically battling in your campaign.

[Deophaun]

It gets fun when your speed allows you to close distance and escape at the same time. I had a DFA with a fly speed of 240', perfect maneuverability, and Flyby Attack. It was really, really, really annoying for any melee fighter to attack. Archers had to ready their actions to try to hit him as he would just duck back behind cover after barbecuing someone a hundred feet away.

[ericgrau]

Rapid blitz feat, where you near-full attack anything/everything on the battlefield and end your turn at a safe distance from whatever is still alive. Near-full attack because it doesn't get extra attacks from haste, TWF, etc.

[Necroticplague]

You forgot another martial discipline that benefits from speed: Setting Sun. Tornado Throw gives you a bonus to your trip check based on how far you moved, and lets you make a new throw every 10 feet of movement, so increasing you speed can drastically increase your ability to use it to toss of enemies like toy soldiers.

[zergling.exe]

Rapid blitz feat, where you near-full attack anything/everything on the battlefield and end your turn at a safe distance from whatever is still alive. Near-full attack because it doesn't get extra attacks from haste, TWF, etc.

Doesn't that only let you make 3 attacks split up among the 3 targets? Not to mention the +18 BAB requirement makes it nigh impossible to actually get.

[ericgrau]

Doesn't that only let you make 3 attacks split up among the 3 targets? Not to mention the +18 BAB requirement makes it nigh impossible to actually get.

Jeebus I missed the BAB. And bounding assault is +12. So it's 1 attack behind at all levels. That sucks. You can make all 3 attacks against 1 target if you want though, or split as desired.

Well a high speed is good for reaching targets in general. And spring attack. If you can optimize your damage enough the lack of attacks isn't terrible. Add on a source of flight and turn melee into a pseudo ranged damage cannon. With our without spring attack.

[BowStreetRunner]

Scouts gain Skirmish bonuses (precision damage and AC) from movement, which get better with the Improved Skirmish feat.

The Expeditious Dodge feat gives an AC bonus for moving at least 40 feet in a turn.

[Elricaltovilla]

So this is Pathfinder (and 3rd party at that) so probably less relevant to what you're looking for, but I like showing off, so I feel like I can share this build.

The Mithral Current discipline is all about off turn movement, dodging and counter attacks. With the right build, you can move some truly impressive distances and get a ton of attacks in.

You want to be some flavor of Bushi with high WIS for ease of feat access, but anyone can pick up Mithral Current via trait or tradition.

You'll want 1 level of Master of Many Styles monk so that you can have 2 style feats active at once.

The relevant feats are: Quick Draw, Mixed Combat, Mithral Current Style, Mithral Current Flow, Panther Style, Panther Claw, and Panther Parry.

Your Stance will be Mithral Lightning Stance.

Your Boost will be Endless Current.

And you will need the Counter Dance of the Silver Hurricane.

Here's what happens when you initiate Dance of the Silver Hurricane:

Whenever you are attacked, you can move up to 30 ft. as a free action (10 from DotSH, 10 from Endless Current, 10 from Mithral Current Flow), provoking AoOs as you choose. If you provoke an AoO, you can make a free unarmed strike against the target before they hit you inflicting -2 to attack and damage rolls on their AoO, while also benefiting from +6 AC thanks to Mithral Lightning Stance. This also marks the target for the damage portion of Dance of the Silver Hurricane.

As you move, you will be doing 1 attack back per AoO up to your WIS modifier, plus 1 attack back per creature that attacked you. There is no upper limit to how far you can move as long as you keep getting attacked by AoOs.

At the end of it all, you make your counter attack which deals weapon damage plus 4 to 9d6 additional points of damage per attack that missed you.

Obviously this is end-game stuff, coming online at level 17, but the pieces are all there for earlier level builds to do similar things, and you can still make your regular attacks during the round before doing this sequence.

Your goal is essentially to provoke an AoO on your turn and start the chain of destruction so that you can unleash hell on the massed swarm of enemies before you. It's fun, I've tried it.

[Bucky]

Try long range archery. If your speed is more than three times the enemies', you can kite them until you run out of room to retreat.

[lylsyly]

Here is a simple use for more speed, Relevant at early levels if you can get flight, not so much at later levels I think.

Spoiler: Great Flyby Attack

Show

( Savage Species, p. 35)

[General]

You can make multiple flyby attacks in a round.
Prerequisite

Flyby Attack (MM) , Fly speed,
Benefit

Using this feat is a full-round action. When flying, you can move up to your fly speed in a straight line and attack a number of opponents equal to your Dexterity bonus. All targets must be within your reach along the line of your movement. Make one attack roll, add the appropriate modifiers, and compare the result to the AC of each opponent you are attacking. If any hits are successful, make one damage roll and add the appropriate modifiers. Each successful hit does the full damage to that creature; do not divide the result of the damage roll among the targets. Targets of your attack do not get attacks of opportunity against you, but other opponents that would be entitled to attacks of opportunity may take them.Normal

Without this feat, a creature can make a single flyby attack in a round.

[ShurikVch]

One more maneuver which favoring high speed - Ring of Fire: the faster you're moving, the wider space you may encircle to cause 12d6 fire damage

Dance of Death - granted by Paimon the Dancer - "move up to your speed and make a single attack against any creature you move past"; while it's just 1 attack per creature, it still may be useful if encounter consist of numerous but relatively frail creatures

[Malimar]

Scouts gain Skirmish bonuses (precision damage and AC) from movement, which get better with the Improved Skirmish feat.

That's the first thing that came to my mind, too, but those bonuses only accrue at 10' and 20' of movement in a round, which a halfling on foot can manage. No bonuses based on very high speed.

Of course, if you're going to be moving around every round anyway, might as well slap some levels of Scout in there, sure. If nothing else, it does also boost your speed a bit.

[Darrin]

There are a few other ways to leverage high speed.

Mark of Minauros (Fiendish Codex I). For every 10' you move on a charge, you get a +2 bonus on your attack roll. For really, really high speeds, I haven't quite figured out what to use that attack bonus for (outside of Power Attack/Combat Reflexes), but... someone else has probably come up with something. Downside is you have to be a lawful evil devil... which isn't insurmountable, but usually puts the kibosh on most player builds.

Tornado Throw (Tome of Battle). For every 10' of movement, you can throw your opponent 10' and he takes at least 2d6 damage (more depending on how high your trip roll beats your opponent). You then move 10', trip your opponent again, rinse & repeat until you run out of movement.

Roof-Jumper (Cityscape). If you're flying, you can use the "Death From Above" option to drop down on your opponent from above. After the first 20', each 10' you drop adds +1d6 extra damage on a charge attack. If you add Pounce, you get a full attack with all that extra damage on everything that hits. (I used this to get 449d6 damage on a Swanmay build).

[ben-zayb]

I've had a similar thread in the past with a couple of good suggestions

[Seharvepernfan]

Getting into position to flank or block a bottleneck, being that much faster when balancing/climbing/hiding/moving silently/tumbling/etc, moving up to your opponent to attack or threaten from farther than normal, farther charging distance, getting to cover/concealment, chasing down fleeing enemies faster, jump bonus, moving around dangerous squares instead of through when you're in a hurry, and stuff like running around a corner to get out of sight when your enemy is one round behind you and having that many more options for where to be when your enemy gets around the corner.

[TotallyNotEvil]

For dungeon crawling it's of limited utility, but for open air settings it's amazing.

30ft sounds like plenty until the grid comes out and some enemies exploit clever positioning.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Most of this has been mentioned now, but...

Tornado Throw (setting sun) is the best example I can think of, where you're literally doing more damage the farther you move (one throw every 10 ft moved, and higher damage per throw the farther you've moved).

Ring of Fire and Desert Tempest (both Desert Wind) allow you to harm more enemies by having high move speed (larger AoE and more foes you can move away from and get attacks on, respectively).

Ironically Tiger Claw doesn't really have any maneuvers that reward high speed w/ combat boosts. Closest I can think of is Swooping Dragon Strike, to set the save DC higher w/ a better jump check (+4 per 10 ft above 30 speed). But the save DC will be stupidly high regardless.

I'll also mention Elusive Target. It's most known for negating power attack or getting a flanking enemy to hit his friend instead of you. But it also gives you a free trip attack anytime a foe misses an AoO against you for movement w/ no risk of being tripped if your attempt fails. Finally, Mobility is kinda useful! More speed = more chances to attack enemies across the battlefield, just as w/ Desert Tempest or Paimon's Dance of Death.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Does no one fight on battlefields more complex than an open plain? Speed is useful in itself for getting from one feature to another in any field that has any sort of cover, rough terrain, or hazards you can exploit tactically.

[Necroticplague]

Does no one fight on battlefields more complex than an open plain? Speed is useful in itself for getting from one feature to another in any field that has any sort of cover, rough terrain, or hazards you can exploit tactically.

More complex terrain reduces the adventurousness of speed, not increasing it. Complex terrain tends to negate some of the impact of speed, as it allows for enemies to force you to come to them (thus negating your speed), or for your movement to be restricted despite your speed. An open plain is one most conducive to moving fast without eating AoOs like candy.

[Kelb_Panthera]

More complex terrain reduces the adventurousness of speed, not increasing it. Complex terrain tends to negate some of the impact of speed, as it allows for enemies to force you to come to them (thus negating your speed), or for your movement to be restricted despite your speed. An open plain is one most conducive to moving fast without eating AoOs like candy.

Complex terrain tends to necessitate moving further to avoid risks unless the enemy has a major terrain advantage like a if they're defending a narrow pass or the like. Even then, an advantage negated is better than no advantage to begin with. A lot of the time though, complex terrain that doesn't give a decided advantage to one side or the other depends on your ability to move to take advantage of it.

[lylsyly]

Does no one fight on battlefields more complex than an open plain? Speed is useful in itself for getting from one feature to another in any field that has any sort of cover, rough terrain, or hazards you can exploit tactically.

More complex terrain reduces the adventurousness of speed, not increasing it. Complex terrain tends to negate some of the impact of speed, as it allows for enemies to force you to come to them (thus negating your speed), or for your movement to be restricted despite your speed. An open plain is one most conducive to moving fast without eating AoOs like candy.

Complex terrain tends to necessitate moving further to avoid risks unless the enemy has a major terrain advantage like a if they're defending a narrow pass or the like. Even then, an advantage negated is better than no advantage to begin with. A lot of the time though, complex terrain that doesn't give a decided advantage to one side or the other depends on your ability to move to take advantage of it.

Sorry, but I have to agree with Kelb on this one. For 13.5 years I could have used more speed running from cover to cover. Could've avoided a couple of Purple Hearts that way.

[elonin]

If you are going for jump then a jumplomancer is something you could do. Jumping to make people fanatical. TBH I like swapping out jump for tumble for an acrobat twist on things but really jump is more useful.

If you are staying with speed having much more of that is very useful to the dervish. Had tried to make a scout to dervish build but couldn't make it work.