Combat Maneuvers/Scale

Action: standard action
Target: one creature, three or more size categories larger than you.
Feats: Deft Maneuvers

If your scale attempt is successful, you climb up the target’s body a number of squares up to half your speed or up to your full climb speed, if you possess a climb speed.

Average Creature Height by Size
Size	Med.	Large	Huge	Garg.	Colo.
Height	6 ft.	12 ft.	24 ft.	48 ft.	96 ft.

Regardless of its actual height, a creature is considered to be a number of squares tall equal to its space. For instance, a Medium creature is one 5 ft tall, while a Gargantuan creature is considered to be 20 ft tall.

While scaling a creature, that creature is flat-footed against your attacks, and you can use this maneuver in order to get close enough to reach the creature’s vital spots, allowing you to sneak attack the target if you possess such an ability. Typically, climbing a minimum of half a creature’s height in squares is enough to place you within range of your opponent’s vital spots.

On subsequent rounds, if you do not let go of the creature that you are scaling, maintaining the maneuver is a move action.

If your target doesn’t try to knock you off its body, you gain a +5 circumstance bonus on scale attempts against that target on subsequent rounds. Maintaining the maneuver allows you to climb up or down the creature’s body a number of squares equal to half your speed (or your full climb speed if you possess a climb speed) or remain at your current location.

If you do not maintain the maneuver, you let go, taking normal falling damage for the amount of squares that you had climbed on the creature as you plummet to the ground.

If You Are Being Scaled: If you are being scaled, you can attempt to knock the creature that is scaling you off of your body as a standard action by making a combat maneuver check (DC equal to your opponent’s CMD; this does not provoke an attack of opportunity). If you succeed, you knock the scaling creature off of your body and it takes falling damage as appropriate for the number of squares that it had climbed up on your body.

Alternatively, if you succeed you can immediately begin grappling the creature. Being scaled doesn’t impact your ability to perform any actions; you may act normally while being scaled.

Climbing and Scaling: A creature that is trained in the Climb skill can use its ranks in Climb as its base attack bonus when performing a scale maneuver. A creature with a climb speed gains a +8 racial bonus on scale combat maneuver checks, but not to his CMD against scale combat maneuvers.

Helpless While Scaling: If you become helpless while scaling a creature, such as when you are paralyzed, fall asleep, and so on, you immediately let go of the creature you are scaling and fall. You cannot perform an Acrobatics check to reduce the falling damage that you take while helpless.