Movement in the Unbound system is broken up into two categories, Tactical and Overland movement. Tactical movement refers to how much you can move on your turn during Initiative, such as during a combat encounter or any other situation where time is of the essence. Overland movement is used for any movement outside of tactical combat and represents how quickly you can move long distances such as when traveling between cities and other such situations.
Burrow Speed
Burrow refers to the ability to move through the ground or other solid materials without being impeded. Burrow can be broken up into three general subtypes, however there may be others that are more unique to specific creatures.
- Burrow: A burrow speed allows you to dig your way through the earth, moving unimpeded by soft ground and leaving behind disturbed, yet still solid ground. This means that unless another creature has a Burrow speed, they cannot follow you burrowing with this method. In addition, you are unable to run or charge with this movement type.
- Earth Glide: This movement speed is extremely rare and usually magical in nature as it allows you to meld with any unworked earth, rock, or stone and move through it completely unimpeded and without leaving any trace that the material had been moved through. In addition, if you have this movement type it also grants you the ability to see clearly through stone in some way, or at least target creatures. You are able to run and charge through the ground.
- Tunneling: A tunneling speed is a special type of Burrow speed that allows you to dig your way through soft and hard earth within reason. In addition, you leave an obvious tunnel behind you that other creatures can follow through as long as they are the same or smaller size as you are; if they are bigger, they may have to make Escape Artists checks if they are able to attempt to follow at all. Just like with a Burrow speed, you are unable to charge or run with this movement type.
Climb Speed
Climbing can be broken down into two common forms of movement; the first would be a creature using the climb skill to traverse an environment. The latter would be for a creature to have a climb speed as one of their movement types.
Climb Skill: If you have sufficient strength and skill, you able to pull yourself through the environment as long as you make a sufficient Climb skill check. To be able to climb with the Climb skill they must have at least two grasping appendages that are free and successfully make a skill check beating a DC depending on what you are climbing. If you fail this Climb check by less than 5, you make no progress, failing by more than 5 means that you lose your grip and fall. Successfully making a Climb check allows you to move at a quarter of your base land speed by default and you may increase this to half of your base land speed by taking a -5 penalty to your Climb check, however you are also considered Flat-Footed while climbing with the Climb skill as you are exposed.
If they take damage while climbing you may have to make another Climb check as an Immediate Action not to lose your grip. If you do fall while climbing you may attempt to catch yourself, for a vertical drop the DC to catch yourself while falling is DC 10 + the original DC of the climb check, if this is a slope the DC is 5 + the original DC. The following list is an example DC for common climbing situations and situational modifiers.
| DC | Situation |
| 0 | A slope too steep to walk up, or a knotted rope with a wall to brace against. |
| 5 | A rope with a wall to brace against, or a knotted rope, or a rope affected by the rope trick spell. |
| 10 | A surface with ledges to hold on to and stand on, such as a very rough wall or a ship’s rigging. |
| 15 | Any surface with adequate handholds and footholds (natural or artificial), such as a very rough natural rock surface or a tree, or an unknotted rope, or pulling themselves up when dangling by their hands. |
| 20 | An uneven surface with some narrow handholds and footholds, such as a typical wall in a dungeon. |
| 21 | A typical buildings upper-story wall |
| 25 | A typical buildings lower-story wall |
| 25 | A rough surface, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall. |
| 30 | An overhang or ceiling with handholds but no footholds, or a typical city wall |
| — | A perfectly smooth, flat, vertical (or inverted) surface cannot be climbed. |
Climbing Modifiers
- Modifier –10: Climbing a chimney (artificial or natural) or other location where a creature can brace against two opposite walls.
- Modifier –5: Climbing a corner where a creature can brace against perpendicular walls.
- Modifier +5: Surface is slippery.
Climb Speeds
If you have a Climb speed, you find it easier to climb, moving at your full Climb Speed instead of a percentage of your Land Speed. A climb speed does not mean that you do not have to make Climb checks, it just means that difficult checks are easier. As long as the object or terrain that you are attempting to climb has adequate hand and foot holds and is not at an obese angle, you treat the DC to climb as 25 lower. If this reduces the DC to 0 or lower, you automatically pass the Climb check; however, certain situational modifiers may require you to make a Climb check.
- Magical Climb Speeds: You may have magical or supernatural abilities that allow you to defy physics and climb completely unimpeded. These rare abilities allow you to walk and move up walls and even ceilings, moving at your base land speed and acting normally without penalty. In addition, these abilities may allow you to ignore a Climb check completely.
Fly Speed
Many creatures have the ability to fly in various forms from gliding through the air to magical flight that allows them to soar through the skies. These different forms of flight provide various different bonuses and can be acquired in different ways. However, the ability to fly almost always comes down to the ability to fly with a fly skill check. If you have a natural Fly speed, you can move up to your listed Fly speed in a straight line and end your turn not flying without needing a skill check.
However, to do any movement beyond this requires a skill check with the following DCs. In addition, moving straight up with any type of flight requires double the amount of movement if you succeed on a Fly check. If you fail your Fly check by 5 or more you immediately begin to plummet to the ground, taking fall damage as normal. If you fail by less than 5, you fail the movement and may either end the maneuver, land, or fly in a straight line as appropriate for the situation.
Whenever you take damage while flying, you must make a DC 15 fly check or fall 10 feet. If you are hit by-, or collide with-something larger than you, you must make a DC 25 fly check or begin plummeting from the sky.
Falling Damage
When unable to fly, you will take an amount of falling damage upon hitting the ground depending on the height that you fell from, and your Size Category. Falling damage starts at 1d6 Crushing damage per 10 feet for a Medium creature, and for every size category above Medium the amount of dice is increased by 1, for example a Large creature would take 2d6 per 10 feet fallen. For every size category below medium, the dice size is reduced by 1 step, for example a small creature would be 1d4 per 10 feet. In addition, unless otherwise noted, a creature who has fallen is Prone until they have a chance to get up.
Flying Maneuvers and Modifiers
The following is a list of maneuvers that may be performed while flying and various modifiers to fly checks.
| DC | Situation |
| 5 | Move more than half base fly speed and remain flying. |
| 10 | Move less than half base fly speed and remain flying. |
| 10 | Negate Falling Damage (Cannot negate if falling due to a failed fly check). |
| 15 | Hover in place. |
| 15 | Take a turn greater than 45° by spending 5 feet of movement. |
| 20 | Turn 180° by spending 10 feet of movement. |
| 20 | Fly up at a greater than 45° angle. |
Maneuverability and Size
Natural flight is broken into the following categories of how skilled and maneuverable you are in flying. Your size also impacts how well you are able to fly.
Maneuverability skill modifier
| Type | Modifier |
| Clumsy | -4 |
| Poor | -2 |
| Average | +0 |
| Good | +2 |
| Perfect | +4 |
Size skill modifier
| Size | Modifier |
| Fine | +4 |
| Diminutive | +3 |
| Tiny | +2 |
| Small | +1 |
| Large | -1 |
| Huge | -2 |
| Gargantuan | -3 |
| Colossal | -4 |
High Wind Speeds
Depending on the speed of the wind in the area and the size of the creature attempting to fly, you may be required to make a higher DC Fly check than normal, or with sufficiently strong winds may be caught up in the wind and blown away.
- “Checked” means that creatures of that size or smaller must succeed on a DC 20 Fly check to move at all so long as the wind persists.
- “Blown away” means that creatures of that size or smaller must succeed on a DC 25 Fly check or be blown back 2d6×10 feet and take 2d6 points of nonlethal damage. This check must be made every round the creature remains airborne. A creature that is blown away must still make a DC 20 Fly check to move due to it also being checked.
Wind and Flight
| Wind Force | Wind Speed | Checked Size | Blown Away Size | Fly Penalty |
| Light | 0-10 MPH | — | — | 0 |
| Moderate | 11-20 MPH | — | — | 0 |
| Strong | 21-30 MPH | Tiny | — | -2 |
| Severe | 31-50 MPH | Small | Tiny | -4 |
| Windstorm | 51-74 MPH | Medium | Small | -8 |
| Hurricane | 75-174 MPH | Large | Medium | -12 |
| Tornado | 175+ MPH | Huge | Large | -16 |
Magical Flight
Some creatures or magical abilities may give access to supernatural or magical forms of flight, however only the most powerful of these abilities allow a creature to move freely through the air without needing to make some type of fly check. The following examples are recommended benefits of magical flight.
Magic Flight from spells gives you some form of enhanced natural flight in most cases as follows.
- 1st: You gain a small bonus on Fly checks for a Fly speed that you already possess, or gain basic gliding abilities that allow you to ignore Falling damage and move 10 feet horizontally for every 5 feet you fall.
- 2nd: You gain a Poor Fly speed equal to your base land speed, or increase your maneuverability, or treat wind force as 1 step lower.
- 3rd: You gain an Average Fly speed equal to your base land speed, or increases your maneuverability of your speed by 1 step, or treat wind force as 2 steps lower.
- 4th: You gain a Good Fly speed equal to your base land speed, or increases your maneuverability of your speed by 2 steps, or treat wind force as 3 steps lower.
- 5th: You gain a Perfect Fly speed equal to your base land speed, or increases your maneuverability of your speed by 3 steps, or treat wind force as 4 steps lower.
- 6th: You gain true magical flight that allows you to fly perfectly in almost all circumstances, ignoring the normal fly rules, in any base direction equal to your base land speed.
Supernatural Flight
Some rare magical creatures may have access to other supernatural forms of flight that allow them to move in strange ways. These flights are usually unique to the type of creature and may or may not ignore the fly rules based on the creature.
For example, a ghost would have supernatural flight and could maneuver freely through the air ignoring normal fly rules, however a corporeal creature with supernatural flight might still be limited by the fly rules depending on the power of the supernatural ability.
Land Speed
The ability to walk or move along the ground in some form is known as your land speed. Most creatures have land speeds, even if it is not their primary form of movement, for example a bird can still walk on the ground. The average for most medium-sized creatures is a 30 foot land speed; however, this may be altered slightly depending on the creature, their encumbrance, armor, and other potential modifiers.
Overland Movement
Overland movement is not connected to tactical movement and is calculated separately. Your Overland Movement is equal to your Constitution score + your Strength Modifier + your Spirit modifier, miles per day. In addition, every extra pair of legs that you have treats your Con score as 4 higher for overland travel. Any creature which is used as a mount for the purpose of overland travel, such as a horse, gets a +8 to their Constitution score for the purposes of calculating overland travel. There are various modifiers to overland travel ranging from terrain and weather.
Overland Movement Modifiers
| Modifier | Effect |
| Weather: Light Storms, Light Snow, Strong Wind, High Heat, Extreme Cold, etc. | -25 % |
| Weather: Heavy Rain, Severe storm, Severe Winds, Heavy Snowfall, etc. | -50 % |
| Terrain: Open Plains, Savannah, Flat Grassland, Etc. | -0 % |
| Terrain: Hills, Light Forest, Valleys, Shallow Mud, etc. | -25 % |
| Terrain: Extreme Hills, Bog, Dense Forest, Ravines, etc. | -50 % |
| Terrain: Mountains, Swamps, Dense Jungle, Chasms, Tundra, etc. | -75 % |
| Full Basic Load | -20 % |
| Over Basic Load | -50 % |
| Trail | +10 % |
| Road | +25 % |
| Highway | +50 % |
Hustling
When trying to rush movement you may hustle and move at a quarter of your overland movement every hour. Doing so requires a Vitality check every hour, on failure you take Nonlethal damage and increase your Fatigue step by 1. The DC of the Save is 5 + 1 for every hour that you have hustled without a Long Rest in between. The amount of Nonlethal damage is 1d6 + the number of hours hustled, and can only be healed by long resting. The fatigue remains until the Nonlethal is removed.
Forced March
You may want to travel longer than the average 8 hours a day. When doing so you enter a forced march and must make a Vitality check for every hour of additional marching or take nonlethal damage and increase your Fatigue step by 1. The DC of the Body Save is 5 + 1 for every two additional hours that you have marched. The DC resets after a Long Rest. The amount of Nonlethal damage is 1d6 + the number of every two hours marched, and can only be healed by long resting. The fatigue remains until the Nonlethal is removed. If you are also hustling during a Forced March, the modifier to the DC from Hustling is also added to the DC of the Forced March.
Tactical Movement
Tactical movement is how much you or a creature can move in a single turn during their Initiative. This can be broken down into four different movement actions as follows.
- Basic Move: A basic move uses a single Basic Action on your turn and provides you with an amount of Movement equal to the chosen movement speed. This is typically your base land speed; however, if you have other movement types, you may use those instead. The movement the action provided can be used as you see fit, even breaking up the movement between other actions or even between sub actions of another action. For example, you could take a movement action providing you with 30 feet of movement and use that movement in between each attack made with the All-Out Attack action.
- Charge: A charge is a special action that allows you to move and attack. See the Charge rules for a full explanation.
- Five Foot Step: A five-foot step is a special Free Action that can be taken whenever you can take a Quick Action, and whenever you haven’t taken any other movement actions that turn. When you take a 5ft step you may move in any direction as long as you are only moving five feet. This movement does not normally provoke Attacks of Opportunity in any way. However, once you have taken a 5-foot step you cannot move with any other actions during that turn.
- Forced Movement: Anytime you would be forced to move in a way that you are unable to control it is considered forced movement. This movement does not provoke any Attacks of Opportunity and gains no normal penalties for moving if any but also does not grant any benefits from moving if any. Forced movement is typically triggered by specific maneuvers or abilities such as repositioning with Grapple but also accounts for things like Falling. Finally, some special forms of movement such as gliding count as a mix of forced and normal movement, in which the vertical movement is unwilling and does not provoke but any horizontal movement controlled by you would provoke.
- Full Withdraw: A full withdraw action is a special multi action that requires two Basic Actions. You can take this action on your turn and move up to two times your base Movement speed while ignoring the first square that would provoke an Attack of Opportunity from all opponents.
- Recovery Action: A Recovery Action is a special Basic Action that can only be performed while Prone. When this action is taken you stand up from Prone and may pick up one item that is on the ground and within your Reach. Once standing you may then move up to half of your Movement speed.
- Run Action: A run action is a special multi action that requires two Basic Actions or more. You can take this action on your turn and move up to three times your base Movement speed in that turn. If you choose to, you may continue to take the run action on consecutive rounds, increasing the distance you can run by 1 multiplier each additional round. This multiplier has a maximum of 3 + Half Dexterity Modifier + Half Rank bonus in Acrobatics + Other modifiers. Running does have the drawback of giving you a -2 penalty to AC and CMD until you spend a turn not running. The movement provided by the Run action can be broken up as you wish as per the rules written under basic move.
Multiple Movement Types
You may have multiple types of movement at different amounts, for example you may have a 30 foot Land speed and a 20 foot Swim speed. If you get into a situation where you are going from land to water or vice versa, you subtract the amount of movement you used in your initial move from the move speed of the other type.
As an example, if a creature with a 30ft land and a 30ft swim moved 15 feet on land before entering the water, they would have 15 feet of swim movement left on that action. If entering the water would put their swim speed at 0 or below, they are not able to continue moving and must spend another action or wait till their next turn to move as normal.
Swim Speed
Swimming can be broken down into two common forms of movement. The first would be a creature using the swim skill to traverse an environment. The latter would be for a creature to have a natural swim speed with one of their movement types.
Swimming Skill
With sufficient strength and training you can attempt a Swim check once per round while in the water; succeeding allows you to move up to a quarter of your base movement speed in a single action. If you fail this Swim check by less than 5 you make no progress, failing by more than 5 means you start to sink and go underwater.
While underwater you must hold your breath unless you have the ability to breathe underwater. You are able to hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to double your Constitution score; however, any Basic Actions that you take while holding your breath reduces the duration that you can hold your breath by 1 additional round on top of normal time constraints.
If you are still underwater after that period of time and have not been able to take another breath, you must make a DC 10 constitution check to continue holding your breath with the DC increasing by 1 for each additional round. If you fail, you begin drowning.
The base DC to swim is a DC 10 in calm waters. The DC increases by 5 for every tier of rough water above 0, up to tier 6. Finally, you are able to Default on a Swim check as long as you are not in a stressful situation or threatened by an enemy.
Drowning and Suffocation
When you finally fail your Constitution check to hold your breath, you immediately fall Unconscious. The round after falling Unconscious you gain the Dying condition; the round after that, if still drowning you immediately die.
Swim Speed
You may have a natural swim speed that allows you to move through water with very little issue. You are able to move the distance listed in your Swim speed as with normal movement. If you have a natural swim speed you treat the tier of rough water as two lower and may always Default on the swim check even when in a stressful situation or threatened by an enemy. If you are especially skilled swimmer with a natural swim speed, you may treat the tier of rough water even lower, or there may be abilities that treat the tier of rough water as lower.
Unique Movement Speeds
You may have a more unique or specific movement speed due to your environment or natural habitat. While these are available, they are not listed out due to the fact that they are extremely specific and only come up in very specific circumstances.
- For example, a red dragon that lives within a volcano would have the ability to swim through lava unimpeded. A great frozen beast who lives within the frozen north may have an earth glide ability that can go through ice.
These abilities should be handled on a creature by creature basis and many of them can fall under other movement categories, or be a reflavoring of another movement type, such as ice glide.