Cats make no sense in the current D&D 5e rules

The poor felines of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse aren’t as agile as their real-world counterparts, thanks to a bizarre rules quirk.

There are some unpopular aspects of D&D rules that DMs dread having to look up due to how nonsensical they are, including grappling in combat, fall damage, and jumping. Sooner or later, players will want to use one of these awful rules, and DMs will be forced to consult the rulebook.

Jumping in D&D 5e can be especially tedious to consult, as it’s overly complicated for what should be a simple action. Rather than just establishing a set number that all characters can move, players must use their individual Strength stats to determine how long/high their character can jump.

What’s even stranger about the jumping rules is how they affect certain animals. Take the house cat, for example, which has stats in D&D 5e’s Monster Manual, allowing it to be used as a foe, though it’s unlikely to threaten most characters.

As fans discussed online, a cat’s Strength penalty prevents it from using any of the rules’ jumping actions. Meanwhile, the mammoth is amazing at jumping, thanks to its +7 Strength modifier.

(Cats have a natural climbing speed, which lets them scale walls like Spider-Man; they just can’t jump anywhere.)

What’s funny about this rule is that other animals in D&D 5e have similar issues, but they have special abilities that compensate for them. For example, the frog also has a major Strength penalty, but it was given the Standing Leap ability, allowing it to bypass the normal jumping rules.

In most cases like these, DMs would tweak the rules a little, either by letting cats use their much higher Dexterity modifier for jumping or just ignoring the penalty altogether for the purposes of movement.

It’s more amusing to think of real-world animals that are known for their agility and amazing balance being unable to jump in the D&D multiverse just because the gods screwed up how reality works.

Maybe the upcoming D&D 5e rules update will address the cat discrepancy and let felines leap through the air like they do in real life.