


The constraints we used in our experiment:

  • Max character level 20.
  • No gold limit on items.


To further clarify the spirit of the question and the rules we had:

  • Handbooks/rules on epic and deities are excluded.

So: how fast can we go?


A properly optimized character can break the speed of light.




Max Turnage casts Owl’s Wisdom on Chuck.






This thread suggests:




  • 17
    \$\begingroup\$ Technically, Chuck was killed by Errata, and is no longer legal. There are still some hilarious ways to get movement speed extremely high, though I'm not sure if light speed is still reachable. I believe the Jumplomancer has the highest still-legal movement speed, but I could be mistaken. \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Oct 29 '12 at 16:58
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Both of these links are dead, but they might be findable on the wayback machine. \$\endgroup\$ – Someone_Evil Nov 7 at 19:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ Why is the second bolded portion struck-out? Is it because the first portion supersedes it? If so, the second half should probably be edited out, rather than just struck out. \$\endgroup\$ – V2Blast Nov 8 at 10:08



The Running Man:

            SOURCE                             TYPE     SPEED
Additions   Fly (spell)                        base        90 ft
Additions   Speed of Thought (psionic feat)    insight     10 ft
Additions   hmm what did I forget?                          0 
Additions   hmm what did I forget?                          0 
SUBTOTAL                                                  100 ft
Multiplier  Boots of Striding and Springing    none¹       x2 
Multiplier  Running
            - with run feat
            - and extra partial from haste spell           x6 
Multiplier  Expeditious retreat                enhancement x2 
Multiplier  hmm what did I forget?                       
TOTAL                                                   2.400 ft/round
                                                    or:   400 ft/s
                                                    or:   122 m/s



  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh, that's the initial version. Chuck in his final version exceeds C :) But as a reasonable "hey, how can I go fast" yours looks good. Have you thought about sources of extra actions and spells? \$\endgroup\$ – Brian Ballsun-Stanton May 22 '12 at 21:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BrianBallsun-Stanton Yeah my first thought was towards gaining additional actions. Earlier tonight I dug up my 3rd ed PHB, browsed through it (while weeping about Chuck's superiority to Running Man), but couldn't find any besides Haste :(... which is of course what I expected and what made me ask the question in the first place :) \$\endgroup\$ – Jeroen May 22 '12 at 21:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sources that I can think off off the top of my head: polymorph, monk levels, more items, speed of thought feat. \$\endgroup\$ – Brian Ballsun-Stanton May 22 '12 at 21:09

Since this got bumped, I’ll submit this variant on the Jumplomancer (this link is sadly dead; the original jumplomancer thread has been archived but doesn’t hit the same speeds), one of the most hilarious theoretical-optimization builds ever. It attains a movement speed of 25,800 feet, which works out to 2,932 miles per hour. That dramatically exceeds the speed of sound through air at any location on earth.1

This would not be worth mentioning, since Chuck attains far greater speeds, except that errata gave footsteps of the divine the word “discharge” which prevents applying Persistent Spell to it (arguably; the wording actually gets kind of ambiguous). To the best of my knowledge, this marks the only time that Wizards specifically errata’d a theoretical optimization trick (unless you count the errata on Arcane Thesis, but that wasn’t a trick so much as “you really didn’t consider the ramifications of this feat, did you?”).




  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Sadly that link is now dead. \$\endgroup\$ – Rob Nov 26 '15 at 12:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Rob I believe all of these kinds of things guy saved somewhere (EN World?), so I'll look for that when I get a chance. \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Nov 26 '15 at 14:16








  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ In fact, it's possible that no magical teleportation actually breaks causality. If we consider the teleportation effect as a temporary folding of Space (especially "true" in the case of a portal), nothing ever goes any faster than their own movement between those two points. \$\endgroup\$ – Nigralbus May 22 '12 at 9:48
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ +1 thanks for taking the time to put up this answer! I must apologize though, because I forgot to be explicit enough in my question to rule out wish/miracle. I've updated the question to mention I prefer answers w/o wish or miracle, but left the original constraints as well because your answer was technically correct for my original question. \$\endgroup\$ – Jeroen May 22 '12 at 10:09

Fastest Man alive!


Domains: "Celerity" and "Planning"

2nd(Persistent Spell)"Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting"
3rd(Divine Metamagic)"Complete Divine"
4th(Speed of Thought)"Expanded Psionics Handbook"
6th(Dash)"Complete Warrior"

Monk bonus Feats:

(1)Stunning Fist
(2)Combat Reflexes
(3)Improved Trip


Domain Spell = Blur
2lvl: Augury, Status, Brambles
3lvl: Footsteps of the Divine, Water Walk


Head-Headband of Dex +6
Waist-Belt of Battle
Feet-Boots of Temporal Acceleration
Neck-Reins of Ascension
Ring-Ring of Entropic Deflection
Ring-Ring of Freedom of Movement
Body-Vest of Resistance +5
Arms-Bracers of Wind
Hands-Gloves of Lightning
Shoulders-Cloak of Battle
Equipped-Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend Spell 

Base land speed 30ft
Monk levels +50ft Enhancement to base land speed.
Domain Celerity +10ft to base land speed. [Untyped]


Dash +5ft to base land speed. [Untyped]
Run x5 base land speed using a full round action.


  4. Use Xeph racial burst of speed.




Another approach that I unfortunately can't be sure applies to 3.5:





  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure the Manual of the Planes supports that rule. \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Sep 11 '13 at 23:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan As I said, I'm not finding it now so I don't know what versions it applies to. I specifically recall thinking about the fact that you could get some pretty insane speed when I first encountered it. \$\endgroup\$ – Loren Pechtel Sep 12 '13 at 1:45




Teleport 100,000 miles straight up. Fall.

For the naysayers: The rules define terminal velocity--but that's a concept that's only meaningful in atmosphere. That's why I said went 100,000 miles up--get far beyond the atmosphere.

  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ Unfortunately the same physics system (our real one) that would make this acceleration possible also includes a terminal velocity for people that is far below Mach 1. Both the acceleration and the terminal velocity are mentioned in a question featured in the 3.5e Main FAQ - for convenience it is quoted here. Nice try though. ;) \$\endgroup\$ – doppelgreener Jan 14 '14 at 23:09
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Loren, if you want to post a build that discusses, by the rules, what magics are needed to achieve what speed, that's fine. As it stands, this is a bad answer. \$\endgroup\$ – Brian Ballsun-Stanton Jan 16 '14 at 22:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ You aren't going to fall if you are that far away from a gravity source. You'd need to find a suitable celestial body (or other gravity source) without an atmosphere for that to work. I suppose that some scrying magic might exist that would help you locate such a body, but your answer would need to specify it. \$\endgroup\$ – Quentin Nov 15 '15 at 12:22
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ @Quentin 100,000 miles up, you still fall, admittedly with not as much acceleration as you would on the surface. \$\endgroup\$ – Loren Pechtel Nov 15 '15 at 20:42

protected by Oblivious Sage Jan 17 '14 at 2:29


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