[OOC] Return to the Rusty Rat

[Toot]

It's your game and if the 'clarification' is applied universally then I don't see any problem.  Perhaps with a rope a climber should possibly be able to climb down faster than climbing up.  Even just by wearing gloves (or a glove inside a glove) you can reduce friction to allow a quicker decent.  You also don't have gravity working against you when you're climbing down.  I may even apply this to my game at least for climbing upward.  

Toot has a natural move speed of 40' so that would mean he would move 10' regular move and 20' accelerated move?

You are the DM, I signed up to play under your judgement which has been good and sound thus far!  You bring up valid points.  Isn't climbing considered a full round action (6 seconds) and one is denied their dexterity and considered flat-footed for all intents and purposes?  I may be wrong and will look it up later.  On a story telling point, I think dwarve's familiarity with rock and stone would actually give them an advantage when climbing, putting those humans to shame  Using a rope would probably play into a larger creatures advantages though.  Also, I like whole numbers so either 5 feet or 10 feet per round sounds fair to me.

You need both hands free to climb, but you may cling to a wall with one hand while you cast a spell or take some other action that requires only one hand. While climbing, you can’t move to avoid a blow, so you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). You also can’t use a shield while climbing.

Action

Climbing is part of movement, so it’s generally part of a move action (and may be combined with other types of movement in a move action). Each move action that includes any climbing requires a separate Climb check. Catching yourself or another falling character doesn’t take an action.

It says it can be combined with other types of movement so it doesn't sound like it's a full round action.  Actually, it says EACH move action... so that might indicate that you could take more than one move action in a round.

Re: Dwarves climbing...
I'm not sure I agree with dwarfs moving faster while climbing.  They do get their encumbrance bonus which allows them to carry heavier loads without slowing down which would include climbing.  But if you were to follow that train of thought then would Elves get bonuses to climbing because of their familiarity with trees?