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I am in a discussion with a player about Ghost of the Rooftops assassin utility power. He thinks he can use that on ANY wall without doing an athletics check then each round hang onto that wall and attack with his sling. I let him know I would let him do some walls but there will be certain instances where he may need an athletics check. Also is there rules for attacking while hanging from a wall? The power seems to be a bit vague on what you can climb. For instance he wanted to use this while climbing a very crumbly wall while water is dripping down from the wall. I had him do a lowered athletics check.
Ghost of the Rooftops

Your skill at climbing and leaping allows you to move across the rooftops unhindered.

At-Will        Martial Move Action      Personal

Effect: You climb or make a long jump, moving a number of squares up to your speed, without making an Athletics check.

Special: You can use this power only once per round.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

It includes climbing in the power, Noctaem

Nov 29, 2012 -- 11:49AM, greyyferret wrote:

At-Will        Martial Move Action      Personal

Effect: You climb or make a long jump, moving a number of squares up to your speed, without making an Athletics check.

Special: You can use this power only once per round.

I'm not an expert on the rules, but I will point out that while climbing, creatures grant combat advantage, and risk falling if they take damage (RC p 136-137). 

As for attacking while climbing, I'm not aware of rules covering that (although other posters might be), but I would have thought that you would need at least one hand holding onto the wall, limiting you to one-handed weapons.

If he wants to climb a crumbly wall covered in water, then you could allow him to climb without making a check, but make a hidden check every time he moves to see if the wall collapses, potentially doing a bit of damage to anyone in the area below it. Warn him it looks dangerous, and likely to collapse if he's not careful.

I hope that helps (and is accurate).

Nov 29, 2012 -- 12:19PM, Noctaem wrote:

the thing to remember is that powers do what they say they do.

In this case the power allows the creature to make a long jump without rolling an athletics check up to a distance of the creatures speed.  that's all.

It does not do anything else.

I assume you also meant to add "climb" in your long jump comment.  Since you know, thats what the power also says it does.  That being said, the climb entry in the Athletics skill talks about using Athletics to move and to catch hold while falling.  To be specific, there is no check to just hang onto something intentionally (as in not falling).  So he is perfectly legal to use Ghost on the Rooftops to sit up on a wall using a sling.  And technically Athletics don't specifically require the use of hands so he can reload without issues either (I know, straining immersion).  However, if he takes damage while hanging out, he is required to make an Athletics check to not fall.  He may not have to make one to get there, but failing a check while under fire will be an unpleasant surprise if he is high up.  Especially if he didn't train Athletics because he has Ghost on the Rooftops.

So I suggest having some minion archers target him sometime if he abuses the height too much.  Promptly followed by some charging stardards with bonus damage when they have CA while he is prone.

Edit: Ninjaed while looking for my Rules Compendium. Next time Gadget! 

Nov 30, 2012 -- 1:12AM, Xaspian wrote:

I would have thought that you would need at least one hand holding onto the wall

By a strict RAW, you don't need to even have a free hand to use the climb skill.  You can just do like Andy! :P

oops i completely blanked out the word climb

Ghost on the rooftops is like wall running when it's used to climb, you can't stop while you do that, if you stop during the middle of it, you fall unless you grab into something (wish then in my opinion he/she would need athletics).  depending on the surface and material of the wall, it could be considered dificulty terrain, thus reducing the amount of spaces the person could "wall run" by half.  If the wall is very hard to climb because of being slippery for example, you could consider it dificulty terrain.

Nov 30, 2012 -- 9:08PM, mexrage wrote:

you fall unless you grab into something (wish then in my opinion he/she would need athletics).

You don't need to make a climb check to hold yourself, only to climb up or down a surface. You don't fall unless noted otherwise neither.

Spider Technique is a power that note otherwise for exemple.