D&D 5E 5E underwater thoughts

Sunseeker · Aug 27, 2017

I've been looking around to see if there's any good underwater 5E material...and I just really haven't found it. I don't really want to play 3.X if I don't have to but I'll keep my questions general to see if any of you have any good recommended reading tips and tricks for me.

Spells? How do I address the fact that water and fire, lightning and cold just don't mix? Yeah, I could handwaive it as "it's magical" but I really don't want to. Are there good alternatives?

Playable races? I'm not a particular fan of either monstrous races or "underwater humans with blue skin" and I'm particularly lost as to what would be good underwater variants of gnomes and halflings. Sure, I could leave them out, but I'd like to have something.

Some things I plan on glossing over. Like speaking and verbal spell components. I don't find this to be a meaningful or useful change to the setting. I have rules for pressure (though I may not use them), rules for physical combat are pretty straight forward and easy to find. I have alternate armor materials in mind so I don't have to be asked about wearing leather or heavy plate underwater. I'm sure something is escaping me so if you know of something big I'm missing out on please point it out.

Thanks in advance for the help.

The Crimson Binome · Aug 27, 2017

The rules for underwater combat are kind of a joke in this edition. If you can manage to get a swim speed, then you can swing a maul around with no penalty whatsoever. Even if you don't have a swim speed, there are still a ton of weapons that work fine underwater. It really seems more like a cosmetic change of scenery than an actual different environment.

Sunseeker · Aug 27, 2017

Saelorn said:
The rules for underwater combat are kind of a joke in this edition. If you can manage to get a swim speed, then you can swing a maul around with no penalty whatsoever. Even if you don't have a swim speed, there are still a ton of weapons that work fine underwater. It really seems more like a cosmetic change of scenery than an actual different environment.

Yeah, I've noticed that. I'll likely be enforcing a "everything that isn't slashing or piercing" gets disadvantage no matter what. Bows are out, and I think refluffed Crossbows as "spearguns" will be fine replacements. The "If it's out of range, you miss." rule is acceptable.

I'm mostly torn about what to do with the races and spells though. I have no particular love for the "miniraces" but some of my players do and I always try to account for what my players enjoy when working on a campaign.

tglassy · Aug 28, 2017

For Races, Tritons and Water Genasi are the only two legal races, as well as half Elf, Aquatic Variant. Besides that, you're going to have to Homebrew.

Aquatic Elves are a thing. Replace a Wood Elf's features for Aquatic Weapon Proficiency (Trident, Net, maybe Javelin and sword or something), Amphibious and a Swim Speed.

For other races, take away their subrace and add the Water Genasi subrace, since Water Genasi can be of any race. Normal Water Genasi can be the human variant. It gives the swim speed, amphibious, and some water controlling spells. You could always replace the magic with something else.

Even simpler way: Erase appropriate racial feature and add Amphibious and a Swim Speed.

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Sunseeker · Aug 28, 2017

tglassy said:
For Races, Tritons and Water Genasi are the only two legal races, as well as half Elf, Aquatic Variant. Besides that, you're going to have to Homebrew.

My intention was to homebrew fishy variants of all the existing races, sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

Aquatic Weapon Proficiency is a good idea, I was wondering what to do with some of the racial weapon proficiency. I suppose it might be interesting if say, Mer-Dwarves could use bludgeoning weapons underwater.

Since all the races would be Amphibious and Swim would replace walk speed, I don't think it's something I'd note in the racial stat block.

tglassy · Aug 28, 2017

If you're going to give it as a standard ability for all races, instead of giving them Amphibious and a swim speed, I'd make them Aquatic breathers only, and have no walking speed. Reason being that having the ability to do both has been deemed good enough to cost resources, such as spells or racial traits. Making them only breath water and not able to walk on land gives air and dry land the same hazard that water is for the usual races, and is a straight transfer, instead of just granting a free Water Breathing spell. This way, Water Breathing can be replaced with Air Breathing, and Alter Self can give you lungs and a walking speed.

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Yaarel · Aug 28, 2017

Thoughts underwater ...

Make the Water Breathing spell a 1st-level spell. 10-minute Ritual every 24 hours, makes aquatic setting possible for all player characters. Note: this spell grants no swim speed.

Combine the underwater setting with the overwater coastal-seafaring setting.

Piercing weapons only. Even swinging a sword is awkward underwater, and might deserve disadvantage.

Nets are kinda useless underwater. Normally, they are thrown thru the air above water to cover an area and then their peripheral weights sink. Alternatively, they are dragged by boats. Conceivably, two or more swimmers could stretch a net out between them to try catch targets. But awkward.

It is possible to swim in a chain shirt.

Lighting damage is radius. But if Self is the origin, it wouldnt harm the Caster.

Fire damage is nonfunctional. (But there are special exceptions, like Greek Fire that floats on top of water, used for ship battles.)

Cold damage works, but ice may crystallize.

Allow the Fly spell to serve as Swim speed.

The situation of underwater makes the Alter Self spell useful. It must be cast twice to use both the Water Breathing and the Disguise.

tglassy · Aug 28, 2017

Fire damage isn't nonfunctional, it just shoots a stream of boiling water instead of an open flame.

Ice forms without air. Put a full bottle of water in the fridge and it freezes. I'd think ice based spells would be more potent in the water. Even if the water didn't freeze, using Cone of Cold would create a spot of super cold water that moves around.

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Yaarel · Aug 28, 2017

I was thinking about the arctic waters, but it seems these are relatively warm. So, I guess the water would freeze. Maybe the forming ice is obscuring like fog, and if solid, gains a chance to restrain creatures.

Yaarel · Aug 28, 2017

Turning underwater Fire damage into ‘steam’. It is arguable, but Im unsure how I feel about the flavor.

Natural fire is archetypally nonfunctional inside water. I probably prefer magical fire to be nonfunctional too.

But still thinking about it.