D&D General How many air-blown waterskins are needed, if wearing metal armors, to prevent sinking in water?

[greg kaye]

I'd require waterskins having a total encumbrance, when filled with water, to equal the weight of the armor. That should be quick and close enough.

So if the armor weighs 40 lb, and the standard waterskins weigh 4 lb each when filled with water, then my answer is 10 air-blown waterskins.

This (or the 12 skins figure) will work great for situations where we aren't adding in factors for air being trapped in clothing and not requiring a character to persistently strive to keep their head above water.

(The originally intended topic centrally relates to wearing armour in deep water and not so much to wizards or climbing ropes).

 

[Umbran]

If you cant do it, it's because you have custard arms or you're obese (Your Strength score is less than (weight in lbs/30).

Mod Note:
How about you try to be about 70% less insulting going forward, please and thanks.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

This (or the 12 skins figure) will work great for situations where we aren't adding in factors for air being trapped in clothing and not requiring a character to persistently strive to keep their head above water.

(The originally intended topic centrally relates to wearing armour in deep water and not so much to wizards or climbing ropes).

The big issue, in the game, is the character needing to stay on the surface to breathe. That's where I'd apply the full penalties for trying to swim while wearing armor. For a character who can breathe underwater, I'd greatly reduce the penalties for swimming in armor, possibly even to zero depending on the armor. And an underwater character walking on the bottom is a different case yet.

Taking advantage of air trapped in clothing is something I'd subsume in the swimming roll. Back when I was a sprout, one of the lessons of the advanced swimming courses I took was using clothing as improvised flotation.

 

[aco175]

Now if the PC drank all the water in the canteens before trying to use them as floaties, would that count against him?

 

[J.Quondam]

(Eagerly awaiting the follow-up thread, "How many air-blown waterskins are needed, if wearing metal armors, to screw in a lightbulb?")

 

[Oofta]

The real answer, inspired by the recent thread on water for Waterdeep, is a pair of decanters of endless water.

 

[greg kaye]

The real answer, inspired by the recent thread on water for Waterdeep, is a pair of decanters of endless water.

A young rogue of mine did this, just with one decanter and with dex checks. =D
Two decanters would work best if the DM agreed to synchronise the command words.

 

[Flamestrike]

Mod Note:
How about you try to be about 70% less insulting going forward, please and thanks.

Apologies if you took it as an insult. For clarity, the 'you with a Strength score less than (body weight/30)' I was referring to is the 'you' in game (a PC, NPC or Creature who has an actual Strength score), not the actual poster I was quoting (I have no idea if Oofta can climb a rope or not, and in any event, he doesn't have a Strength score represented on 3d6).

But allow me to rephrase for clarity:

''If a game world human can't do it, it's because the game world human has custard arms or they're obese (their Strength score is less than (weight in lbs/30).''

In game, a 290lbs Human PC or NPC can lift his own weight off the ground with a Strength score of 10 (Commoner) which would put that commoner in the 'morbidly obese' category.

I suppose a non-obese PC or NPC might have some kind of a weird grip stopping them from being able to yank a rope with (bodyweight) weight off the ground, or be missing thumbs, or have a weak rotator cuff or shoulder joints, or something odd.

But 'average healthy real-world humans' can climb ropes, reliably, every single time:

To flip it back into game terms again, these guys aren't falling off the ropes, or unable to climb the ropes 50 percent of the time (DC 10) or even 5 percent of the time (DC 5). The tiny minority -of these real-world people- that cant climb ropes would - again - flipping back in game terms - have low Strength scores (less than total weight of them and gear/30).

To keep it in game terms, they've joined the Army with Strength scores of 5-6 or so, and weigh over 150-180lbs.

Hope that clears that up.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But 'average healthy real-world humans' can climb ropes, reliably, every single time:

No, they can't. Because an "average healthy real-world human" is not an army or marine draftee, which is what you appear to be using as your baseline. The draft rejects a whole lot of people (my dad was one, when conscription was still a thing in the UK) not because they are "unhealthy" - a synonym for overweight - military training can deal with that, but for a whole variety of other reasons. Ergo, your sample is not representative.

And, whilst it would be reasonable to suppose that an average D&D fighter is at least as capable as a modern military recruit, the same does not go for the nerdish wizard who has spent their life pouring over ancient tomes, or the devout cleric, dedicated to religious service, who has never left the temple before. And that is before you consider people who are playing aging characters (see: third part of Beowulf). And so D&D asks for athletics checks.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A lot of this has to do with grip strength.

I suspect in my case, it's dyspraxia. I've never had an official diagnosis, but it often goes with dyslexia, which I definitely have. I also have trouble swimming, and it took me a long time to learn to ride a bicycle. As @Clint_L says, you also need to grip with your feet, and dyspraxia makes it difficult to coordinate hands and feet at the same time.