Aquatic Magics and Invocations

[Samloyal23]

I am looking for wizard spells and warlock invocations that are more useful in an aquatic situation. If someone has already published something I see no reason to re-invent the wather wheel. Also, what lines of thought should I be working on for my own powers? What difficulties do you think spellcasters will have under the waves that they will resort to magic to solve? Hmm...

 

[Empirate]

First starting point should be Stormwrack, a supplement devoted to aquatic campaigns. It doesn't have Invocations afaik, but there's only one that's of interest: Swimming the Styx (Least, allows water breathing 24h and grants a swim speed equal to your land speed; Complete Mage).

 

[Samloyal23]

I am toying with the idea of a sahuagin or kuo-toa warlock as a villain. So I need to have a good set of aquatic invocations...

 

[Empirate]

I am toying with the idea of a sahuagin or kuo-toa warlock as a villain. So I need to have a good set of aquatic invocations...

Ah, so it's more about what would be useful invocations for an aquatic creature, then? Well, basically, everything that's good anyway, with a few notable exceptions: Fell Flight and other movement-related invocations (Spider Climb, Leaps and Bounds...) aren't as good if you move in three dimensions the whole damn time anyway - unless you want to harass surfacers. Walk Unseen is much less impressive if people can still see the hole your invisible form leaves in the water. Anything to do with fire is probably out, too. Wall of... stuff isn't impressive if enemies can just swim over, and anything that needs ground beneath to function (Chilling Tentacles etc.) is similarly impaired.

Some other things are as good as ever, but I can't really think of anything that would be extra-useful in aquatic conditions. One thing that does come to mind is that the dispelling invocations could be ultra-mean if you confront surfacers underwater - where they're usually dependent on magic to function at all.

All in all, if you don't want to rely mostly on Eldritch Blast (and use blast shapes and essences for invocations), I don't see a Warlock as being that effective out at sea. If your Sahuagin Warlock goes ashore a lot, it can make use of invocations just as the PCs can - but in its native environment, the Warlock class doesn't seem to do much for anybody.

 

[nijineko]

Re-flavor, reuse, renew.

add some aquatic invocations: blackwater blast, deoxygenate water, riptide current, icy prison, crushing depths, sonic blast, call of the deep, siren's lure, poisonous blast, wall of ink, arms of the jellyfish, wall of jellyfish, ghost ship, ooze summons, sudden descent, leech heat, reef's embrace (entomb), swarm of piranha, summon leviathan, magma's cauldron....

do you need more?

 

[Samloyal23]

Wall of Jellyfish. Eeeeew... These are some interesting ideas, I will need to develop some...

 

[rgard]

Wall of Jellyfish. Eeeeew... These are some interesting ideas, I will need to develop some...

But great if you are jelly fishing.

 

[nijineko]

...everything is better with jell-o....

 

[howandwhy99]

Potions of Underwater Breathing make early level adventures under the depths possible and enjoyable. They are likely most plentiful nearby friendly underwater societies along coastlines.

Alter Self, probably 2nd level, can lead to flippers or fins for faster swim speeds, underwater eyesight, and gills albeit for a shorter period of time than Underwater Breathing. This might be limited by PC knowledge per past encounter, so bumping into Sahaugin is better in at least one respect rather than Lizardmen.

Freedom of Movement, a mid-level spell maybe 4th or 5th, removes many of the changes being underwater (or really any constrained environment) incurs. That means swords can be used again. Many spells on Self without problem. It's the "not really underwater" solution, but it's not a total fix either.

Items, food stuff, shelters, and everything else is part of the underwater environment which ties into monsters too. Who builds coral homes? Who tends the seaweed beds? What weapons and equipment do they build and use because it functions well in water?

 

[Samloyal23]

Deoxygenating the water in an area would be like making it a vacuum or filling it with smoke. All of a sudden water breathers would start suffocating in the area. In most places the effect would disperse pretty quickly, so it is not likely to be lethal, but most aquatic creatures would flee. The question is, would it affect creatures that use magic to breathe underwater?