Casting Sleep Underwater...

[Pbartender]

A Sleep spell is cast on underwater targets.

Do the victims, assuming that they cannot breathe water at the moment, stay asleep and begin drowning? Or is the act of drowning considered 'wounding', and the victims wake up?

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

Sleep is like normal sleep, other then normal noise being unable to wake you during the magically forced sleep. After that, I consider anything that wakes me up during normal sleep to wake me up during the spell (and I am a heavy sleeper).

And while I've never had the opportunity to have to wake up while drowning, I think I would.

I do think a drowning victim would wake up. I would consider it just as much, if not more shock to the body then a simple slap to the face. You might give them a Saving Throw versus choking on the water for a round - makes it a bit more realistic and the PCs get one round of actions at the very least.

 

[Pinotage]

I'd rule as you've said. Falling asleep results in drowning which results in the character waking up.

Pinotage

 

[hong]

You know, Sleep Underwater would be a very, very nasty spell to cast.

 

[Pbartender]

Alright... That's what I thought.

Here's what I'd ruled...

From SRD:

Drowning

Any character can hold her breath for a number of rounds equal to twice her Constitution score. After this period of time, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round in order to continue holding her breath. Each round, the DC increases by 1.

When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she drowns.

I ruled that while the sleeper would wake up almost immediately, that brief moment of dozing would cause him to lose his breath. So the victim would not be asleep under water, but would go from holding his breath straight to the DC 10 Con checks... This would normally force a character to return to the surface ASAP.

Does that seem fair?

 

[Piratecat]

I think so. Fairly realistic, too.

 

[shilsen]

I ruled that while the sleeper would wake up almost immediately, that brief moment of dozing would cause him to lose his breath. So the victim would not be asleep under water, but would go from holding his breath straight to the DC 10 Con checks... This would normally force a character to return to the surface ASAP.

Does that seem fair?

Sounds like an excellent ruling to me.