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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8004785" data-attributes="member: 20323">I left a lot of context out to focus on the heart of my question, but the setting is Egyptian and river travel full of hippos, crocodiles, giant aquatic snakes, tigerfish swarms, and other hazards is kind of expected. So, that house rule emerged from wanting to make tangling with those sorts of creatures underwater more frightening; thus, making the decision to explore some underwater ruins more consequential. I'm not yet 100% on the fine tuning of the rule – and especially its interaction with the garrote – but the general intent is making holding your breath more tactical.Because without any house rule, most D&D fights are over within a matter of rounds, and in an underwater fight the PCs still have minutes of held breath left. Speaking from experience, after one fight like that, players will no longer fear drowning.Hadn't thought of cutting the garrote and slitting your throat in the process – that's a novel idea. But all the ways you can usually escape a grapple would apply:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Making an opposed Acrobatics/Athletics check as an action, and beating what the garrote-wielder rolled on their Athletics/Sleight of Hand check.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shoving the garrote-wielder or otherwise forcibly moving them away.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spells that teleport, planeshift, or turn you into a gaseous state.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Incapacitating the garrote-wielder by reducing them to 0 HP, paralyzing them, stunning them, petrifying them, or putting them to sleep.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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