Failed Swim, How fast do you sink?

[DMFTodd]

Fighter, carrying 100lbs of gear, falls overboard. As he hits the water, he gets a Swim check (open ocean, DC10). He fails the roll by more than 5. The rules say he "goes under".

Does he sink? If so, how fast?

 

[Scion]

Someone might have a real answer from somewhere, but I'd probably do something like 1' underwater for every point beyond 5 the check was missed by.

 

[Kyramus]

i run with this rule.
light load, sink by speed. a normal human is 30 feet.
medium load, sink by x2 speed.
heavy load, sink by x3 speed.
This is by round.

So a light load human sinking for 3 rounds would be 90 feet assuming he fails all swim checks.
A heavy loaded human sinks for 1 round and catches up with the light loaded human.

A human with cement shoes is treated as heavy load.

 

[Scion]

so... horses sink twice as fast as humans, halflings sink slower than goblins, do you go by walking speed, flying speed, etc? whichever is highest/lowest? If you have expedious retreat on you sink faster? boots of springing and striding?

Just curious it seems.. odd.. to base it on base movement rate

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

Most mammals don't sink very fast at all unless aided by a metal armor or cement shoes.

In the case of of your fighter, I would take the advice of the poster who suggested to use the failed swim check to determine how fast he sinks.

But I'd rule you sink 1 feet for each point you missed the check by, to a maximum of 1 feet for each 2 pound of equipment you're carrying (minimum of 5 feet for those carrying nothing and maximum of 60 feet for those sinking with a boulder tied around their neck or something like that).

Without being weighed by equipment, I'd also state that a man can't sink much deeper than 20 or 30 feet.

I'm just firing from the hip, of course. YMMV.

 

[Kyramus]

so... horses sink twice as fast as humans, halflings sink slower than goblins, do you go by walking speed, flying speed, etc? whichever is highest/lowest? If you have expedious retreat on you sink faster? boots of springing and striding?

Just curious it seems.. odd.. to base it on base movement rate

It's jsut a rule i use in my game. keeps things simple. Obviously if i really look into the mechanics, the answer would be different.grrrr you are making me look aren't you???? fess up you are you are!!! grrrrrr -flips through the books-

 

[Kyramus]

OK
Swim skill states that if you make the swim check you can swim up to half movement in a full round, or quarter movement in a move equivalent.
Since you aren't swimming but sinking, then I'd guess that a person sinks half their movement rate / round.
Humans sink at 15 feet / round. halflings at 10 feet/round.

Also since they are sinking, they need to hold their breath or some way to breath.

100 lbs with an unknown strength fighter doesn't tell much. if we use 100 lbs as light weight. then no penalty to swim.
Medium weight, then -3 swim penalty.
Heavy load, then -6 penalty.
Since they want to succeed in swimming, the heavy load makes it harder to swim

DC 10 for calm water, 15 for rough water 20 for stormy water.
So this fighter has
swim DC of 13 or 16 in calm water
DC of 18 or 21 in rough water
or DC 23 or 26 in stormy water.

Ok i've researched enough. Someone else do the holding breath rule. lol

 

[Vlos]

I would have to say have a base sinking rate of 0' per round. (people don't sink that fast without extra weight). And a naked body with air will float (deadmans float).

For every 5 lbs of grear add 1' per round.

So a person with 100 pounds of gear would sink 20' per round (easy calculation for game purposes).

Thus a human who failed a swim check with 100 pounds of gear would sink 20'. Next round they make a swim check and are able to swim up 15', still underwater.

I like simple.

 

[Norfleet]

It's not the weight of the gear which matters, however: It's the density of the gear. If the person in question is loaded with 300 pounds of wooden clubs, he's not going to sink. If he's loaded with 300 pounds of longswords, I have difficulty imagining him staying afloat under any condition.

 

[Scion]

D&D doesnt usually go so far indepth into such things though, but generally you are correct. That is where circumstance modifiers come in.

With 300lbs of wood (assuming that it is a type of wood that floats, not all do after all) it would be very difficult to swim quickly so there would be a penalty there, and it would be difficult to sink, so a bonus there.. it would be odd, but at that point the character would get a modifier towards floating but not moving, whether that is positive or negative..lol