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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mvincent" data-source="post: 3505658" data-attributes="member: 27034">For those that desire it, the 3.0 FAQ says:"What happens when a character who has received afreedom of movement spell jumps or falls into water? MyDM seems to think that the character falls straight throughthe water and goes “splat” on the bottom. My DM explainsthat the spell eliminates all water resistance, which preventsthe character from swimming or floating.While the DM is always right, he’s followed a faulty line ofreasoning here. It’s always a bad idea to use scientific—orpseudoscientific—reasoning to adjudicate spells. In this case,your DM has erroneously supposed that water resistance hassomething to do with buoyancy. Buoyancy depends on thewater literally pushing something up toward the surface, and afreedom of movement spell doesn’t prevent that any more thanit prevents a floor from pushing up against a character’s feetand keeping him from falling through it. (You might not be inthe habit of thinking of floors as “pushing” anything, but that isthe way modern physics describes any object or body restingon any surface; the object pushes down and the surface pushesback with equal force.)In any case, the freedom of movement spell (and its cousinfrom earlier editions, the free action spell) has nothing to dowith eliminating water resistance or friction; it allows normalmovement and attacks even under conditions in which normalmovement and attacks are not possible, such as underwater orwhen webbed, held, or entangled. Exactly how the spellaccomplishes that is unrevealed—that’s what makes it magic.Your DM would have been on firmer ground (as it were) if hehad claimed that falling is a form of “normal movement” thatwater usually prevents. That, however, is not the case. “Normalmovement” in water is swimming or walking along the bottom.When a character under a freedom of movement effect enterswater, he makes a Swim check; if he fails, he cannot move, andhe sinks if he fails by 5 or more. Note that failing to makeprogress or sinking are both “normal movement” in thisinstance."</blockquote>

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