HELP! Underwater/partially submerged combat

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Hey, I am DMing tonight and just realized the first combat location in my adventure is a room that is half-full of water and turned on its side (so ceiling and floor are now walls and walls are now ceiling and floor). I've never done a combat like this before and my player ran off with the DMG and won't be here until we get started later. What are the rules for this kind of situation? The room is 70' tall and 40' wide at its farthest point (unusual shape). The bottom 30' is all submerged under seawater.

The enemies the party will be fighting are a covey of 3 sea hags who lurk on the upper level (partial concealment) looking down on the main flooded room. They are pretty high up (40') from the water level so won't be using their death gaze/evil eye attacks unless someone gets up near their hiding spot. They have 20 animated skeletons (12 medium, 8 large) at the bottom of the main room hidden by the water.

How the heck do I run this combat? Modifiers for swimming, attacking, etc.???

Initial planned combat action:

Round 1: (Hags cast Veil on entrance to main room to make it look like it has closed up by a stone block; PCs should not be aware of hags yet)

Round 2: Hags cast veil on skeletons to make look like scrags (aquatic trolls). Skeletons attack.

Round 3: Hags cast Polymorph Other on biggest fighter (turn into harmless fish)

Round 4: Hags cast Forcecage on as many PCs as fit into 20 foot cage. Does the cage float or sink or remain stationary since it will be in the water?

FYI: I am using the "Head of Talos" map from the new Dungeon mag (#90) on the bottom of page 85, but have moved it out into the ocean, supported on a rocky outcropping.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

PS: Nobody in the party has waterbreathing/water walking capabilities. The wizard has a fly spell memorized twice, which should help somebody get up to the hags.

Uh oh. New worry: Can you fly underwater? Bet somebody tries it tonight! HELP!

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Help! I really need some answers as soon as possible, before the group gets here... *fidgets nervously*

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Anybody there? Hello? A little help here, please...

 

[MythandLore]

The web enhancement for WotC's RttToEE has something on water combat.

Here it is.

Download it, I think the rules are on page 5.

 

[Grazzt]

Dragon 291 had rules for combat in and under water.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Thanks!!! Combat went well.

 

[MythandLore]

Thanks!!! Combat went well.

Did you use the one off the WotC site?

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Yes and no. I had no time to read it (downloaded it as the players showed up). I used the combat modifiers (-2 attack, 1/2 damage) from RtToEE and the swim check (DC 10) to be able to even roll an attack (I think this was in the DMG). Most of the combat took place out of the water, so it never became the issue I thought it would be. Personally, I think the -2 to hit is too low a modifier, but perhaps this is balanced out by the necessity of making a Swim check just to swing.

The darn PCs made every single saving throw and check I threw at them. Three sea hags = 6 saving throws vs horrific appearance and evil eye (death gaze), but they made every save. The only things that messed them up were illusion of being sealed in and the Forcecage (no save) around the people in the boat. I totally forgot to use the Veil to change the skeletons into trolls, LOL. I had three different battles going on, one PC swam off by himself before anything happened (looking for buried treasure, LOL), two guys in the boat fighting skeletons and three guys spiderclimbing or flying their way up to fight the hags. The poor hags only got to use their covey powers about 4 times before getting chopped up, though one escaped and the last one standing stole the greedy diver's +2 flaming sword when he critically fumbled it after pulling himself up into the hag chamber for a "surprise" attack. The hag then smacked the poor guy with it for max damage before getting cut down by Mr. Greataxe. The party was stuck in the place for 14 hours waiting for the forcecage to vanish, haha, and took hours to figure out they were not actually sealed in by the illusion... Meanwhile, the party thief found the treasure and stole all of it without even checking it out very thoroughly. Of course, the treasure was full of stuff the entire party would need if they even hoped to stand a chance against the bad guys I had waiting for them nearby, which nearly resulted in the death (by rot grub infestation) of one of the party. The rest of the group beat up the thief for holding out on them, LOL, but never discovered all the missing loot.

The group had a party level of six (most were level 8) but were poorly equipped and unarmored for the most part (having just escaped a prison). So 5 medium size skeletons (CR 1/3) nearly tore a 5th level fighter apart in three rounds! He had AC 12, LOL. The only thing that saved the wizard was his shield spell; he never got touched...

Anyway, the important thing was we all had fun, even if we did screw up the rules a bit. Just so I know for next time, was the way I did water combat correct?

 

[Olive]

the rules in the new dragon (well newest out here) are expanded upon and improved from the RttToEE web enhancement...worth buyign just for those (even if they should have been in the core rule books)