I figured out a way to make an underwater game work!

[Kunimatyu]

So, inspired by the recent sea-faring adventure thread of a few days ago, I've decided to run a three session mini-campaign with a strong underwater/naval focus. I've come out with a neat solution to the whole drowning/3D combat thing.

Warforged!

The party will be all warforged, a salvage crew that gets hired out to recover the remains of shipwrecks in a formerly naval-battle-prone region. Since they're warforged, they don't need to breathe underwater, they sink right to the bottom and walk around on the bottom(swimming in 3D will be possible, but difficult). Lots of opportunities for high-seas adventure, cool undersea exploration, and when the kraken knocks somebody overboard they're not gone for good.

Now I just need to figure out some good shipwreck dwelling undersea monsters for a 3rd level party...

 

[Heathen72]

Now all you need to do is figure out how to make a Warforged game work

 

[Saeviomagy]

Now all you need to do is figure out how to make a Warforged game work

Not exactly a tricky proposition, regardless of what some people seem to think.

 

[Heathen72]

Not exactly a tricky proposition, regardless of what some people seem to think.

And to be fair, I was just being a smartass.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Well, it is a concern, actually, but I think I'll be alright. Warforged are immune to disease, paralysis, and your standard hold person/dominate person schtick, but maybe I can set things up such that their particular qualities are the reason why they could overcome a given enemy? For example, humans would make easy slaves for an aboleth, but a warforged party could resist its domination spell-like abilities and gain the upper hand. Provided they see through the illusions, of course...

I'm also throwing healing out entirely, and trying a vitality points system, mostly because people don't enjoy playing the cleric. I'm maxing out hp per HD (d8 = 8 hp, etc etc), and giving everyone an amount of reserve hitpoints equal to their full HP. These reserve points can be used to replenish hp out of combat, as long as they're above 0hp. Ordinarily this would create balance issues because 1/2 healing is supposed to be a warforged drawback, but since the whole party will be WF, it's not an issue. (In a normal campaign with vitality points, I'd give warforged 1/2 their full hps as a reserve, probably)

 

[Aeolius]

...they sink right to the bottom and walk around on the bottom...

At what depth would the pressure cause the warforged to implode?

In my undersea campaign, swimming is a requirement for PCs. It's much easier to deal with PCs that can remain at one depth.