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In over your head - Underwater adventuring
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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 7308157" data-attributes="member: 6669384"><p>When I got Stormwrack I'd hoped it would do more with underwater environments, but it's mostly about adventuring *on* the water, not in the water.</p><p></p><p>They added some spells, items, monsters and weapons but basic rules for movement and combat remain unclarified.</p><p></p><p>You can apparently stab with a short sword (piercing weapon), but not with a long sword. </p><p></p><p>If it were me making the rules:</p><p></p><p>I'd suggest that we distinguish between "Piercing" and "Thrusting". It still begs the question of moving a thrusting weapon into line to target the opponent. So maybe penalize all reach weapons' attack rolls for that reason, while penalizing damage for anything other than thrusting weapons.</p><p></p><p>Whips, spiked chain and lariats should be useless in the water. All ranged weapons should have their range cut by 90% (and even that's generous). It should depend on the weight of the weapon: A spear will carry better in the water than an arrow, but you have to swing your arm to throw it, so I'm really not comfortable with that solution either.</p><p></p><p>Lacking anything actually elastic to make something like a Hawaiian Sling fishing spear (powered by a piece of rubber surgical tubing in modern versions), the ranged weapon of choice would be something like an oversized crossbow that shoots javelin sized harpoons.</p><p></p><p>I'd add a DC 15 concentration check for most spells: Water can ruin material components, can hamper movements and gestures for spells with somatic components, and can burble the words of verbal components. No problem speaking if there's a Water Breathing spell up. No problem with gestures with Freedom of Movement. No problem with materials in an Airy Water area.</p><p></p><p>Still, there is the question: A person with Freedom of Movement falls out of a boat: Do they drop to the bottom, unsupported and unresisted by the water, so it's treated as a fall? or do they swim as fast as they could walk or run? People have been debating that one for a while.</p><p></p><p>And what happens with a Bag of Holding or Handy Haversack in the water? If you open one while under water it seems like it should fill with water. That however would overload the weight limit for every one of them: A gallon weighs 8 pounds. A cubic foot is seven gallons and seven pints, or about 63 pounds (approximately). Doesn't take many cubic feet to top the bag's weight limit and cause it to rupture.</p><p></p><p>Or does that only apply when you're trying to lift the bag out of the water? (Should we be foolish enough to try and apply physics to a magical environment, we'd note that the water in the bag isn't actually in any kind of equilibrium with the "water around the bag", since the volume inside the bag isn't displacing any of the water on the outside. It's an extradimensional space, surrounded not by water, but by, well, extradimensional space.)</p><p></p><p>Better to just hand-wave that one, I think. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 7308157, member: 6669384"] When I got Stormwrack I'd hoped it would do more with underwater environments, but it's mostly about adventuring *on* the water, not in the water. They added some spells, items, monsters and weapons but basic rules for movement and combat remain unclarified. You can apparently stab with a short sword (piercing weapon), but not with a long sword. If it were me making the rules: I'd suggest that we distinguish between "Piercing" and "Thrusting". It still begs the question of moving a thrusting weapon into line to target the opponent. So maybe penalize all reach weapons' attack rolls for that reason, while penalizing damage for anything other than thrusting weapons. Whips, spiked chain and lariats should be useless in the water. All ranged weapons should have their range cut by 90% (and even that's generous). It should depend on the weight of the weapon: A spear will carry better in the water than an arrow, but you have to swing your arm to throw it, so I'm really not comfortable with that solution either. Lacking anything actually elastic to make something like a Hawaiian Sling fishing spear (powered by a piece of rubber surgical tubing in modern versions), the ranged weapon of choice would be something like an oversized crossbow that shoots javelin sized harpoons. I'd add a DC 15 concentration check for most spells: Water can ruin material components, can hamper movements and gestures for spells with somatic components, and can burble the words of verbal components. No problem speaking if there's a Water Breathing spell up. No problem with gestures with Freedom of Movement. No problem with materials in an Airy Water area. Still, there is the question: A person with Freedom of Movement falls out of a boat: Do they drop to the bottom, unsupported and unresisted by the water, so it's treated as a fall? or do they swim as fast as they could walk or run? People have been debating that one for a while. And what happens with a Bag of Holding or Handy Haversack in the water? If you open one while under water it seems like it should fill with water. That however would overload the weight limit for every one of them: A gallon weighs 8 pounds. A cubic foot is seven gallons and seven pints, or about 63 pounds (approximately). Doesn't take many cubic feet to top the bag's weight limit and cause it to rupture. Or does that only apply when you're trying to lift the bag out of the water? (Should we be foolish enough to try and apply physics to a magical environment, we'd note that the water in the bag isn't actually in any kind of equilibrium with the "water around the bag", since the volume inside the bag isn't displacing any of the water on the outside. It's an extradimensional space, surrounded not by water, but by, well, extradimensional space.) Better to just hand-wave that one, I think. :) [/QUOTE]
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