D&D 5E Movement in whirlpool control Water weird dash action issue

[Nebulous]

the character also had fly cast on him. Fly, water walking and water breathing. Then he plunged into his own ally’s control water spell to try to save another, paralyzed, ally.

Water Walk and Fly both? I would think he didn't even need to make a check., He's be flying on the water or just above it. The spell would prevent him from submerging, right?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Water Walk and Fly both? I would think he didn't even need to make a check., He's be flying on the water or just above it. The spell would prevent him from submerging, right?

The player flew off the boat and plunged down 20 feet under the water and got caught on the edge of the whirlpool.

in retrospect, I feel he should have floated to the top after his turn because of water walk but I don’t know if he should have been able to fly out if the water If he was caught in it though.

but it’s kind of the point of the thread. To review the call and see if there was a different way to call it.

 

[Nebulous]

The player flew off the boat and plunged down 20 feet under the water and got caught on the edge of the whirlpool.

in retrospect, I feel he should have floated to the top after his turn because of water walk but I don’t know if he should have been able to fly out if the water If he was caught in it though.

but it’s kind of the point of the thread. To review the call and see if there was a different way to call it.

So he had water walk cast before he went down 20 feet? I would have ruled the spell repelled him and he couldn't have gone down at all. Only because there is nothing in the spell about picking and choosing if a liquid is solid for you or not. It is like "ground" for an hour.

 

[Ovinomancer]

The player flew off the boat and plunged down 20 feet under the water and got caught on the edge of the whirlpool.

in retrospect, I feel he should have floated to the top after his turn because of water walk but I don’t know if he should have been able to fly out if the water If he was caught in it though.

but it’s kind of the point of the thread. To review the call and see if there was a different way to call it.

He should have been able to Fly out, as that's a different movement type that wasn't restricted by the spell. Only swimming is difficult.

That said, it's definitely an area rife for rulings. Although, I'd have made sure that any such ruling was in place prior to the PC diving in.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

@Hawk Diesel the character also had fly cast on him. Fly, water walking and water breathing. Then he plunged into his own ally’s control water spell to try to save another, paralyzed, ally.

Even more reason to allow the PC's plan to work. They used a significant number of resources to make their plan work. At the very least, rule of cool for attempting a heroic action should have allowed this to proceed without a check being necessary given everything that's been said here.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

So he had water walk cast before he went down 20 feet? I would have ruled the spell repelled him and he couldn't have gone down at all. Only because there is nothing in the spell about picking and choosing if a liquid is solid for you or not. It is like "ground" for an hour.

We rule that it isn’t ground. You just float to the top. Like an inflated ball being dragged to the bottom of a pool, it floats upwards. So we say you can dive down and swim but you just float back up at the end of the round. Thinking back, I think the flying PC forgot he even had water walk cast on him.

the whole thing was a bit of a mess. Our party is traveling by water for a while so I imagine we will get it sorted out before the next time it comes up.

 

[Nebulous]

For sure. If you think this will probably come up again, definitely have the DM make a ruling. It is a bit messy with different dynamics going on at once.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

He should have been able to Fly out, as that's a different movement type that wasn't restricted by the spell. Only swimming is difficult.

That said, it's definitely an area rife for rulings. Although, I'd have made sure that any such ruling was in place prior to the PC diving in.

I see that. There was an argument to say that his movement wasn’t swimming but we also decided that your movement is halved while flying through the water. And since ‘swimming’ is just half your walking speed unless you have a swim speed, it should apply equally to flying speed.

there is an argument to make that fly shouldn’t work at all in the water since you can’t use a flying speed in the water. We just split the difference.

 

[Rabulias]

Here is the discussion: GM says, you only get one check because dash action adds to your movement. It doesn't give you 'two move actions'. You've already failed your check, so doing a dash action won't work.

I agree with others that the check is the character's action for that round, and you get just one check against the whirlpool per round.

I disagree with your DM about Dash though. A character with Cunning Action (CA) can Move their base speed and then perform an action, like Attack. If their attack drops their opponent, they can then decide (after already moving some) to use their CA to Dash to another opponent. It can't be affecting their movement from the first part of their turn (making them faster) at this point. One could always hand-wave it away, retroactively saying that the CA Dash was chosen at the start of the turn, but it flies in the face of the flow of events, and could rupture the space-time continuum.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I agree with others that the check is the character's action for that round, and you get just one check against the whirlpool per round.

I disagree with your DM about Dash though. A character with Cunning Action (CA) can Move their base speed and then perform an action, like Attack. If their attack drops their opponent, they can then decide (after already moving some) to use their CA to Dash to another opponent. It can't be affecting their movement from the first part of their turn (making them faster) at this point. One could always hand-wave it away, retroactively saying that the CA Dash was chosen at the start of the turn, but it flies in the face of the flow of events, and could rupture the space-time continuum.

In which case, it becomes another attempt to move against the flow of the water, which requires a check. This is what prompted the discussion