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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elethiomel" data-source="post: 5010124" data-attributes="member: 49897">This is incorrect. The sound velocity of water being higher than air has no impact on sound waveforms, and as such does not impact how you hear things. The reasons you have problems hearing things underwater are different, namely;1) Water compression due to sound wave propagation is not linear with the pressure exerted, thus various harmonics are generated. This "muddles" the sound.2) The difference between the density of water and the density of air makes water interact differently with our eardrums. I haven't read any papers on this, but I would assume that this further muddles sound.Your own voice is mostly transmitted through your bone structure to your ear, water does not interfere here. It will add the previously mentioned harmonics, but you should be able to hear your own voice reasonably well underwater.Bubbles create some audio noise, and of course speaking quickly expends air, but my own tentative experiments (no, I didn't conduct them for the benefit of this thread <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) tell me that if careful, I can speak 1 sentence underwater without too much problem on the air in my lungs, and hear myself reasonably well.Regardless of all this, DnD has magic that allows one to breathe and move freely underwater. Though not explicitly stated (like the rules for problems with spellcasting underwater are not explicitly stated), I would rule that any magic or item that allows you to breathe underwater (and not deprive you of your voice) also allows you to fulfil verbal components underwater, and likewise with any magic that allows for free movement underwater (for instance, any magic that grants you a swim speed) would allow you to fulfil somatic components underwater. I wouldn't bother with rules for contaminating spell components.</blockquote>

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