Seen anyone drown in an encounter?

[dcollins]

I'm wondering this: Has anyone actually been witness to a character drowning during an encounter?

It seems like, as written, the base drowning rule is too lenient for such a thing to actually happen during an encounter with some opponent. Per DMG p. 85, the base time before drowning occurs is a minimum of 6 rounds (for Con 3), or an average of 20 rounds (for a Con 10). I don't know of many encounters that last as long as either of those figures.

I'm actually considering altering the rule to provide only half that duration if the character is taking any actions in the meantime (i.e., full book duration if taking no actions, or possibly a single MEA per round).

 

[Crothian]

Well, most people can hold their breath for about 2 minutes (20 rounds). So, the drowning rules are pretty good in realism.

 

[Fleetwood]

I haven't seen anyone drown, although I did have a PC get eaten by a giant catfish.

PC is still officially MIA.

 

[durath]

The closest our group has come is 8 rounds. A PC was grappled underwater by some fey creature and it took another PC 8 rounds to break the grapple.

 

[Dimwhit]

While it's true that most people can hold their breath for 2 minutes, our group felt that was unrealistic to do while in the middle of a fight. So we cut it in half while fighting, and normal while not. It's still a long time, and most battles don't last that long anyway.

 

[dcollins]

Well, most people can hold their breath for about 2 minutes (20 rounds). So, the drowning rules are pretty good in realism.

As I implied in my first post, and others have mentioned, that's not nearly the case for people performing violent activity and under a great deal of stress. The standard durations might be realistic for a relaxed and ready breath-holder, but not for the average "encounter" situation.

Edit: On researching what I could, even 2 minutes is apparently very long.

(1) Here's a site pointing out that "normal" capacity for sounding an "SSS"-sound test, as an adult male, stands at about 20 seconds -- http://www.unc.edu/~chooper/classes/voice/webtherapy/breathsupport.html

(2) A scuba site suggesting that a normal dive for a trained diver is about a minute-and-a-half, and that "Every action must have a reason or it will waste precious oxygen. Remember that all body movements require oxygen and that thigh muscles are one of the largest, therefore requiring more oxygen than most other muscles... Excessive exercise at depth, such as struggling with a fish or fighting a strong current, can be deadly to the freediver as Terry Maas points out in his book, Bluewater Hunting and Freediving...." -- http://www.ymcascuba.org/ymcascub/currnt33.html

(3) Here's a site pointing out that record competitive breath-hold dives are timed at about 2 minutes (even if the diver can "relaxed" hold their breath for around 4 minutes): "She set her second record in 1 minute 58 seconds, although she has accomplished this dive in as long as 2 minutes 7 seconds." -- http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_diving.html

 

[doktorstick]

Yes.

Three party members were knocked into water 30' below. Two were laden and couldn't swim. The other got knocked unconscious from the impact with the water. She subsequently drowned while the other two party members struggled to save their own hides.

/ds

 

[Zhure]

... saw a plate wearing maniac jump overboard in water whose depth we did not know. The lighter clad sorcerer had to swim down with a rope otherwise he would've died, since said maniac lacked any ranks in Swim and couldn't take 10 due to combat.

Greg

 

[Dark Dragon]

There is a druid spell called "Drown" (level 6)...
A (N)PC would die within 3 rounds if he fails the save because his lungs are filled with water.
Actually, my druid hasn't used it. But party's wizard nearly got drowned because he jumped off a ship to take a bath and remembered too late that he can't swim (the druid saved him and teached him swimming later)

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Yep, THE ROPER fight we all know about. Dumb monk made his escape artist check and freed himself from the roper when he had a 1 str and was in the fast moving underground river. I smoked 2 players in that encounter thanks to the monks suicide.