Seen anyone drown in an encounter?

[Madfox]

I remember a scene in which a barbarian drowned on rough seas. He nearly took the whole team with him, so we had little pitty with him. We were sitting in a rowing boat examining some floating debris, when we saw several sharks. The barbarian decided to do a preemptive strike, even though my wizard (with high knowledge nature skill) told him that as long as we did not attack the sharks they would have little reason to attack us. The worst thing is that he decided to stand up. So when the shark bumbed into the boat the barbarian -due to a stroke of bad luck- took two other fighters with him. Combining the rough sea (swim DC 15) and the sharks we were not able to rescue the barbarian. We are still not sure if he drowned or was eaten

I think the rules for drowning are lenient, because once you reach the limit the character is dead in two rounds with absolutely no chance to survive. Personally, I would have favoured the subdual bit of damage.

On a side note, in very cold water people have 'survived' more then 30 minutes underwater. Though they did require some medical help to be revived, which is not unthinkable with a spell like cure light wounds available.

 

[Jeremy]

Yes.

Undead Deep Dragon constricted the party's armored front man, and dragged him to the bottom of the lake with him. Couldn't break the grapple, couldn't cast spells, no air.

Not normal circumstances, but then what in D&D is normal?

 

[Brightshadow]

Yes, once.

The party was being chased by a ghost with an slightly-modified ghosttouch sword (all they would see is a billowing cloak, and the end of a blade suddenly appear in front of them!). They fought him off time and again, but he kept returning...

One night, the party ranger was on his own, out by a dock, when the ghost attacked. It should be mentioned here that the person playing the ranger had HORRIBLE luck at the time. I mean absolutely godawful luck.

After a bit of a fight, the ranger fell in the water. And sank like a rock for about four rounds. And spent the next 30 rounds or so desperately trying to swim to the surface. We kept track of how many he passed, and how many he failed by five or more, and watched him rise and sink like an aquatic yo-yo while the ghost hovered above the water.

It should also be mentioned here that the ranger was only encumbered with two swords and some leather armour. That's it. So it wasn't like the water was choppy, or he was weighed down, or had some kind of circumstance against himself.

He just couldn't roll anything on the die but a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 15

 

[Gromm]

Well when I was a dM we almost saw someone drown (the party tought of something at the last second that saved him).

The PCs were in a swamp (they were setup- long story), that just happened to be the home of a rather large Black Dragon. The party was attacked (deeper darkness on a log thrown into the party- it was ugly, damn dispel magic...), the dragon was attacking from a large stagnant pool of water. To make a long story short the Paladin got grabbed and pulled into the water and then dropped. He quickly sank like a stone (you try to swim with 100+ pounds of gear), he sat at the bottom and tried to get off his gear, but it was hopeless (-1 swim per round underwater, no Swim skill, good strength but it takes forever to get full plate off).
The only reason he survived is that the party remembered on round 4 that they had a Braclet of Friendship and they used it to teleport him out of the water.

Without the Braclet he would'nt have made it. WE wont even mention how bad it wolud have been if the dragon had decided to "take care of him".

Thats the closest I've ever come to seeing someone drown. Its also my favorite tactic I've come up with for use against PCs (that actually worked that is).

 

[Arcanus]

Forgive the RANT but this is to help dcollins understand

My curiousity is specific to how the victim drowned before running out of hit points.

First: You may need to note that the MM web errata removed all "automatic damage" language from Improved Grab abilities. (Of course, that biases the example further in your favor, but...)

I'll assume the victim is also 6th level, with about AC 20, 42 hp... and maybe he was wearing full plate (as per standard NPC stats, DMG p. 51). If so, then I can see him drowning from the 1d4+1 minute removal time of the armor -- regardless of whether the crocodile was involved or not.

But, computing average damage from the crocodile's attack of bite +6 (1d8+6), versus about AC 20, it should do an average of 3.6 damage per round, depleting a Clr6's 42 hp in about 11 rounds on average. That's far less than the ~26 or so rounds before the cleric needs to start making drowning checks.

So I can see the cleric drowning in the following way:
- If he was in full plate, had already spent ~1.5 minutes underwater trying to remove armor, and was therefore going to drown anyway, regardless of attack by crocodile.

Alternatively:


quote:
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Originally posted by Arcanus
Hard to hold your breath if you are taking damage and you want to scream.
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Does that mean that the normal breath-holding time was reduced in this instance from the book rule?

Okay dcollins I'm not trying to argue this with you but I wasn't the DM so please don't quote things from rules like I did something wrong.

Second 2 Gnolls were taking turns trying to drown him to begin with, this had been going on for several rounds before the croc got in there. The Gnolls were only in leather armor and unarmed. The STR 10 Cleric even had Aid cast on him, and was never able to roll higher than a 13 on his chances to escape the grappels. Even with the bonus +4 to his roll when 1 Gnoll would resurface for air and come back again. He still had his Large Steel shield on if this helps.
Heck maybe he lost hit points before he actually drowned DON'T really know But I know he wasn't taking damage from the grappeling at all. They were pretty much holding him under for at least 6-7 rounds. I know the evil cleric I was playing had 5 rounds of actions before I got involved with what was going on in the moat. I know when I did get involved I spent 1 round getting a potion of flying out of my pack and then using it to fly away from the enraged paladin to get to the moat area. I then summoned the fiendish croc and had to convince it to enter the moat and do my bidding. (the player of the drowning cleric said I had to be able to speak its language in order to communicate my wishes to it, if it hadn't been a FIENDISH CROC. I wouldn't have been able to communicate with it, but the DM ruled that since I spoke INFERNAL AND ABYSSAL that I could. So I spent at least 3 rounds at the moat before the croc got in on it. He was on the cleric for 4-5 rounds himself.

The comment about hard to breath etc... was just a comment and nothing more. there were no modifications to my knowledge that it effected his drowning check or whatever. But have you ever been hit hard enough that the wind was knocked out of you?

I really hopes this helps you out

 

[Valicor]

Iv'e had a few close calls with this one.

About a year ago in a battle on a beach, we faught agaisnt perilous odds. My character got hit by somethign similiar to a crossbow with a telekeniesis bolt I guess. Thsi thing was much stornger though. Well I landed about 300ft out in the sea, and about 100 fet down, in ful plate. I walked back to the beach, *remmbers second edition*

then about 5 weeks ago, we where fghting some monster near a raging river, and didn't have ranged weaposn at the time. Me and another player decided is would be a good idea to leap up in the air and swign at there feet. needless to say, we overshot our targets and landed in the river. it was funny though.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Come close MANY times to drowning PC's. It one of my favorite ways to create tension because its not a simple concrete enemy that they can just take a whack at. Plus there's the metagame knowledge that its a situation even a mercifull DM can't fake so their character lives. You can downgrade enemies on the fly to save a party, but its hard to say 'ok, i dont want you to die so you can breath water now'.

Almost killed an armored barbarian in the sewers. They were in tunnels with knee high water and he walked into a room without checking the depth, it was a 20' drop under the water.

Dungeons are great to fill with water since it becomes a mad rush to get out. Timing is important to keep the tension up, but still give the players a chance. This is a handy trick if the Big Boss has some kind of powerfull artifact you dont want the players to get. His death causes the dam to break or whatever, flooding the place, the players can just make it out IF they leave behind the item. Low level trick tho, once someone gets a waterbreathing item.

Games on ships during hurricanes. Gotta love em. Taught many a group that no matter what level they are, the ocean is tougher and will kick their ass.

 

[Valicor]

You are truly an evil evil man.

 

[LGodamus]

I had a particularly nasty dragon snatch the platemailed fighter ,viciously hacking at his ankle, and toss him into a deep swift flowing river ....he died

 

[dcollins]

Well, to end the discussion, it certainly sounds like the majority of times when characters drown in an encounter, it's due to a situation that was basically inescapable, regardless of the exact length of time of the holding-breath rule, most likely:

(1) Being burdened (esp., plate armor) and unable to remove it for several minutes.
(2) Being grappled and held underwater indefinitely, while taking no damage for some reason.
(3) Falling into water and being knocked unconscious before sinking.

I think it reinforces my theory that the "drowning rule" isn't really gameplay balanced, in that people don't seem to drown in encounters with a fighting chance to either save themselves or perish. Thanks for the examples.