D&D 5E Swimming in armor

[Rydac]

This guy tried it:[video=vimeo;13634653]https://vimeo.com/13634653[/video]

Well that answers it The guy barely makes 10 feet on best attempt, and that is without weapon, helm, and all the other sundry things a D&D adventurer would be wearing. He also doesn't have the normal underlayers of padding that armor would use which would absorb water and make swimming even more difficult.

When I did lifeguard training we had to swim wearing shirt, jeans, sneakers and this was difficult for all the trainees who were in peak swimming condition.....wearing even leather armor....yeah right!

As was suggested up-thread the cheap and easy response is make tests at disadvantage and give armors over light a higher target number as well. The weight of that guys armor was such that it cancelled his natural buoyancy allowing him to walk on the bottom of the pool.....he as they say "sank like a rock"

 

[S'mon]

I would have agreed with you...until I saw this on Yahoo answers:

It is indeed possible to swim in full Plate Armor, though as one might imagine it would be difficult and exhausting, however if you were in a situation where you needed to do so, not only would it be possible but the adrenaline would give a significant boost.

You can certainly swim in plate armour - what you can't do is remain above water while
wearing plate armour, or likewise carrying a 50 lb lump of metal - you (including your load)
are too dense, and thus will sink. But moving forward is not hard at all.

So: it is certainly possible to cross a stream or small river wearing plate; you will go under
but can reach the far bank and haul yourself up. But if you fall in the ocean you will sink.

 

[DaveDash]

You can certainly swim in plate armour - what you can't do is remain above water while
wearing plate armour, or likewise carrying a 50 lb lump of metal - you (including your load)
are too dense, and thus will sink. But moving forward is not hard at all.

So: it is certainly possible to cross a stream or small river wearing plate; you will go under
but can reach the far bank and haul yourself up. But if you fall in the ocean you will sink.

Yep.

It doesn't matter how "light" plate really is, a lot of good young men went to the bottom of the ocean in Normandy weighed down by their gear and plate.

 

[Riley37]

When I was in the military we were training in a swamp...

An actual first-person story, yay!

KarinsDad wrote: "Yes, there are more than one way to skin a cat (alter self, fly, misty step)"

Why not just cast "Bigby's Claw of Cat Skinning"? That's clearly the spell for the job.
If you didn't prepare it, then Barbarians, Druids, Rangers and those with the Outlander background might do better at skinning cats.

One more thing: wearing dry clothing is NOT the same as wearing soaking-wet clothing. Wearing denim jeans did not prevent 1849 gold miners from moving effectively in the hills of Sacramento. One dunk in a river, however, and those denim jeans become a hindrance to movement.

 

[aramis erak]

I find that very difficult to believe. Wading, yes. Hanging on to a large flotation device like a mast, yes. But humans are only just buoyant as it is, and real armour is heavy. On land, with acrobatics etc, you can use your strength to fight gravity because you're standing on the ground' that's not the case in water!

I've swum in my fencing armor. It trapped a lot of air. (At the time, in just a speedo, I floated just below surface. In gambeson, I floated with my whole face above.) Think padded armor. (2 layers of heavy nylon & cotton denim.) Getting dry was next to impossible.

Note that chain or plate are going to weigh about 6/7ths to 7/8ths of their mass when immersed (because they run SG 7 to 8, and water is SG1±0.05). Most people can only stay afloat with about 10% of their own mass or less... Less fat, less swimming carry... so fighters (who are usually shown as well muscled) are low bouyancy to begin with, and then they're wearing 13-15kg that they have to overcome (10-25% of their mass). Swimming in plate may be doable, but staying afloat without effort isn't. The gambeson may trap some air under it, and provide buoyancy... but I concur it won't be enough.


And ANY solid immersed in a liquid has some buoyancy... as it displaces some water. Metal does not do enough. Which is enough to invoke the disadvantage rule.

 

[GameOgre]

Just stop for a second and think about some bad arse CRAZY person in plat mail crossing a river by walking out into the water until his head was under water and walking across the bottom. One trip, one step into a mud hole, one tangling in a sunken rope or net and he is done. Heck if he misjudged the distance and can't hold his breath till he comes up the other side he is done.

It's all good to talk D&D and what can be done on paper but if you really though about what it would be like.....$$%$% THAT!

Guess you can just expand that out into the rest of the game to though.

If I stood with a sword in my hands while 10 orcs ran screaming at me, I wouldn't have clean underpants.

 

[thalmin]

Never tried swimming in armor (never owned any) but I have swum fully dressed. When I was a Boy Scout working on my Swimming Merit Badge, there was a requirement where we had to jump into the water fully dressed (long pants, long sleeve shirt, shoes). The regular requirement involved removing the clothes and inflating them. As a test of our own abilities, a few of us requested (and were given permission) to do a lap in the swimmers area while clothed (no shoes, though) Some of us were able to do one lap (100 yards), some could not. This was the same week that most of us completed the Mile Swim (swim a mile non-stop). That lap was harder than swimming a full mile.

edit: corrected distance