Teleporting into water

[Vahktang]

Well, our heroes have entered our villains lair, had some fun, then teleported out to rest, recover, etc.
Our villain wants to make it so they can't teleport back safely.
Besides filling his corridors with rocks, I thought it easiest and simplest to fill his underlair with water, sealing off sections that whe wishes to remain dry. Our heroe's memorized locations are not in a dry part.
But then the question came up:

A) Can you teleport into a room filled with water?
B) And, if you do, what are the consequences?
C) And, how do you (can you) teleport out again?

A) The area that they are teleporting into is 'studied carefully'.
Would that change that much, go one step lower, if it was filled with water?

B) I imagine that you start drowning, or at least a check to hold your breath. If so, what DC?

C) You're mouth is full of water, you have none of those neat feats to bypass, can you cast a spell with a verbal component while under water?
A serious concentration check?
Double the percentage for deafness?

Any comments welcome.
Cite if possible.
Thanks

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

A) Can you teleport into a room filled with water?
- You can't teleport in a solid object. Water is not solid. Ergo, you can teleport in water.

B) And, if you do, what are the consequences?
- You are in water. You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to your constitution score. After that, you have to make (Fort? Con?) checks in order to keep holding your breath. If you want to swim, you have to make swim checks. Of course, it's better if you have somewhere to swim too...

C) And, how do you (can you) teleport out again?
- IMO, a concentration check will be in order. It's hard to move in water. It's possible to utter words underwater. What would be the DC? Perhaps 15 + spell level (the same as being entangled)

A) The area that they are teleporting into is 'studied carefully'.
Would that change that much, go one step lower, if it was filled with water?
- IMO, no. It's still the same "space". It's just a little wetter

B) I imagine that you start drowning, or at least a check to hold your breath. If so, what DC?
- The rules for holding your breath / drowning are in the DMG, if you want to be sure. You could ask for a Reflex save for the characters to close their mouths when they arrive in the water-filled room.

C) You're mouth is full of water, you have none of those neat feats to bypass, can you cast a spell with a verbal component while under water? A serious concentration check? Double the percentage for deafness?
- As I said, a Concentration check would be in order.

Good idea. I'll probably steal it

AR

 

[Artoomis]

Well, the location doesn't look like it did before, does it? Not even close.

I'd have them teleport to some other, similar-looking, location. Then let them try and figure out what the heck happened.

 

[jgsugden]

You can telepot into wet locations as mentioned above.

From the teleport spell:

You must have some clear idea of the location and layout of the destination.

This quote implies to me that if the location and layout do not change, your level of knowledge concerning the location should not change. This is just my opinion, but it would work well as a rule.

As for casting while underwater, I can find no rule to disallow it. A concentration check would be appropriate. Alternatively, the DM may just impose a flat failure chance as if the caster were deaf.

Don't forget the extra implications of arriving in a water location: water pressure (the bottom floor of a multifloor lair would have pretty high pressure - the pressure might force the air out of the PC's lungs), light sources extinguished, etc ...

 

[Dursk Starkfire]

You can telepot into wet locations as mentioned above.

From the teleport spell: This quote implies to me that if the location and layout do not change, your level of knowledge concerning the location should not change. This is just my opinion, but it would work well as a rule.

Would that mean that all the BBEG would have to do is redecorate or move his furniture around to change the 'layout'? Sounds like we'll end up with a lot more fung-shui conscious BBEG's...

 

[Angcuru]

Take one room, fill with water, add adventurers, and stir.


Not that it really matters technically, but I think that if you teleport into water, the water will either be teleported to the caster+party's previous location, of the addition of the adventurers would cause the water pressure to increase dramatically, possibly crushing them to death. If the room is 100% filled with water, that is.

 

[Vahktang]

A thought:

Big bad guy knows heroes teleport to or through his lair.
So, seals off (fills with rocks) usual place they teleport and makes exact duplicate of room elsewhere.
If I am not mistaken, if the first place you can't teleport too, you then teleport to a similiar place.
That newly built similiar place is:
Trapped
Dimension anchored
Monster heavy
any or all of the above.

I think this would even work on teleport without error.

 

[dcollins]

A) Can you teleport into a room filled with water?
Arguable, but I don't see any reason why not. Probably undersea races should have access to teleport, too -- or maybe not. That's a bit of a DM's call, actually.

B) And, if you do, what are the consequences?
There's nothing in the rules about making checks to begin the breath-holding process. You should have the normal Con-based breath holding as if you dived in.

C) And, how do you (can you) teleport out again?
Just like normal. There's nothing in the rules that makes spellcasting more difficult underwater. You can speak and hear (actually better) underwater. In the underwater rules published by WOTC numerous times, no mention is made of spellcasting being more difficult.

Also, pressure is unlikely to be a concern. By the rules (3.0 DMG p. 86 here) it only accrues per 100 ft. depth, requiring a Con check after a minute to avoid a little subdual damage.

 

[Piratecat]

Make sure you're realistic about the amount of time required to fill the rooms with water. I remember a trap in Dungeon magazine where a Decanter of Endless Water was said to fill a force cube in ten rounds. In truth, it would have taken something like 1,440 rounds. Big difference.

 

[Ferret]

Would you not teleport some air from around you? Or is it strictly person only teleportation?