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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trit One-Ear" data-source="post: 8304115" data-attributes="member: 6678017">Hey folks,My party has begun a island-hopping nautical chapter in our adventures, and in prep I've been planning additional/circumstantial rules that I may not have regularly used before. One such rule/rule set is Underwater Combat.I've reread the relevant sections in the PHB, and done some extra reading online and generally, the opinion I find is that there aren't enough RAW to make holding your breath a real factor in combats. I've seen suggestions for adding mechanics to help with this and read up on a variety of approaches.My biggest complaint with RAW is that for any given fight, most time being grappled underwater (for example) is effectively the same as being grappled on dry land. Yes, you can design encounters that add additional obstacles or hazards to increase the risk of running out of air. Yes, you can rule that a creature surprised and pulled underwater doesn't have a full breath of air... but that feels too punishing to me. It should be enough to throw an aquatic monster at a party and have the risk of being held underwater heighten the stakes without having to do a lot of extra work.I'm currently thinking of a system that uses the RAW for underwater exploration, but in the chaos of combat reduces the number of round creatures can hold their breaths (still utilizing Con mod), and then having actions like casting spells with verbal components and taking damage lower that number over time... but I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to.My question for you all: Have you tried any additional breath-holding mechanics (including interactions for casting spells and taking damage), and do you have any advice based on your experiences?</blockquote>

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