Underwater vocal comp of spells

[danielinthwolvesden]

I had a shaman type, with alter self to grant gills underwater. I needed to cast a spell- the DM objected as "vocal comp don't work underwater", So we looked it up. Nothing in the PHB. Nothing in the DMG. Nothing in MotP. Clearly, several races who have gill in the MM have no problem. Made up a rule on the spot, and went on.

Later, I found a rule for this in the Legends & lairs book - "Seafarers handbook", which says it is a DC10+sl, but no check if "the caster is under the influence of a spell that grants the ability the breathe water". DM said "alter self" doesn't grant that ability- I just grew gills. Semantics i think. They he still says it should be very difficult.

Here's the point- if it WAS "very difficult" don't you think it'd be clearly spelled out in one of the core books?

And- is there another rule on this, in another source?

 

[niteshade6]

Currently there are no official rules anywhere on underwater combat, much as they might be useful. 3.5 promises to finaly add some. I believe there were some rules in dragon once, not official but still potentialy useful. I haven't read them and I don't know if they cover spellcasting.

Personaly I would not allow spellcasting underwater without the influence of a water breathing spell either, simply because the rules say you have to be able to speak loudly and clearly, which is normaly impossible underwater. Magical waterbreathing might help with this, but gills would not. I'd assume merfolk and the like have perfected a form of magic that gets around this, much like dragons can cast spells despite having claws instead of hands. Wouldn't be unreasonable to add a feat for underwater spellcasting if somebody really wanted to do it.

 

[dcollins]

WOTC published rules for underwater combat in the web enhancement that can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/we/we20010713b (page 5).

There are no restrictions or limitations indicated for casting vocal component spells used underwater.