Waste deep in trouble...

[BluWolf]

When our group meets this sunday they are going to find out the missing cleric they were looking fro has been kidnapped (and his sorpse soaked in brine) by a Green hag and her goblin accomplices.

These evil doers are hold up in an ancient ruined bathouse deep in a murky swamp.

The goblins mainly stay outisde the crumbling structure and act as errand boys and guards. The Green hag (Madam Rhetch to you), however makes her tidy home in the basement level of hwat used to be the huge raised floor where the ancient builders lit thier massive fires to heat the baths.

The problem I'm having is the hags lair is filled to chest on a mdeium sized creature with brakish swamp water.

I cannot find any rules governing wading and fighting through water.

I'm thinking of imposing the following situational modifiers;

1) Movement is reduced to half for all medium sized creatures with dexterity bonuses (to AC & Init) also reduced too half.

2) Anything submerged will get full cover (the water is bascially black) and a +10 too a hide check.

3) Small creatures will have too swim.

4) large creatues will only suffer 1/4 the above penalites.

Does this sound about right? Am I way off basse? Have I missed soemthing in the rules?

Advice greatly desired.

 

[drnuncheon]

Published (and presumably playtested) rules for fighting in or under water are available in a couple of places: in Monte Cook's web add-on for Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (available at the AOTC site) and also in Mongoose's Seas of Blood.

J

 

[BluWolf]

Can't seem to find the temple stuff on Monte's site and I don't own or plan to but Seas of Blood.

Anyone else have some input??

 

[Victim]

The web enhancement for RttToE is on the Wizard's site, not Monte's.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/we/we20010713b

I hope that works.

EDIT:

It does work. The water rules are on page 5 of the web enhancement.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Ugh, sounds nasty! Perhaps you meant WAIST deep?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Well, if the water rules in the web enhancement are good, then go with those. If not, I have one point regarding this:

1) Movement is reduced to half for all medium sized creatures with dexterity bonuses (to AC & Init) also reduced too half.

When you run combat in water, remember that both defense and attack are going to be hindered by the water. That said, I wouldn't impose a penalty on AC or on Init. Those penalties will be balanced out by equal penalties to the enemy's attack and init, so it's simplest not to bother. (Sorta like how a couple of halflings fighting both gain bonuses to attack and AC, which cancel out each others' advantage.) The movement idea is good, meaning that due to the water all combatants will be moving more slowly.

 

[Darkness]

In one of the last few Dragons were water-rules, too, IIRC. Don't know the exact issue, though...