Difference between revisions of "Underwater"

Revision as of 14:14, 11 January 2012

Swimming

[link href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/swim.html#_swim"]PCB Swim Skill[/link]

Roll a Swim check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to half your speed (as a full-round action) or at a quarter of your speed (as a move action). If you fail by 4 or less, you make no progress. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater.

A character with Swim speeds can swim, hustle, or 'run' per normal rules.

Alternately, the PC can be towed by another person using the Encumbrance Rules for Dragging.

Drowning

If a hero doesn't have (or loses ability) to breath underwater) he may hold his breath for #rounds = x2CON. After this, the hero makes DC 10 Con +1 per round check in order to continue holding her breath. When a hero fails his Con check, he begins to drown. 1st round, unconscious (0 hp). 2nd round, --1 hit points and is dying. 3rd round, he drowns (dies).

Very Deep deals water pressure damage of 1d6 points per minute for every 100 feet the character is below the surface. A successful Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) means the diver takes no damage in that minute. Descending is a Fort DC15 for one minute, and d6 damage for a failed save. At the Triton Palace, it is Fort DC 16 +1 per minute, and 2d6 damage for each fail. Any form with (acquatic) template is immune to the very deep damage.

Light

  At 0 -- 100 feet, can see100 feet
  At 100 -- 200 feet, can see 40 feet
  At 200 feet, the light is shadowed, can only see 20 feet.
  At 300 feet, it is dark.
  

Cold

Hypothermia. Below 30 feet in the Plactic Ocean, an unprotected character must make a Fort save (DC 15, +1 per previous check) per 10 minutes, taking 1d6 points of nonlethal damage on each failed save.

Any failed save also contracts hypothermia (treat her as fatigued). These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the cold and exposure.

Cold and exposure deal nonlethal damage to the victim. This nonlethal damage cannot be recovered until the character gets out of the cold and warms up again. Once a character is rendered unconscious through the accumulation of nonlethal damage, the cold and exposure begins to deal lethal damage at the same rate.

Aquatic Terrain (Pathfinder Core Book)

[link href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html#aquatic-terrain-103"] PCB Aquatic Terrain[/link]

This link covers:

-Flowing Water

-Swept Away

-Non-Flowing Water

-Stealth and Detection Underwater

-Invisibility

-Underwater Combat

-Ranged Attacks Underwater

-Attacks from Land

-Fire Underwater

-Spellcasting Underwater

-Floods

Underwater Combat (DM Guide)

Land-based creatures can have considerable difficulty when fighting in water. Water affects a creature's Armor Class, attack rolls, damage, and movement. In some cases a creature's opponents may get a bonus on attacks. The effects are summarized in the accompanying table. They apply whenever a character is swimming, walking in chestdeep water, or walking along the bottom.

Ranged Attacks Underwater: Thrown weapons are ineffective underwater, even when launched from land. Attacks with other ranged weapons take a --2 penalty on attack rolls for every 5 feet of water they pass through, in addition to the normal penalties for range.

Attacks from Land: Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land. Landbound opponents who have freedom of movement effects ignore this cover when making melee attacks against targets in the water. A completely submerged creature has total cover against opponents on land unless those opponents have freedom of movement effects. Magical effects are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other effects) and fire effects.

Fire: Nonmagical fire (including alchemist's fire) does not burn underwater. Spells or spell-like effects with the fire descriptor are ineffective underwater unless the caster makes a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + spell level). If the check succeeds, the spell creates a bubble of steam instead of its usual fiery effect, but otherwise the spell works as described. A supernatural fire effect is ineffective underwater unless its description states otherwise. The surface of a body of water blocks line of effect for any fire spell. If the caster has made a Spellcraft check to make the fire spell usable underwater, the surface still blocks the spell's line of effect.

Table: Combat Adjustments Underwater

   	---------- Attack/Damage ----------		
  Condition..............Slashing or Bludgeoning..........Tail..............Movement..........Off Balance?4
  Freedom of movement..........normal/normal..........normal/normal..........normal................No
  Has a swim speed...............-2/half.................normal..............normal................No
  Successful Swim check..........-2/half1...............-2/half..........quarter or half2..........No
  Firm footing3..................-2/half................-2/half...............half.................No
  None of the above..............-2/half................-2/half..............normal...............Yes

1. A creature without a freedom of movement effects or a swim speed makes grapple checks underwater at a --2 penalty, but deals damage normally when grappling.
2. A successful Swim check lets a creature move one-quarter its speed as a move action or one-half its speed as a full-round action.
3. Creatures have firm footing when walking along the bottom, braced against a ship's hull, or the like. A creature can only walk along the bottom if it wears or carries enough gear to weigh itself down--at least 16 pounds for Medium creatures, twice that for each size category larger than Medium, and half that for each size category smaller than Medium.
4. Creatures flailing about in the water (usually because they failed their Swim checks) have a hard time fighting effectively. An off-balance creature loses its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and opponents gain a +2 bonus on attacks against it.