lvl 1 aquatic elf in a dungeon. Viable?

[Escheton]

How do I keep my lvl 1 aquatic elf ranger from drowning on dry land in a typical dungeoncrawl?

[legomaster00156]

Play a normal elf.

[Crasical]

Some googling got me this:


Stormwrack has Aquatic Half-Elves that are done as Aquatic Elves crossed with Humans (land based). The SW aquatic half-elf breathes air, not water (can hold its breath) and has a swim speed of 15 - there's a feat for them (Water Adaptation) that gives them water breathing and a swim speed of 20.

Which seems like a better option. There are ways for a water-breather to breathe air, but you can't afford 'em.

[Manateee]

Fill a barrel with water.
Get in the barrel.
Seal the barrel.
Get some ogre skeletons to roll you around.

[legomaster00156]

Fill a barrel with water.
Get in the barrel.
Seal the barrel.
Get some ogre skeletons to roll you around.
And how exactly do you expect him to have minions of any sort? :smallconfused:

[Manateee]

And how exactly do you expect him to have minions of any sort? :smallconfused:
A human lifetime of sideshow income?
Maybe rig up something for an ox to drag around.

Also, I'm glad that's the problem here. :p

[ericgrau]

At level 1 he can roll around his own water barrel, naturally.

More seriously, daily trips to a large body of water.

[Daftendirekt]

UA aquatic elf gets rid of the gills. Thus you can survive on land.

[Darrin]

UA aquatic elf gets rid of the gills. Thus you can survive on land.

Nope. The "Gills" entry from the MM/Stormwrack says, "Aquatic elves can survive out of the water for 1 hour per point of Constitution (after that, refer to the suffocation rules on page 304 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide)".

If you're using the Aquatic variant from UA, they lose this ability, and the general Aquatic traits take precedence: "An aquatic creature can hold its breath outside the water for 2 rounds per point of Constitution. After that, it begins to suffocate."

What you need is the Amphibious template from Stormwrack (p. 135). It's LA +0, and can be applied to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid. The only downside is your Dex score is reduced by 2, but you can now survive indefinitely either in or out of water.

If it's important that your character not be able to breathe air, you may want to talk to the DM about allowing your character to start with something like a Necklace of Adaptation (9000 GP, DMG) or Gilled armor (+6000 GP, Magic Item Compendium), possibly with some drawbacks that make it more suitable for a 1st-level character. If you have access to Dragon #306, there's also an item in there called a Talisman of Adaptation, which is much cheaper (325 GP) but only lasts a week before it crumbles and you have to get a new one.

[panaikhan]

ok, going into the realms of RAW silliness here.

Wear a goldfish-bowl helmet?
Armour (as far as I am aware) cannot be sundered, and nothing in RAW says you have to change the water.

[Ravens_cry]

Not exactly level one, but a bag of holding full of water that you dip in periodically could work. Getting the ablative armour to carry around a barrel of water is probably your best low level option or, if your DM is generous, the literal fishbowl helmet.

[Yora]

ok, going into the realms of RAW silliness here.

Wear a goldfish-bowl helmet?
Armour (as far as I am aware) cannot be sundered, and nothing in RAW says you have to change the water.

Then you would have to constantly change the water once the oxygen runs out. And if you have such amounts of waters at hand, you can just take a bath in it.

[Dusk Eclipse]

RAW-wise he(she) is right, Aquatic creatures in Dungeons & Dragons don't need oxygen in the water, they need the water itself.

[Person_Man]

Create Water is a 0 level Druid and Cleric spell that creates 2 gallons of water per caster level. Ask the Druid and/or Cleric to memorize this a few times, and make a pool of water for you to sleep in. Instead of a sleeping bag, you could carry around one of those inflatable baby/wading pools that they sell at K-Mart, or whatever the D&D equivalent would be. Maybe a Blue Whale Bladder that's been sown shut on one side?

[Yora]

By RAW, you never need to eat or sleep either.

[Big Fau]

By RAW, you never need to eat or sleep either.

Sleep isn't needed, but food and drink are:


Starvation And Thirst
Characters might find themselves without food or water and with no means to obtain them. In normal climates, Medium characters need at least a gallon of fluids and about a pound of decent food per day to avoid starvation. (Small characters need half as much.) In very hot climates, characters need two or three times as much water to avoid dehydration.

A character can go without water for 1 day plus a number of hours equal to his Constitution score. After this time, the character must make a Constitution check each hour (DC 10, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage.

A character can go without food for 3 days, in growing discomfort. After this time, the character must make a Constitution check each day (DC 10, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage.

Characters who have taken nonlethal damage from lack of food or water are fatigued. Nonlethal damage from thirst or starvation cannot be recovered until the character gets food or water, as needed—not even magic that restores hit points heals this damage.

Failure to get enough means you go unconscious, but never actually die from it.


Edit: Nearly forgot why I was posting.

@OP: The typical crawl through a premade dungeon lasts less than a few hours unless the party stops to rest for spells. By premade, I mean made by WotC. Only a handful of those at most deviate from this norm (WLD, for example, but that has water in it IIRC).


You should be just fine as long as you can finish the dungeon in 12 hours or so.

[Escheton]

We are specifically running Undermountain.
At lvl 1, it is unlikely we will go back out daily. If not just to keep our honor intact.
I think I will go with an adapted whale bladder as sleeping bag or armor-layer.

Though the amphibian template is looking mighty tempting.

[Reprimand]

Create Water is a 0 level Druid and Cleric spell that creates 2 gallons of water per caster level. Ask the Druid and/or Cleric to memorize this a few times, and make a pool of water for you to sleep in. Instead of a sleeping bag, you could carry around one of those inflatable baby/wading pools that they sell at K-Mart, or whatever the D&D equivalent would be. Maybe a Blue Whale Bladder that's been sown shut on one side?

That's adorable! I never thought of it like that, I will try that in my game!

[Darrin]

Though the amphibian template is looking mighty tempting.

One other option... if you combine the Environmental variant with the Elemental variant from UA, you could have an Aquatic Air Elf (from the elemental plane of air), which would give you the Breathless (Ex) trait, making you immune to suffociation/drowning.

(Although at that point... being Aquatic kinda becomes pointless.)

[Escheton]

Something to keep in mind.
But it doesn't quite fit my fluff of an outcast aquatic elf pirate master harpoon thrower.

[Daftendirekt]

(Although at that point... being Aquatic kinda becomes pointless.)

Not really. Still get the swim speed.

[ericgrau]

If the sane DM isn't allowing a fish bowl on the head, then a small tub probably won't contain enough oxygen either. I think you need something more substantial than what you can get at level 1.

And if your DM is anything like mine you'll be running out of the dungeon screaming on a daily basis at level 1 anyway. Then once you get to higher levels you ask for a custom bottle of water, similar to a bottle of air magic item... then wear it like a fish bowl.

[Crasical]

@OP: The typical crawl through a premade dungeon lasts less than a few hours unless the party stops to rest for spells. By premade, I mean made by WotC. Only a handful of those at most deviate from this norm (WLD, for example, but that has water in it IIRC).

HAH! If you're -lucky- it has water. Our group has only found one room with water in it so far, guarded by an ogre, and the waterfalls permenantly shut off if you try and take a shower in it. If our group didn't have a cleric and a druid we'd have died before we found it.

[Person_Man]

Also, I'm deeply surprised no one has posted a picture of Minion yet, and suggested an Anthropomorphic fish in an Warforged body. I guess Megamind just wasn't that popular.

http://0.tqn.com/d/movies/1/7/W/S/W/megamind-minion-photo.jpg

[IdleMuse]

Amphibious template seems the best bet... though it makes for a pretty terrible race all-around, with total stat modifiers of... -2 int, if you go with Amphibious Stormwrack Aquatic Elf.

Maybe a high constitution build and a sleeping bag that can be sealed and filled by a cleric would be easier. An eternal wand (MIC) of Create Water can be made by an arcane caster with the "gain Creation domain" feat (unfortunately as a lvl 1 wand, not 0), if you can reliably hit DC20 UMD (probably not at lvl1) or have a party member who is a druid, cleric, or paladin (or probably other divine casters as well) and who is willing to use it for you (quite likely). It would also cost 820gp, slightly out of range for a 1st level character. A regular wand would only cost 375gp (as it could be of the 0-level divine version; for some reason you can't have divine eternal wands) but would obviously last for onyl 50 days before you'd need a new one, and the activation problem still exists.

[Metahuman1]

Get a Barrle of Water, have some wheels suck on it.

Fill with a fresh does of water Daily.

Tie a rope to it.

Have the fighter and the cleric drag it around and take every few hours stick yourself in it to recharge.



Ask the DM to just please, please, please, not be a duche bag and let you do this for the first few levels until you can afford a more permanent and effective fix.

[Daftendirekt]

Maybe a high constitution build and a sleeping bag that can be sealed and filled by a cleric would be easier. An eternal wand (MIC) of Create Water

I actually kind of like that idea now, and may make a character based on it in the future. Turns aquatic elves into sort of... water vampires. Gotta go to sleep in your water bag, instead of a casket.

[Greenish]

An eternal wand (MIC) of Create Water can be made by an arcane caster with the "gain Creation domain" feat (unfortunately as a lvl 1 wand, not 0), if you can reliably hit DC20 UMD (probably not at lvl1) or have a party member who is a druid, cleric, or paladin (or probably other divine casters as well)I'm not sure you can UMD an eternal wand, and divine casters can't use them (except the ones with Magic domain).

[Daftendirekt]

I'm not sure you can UMD an eternal wand, and divine casters can't use them (except the ones with Magic domain).

Why would you not be able to UMD them? They're wands, and it doesn't say anywhere in the Eternal Wand entry that they are different from other wands in that regard.