Frozen Lakes, Dangers Abound!

[Kornaki]

My party's in an exploration campaign and currently crossing a frozen tundra dotted by lakes. I feel like the "dangerous wilds" haven't really been played up enough, so I want to try a very simple encounter. They start crossing a frozen lake without realizing it (there's a decent amount of snow on the ground), and the lake cracks and they fall in. No enemies, just the players and their slowly increasing constitution checks as they break the surrounding ice trying to climb out.

I have a couple of questions about this encounter:
1) How does wand activation work underwater? They have a wand of swim and a wand of waterbreathing (they spend a lot of time on boats). Using a wand requires a verbal component kind-of sort-of, so I'm not sure if it can be activated while underwater (if it can be it's not the end of the world, it still sucks to burn five charges of a wand because nobody can make a swim check)


2) What should the requirements for getting out of the water be? Nobody has relevant magic for this, so it's going to be something along the lines of grabbing onto the ice and pulling up. Common wisdom is that you can't do it because the ice just keeps breaking but googling confirms it's possible but hard... should it be a combination strength/dex check, or should there be some sort of skill component to finding the strongest part of the ice?

I'm reading about this thing called 'gasp reflex' where when people fall through they gasp and start drowning immediately. I feel like that might be good to have because otherwise they have a dozen rounds or so of just floating around before anything actually becomes dangerous, if someone starts drowning right at the get-go, but if I was a player and I started drowning off the bat I would probably get mad. Would a reflex or fortitude save to avoid this be reasonable or should I just forget it?

[Seharvepernfan]

I can't find anything about verbal components underwater. I'd just let your players use the wands no-problem.

I'd say it should be a climb check, with maybe a spot or survival check to find the strongest parts to climb on, though I think climb could conceivably cover that as well.

The gasp reflex sounds like a reaction to the extreme cold. It's a neat idea; I'd probably make it like a fort save, if failed they start having to make constitution checks or start drowning (bypassing the whole "holding your breath for a number of rounds equal to your con score" thing).

I could have sworn there were rules for both casting underwater and cold water dangers, but I can't find them in either the 3.5 DMG or the 3.0 DMG.

[Fouredged Sword]

Ok, dial up the tension and make it fair.

Survival check to avoid the encounter. It's only fair.

Ok they fail that check. They get over the lake.

The fighter falls in due to his heavy armor. He starts sinking. The ice breaks. Everyone within 5 feet of him gets a reflex save or also goes under.

Let them hold their breath though. Give them a fort save (DC15) VS cold damage. 1d6 per round of immersion, for for half. Endure elements adds +4 to the save of the character.

The players still on the ice get a chance to react. If they move more than 5ft in a round they go under. Moving 5ft requires a DC 15 balance check not to break the ice. They can go prone and slide for +5 to the check, but lowering themselves to prone is a move action and takes a DC 15 check not to break the ice under them as they lower their body to the ice.

The ice whithin 15ft of the initial hole breaks anyway after three rounds.

Getting out through the ice should require a climb check, say DC 15. If they fail they break the ice over the square they are trying to climb onto. They are then prone on the rim of the ice hole.

Now they have to get more than 30ft away from the hole without failing a balance check to avoid breaking the ice.

The other option is to swim under the ice to the shore 120ft away. Once there they can break the ice and climb out on foot.

Wet characters on land take 1d6 (fort DC15 for half) damage per min until they are warm/dry.

Getting out of the water is one thing. Getting warm before you pass out is the next challenge.