Dragon's Breath Freezing Water

[White_Drake]

Put succinctly, my players are currently stranded in the middle of the ocean, trying to prevent the wreckage of an airship from sinking. One character, a dragonfire adept, is attempting to hold together what would otherwise be so much flotsam with his ice breath. So now I pose a question to the playground: how effective should a second level DFA's breath weapon be at freezing seawater? Assume average salinity.

[Deaxsa]

how cold is the water to begin with? most of the reason i ask that is because it'd be more of a "how long will it last" than "does it work or not". i mean, it can freeze people, so i'm pretty sure it can freeze water. just A) it would probably be quite a shallow layer of ice (as the ice would stop the breath from reaching more water, thus freezing deep into the water, and B) you better hope they are not in the carribean, or that frozen shelf will last all of 2 minutes.

edit: also, i'm not sure on exactly the rules for taking lethal damage in the envirnment, but i do assume that you have to go way below freezing for nature to accomplish such a feat. thus, it will definitely freeze the water, even if the water is quite salty.

[stack]

Only one freezing breath every other round though, can't repeat effect other than fire back-to-back.

[AWiz_Abroad]

So they trade the risk of drowning, for the risk of hypothermia.

I can't see allowing it to be unbalencing.

[stack]

Endure elements would help some if you aren't IN the ice water, and all DFA's take the invocation to make others immune to their breath anyway.

[AWiz_Abroad]

Immune to their breath yes, but immune to the impact it has on the environment?

If I had a DFA in my campaign, they'd be immune to his firebreath, but not if he lit the building on fire.

Admittedly, I'm talking a bit out of school, since I'm not familiar with that invocation.

[stack]

It also duplicates endure elements, which would help with the 'standing on ice and not freezing to death' thing.

[Dimers]

it would probably be quite a shallow layer of ice (as the ice would stop the breath from reaching more water, thus freezing deep into the water)

Yeah. In essence, the first breath or two would block Line Of Effect for later ones. If the party comes up with ideas about putting water ON TOP of the ice and letting the DS freeze that as well ... it could work. Until bedtime, anyway, or until the DS starts failing Consitution ability checks to keep heaving out frost breath for hours at a time.

Yes, I know, the rules don't say anything about that. But I'd expect a gamemaster to impose checks for any strenuous activity kept up for hours, not just jogging.

Basically, unless the players get some awesome idea or synergize their abilities very well, the best they can expect is to salvage SOME of the wreckage. Which may suffice anyway.

[Hyde]

Strictly speaking, it's better than not doing it. I'd allow it if he kept pumping it out as often as he was able, for a few hours, then go with the con checks.

If the water's freezing, a cantrip'd create water then frozen with the breath would be better at getting them a boat-like craft. Regardless, they need to come up with a more permanent solution.

[White_Drake]

The party's pretty dang close to the equator... Right now their goals are: A) Stay alive, and B) salvage as much of the ship as possible. A raft of sorts would probably be very helpful to them, since I don't think any have ranks in swim.

Of course, that "Oh Crap" moment upon realizing your character is in danger from drowning is sort of a rite of passage.