(3.5) How to deal with drowning

[Fran-Solo]

Hi, i'm new in here, lurked a bit before joined. Me and my group started d&d with an experienced DM a year ago (we use only core books in 3.5). But we can't group a lot (like one evening/1.5 month) so I spend my time theorycrafting a lot.
I can't find an answer to my problem : my LVL 6 cleric of Pelor Human is already quite op but my biggest fear is water. I wear an heavy armour +8, got no points in swim (only 3/lvl (yes, failed my dices), needed concentration, knowledge-religion, etc for RSoP). It's obvious that if I fall in the water, i'm dead.
What are my best solutions? it seems that i can't cast under water (?). I thought of potions. Which one ( the cheapest one) can deal with that? Can i drink it underwater (i can't see why not)?

Thanks a lot. And my apologies for my bad English...

[JDL]

First, by RAW you can cast spells underwater.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#underwaterCombat


Magical effects are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other effects) and fire effects.

That being said, many DMs will say that a spell with a verbal component won't work underwater. This has no basis from RAW and is a houserule.

Assuming you want a way to explicitly avoid drowning, a potion of Water Breathing costs 750 gp. Now you have the difficulty that the DM may rule you cannot drink it underwater. To bypass this (completely houseruled) restriction, there's the potion bladder for 25 gp that lets you drink a potion strapped to your body as a standard action. Buy one of these, fill it with a potion of water breathing, and never worry about drowning again.

Alternatively, perform the same with a potion of levitate. 300 gp, move 20 ft. as a move action each round, any direction. Simply levitate yourself out of the water.

[Fran-Solo]

First, by RAW you can cast spells underwater.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#underwaterCombat


Magical effects are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other effects) and fire effects.

That being said, many DMs will say that a spell with a verbal component won't work underwater. This has no basis from RAW and is a houserule.

Assuming you want a way to explicitly avoid drowning, a potion of Water Breathing costs 750 gp. Now you have the difficulty that the DM may rule you cannot drink it underwater. To bypass this (completely houseruled) restriction, there's the potion bladder for 25 gp that lets you drink a potion strapped to your body as a standard action. Buy one of these, fill it with a potion of water breathing, and never worry about drowning again.

Alternatively, perform the same with a potion of levitate. 300 gp, move 20 ft. as a move action each round, any direction. Simply levitate yourself out of the water.

Thanks a lot. My Dm indeed seems to not allow verbal spells underwater. We tried to show him that everybody can speak in water but his argument is that the spell needs to be yelled loudly...
I'm looking for this potion bladder in the rules! and for the levitation potion, i thought it was only working in the air, that's great because it's much cheaper than water breathing !

[Metahuman1]

I would recommend grabbing a potion of Water Breathing if your DM is THIS annoying about house ruling restrictions for when you interact with water.

As an alternative to the potion bladder, consider using one of the potion variants in Complete Arcane's Magic Section. Such as Potion Tials. (There little brittle squares. You take it out like a potion, but you break it instead of drink it, meaning there's no way he can rule you can't do that under water.)

Might not be a bad idea to have one of water breathing, and then a second one of something like Control Rope or Alter Self to allow you a way to actually make it back up to the surface before your Water Breathing wears off.

[JDL]

The potion bladder item is a mundane piece of equipment from the Drow of the Underdark handbook. If your DM won't allow it, put your potion in a waterskin so that it can be squeezed into your mouth.

Levitate mentions nothing about the spell's effects underwater. Since it's simply a mental action to move, there should be no worries about verbal components. If your DM is vindictive and says it doesn't work underwater, then may be better off simply getting a Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Silent. This item is useful not only as an underwater method to bypass verbal components, it's also useful for stealth spellcasting when you don't want an enemy to hear you, such as buffing the party right before you enter a room. At 3,000 gp it's a big investment at your level, though.

[GilesTheCleric]

You're right to be afraid of water; water is one of the few things clerics actually have trouble dealing with without specific preparation. There's a few solutions, even if your GM won't allow you to cast underwater.

With underwater casting:
Water domain PHB 189
Updraft
Freedom of Movement
Domain Icon FoE 154
Any typical underwater breathing/movement spell
Footsteps of the Divine, with homebrewed swim option CC 120

Without underwater casting:
Blackwater domain Sw 109
Ocean Domain Sw 110
River domain OA 88
Seafolk domain Sw 110
Travel domain PHB 188
Spell domain SC 280
UMD + wand
UMD + kyo crystal (potions, but they work underwater) EtU 217
Amulet of Aquatic Salvation MIC 68
Anklet of Translocation MIC 71
Belt of the Wide Earth MIC 204
Bracelets of Spell Sharing DMG2 266
Circlet of Rapid Casting MIC 86
Water domain improved power Drag342 22
Domain Draught MIC
Halfweight+Mithral armour Und 70 + DMG
Hathran Mask of Water Breathing UE 56
Phylactery of Change RttToEE 154
Bead of Summons DMG 267
Water Elemental Grafts MoE 130
AaEG and some other books have some special materials and enchantments that will make your armour float or take no penalties in water.

[Fran-Solo]

Thanks a lot for your help. I'll try the levitation potion in a waterskin to the surface and then the water breathing spell (levitation can't move you horizontally) once out of the water (Freedom of movement once I can cast lvl 4 spells).
Do you think the porpoise (monster convocation lvl 1) is strong enough to carry me out?

btw, GilesTheCleric, i read a lot of your posts while lurking, it helped me a lot (thanks for that, for all the lurkers).

[nyjastul69]

Thanks a lot. My Dm indeed seems to not allow verbal spells underwater. We tried to show him that everybody can speak in water but his argument is that the spell needs to be yelled loudly...
I'm looking for this potion bladder in the rules! and for the levitation potion, i thought it was only working in the air, that's great because it's much cheaper than water breathing !

I would say a strong voice (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#components) is not necessarily yelling or shouting.

[Fran-Solo]

I would say a strong voice (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#components) is not necessarily yelling or shouting.

Yep, that's exactly the problematic rule. What does it mean exactly? When can't you have a strong voice but a weak one?
We had this discussion when we "met" a river. Our quest will guide us trough swamp soon, i won't do the same mistake :smallamused:

[nyjastul69]

Yep, that's exactly the problematic rule. What does it mean exactly? When can't you have a strong voice but a weak one?
We had this discussion when we "met" a river. Our quest will guide us trough swamp soon, i won't do the same mistake :smallamused:

I would also say that the target doesn't need to hear you. The only thing needed for a verbal component is a strong voice. Hearing the voice is unnecessary, unless the spell description states otherwise of course.

[Jormengand]

Or you could take the Silent Spell feat if your DM's really going to complain about it. Prepare a silent version of something useful to get you out of water.

[Red Fel]

Yep, that's exactly the problematic rule. What does it mean exactly? When can't you have a strong voice but a weak one?
We had this discussion when we "met" a river. Our quest will guide us trough swamp soon, i won't do the same mistake :smallamused:

It means that you can't try to whisper or keep your mouth shut. This means that, in order to cast a spell, you have to stop holding your breath; water gets in and you start drowning. At the very least, you're looking at a Concentration check with a penalty (from drowning). But yeah, casting underwater isn't impossible, just very challenging. That said...


Or you could take the Silent Spell feat if your DM's really going to complain about it. Prepare a silent version of something useful to get you out of water.

This. If you use Silent Spell, you ignore the verbal components - so you can keep your trap shut, hold your breath, and hocus-pocus your way out of the drink.

[Rebel7284]

Metamagic Rod of Silent Spell (Lesser) is only 3000gp and is usable 3 times a day. Can be useful in other scenarios besides drowning. :)

Spend some gold, save a feat.

Edit: and pick up a lesser metamagic rod of extend spell too while you're at it. It's good for all the buffs!

[Drork]

Id go with the meta magic rod of silence very very strong specially when you combine it with the most broken spell in the game, silence. Do you know how many spells do not have a verbal component in the core rules, Ill give you a hint you dont need two hands to counter them.

[Berenger]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/52/f1/1a/52f11abf656258aeffc458514210cf36.jpg

[Twurps]

It means that you can't try to whisper or keep your mouth shut. This means that, in order to cast a spell, you have to stop holding your breath; water gets in and you start drowning. At the very least, you're looking at a Concentration check with a penalty (from drowning). But yeah, casting underwater isn't impossible, just very challenging.

From a personal experience: You can shout under water, just as you can exhale under water, without getting water in you're mouth. Others can even hear you, though only within a couple of feat. I've never been able to get a sentence across though.

[Jormengand]

Sometimes I feel that everything would be so much better if the truenamer's The Universe Hears Just Fine ability were ported across to spellcasters.

[JoranShadeslayr]

If you can find a way to grab a least invocation, Aquatic Adaptation from the dragon fire adept list gives you water breathing and a swim speed equal to your base land speed for 24 hours. Invocations don't have verbal components.

[Auron3991]

Embrace it to save yourself from infinite damage:smalltongue:

But, in all seriousness, upgrading that fullplate to a mythril fullplate when you get the chance will reduce some of that issue (people seem to forget specialty metals). The other thing is to place some skill points in swim (I assume you have a semi-decent strength score).

Of course, you could always make a life vest out of water skins. They're inexpensive, waterproof, and should be less dense then water when you fill them with air.

[Crake]

A greater armor augmentation crystal of aquatic action gives you a swim speed of half your land speed, the ability to act underwater as if affected by freedom of movement and the ability to breath underwater, and allows you to ignore the ACP of the armor it is attached to for swim checks. Only 3000gp.

[Demidos]

Theres a nonmagical mask thats super cheap and gives ?+1 vs poisons?, which no one cares about because it also allows you to breathe underwater for 10 minutes. Try Shax's handy haversack, I think is the equipment guide that had it.

[EyethatBinds]

Weirdly, the issue of spellcasting underwater has never come up in my games. I need to douse my dungeons in more water...

As a compromise on the whole cannot/can too cast spells underwater, I would personally allow it but would have the caster use up two additional turns of holding their breath for doing so.

[Grooke]

From Shax's Indispensable HaversackPrice: (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=8235944&postcount=9)


#4 - Auran Mask
60 GP
Weight: --
(Complete Mage p. 134)
Provides a +5 bonus against inhaled toxins (which stacks with antitoxin), but this is easily overshadowed by 10 minutes of water breathing. Requires less upkeep than Air Plants. For longer durations, consider a potion of water breathing for 750 GP, which lasts for 10 hours.
Craft (Alchemy) DC: 25



Won't allow you to swim, but if you get thrown under water suddenly, it'll give you some time to work something out.

[Oddman80]

The 10 minutes of water breathing provided by the Auran Mask should be sufficient to simply walk out of whatever body of water you fell into, so long as there is't a strong current (60 ft/round water movement can cause characters to be "swept away"). That is an amazing find.

Combining it with the Armor Crystal of Aquatic Action, Lesser (that's the 1000 gp one that gives you a swim speed=half your land speed and allows you to ignore ACP for swimming) should allow you to handle any aquatic problem you face for a fraction of the cost of the other (non-consumable) solutions.

[Fran-Solo]

A lot of new answers !

I read them all, unfortunately for me, some of them include non-core solutions that i can't use (like the aquatic crystal? or the dragon fire adept list?) but i had enough core solutions to get through the difficulty. (I'll get some levitation potions until i can spend 3k gold on this lesser metamagic rod !)

I'll remember the lifebuoy tho, easy, cheap and trendy.