Under water communication

[Elvensilver]

In the game I DM, the PCs (Level 3/4) are likely gonna go diving for treasure in the sea in the next session. As for not drowning, they have a wand of Air Bubble.
However, I still have some questions about this spell, mainly about communication. As each PC has their own seperate Air bubble, they probably can't hear each other, right? The cantrip Message should still work, I think. What about the bard's drum, played outside of the Air Bubbles? I am unsure how to rule all that. Communicating through gestures alone could potentially be fun, but the limited duration and number of castings of Air bubble could make things hard enough as it is. (Which brings me to the second question: are there any clocks, magical or otherwise, that can be used under water, to measure the time they have left?)
So, what do you think?

[Crake]

In the game I DM, the PCs (Level 3/4) are likely gonna go diving for treasure in the sea in the next session. As for not drowning, they have a wand of Air Bubble.
However, I still have some questions about this spell, mainly about communication. As each PC has their own seperate Air bubble, they probably can't hear each other, right? The cantrip Message should still work, I think. What about the bard's drum, played outside of the Air Bubbles? I am unsure how to rule all that. Communicating through gestures alone could potentially be fun, but the limited duration and number of castings of Air bubble could make things hard enough as it is. (Which brings me to the second question: are there any clocks, magical or otherwise, that can be used under water, to measure the time they have left?)
So, what do you think?

Arguably, air bubble would allow them to communicate. The reason that it's hard to hear words from above water to underwater is because much of the sound energy reflects off the water's surface and away. Inside an air bubble though, the waves would bounce around, until all the energy is eventually dispersed, which would lead to a quieter noise (since some of the energy would inevitably be absorbed by the person's head) and sound slightly echo-y (since the waves are bouncing around and thus multiple echos would bounce off in any given direction), but it should for the most part be discernable at normal speaking range.

Also, it's magic. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be, the spell doesn't say it blocks communication, so just let them talk without making things difficult.

[Remuko]

(Which brings me to the second question: are there any clocks, magical or otherwise, that can be used under water, to measure the time they have left?)
So, what do you think?

I dont know where in the rules it is but im fairly sure anyone with a spell cast on them just intrinsically knows how long is left on their spells, so i dont think a clock is needed.

[Psyren]

Arguably, air bubble would allow them to communicate. The reason that it's hard to hear words from above water to underwater is because much of the sound energy reflects off the water's surface and away. Inside an air bubble though, the waves would bounce around, until all the energy is eventually dispersed, which would lead to a quieter noise (since some of the energy would inevitably be absorbed by the person's head) and sound slightly echo-y (since the waves are bouncing around and thus multiple echos would bounce off in any given direction), but it should for the most part be discernable at normal speaking range.

Also, it's magic. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be, the spell doesn't say it blocks communication, so just let them talk without making things difficult.

This.


(Which brings me to the second question: are there any clocks, magical or otherwise, that can be used under water, to measure the time they have left?)
So, what do you think?


I dont know where in the rules it is but im fairly sure anyone with a spell cast on them just intrinsically knows how long is left on their spells, so i dont think a clock is needed.

The caster knows how long the spell will last, which in this case will be whoever is using the wand.

The exception to this rule is a spell with a variable duration, e.g. Cause Fear (1d4 rounds.) In such a case, the GM rolls the duration secretly and the caster doesn't know how long it will last.