Saltmarsh / water adventures: racial optimization or not?

[Waazraath]

I was wondering: if you play the Saltmarsh adventures, do you want to have (or your party to have, from a DM point of view) pick their race accordingly? So races who don't need to breath or can breath underwater (warforged, air genasi), have a swim speed (lizardfolk), or both (tritons, sea elves).

Normally, racial choices aren't that impactful (unless maybe in the underdark with or without darkvision), but fighting underwater is a disaster if not ready for it, significantly increasing how much a challenge an encounter is. Then again, fighting out of your element (and the challange of that) can be fun.

Is Saltmarsh made with or without swimming / waterbreathing creatures in mind? Which is more fun? And in general, would you consider an aquatic (e.g. pirates) campaign more or less fun if all the players can swim and breath water without spending resources?

Of course, at the higher levels this becomes less of an issue due to spells (rituals), I'm aware of that.

[Democratus]

I have been running Saltmarsh for over 30 years. There wasn't even an option to play "aquatic races" when it first appeared.

I think the modules play very well with a party of normal adventurers who eventually must find themselves literally "out of their element".

There are spells that can help greatly with this - as well as many magic items to be found along the way.

[StoneSeraph]

I was wondering: if you play the Saltmarsh adventures, do you want to have (or your party to have, from a DM point of view) pick their race accordingly? So races who don't need to breath or can breath underwater (warforged, air genasi), have a swim speed (lizardfolk), or both (tritons, sea elves).

Normally, racial choices aren't that impactful (unless maybe in the underdark with or without darkvision), but fighting underwater is a disaster if not ready for it, significantly increasing how much a challenge an encounter is. Then again, fighting out of your element (and the challange of that) can be fun.

Is Saltmarsh made with or without swimming / waterbreathing creatures in mind? Which is more fun? And in general, would you consider an aquatic (e.g. pirates) campaign more or less fun if all the players can swim and breath water without spending resources?

Of course, at the higher levels this becomes less of an issue due to spells (rituals), I'm aware of that.

I ran a table through Saltmarsh last year. Not one of them had the ability to breathe underwater until they found items in the module itself or reached a level where spells could help them out. Nevertheless, the earlier adventures occur mostly above water. Everyone still had fun and felt particularly powerful once they'd "unlocked" the ability to deal with underwater hazards/combat in later adventures.

Moreover, I kept race options restricted to PHB-only, as allowing races like lizardfolk would have taken away from the challenge/mystery of the setting, especially for one of the adventures. After that particular adventure, I made the lizardfolk option available should a character die and the player wished to reroll.

[KorvinStarmast]

I was wondering: if you play the Saltmarsh adventures, do you want to have (or your party to have, from a DM point of view) pick their race accordingly? I suppose that you can make an entire party our of Water Genasi … but here's the party that started in Saltmarsh when I first got the book.
1 bugbear Tempest Cleric
1 fire genasi Artificer, Artillerist (Ua, then converted to E:RftLW)
1 tabaxi monk, Drunken Master
1 Dwarf Barbarian, Storm Herald (later replace with a half orc Barbarian, bear totem)
1 vHuman Sorcerer, shadow.

The did fine, though I found the "wander through the lizardfolk lair and randomly meet people" aspect of one of the adventures badly put together, thematically, and had to do a lot of home brewing to get it to flow right.

Bugbear died a permadeath, player had RL conflicts. What happened? The cleric was replaced by a lizardfolk Druid, Circle of the Shepard. That last accession fundamentally changed how the Sahuagin lair is approached, since the druid can cast waterbreathing, which in this edition lasts 24 hours.

In previous editions, particularly the original, access to water breathing material and spells became a part of the adventure …

[Waazraath]

Ok, thnx all! Gives a solid impression of "not needed" and maybe even "better not".

[smrvl]

Definitely not needed. That said, if a player wanted to invest in it, they'd get some cool spotlight moments.

[Quietus]

Definitely not needed. That said, if a player wanted to invest in it, they'd get some cool spotlight moments.

Exactly this. The module isn't built with the assumption you need waterbreathing races, or else it would have said so right up front.

[Ettina]

I've only run a couple of the early adventures, as one-shots, and I think the only time anyone even went in the water was an optional encounter where they investigated a net that chuul were nibbling on.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

I'll preface my response by saying that breath holding in 5e is very generous, particularly going on the assumption that 14 Con is pretty common. Also that there are functional weapons in both ranged and melee that work underwater. Lastly, not all of Saltmarsh is underwater (though the way I ran it with more sea travel/ exploration characters could certainly end up in the water unexpectedly at any time).

I'd say no to races that breathe underwater. I think it would have taken away one of the big challenges and interest of the adventure. Having an actual fear of drowning, however unlikely, is kind of the point Also, some of the magic items/ spells the characters get aren't going to feel or be that impactful.
I would suggest making characters aware of the fact that some of the adventure will be underwater and what rules (and house rules if any) will be employed. That way players can at least make sure they can create characters that will function well in that environment if they wish. And if a player still wants to play a heavy armor wearing great axe wielder or a fire dragon sorcerer, then at least they go in knowing there will be times that their character won't be really effective (at least until/ unless magic sorts out the issue).

[meandean]

I'm not familiar with the adventure, but if a DM told me they wanted to do a pirate or other water-themed setting, I would totally want to make a character that fit that. Normally, I would never play a triton or a sea elf! Normally, I would never play a storm sorcerer! Normally, I would never take the Control Water spell and part the oceans like I'm friggin' Moses! This would be my chance to, for once in my life, use those cool options!

If doing such things trivializes the adventure, I think that's a shame and they should write a different adventure :smalltongue: