water and force spells to for half submerged city encounters

[CMagnum]

Soon, in the campaign I am running, the party will be infiltrating a city that is half submerged in lake water. I really want the water to play an important role in the dangers of this city. What I'm looking for are spells that can be interesting and dangerous to the PCs. Spells which can force them into the water and then spells to punish them while they are in the water.

As far as effective water based spells go, most I have found are quite high level (6-9). So far the best I have found are Rushing Waters 5druid/4, Red tide 8, Maelstrom 8, flashflood 8, tidal surge 6 druid, water to acid and waterspout druid 7. The party is level 12 so things like Red Tide will be a bit too much for them to handle. While they are fairly capable, I don't want to massacre them, so I was thinking the highest I would go for an enemy would be to have one 15th level druid or cleric with blackwater domain (or maybe both at a lower level).
Other useful spells I have found could be: baleful transposition, forcewave, tailslap, and telekinesis.

Does anyone have any spells they can think of that might fit the scenario or any fun ideas for traps or other interesting obstacles? Thanks for the input
CMagnum

[Saintheart]

One wonders how inhaled poisons work if the party is Water Breathing. Maybe there's a squid or a trap that squirts a cloud of inhaled poison rather than ink?

I was sure there was a spell out there that temporarily turned a water breather into an air breather, i.e. they start to drown when in water, but I can't find it. I know there's an aberration-type spell that does the reverse, i.e. air breather becomes water breather.

[CMagnum]

Yeah that could be fun! A restatted squid with some poisonous cloud attacks.
I feel like there are a lot of spells I'm missing that could push PC's into water. I can put a few bruisers in the way to bull rush them in to the water but there are two barbarians in the party who will likely be taking lead and won't be easy to push around, hence the spell hunt.

[Palanan]

For a general watery theme, you could try Waterball from the 3.0 Masters of the Wild. Essentially a fireball, but explodes in a pulse of water.

If you’re open to Pathfinder, Hydraulic Push (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/h/hydraulic-push/) is a first-level spell that generates a jet of water to bull rush the target.

[CMagnum]

Yeah I'll use wasteball for sure lol! Subdual damage isn't the best though. I guess I could always energy sub on a wizard and change a bunch of evocation spells to water themed.
We stick to 3.0 or 3.5 stuff so no pathfinder unfortunately

[CMagnum]

I found dimension hop which is great for this. No one has any obscure or innovative ideas?

[Jack_Simth]

Control Water (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/controlWater.htm).

You in a room with a ceiling? Forces them to hold their breath (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#waterDangers) (which also has implications for spellcasting) unless they've planned ahead and gotten water breathing. Even if they do, they're now fighting fully submerged, which has serious implications for melee and ranged (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#aquaticTerrain).

This also, of course, enables nearby water critters that weren't a threat before (they couldn't get out of the water to reach), and of course if the water isn't perfectly clear, everyone now has concealment. Oh, wait, some of those aquatic critters have blindsight, don't they?

[CMagnum]

Perfect! Thanks, great call and thanks for the idea!