Water Wings

[LibraryOgre]

So, in our game, dwarves don't swim. At a weight comparable to humans, but minus a foot or two, they're incredibly dense and simply cannot keep above water. This leads to my dwarf tying himself to something large and floaty (like, say, a mast) when we have to go on sea voyages.

How much would a set of magical "water wings" run, in 3.x or 4e? Just an item which allowed the wearer to float normally?

[Kurald Galain]

About as much as a ring of Feather Fall?

[Starbuck_II]

So, in our game, dwarves don't swim. At a weight comparable to humans, but minus a foot or two, they're incredibly dense and simply cannot keep above water. This leads to my dwarf tying himself to something large and floaty (like, say, a mast) when we have to go on sea voyages.

How much would a set of magical "water wings" run, in 3.x or 4e? Just an item which allowed the wearer to float normally?

Float is a 1st level Psionic power. So it depends if there is psionic in your world.

If there is it should be cheap (it is 1st level).

If there isn't; it would be expensive (hard to find mage that can do that).

[xPANCAKEx]

a non magical set would probably make a character boyant... but reduce their swim speed to 5ft and give them -4 to all cha based skills

[Zaq]

Stormwrack has a first-level Sor/Wiz spell called Wave Blessing that essentially means that a character can't sink by failing a Swim check. They still can't move if they fail, but they don't sink. It's an immediate action and lasts 10 minutes per level, so that's a good start. It's pretty much feather fall for an aquatic environment.

[Douglas]

A Ring of Water Walking is 15000 gp and core.

[overduegalaxy]

For a non-magical solution, there's the float bladder from Stormwrack, a steal at a mere 10 gp.

[Pie Guy]

Feather fall makes you float, and it's Feather fall, so it also helps with floating on air.

[wadledo]

Ring of Floating, found in Frostburn, is 2000 gold, and makes it so you float on any liquid or similar surface, and cannot swim below the water.

I use it whenever I make a dwarf.

[Kris Strife]

Cloak of the Manta Ray. Still use your weapons and swim faster than you can walk.

[hewhosaysfish]

Item of Buoyant Lifting?
1st level spell, don't know the original source but it's in the SC.
Can't remmber if it's a Sorc/Wiz spell or a Druid spell either... but I do remember that it's called Buoyant Lifting and it does exactly what it says on the tin, lifting the subject up to the the surface of the water at a speed of 60ft/round.

[LibraryOgre]

Ok, how about for 4th edition?

[Tiki Snakes]

You could just, you know. Show a little DM mercy?

[edit]My bad, I thought you were dming there for a moment. God knows why. Eeeh. Forget floating, get something that lets you breath water and just get some walking done? :)

[Colmarr]

Ok, how about for 4th edition?

I'd probably rule them as a level 2-3 wondrous item. Not so cheap as to be everywhere, but not so expensive as to be hard to justify.

The only provisos I would put on them are that:

1. They only stop the wearing's head from sinking below the surface of a liquid (ie. they don't allow you to walk on it - only stop you from drowning); and
2. They don't protect you from any damage or effect that being in contact with the liquid would usually impose (no safely floating on lava or acid).

Higher level versions (2, 7, 12 or 3, 8, 13) might provide resistance to one of fire, cold and acid determined at the time of creation.

[Sinfire Titan]

For a non-magical solution, there's the float bladder from Stormwrack, a steal at a mere 10 gp.

And for a "What the hell is this?" solution, there's Shape Soulmeld: Cerulean Sandals. They provide a constant Water Walk spell effect, and can increase your base land speed by 5ft/essentia invested. One feat for faster land speed and water walking, and you never have to worry about losing them for more than 24 hours (that's if they are unshaped by MDJ, in which case you have other problems).

Either 1 feat, or 1 level in Incarnate, whichever floats your boat dwarf.

[Myrmex]

Ok, how about for 4th edition?

A leather bladder that displaces enough air to make the dwarf buoyant. It should only have to be a few cubic feat, enough to make up the volume discrepancy between a human and a dwarf, and then some (for armor, lack of swimming ability, fat deposits, etc).

[Colmarr]

Personally, I dislike items like this being non-magical.

If personal flotation devices weren't commonly in use by sailors in our world until the 1800s, I find it immersion-breaking to have them readily available in a fantasy world like D&D.

In fact, I personally believe that the presence of magic would delay the invention of such devices, not speed it up.

[Myrmex]

Personally, I dislike items like this being non-magical.

If personal flotation devices weren't in use in our world until long after steam powered ships were invented, I find it immersion-breaking to have them readily available in a fantasy world like D&D.

In fact, I personally believe that the presence of magic would delay the invention of such devices, not speed it up.

1. http://comingbackalive.com/lifejackethistory.html
2. They don't have to be "in use", just a crazy, paranoid dwarf, having to travel on a boat, uses one. That he invented. Because dying by drowning is more fearful than having his brains pulled out by a mind flayer.
3. I dislike having even the most mundane of solutions being solved with magic. It's silly.

[Dr_Horrible]

Personally, I dislike items like this being non-magical.

If personal flotation devices weren't in use in our world until long after steam powered ships were invented, I find it immersion-breaking to have them readily available in a fantasy world like D&D.

In fact, I personally believe that the presence of magic would delay the invention of such devices, not speed it up.

People in our world also can swim because they aren't several times more dense.

If an entire 32nd of all humans instantly sank in water I bet we'd have figured it out at some point really early.

[Colmarr]

Stuff

I was perhaps overly-zealous in my estimate of timelines, but your link seems to agree with me that PFDs weren't in common use until approximately 1800. I've edited my post to link to Wiki.

Notwithstanding that issue, the metagaming of issues like this irks me even more than the realism angle.

"The vikings/assyrians/whoever used to do it in our world, so dwarves can do it in D&D".

Which completely ignores that fact that by-and-large D&D dwarves don't go anywhere near water. They live under mountains. Why would they invent PFDs?

[Colmarr]

If an entire 32nd of all humans instantly sank in water I bet we'd have figured it out at some point really early.

Perhaps. But if humans were so dense as to instantly sink in water, it's debatable whether an inflated animal bladder would keep them afloat in any event.

[Myrmex]

I was perhaps overly-zealous in my estimate of timelines, but your link seems to agree with me that PFDs weren't in common use until approximately 1800. I've edited my post to link to Wiki.

Notwithstanding that issue, the metagaming of issues like this irks me even more than the realism angle.

"The vikings/assyrians/whoever used to do it in our world, so dwarves can do it in D&D".

Which completely ignores that fact that by-and-large D&D dwarves don't go anywhere near water. They live under mountains. Why would they invent PFDs?

The dwarves aren't inventing anything, a particular dwarf who's on a boat (heh, on a boat), would, as he's terrified of drowning. Seeing as how people a thousand years ago thought "gee, maybe if I don't want to sink like a stone in all this armor, I should hold onto something that floats", the party dwarf could do something similar.

Perhaps. But if humans were so dense as to instantly sink in water, it's debatable whether an inflated animal bladder would keep them afloat in any event.

Only if basic physics doesn't work, in which case, boats would have weird reasons for floating, and then you'd sort of unexplain why dwarves don't float in the first place.

You can get anything to float in any liquid, so long as it is attached to something that displaces enough liquid.

[JeminiZero]

If its just for flotation without providing combat mobility, heres a quick and simple trick: ask him to buy a bunch of water skins (which should be air tight), blow them full of air, glue the stopper shut, and tie them together with string as a makeshift flotation device.