D&D 5E Drowning rules and swimming in armor

[Ancalagon]

Hello

So my characters are going on a trip on the God river and of course, hungry psionic Guarials are going to use their telekinesis powers to try to push the PCs off the boat (lunch!). There is therefore a good chance of PCs being in the water when they don't want to.

Based on my search in the books and on this website, there are next to no rule guidance on swimming, or swimming in armor. I will make up some DCs and impose disadvantage to heavy armor swimmers.

What I have not been able to find, and I can't believe is not in the books, are rules on drowning. Do they not exist?!

 

[tardigrade]

I'm AFB at the moment but from what I remember, as written the rules are incredibly forgiving (hold breath for minutes x Con modifier, min 1 minute). Since this threatened to make a water weird encounter incredibly lame (they basucally attack by drowning), I houseruled that this was without exertion and with chance to take a breath first, and that taking damage required a Con save to avoid drowning. Drowning characters survive for Con mod in *rounds*. Later in the campaign we may end up in deeper water, at which point I'm planning to rule that being underwater offers resistance to slashing and bludgeoning damage too. I want my spear guns, damn it!

 

[jasper]

Drowning = not breathing = Suffocating (srd 86) 1 minute per con modifier. Minimum of 30 seconds. Once it pass the hold breath time it has 2 rounds (12 seconds) before the hit points are 0.
quick and dirty. Advantage for light or no armor, straight for medium, dis for heavy. If their background involves swimming always give advantage.
edit to add
con under 12 30 seconds.
12-13 1 minute
14-15 2 minutes
16-17 3 minutes
18-19 4 minutes
20 5 minutes.
To be mean. If you are doing combat under water and holding breath. When you take damage DC 8+ damage taken Con saving throw to hold it in. Fail lose 1 minute of breathe.

 

[jaelis]

So just to be clear, the book rules say
- Swimming in armor has no penalty
- Swimming normally succeeds with no check
- Swimming in rough water can require a Str (Athletics) check
- You can hold your breath for 1 + Con mod minutes
- After that, you stay conscious for Con mod rounds
- After that you drop to 0 hp and start making death saves. You can't regain hp until you get air

Like folks have said, you may want to tinker with those rules to fit your plans.

 

[Inchoroi]

Here's how I do it:

Suffocating (PHB p. 183). If you run out of breath or are choking, you can’t regain hit points or be stabilized until you can breathe again.

A creature who is holding their breath when they take damage from any source makes a Constitution saving throw. The DC equals 10 or half the damage taken from the attack, whichever is higher. On a failure, they exhale and run out of breath. It can then survive a number of rounds equal to their Constitution modifier (minimum 1 round). At the start of its next turn, it drops to 0 hit points and is dying.



As for swimming in armor, we just use common sense--if you're wearing heavy armor, you sink unless you spend your action to swim.

 

[Ancalagon]

The water they will be in will be easy ish water (light current, not much waves etc). Here are my checks.

No armor: No check required to stay in place or move around. DC 10 check doing if something I think is particularly tricky to do while swimming

Light armor, medium armor with no stealth penalty. No check to stay in place. DC 5 check to move around

Medium armor with stealth penalty: DC 5 check to thread water (stay in place). DC 10 to move around

Heavy armor: DC 10 just to stay in place. DC 10 with disadvantage to move.


These drowning rules are long... I will probably impose some kind of penalty for exertion...

 

[Tormyr]

The water they will be in will be easy ish water (light current, not much waves etc). Here are my checks.

No armor: No check required to stay in place or move around. DC 10 check doing if something I think is particularly tricky to do while swimming

Light armor, medium armor with no stealth penalty. No check to stay in place. DC 5 check to move around

Medium armor with stealth penalty: DC 5 check to thread water (stay in place). DC 10 to move around

Heavy armor: DC 10 just to stay in place. DC 10 with disadvantage to move.


These drowning rules are long... I will probably impose some kind of penalty for exertion...

I introduced the rule to my players that if they do anything that requires exertion (attacking, lifting, etc.) it costs an extra round of air. Taking damage required a Constitution saving throw with the DC = the damage received or they lost another round of air. PCs with a Con score of 10 got out of the water pretty fast, especially when something is attacking them.

 

[sim-h]

Characters whose backgrounds do not involve sailing, fishing, or some coastal or river habitation shouldn't be able to swim, full stop!

 

[CapnZapp]

By the RAW, a heroic character can definitely cross a river by simply walking along its bottom, holding his breath.

If you want PCs to seriously risk drowning you either need to drop them into something larger, like the ocean, or you need houserules.

Just be upfront with your choices. No player wants to surprised by sudden new rules, especially if they're only there to shaft the character.

I recommend being open and honest. "By the RAW you almost cannot risk drowning. I want to change that. If you're not cool with it, let's pick another adventure"

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Oofta]

The rules in the book are quite forgiving. In addition, I have a bit of an issue with people that penalize only PCs in heavy armor - I don't see that much of a difference between swimming in half plate vs full plate. Or being a wimpy wizard with no armor who's maxed out their carrying capacity (assuming they aren't carrying 50 lbs of cork of course ). Anybody not stripped down to their skivvies (or with special training) should probably be at disadvantage on their swim checks. YMMV.

So I would implement currents, rip-tides, whirl-pools and so on. You could also add water nymphs/elementals as challenges. Stories of creatures pulling sailors to their doom are quite common.

So how do you avoid the hazard? Well you could just try to power your way out with an athletics check, try to see them before you hit them with a perception check, think your way out (swim cross-current for a rip-tide) with investigation or survival check and so on.

The point is to challenge PCs, but to also give them different challenges to overcome possibly using different skills. No skill check should be an auto-fail or an auto-success.

Also think about how people can help each other. The rogue caught in a whirlpool? Does the fighter risk drowning by diving in or does the wizard levitate him? Flexibility, creative solutions and giving people enough information and clues about how they can resolve the issue are the goal of any skill challenge like this.