D&D 5E Water Breathing

[Tanaka Chris]

Does this Spell allow me to cast other spells with verbal components underwater?

 

[Paraxis]

Does this Spell allow me to cast other spells with verbal components underwater?

There is not a yes or no answer to this, it is up the the DM of the game, sadly.

Do spells that require verbal components work underwater without the spell? Maybe, probably not I would rule it is like being gaged and therefore you can not make the exact pitch and tone of the words you normally use to cast the spell, but some DM's are cool with underwater casting without and water breathing.

Does the water breathing spell let you talk underwater, no it lets you breath, so again I would say it doesn't allow for verbal spell components.

Those are how I see this as the rules are written, but because of the vague nature of some of these rules and the wording of the spell, this might not be universally true.

Now, as a DM I dislike most spell requirements to begin with and would let my players get away with casting underwater if they had water breathing up. But I would understand that to me that is doing them a favor and no where in the rules does it say it should work.

Sometimes I miss the clarity of 4th edition, but there is a bunch of stuff I don't miss, so ehh.

 

[the Jester]

Paraxis has it right. There's no explicit rule on this in 5e.

The only time I can recall off the top of my head that an answer to this question was spelled out explicitly was in the 2e supplement Of Ships and the Sea. It discussed the topic, ruled that no, you couldn't speak or cast underwater, and included spells to help with that problem.

Personally, I favor the 'can speak/cast' interpretation.

 

[Astrosicebear]

I despise underwater combat.... maybe because im finishing up a PFRPG Skull and Shackles campaign, but still, I despise it.

Water Breathing is always modified in my settings to be Water Adaption. Allows water breathing, as well as spell casting. I still work out the movement and attacks normally.

 

[Nebulous]

I've always wanted to run a full underwater mini-campaign but never have. Anyway...I'd probably allow "magic" to let things happen normally as they do on the surface. Otherwise you're probably gimping characters to the point of ineptitude...unless that is the goal.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I would rule you can -- water is your air, and you can speak and breath normally, and therefore casting spells is not prevented.

With water breathing, I would just ask "WWAD?" -- what would Aquaman do?

 

[Joe Liker]

Trying to bring real physics into a fantasy spellcasting system is unwise to say the least. If you need an explanation of why it's possible to speak underwater, just say it's part of the magic of the water breathing spell.

From a gaming perspective, it's probably unwise to disenfranchise an entire population of characters (magic users) in the name of realism. I'm sure the DMG will more fully flesh out the underwater rules. For now, it's probably best to penalize fire spells only.

 

[Minigiant]

It's up to the DM.

In my game, you can only cast underwater if you speak Aquan, Bullywug, Deep Speech, Merfolk, or Sahuagin. Or at least translated your spells into them. Or are a tempest cleric.

Wizard: What's the Aquan work for Lightning?
Rogue: The same word for "stupid".

 

[was]

I would rule that it does.

 

[Tanaka Chris]

Yeah, I was mainly asking cause I realise that Wizards and other spellcasters are basically useless underwater otherwise.
Why would they even bother going down if they are less than pathetic?

I'll do a test run with my DM and find out for the wizard in my party. Last session got her pretty torn up in underwater combat when we were trying to swim into a cave, (no monster spotted on first scouting trip).