Shattered Kingdoms

To strike at my question obliquely. . .

When a brief underwater swim seems to be the easiest way to get into a rather dangerous place, why do all the experienced players react like hydrophobic cats? Is there some grave disadvantage to swimming that I've never realized? Rust your armor? Or does anybody who knows anything fly, and therefore can't swim?

Not an important question, but a reaction I've seen/heard about a lot lately and it piqued my curiousity.

Well, you can drown if you don't take proper precautions. Even with spellcasters in the group holding breathe water, bad things can happen. I've died two or three times under water, which is a rather large percentage.

It's also a less predictable environment. Flying, you never have to worry that your companion doesn't come with you because they missed a swim check. Or that you'll float into the next room because of a current.

Cause they're pansies.

I'd rather be a living pansy than a dead duck.

Be a dorf or genome with swim mastered. Swimcheck still fails often enough to be a major headache. Beyond that, some people are roleplaying a character flaw.

ROLEPLAYING?


what for?

Your tank can't bash.

You cant bash, you cant trip, you cant dirt kick, you cant cast gate, you cant follow into the next room, you have to worry about your air spell whatever that is failing or ending, you have to keep watching your formation, and, the constant fear some imm made a random room no magic here just for fun keeps crossing your mind.

Recovering corpses underwater is a bit more of a pain.