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So I see that in Part 5, the party descends below the Tern Rocks to a depth of 400 feet.
They then have 100 feet to cross to get to the Tunnels, taking 4d6 points of damage a minute from the pressure.
This is drawn from a system of 1d6/100ft.
Concerning water pressure. I have very little knowledge of how pressure scales underwater, but it does concern me a little how mundane the damage seems. 4d6 means ~14 damage per minute, something even a squishy lvl 10 wizard could handle for much longer than they can hold their breath.
Is this supposed to be chalked up to "the PCs are Heroes and therefore awesome", or am I overestimating the pressure of water at 400 feet?
AFAIK pressure is not a problem per se, it only makes the air you breathe toxic and thats why you have to decompress via decompression stops. With the right breathing gas (and enough time) you can survive 1000 feet.
At depths of 500+ feet the gas mix you breath is critical but yes you can physically survive the pressure at that depth. Read an article the other day about divers descending over 900 feet doing cave diving, and also trying to retrieve the body of a previous diver who got tangled up at that depth and didn't make it out. One of the rescue divers also got tangled trying to pull the dead divers body out of the mud and unfortunately combined with some other complications he didn't make it out either.
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As a diver I can tell you that aside from the gases compressing and their toxicity the pressure does take a toll on you. My deepest dives have been a little over 100 feet and after each I needed a 3 hour nap!
You have to remember that at 100 feet you have about 4 times the pressure pushing on your body than you do at the surface! 1 atmosphere at sea level is about 15 psi. 100 feet down you're at roughly 4 atm or 60 psi. That's the weight of the water AND the air above it pressing down on you. for every 30 feet deeper you go it's another atm. So at 400 feet its nearly 200 psi! That's about the average pressure of a high pressure fire hose which will certainly knock you off your feet. Now you're not going to all of sudden feel 200 psi hit you like a fire hose but imagine trying to work 13 times as hard as you normally do at the surface. That's going to sap your strength.
If not real damage I'd certainly say it's non-lethal damage.
--Vrock Lobster
Let's not forget that nobody in the real world has as much "hit points" as even a tenth level Wizard, let alone the more sturdy classes.
And, according to the rules, the damage is only taken if you fail a ( increasingly harder ) fortitude save.