I was playing with my group of friends when this situation occurs.
We were underwater when a fight begins and the bard attempted to use hes "inspire courage" ability. Then we realize, wait a minute! how he can play his flute submerged? We ended following the rules that he was "deaf", leading to a 20% change of losing a round without making any effect. But i was no sure of that, so i want to ask the community. What really happens in this case?
Fascinating situation.
For what it's worth, after the fact, I'm not sure it should have worked even with the 20% failure chance. For bardic performances which have audible components to be effective, "targets must be able to hear the bard" (Core Rulebook, p. 36). So the question is whether or not a flute, a woodwind instrument, can be made audible while underwater. While water, like air, is a fluid, I don't think a humanoid could generate sufficient force to cause the resonating column in a flute to vibrate and generate notes. But hey, like I said, fascinating question, and I look forward to what others have to say.
|
Very definitely a GM call.
Note, however, that Inspire Courage can be done with performances like Dance (even if the Dance is untrained).
I think that the correct solution is to allow performances but to guesstimate penalties on range for both visual and auditory performances. It seems logical to me that singing would work better than flutes, that dance would be fine unless the water was quite murky.
Given that spells can be cast underwater SU abilities should be useable as well.
I've heard... the same song... played on... the land,... the sea,... the the realms celestial,... underground,... and in the depths of... the Abyss.
They can all... be beautiful.
Except for... the chaotic... rendition on Limbo,... which was hard... to listen to.
I swear... it was like... the party's bard... was playing... versions of... that song for... the entire campaign.