Question about acrobatics use.

[Pharazon]

I had a situation arise recently when running rise of the runelords for my group. There is a section in the hook mountain massacre where there is a flood in turtleback ferry. In order to get to a boat hung up against the side of the general store the material indicated that it would require a swim check to reach. Reading through the description that was given It seemed the water at the boats location would be between 2-3 feet deep.

It seemed odd to me that only a swim check dc was given since, it seemed to me that a player of medium size would still be able to walk though not very well to reach the boat. I gave a player with a low swim the choice to use acrobatics and treated the dc the same but made it about balance. After discussing the issue with another player after the session we can not agree if this was the right course of action.

Would like to know if there is a rule in regards to water that can be traversed by standing or swimming, like crossing a fast moving creek, and if not how other DM's would have handled the situation.

--Pharazon

[Isil-zha]

PRD wrote:

Swept Away: Characters swept away by a river moving 60 feet per round or faster must make DC 20 Swim checks every round to avoid going under. If a character gets a check result of 5 or more over the minimum necessary, she arrests her motion by catching a rock, tree limb, or bottom snag—she is no longer being carried along by the flow of the water. Escaping the rapids by reaching the bank requires three DC 20 Swim checks in a row.

Since your DC is even higher I assume that the flood is even faster. Also note that the depth of the water should be increasing as time passes and more water is coming in.

I don't really see how acrobatics helps here unless the player does something crazy (that would probably have a considerably higher DC)

[Pharazon]

Isil-zha, the water was only 2-3 feet deep and not a river specifically. I understand that in water where your only option was to swim through it because it was 4-5 ft deep, acrobatics would be useless. My question is more specifically about water that you could reasonable stand up in and try and move across. Would this count as slippery or difficult terrain that would allow for acrobatics to be used to keep your balance as opposed to defaulting to getting down in the water to swim?

Also of note is that the water during this sequence does not get any higher as the flood is from a partial dam break and actually begins to recede shortly after the sequence.

[Pharazon]

Just another quick note. If there isn't a specific rule that governs this type of thing I would be curious how other dm's might approach it. Just want to be able to sit down and have some more opinions for when my group next meets so we can discuss it a bit.

[Komoda]

I would rule that any time water is below the waste it is a shallow bog. Anytime it is above the waste it is a deep bog.

Only problem is bogs don't have current. So for swimming I would follow the rules of the adventure. For Acrobatics, I would make it a DC 20 for shallow bog and 30 for deep bog.

Shallow Bog:
Base 0
Obstructed +5
Slippery +5
Severely Unsteady +10

Deep Bog:
Base 0
Obstructed +10
Slippery +5
Severely Unsteady +15

"Bogs: If a square is part of a shallow bog, it has deep mud or standing water of about 1 foot in depth. It costs 2 squares of movement to move into a square with a shallow bog, and the DC of Acrobatics checks in such a square increases by 2.

A square that is part of a deep bog has roughly 4 feet of standing water. It costs Medium or larger creatures 4 squares of movement to move into a square with a deep bog, or characters can swim if they wish. Small or smaller creatures must swim to move through a deep bog. Tumbling is impossible in a deep bog."