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Hey guys,
Sorry about the vague title, but I felt that if I wrote "The Treasure in the Nevermore" the title itself would've been a spoiler.
My group finally finished (well, almost finished - all of the five ghosts are gone, but they didn't return to Vesorianna yet because it was 5.30 AM at this point) the Haunting of Harrowstone, ending it on a high note after killing the Splatter Man with a lucky Attack of Opportunity with max damage (because of course it's max damage the one time where everything lower wouldn't kill him).
The problem arose after the battle when they tried to loot the room and revealed the magic items on the ground of the hole with Detect Magic: They had no idea how to reach it.
Swimming down 9m seemed out of the question to us; it just seems to deep for someone who isn't used to diving that deep. (If there is someone with diving experience on the boards, he is welcome to share his knowledge!)
Using the climbing rope was considered, but I ruled it out since "Sending the rope somewhere to grab stuff" is obviously not what it is intended for and would even be dangerous (I send the rope up a cliff and it just decides to grab a huge stone lying around? Not really optimal!)
The Unseen Servant can't swim.
Water Breathing and Telekinesis aren't available yet.
Mage Hand can't effect magic items.
And so on...they boiled it down to "We'll just start fishing for them" and "We'll use summon monster and send a octopus to grab it all".
So, here are my questions - what are their other options? How did your group solve it? The only other way of doing it seems to be Levitation, which should be available in town as a scroll - but Levitationx3 isn't the cheapes thing to do.
So! Any help? ;)
It's a DC 10 swim check to move around in the pool. A swimming PC can get to the bottom in 2 rounds, spend a few rounds grabbing stuff, and then swim back up.
Extending the rope of climbing down into the pool I guess let's the PC use a DC 5 climb check in place of swimming.
You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to double Con score.
Also, if the PCs are intimidated at the prospect of diving into a still pool that's 9 m deep, then they are going to freak the hell out if they fall off a bridge in Schloss Caromarc...
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Hi,
yeah, I know the rules for swimming and holding breath. However, if you go only by those rules it is possible to go very deep - far deeper than possible for an untrained person.
(A normal guy with CON 10 could hold his breath for 20 rounds, meaning he could go downwards for 10 rounds before he has to turn back. If he goes a quarter of his speed every round he'd reach 18m/60ft. without problems, which just seems unlikely to me.)
Using google and asking some friends (some of them without experience in diving, some of them with some of it) brought up everything from "If you go deeper than 5m/16ft. your body can't handle it!" (which just seems dumb) to "The record is at 200m / 650 ft!" (which is obviously useless, since it says nothing about an untrained human).
On the other hand...I just found the rules for going into the depths. Everything under 100 ft. seems to give nothing more than 1D6 nonlethal damage per minute. So it seems to be pretty relaxed in Pathfinder - if they decide to take this route I'll just describe that their ears hurt afterwards, nothing a little positive energy cannot handle.
(Side note: They were not so much intimidated by the water or the diving but by the discussion whether it's realistic for a human without any training to go down that far. I guess they'll take the route "Give the Paladin a rope, throw him in and pull him back up!" now...)
9 meters? As in ~18 feet?
That is an incredibly easy and reasonable dive. If any of the players has even 1 rank in Swim, this should be a cakewalk.
Blackbot, if it helps, keep in mind PCs are practically super heroes. 1d6 pressure damage would immediately knock out a 1st level commoner.
9 meters? As in ~18 feet?
That is an incredibly easy and reasonable dive. If any of the players has even 1 rank in Swim, this should be a cakewalk.
1mt is equal to 3ft. So 1*3=3*9= 27
rounded up to make it even = 30 ft dude not 18!!still a cakewalk
besides, if the gm uses the presure factor in the water changing at 3mt (10 ft) rate like an hard terrain and so... that´s would be a huge mistake to dive in!!
first 10 ft maybe a normal movement swimming rate, second 10ft doble cost, and 3rd 10ft maybe a full round action move!!
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As I said - by the rules you can leave him in up to 100 ft. no problem, and if he goes deeper he might (!) get nonlethal (!!) damage once per minute (!!!) if he fails a FORT-check.
So yeah. My guess is that they really didn't care about pressure much when those rules were created - and really, PCs are superhuman really fast, as Zhangar already mentioned.
The rules + non stressful situation = hand-waive it if they have the in-game time and tools (rope, sacks, something to grab with if they're squeamish, such as a pair of tongs).
"After an hour, you get all the loot, the [caster] uses prestidigitation to dry everything and everyone off, now what do you do?"
I'm going to have to disagree with you about the pressure. Until you start talking about multiple atmospheres of pressure there isn't going to be a significant change to the body other than increased pressure/pain in the ears. It takes a depth of 10 meters or 33 feet to achieve a second atmosphere of pressure so anything less than that is a hassle not a danger and shouldn't cause an inherent change in movement difficulty. I really like the anchor method: toss in the paladin or fighter in heavy armor on a rope, let them gather stuff up and then signal to have the party pull them back up, hit with wand of cure light if you must. Repeat until you get all the loot in the pool.9 meters? As in ~18 feet?
That is an incredibly easy and reasonable dive. If any of the players has even 1 rank in Swim, this should be a cakewalk.
1mt is equal to 3ft. So 1*3=3*9= 27
rounded up to make it even = 30 ft dude not 18!!
still a cakewalk
besides, if the gm uses the presure factor in the water changing at 3mt (10 ft) rate like an hard terrain and so... that´s would be a huge mistake to dive in!!first 10 ft maybe a normal movement swimming rate, second 10ft doble cost, and 3rd 10ft maybe a full round action move!!
You know what?
You´re tottaly right here... besides, its a game at all. I like the game advancing and scalling with the plot most than the rules... sometimes the rules broke the game at alli also prefeer being an Story Teller than a GM... so, if the logic or the rules are messing with the plot, then, its time to kick out some rules for a while!!
I have absolutely no training in diving and I can do about 20 feet with no issues. 30 if I really push it but my air starts to run out at that point.
Any PC with at least 1 rank in Swim is far more qualified than I am. They should be able to make it fine.
The truth is that the game have some flaws in the rules!!
I love to see a Mounted Combat works better, fly, stealth, and so many skills fixed...
But as i said before: "if the logic or the rules are messing with the plot, then, its time to kick out some rules for a while"
I would say: "If realism is in the way of fun, then its time to kick some realism out for a while.
Fun>rules and Fun>realism. what's more important, realism or rules is subjective.