Swim speeds, Storms, and Lifesaving.

[Mistah J]

Hey folks,

Gotta game coming up where the party will lose one of the PCs (or an NPC) overboard during a storm.

One of the PCs is an Undine - he has a swim speed. I fully expect him to simply dive in to save the day so I want to ensure I have rules down to make sure it's somewhat of the challenge it is supposed to be.

With a swim speed of 30ft. He can go that far in the water as a move action - regardless of the stormy conditions. It should be no problem to reach the victim. What can I do to increase the difficulty of the return trip?

With a swim speed, the Undine can effectively 'take 18' on Swim checks (taking 10 even in danger and +8 racial bonus to swim). What kind of penalty does dragging someone with you impose? Is it a medium or heavy load? impairing his speed? require swim checks of a high DC to cover the distance back to the boat?

Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks.

[David knott 242]

The Core Rulebook has a table that cross references loads with strength, and that same table can be found in the PRD as well. Given that undines have a racial strength penalty, I would imagine that a human sized NPC would be a heavy load (at best) for nearly any undine.

[Mistah J]

I totally agree.. the Undine will be at a heavy load if he drags the NPC through the water. His speed will be reduced to 20ft and he'll take a -6 to Swim checks.

My question is: Is rescuing someone, lifeguard style, simply swimming at a heavy load or is it something that would require additional swim checks to accomplish?

[EvilMinion]

I'm going to suggest:
Perception
Earthquake
Run

------
In a storm, one of the bigger problem is actually locating your target.
You have basically terrain that is moving up and down, at different locations to different degrees. Visibility is horrible, and distractions are everywhere.

(In a typical ship man overboard situation the person who first spotted the victim's main job is to keep their eyes on them, because if you take your eyes off them for a second, its very easy to never spot them again.)

I'd make the victim effectively invisible to the undine as soon as he hits the water (total concealment), requiring perception checks and direction from people on the boat to direct him until he gets close enough to see them himself (perhaps 30'?)

As for the perception check to see him... Start at 0 (visible creature) ... assuming the boat is moving at half speed due to the storm (it might not be), one round after hitting the water, the victim should be upwards of 90' away (+9)... conditions are horrible (+5) ... you can only see his head and perhaps an arm, so he's a lot smaller then normal so perhaps add the size modifier for a creature one smaller (+4 for medium)... so a DC of about 18 on round one. Increase this by 9 each round if the ship's movement isn't immediately arrested. Increase it by a smaller amount (say 2) if they do stop it. Allow as many people as they can spare (ie: not the crew required to sail the boat) to aid another to hopefully keep it manageable.
(The goal is to make them realize they are going to fail the longer it takes)
Add a bonus if they succeeded the previous round and keep their eyes on him... remove this bonus if they get distracted (take their eyes off) or the victim goes under and resurfaces, forcing them to relocate. (If he goes under and doesn't resurface, he's basically invisible to the folks on the boat now too...). Hopefully the players on the boat can keep him in sight long enough for the undine to get close enough.... (If they lose him before the undine sees him, the victim is probably a goner)

If you work this right, you can involve everyone

Next, just because you have a swim speed, doesn't mean its easy to move.
Think of it just like walking during an earthquake. In fact, try incorporating some of that spells rules. Pretend the undine is trying to 'walk' on open ground during an earthquake.
No roll required to 'walk', but require a reflex save each round or he makes no forward progress at all.

Also, look at the rules for running, and try to incorporate a sense of urgency (the perception part might help). Reduce his base movement unless he pushes himself... then after a set amount of time (based on his con score) start making the con checks... once he fails, have him basicaly exhausted and treading water with the victim, but unable to move. Then the others on the boat can pick them up.
Or, if he makes the checks, perhaps have him be fatigued for the last bit and return to the ship himself.

There's a fair bit of playing it by ear, if you work it right, you can get everyone participating, and allow more then just the undine be required to rescue the victim (and possibly the undine).

[Lincoln Hills]

EvilMinion made some good suggestions; just a couple extra comments.

Before the session comes around, I suggest taking in some films that include storms at sea and attempted rescue - there's a good one in the middle of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The sheer scale of the violence of a storm out there can be hard to viscerally understand without a visual example.

One additional complication, on a sailing vessel, is that in any severe storm the ship not only cannot turn back to meet the swimmers; it can't even slow down. (Long story short, your ship is liable to capsize or founder.) The undine may discover that 30 ft. of swim speed (20 ft. if encumbered) may only be enough to catch up to whatever buoyant stuff those aboard ship can find to throw overboard as life preservers. Once the storm eases up, the ship can seek to return to the site and conduct a search: don't be afraid to make it a harrowing tale of survival.

Don't be afraid to make clear that if not for the undine, this would have been impossible rather than merely difficult. A player who gets to use a little-used racial ability like swim speed should definitely feel they got to be the Big Hero.

[EvilMinion]

Lincoln's most likely correct... the chances they'd be able to stop the vessel are unlikely, and turning it around is definitely out. You don't want to turn broadside to a storm.

But if you go with that, then be prepared for the long arduous survival in open sea scenario for the undine and possibly the fellow he rescued (if he got to him before he drowned)

Though that could be cool. PC's react... man goes overboard, undine
jumps in after him.... ship keeps going.

Fade to black...

Resolve what happens aboard the ship (they lose sight almost immediately of both.) they try to get the captain to stop, he can't because he's only steering at this point, the storm is propelling, and he refuses to turn else everyone dies.

PC's perhaps try the tossing buoyant things overboard (if someone thinks of it, or perhaps an check to see if anyone does, or a sailor might suggest it).

They ride out the storm, not knowing what happens to their friend and the npc, in or out of character.

Decide how long... a few hours perhaps.

Then they can try to get the captain to turn around and search.... some face skills, bribes, intimidation, no one optimistic.

Only then, resolve what happens back in the ocean... bonus if you can do this all separate, but that's not always easy at most gaming tables.

'Course there's always the chance they decide pc and npc are both lost and don't search... heh.

There are plenty of opportunities for all sorts of character actions of import on all sides of this event, if you make it varied enough, whether in the rescue, the search, or the convincing to search.

Just be aware that, in all likelyhood, you're looking at a split party for a while as soon as any of them hit the water (whether the undine or if a pc is the victim)