Trial of the Beast question

[Mighty264]

I’m running the Carrion Crown adventure. We’re up to book 2 called ‘Trial of the Beast’. There is a part at the end when you are fighting in a building that was partially flooded. The water comes up to 3 feet. Per the rules “Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land.”
1) The players decided to kneel down so that they would be chest deep to get the +8 bonus to AC, and use ranged attacks. Is this possible & if so are they considered to have firm footing on their knees?
While the players are walking in 3 feet of water they come to an area that drops to 25 feet of water.
2) The players decided to, once again, get on their knees. They put their heads under the water & shoot their bows so that they can get by the total cover the completely submerged creatures in the water have. Is this possible & if so are they considered to have firm footing on their knees?

[Level 1 Commoner]

You are trolling us, right? Just showing us how awesome your Regeneration 5 (Acid or Fire) is?

If not, the answers are no and no.

[Ben the Red]

They could kneel down in the water if they wanted, but I would say they do not have firm footing and because their weapons/attacks will all be starting from underwater I'd apply all the penalties from the Combat Adjustments Underwater table. So sure, they can have some cover, but they won't hit anything or do any damage.

Spoiler:

and the basilisk will turn them all to stone for trying to cheese the mechanics.

Read through the rules in more detail here

[Trinite]

If they're firing bows at underwater enemies, they get the full underwater combat penalties (which is -2 to attack for every 5-feet of water you're shooting through). There are no "opponents on land" in this section, as I recall. Everything is either already in the water, or quite capable of swooping down to engage the PCs in the water.So the bonuses against them are moot.

Also, I hope they had fun trying to kill leech swarms with arrows. :)

My players did the more sensible thing: hovered above the water and cast ice spells down into it.

EDIT: Now, I would rule that that tactic *would* work in other circumstances, such as crouching in a 3-foot pool to shoot out at enemies on shore, if those enemies are shooting back.

The way I would personally houserule it is that they'd have to stand up to shoot. Standing up from a crouch to shoot and then ducking back down afterward would be a move action. So you could get your cover, but at the expense of moving or taking full attacks. It's hard to maneuver like that in 3-foot deep water, after all.

[Mighty264]

Thank you all for the info and help. I know how to handle it now.

[captain yesterday]

a full size person cannot crouch down enough in that litte water and still be able to shoot a bow

[MurphysParadox]

And it makes no sense to fire a longbow from a kneeling position since the bow is almost as tall as a person. Maybe a shortbow.