Jumping out of water with swim speed

[Nighthawk08]

So I have a question. I see rules for things like diving into water and stuff, but no real information about exiting water. This may seem weird, but I am about to start in my first water based adventure in a waterworld-like scenario.

So, I am playing an Undine Druid which has a swim speed of 30 ft. If I do a double move action, I move 60 ft... totally understandable. However, what if I do a double move swim, and there's only 40 ft of water until I reach the surface?

What rules do you recommend? I have yet to broach my DM about this, and since there is no documentation I know it will go entirely by his whim. I just want to give him some ideas and am hoping people are willing to help :-)

I was thinking something similar to climb, where you can go out of the water 1/4 of your movement speed left. So in my earlier example, I move at a 60 ft swim speed, swim 40 ft, and get about 5 ft into the air.

[voideternal]

From a purely RAW point of view, the only non-magical, Core rulebook way to gain altitude without a fly speed is through the Acrobatics skill.* That said, I don't think Acrobatics was written with underwater jumping in mind. I personally think your approach is fair, but it raises an odd edge case where the maximum height you can jump is based on your distance from sea level.

* The only reason why I'm mentioning RAW is because you posted in the Rules Questions forum.

[GM Rednal]

The Cerulean Seas campaign setting has some rules for this. They suggest the Acrobatics skill, as follows:

Quote:

The second application for Acrobatics under the waves is the same as it is for its terrestrial counterpart; jumping. However, in an aquatic realm, this is most often used to jump up out of the water. This can be done in an attempt to escape attackers, avoid obstacles, or to maneuver into a better attack position.

Aquatic characters use their base swim speed to determine their Acrobatics skill modifier for jumps made while in water, gaining a +4 bonus for every 10 feet by which their base swim speed exceeds 30 feet. If their base swim speed is less than 30 feet, they take a –6 penalty for each 10 feet by which it falls short of 30 feet. For example, a creature with a base swim speed of 50 feet has a +8 bonus on Acrobatics checks made to leap from the water. Creatures without swim speeds usually cannot make jumps out of water.

Long Jump: Crossing a horizontal distance in the air requires a long jump, just as described under the Acrobatics skill in Chapter 4 of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.

High Jump: A swimming high jump works much like the high jump described in the Acrobatic skill description, except that there is a –10 penalty for performing this jump in water. The height you reach measures the distance you get between the water and your feet (or tail, as the case may be). If you attain a negative result, you don’t actually get completely out of the water. For example, if your result is a –4, your jump distance is –1 foot, which means that all of your body except for the last foot of your body length gets out of the water, at least for a moment.

[Gisher]

This thread made me think of this video of a crocodile using its tail to leap out of the water.