Watery Nap Question

[Pathos]

If a creature is standing in waist deep water, or swimming, when they are affected by a Sleep effect... what happens?

Would that be sufficient to wake them up immediately, or do drowning rules kick in here?

[Crimeo]

Depends on the effect I think. The spell sleep says:

Quote:

Slapping or wounding awakens an affected creature, but normal noise does not.

So it does not comment on passive environmental non-wounding damage one way or the other, and is technically up to GM fiat. Though it seems very obvious that most GMs are likely to rule that yes, drowning damage would wake you up here, as that is a lot more significant than slapping.

I would personally not rule that merely being underwater wakes them up, only taking damage from it (which should probably happen way sooner than normal since they aren't holding their breath, but I'm not sure if there are rules covering that or if that would be off the cuff). Again, this isn't directly addressed in the spell, but if "hitting the water" or more commonly "hitting the ground" after being sleeped woke you up, then the spell would be virtually completely useless.

[Pathos]

Originally, when I had this come up, I ruled that they woke up when hitting the water... citing the shock of the water running over their faces and being denied to ability to draw in a unobstructed bfeath of air.

But since then, I still run over it in my head from time to tike, to figure if I could have handled things differently. Perhaps by granting a new save with a circumstance bonus (+2 or so) to wake up...

[Boemond.]

Pathos wrote:

Originally, when I had this come up, I ruled that they woke up when hitting the water... citing the shock of the water running over their faces and being denied to ability to draw in a unobstructed bfeath of air.

But since then, I still run over it in my head from time to tike, to figure if I could have handled things differently. Perhaps by granting a new save with a circumstance bonus (+2 or so) to wake up...

One would imagine that at the end of the round where you began to drown you would awaken. If being slapped wakes you up then inhaling water probably should too. Imagine if they fell into a fire instead--that minuscule damage wakes you, why would other extremely traumatic effects that can more quickly lead to your death not?

[Casual Viking]

From my extensive experience with drunk, sleeping people, a violent splash of water to the face, going up their nostrils, wakes up people better than a slap.

[Crimeo]

Casual Viking wrote:

From my extensive experience with drunk, sleeping people, a violent splash of water to the face, going up their nostrils, wakes up people better than a slap.

Counterpoint though: Wouldn't falling from a standing position and smacking your head into the hard ground be even more likely to wake you up? If so, almost all sleep spells are useless, because virtually never do you cast them on anybody other than people standing up.

I feel like the initial fall can't really be included in waking events, if the spells are to retain any usefulness.

[CampinCarl9127]

As Crimeo says, it is GM fiat. Personally I would rule that the water wakes you up when your unconscious body tries to inhale oxygen and gets water instead. The human body has a very violent reaction to water going into the lungs.