Aqueous Orb and Vampires

[Jaçinto]

This is something that came up in our game and was argued to not work, at the moment. The water in an Aqueous orb is churning. Does this count as running water for the weakness vampires have where it reduces their maximum HP by 1/3 every round?

[DuksisDarker]

I wouldn't think so. It doesn't fit the flavor of the weakness or the interpretation of "running water". "Running water" being natural flowing water such as a river or stream. If the water used to create the aqueous orb literally came from or shared the space of a river, i would feel conflicted about that interpreation.

[Brew Bird]

I've always thought that the running water weakness was more of a spiritual thing. Running water is clean and fresh, a symbol of life, thus anathema to creatures of disease like vampires.

[Jaçinto]

So what would the actual rule on this be, then? The water is churning, therefore moving and running. Running water is just water that is currently moving. Churning water is water that is in motion. If you break that down, just by how the rules are, shouldn't it work? I get the whole "in the spirit of it" thing but I want to know, simply rule wise, if it works. Plus lots of things work a certain way that are not in the spirit of the lore. Just look at the Lovecraftian monsters like the colour of out space and how they are toned down for balance.

So again, rule wise thus Raw, does this work?

[dragonhunterq]

Good luck getting a GM to allow that.
First, just No. It goes beyond what that spell is designed to do.
Second running and churning are 2 different things. Running water goes from one place to another, it doesn't just churn in place.

[Palinurus]

Jaçinto wrote:

So again, rule wise thus Raw, does this work?

No. Not in my view. Running water involves fresh water replacing old unclean water. Churning water involves the same water being mixed around. Different concepts. On a strict rules basis running water and churning water are different phrases and in the absence of some rule calling them out as equivalent I can't see that are being persuasive.

[Jaçinto]

Alright then. I guess it doesn't work. Ah well, I tried. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

[Agodeshalf]

I like the idea of having the cleric cast bless water on the orb :)

[Val'bryn2]

Too much water for the spell to work. Now, a Decanter of Endless Water on the other hand.... Actually, it was used to kill Strahd in an old Choose Your Own Adventure book.

[Java Man]

Having flashbacks to a game system where vampire hunters used watercannons to exploit this weakness. And water balloons.

[Ravingdork]

Seems like water cannons and water balloons would work fine to me.

[Murdock Mudeater]

I'd allow it.

Though I'd make the vampires panic, tactically retreat, then come back and murder the character that was casting this spell. It would be a priority to them...

Granted, clever players would prepare for the return of the vampires and keep good watch, so the vampires would probably fail in their attempts to murder that PC. Still, if intelligent creatures, undead or otherwise, encounter an obstacle that must be overcome, they'll focus on it.

So holy symbol users and casters of water spells would be high priority targets for vampires before any attempts at straight forward combat could be realistically attempted. Those are just obstacles that the vampires MUST defeat before normal combat can take place.

Really, if any of the PCs proved to be OP in a specific field, the enemies will adapt. Maybe not all of them, but just as legends and stories of monsters become the basis of knowledge checks to learn the monster weaknesses, legends of heroes will be known to the more social monster races as the PCs grow in fame.

[Jaçinto]

Well yeah, the vampire bee-lined for me as soon as it got out, which makes sense. I think this is one of those things that can't be explained RAW and just RAI until a dev says something.