Slipstream Spell

[J Scot Shady]

I am curious if any one knows if this has been addressed before, and if so, what was the answer.

The spell Slipstream has the following description:

Slipsteam wrote:

You create a low-cresting wave of water that carries the target along the surface of water or the ground. When moving across level ground, the target's speed increases by 10 feet. If going downhill, speed increases by 20 feet instead, but slipstream provides no movement bonus when going uphill. While swimming, the slipstream increases the target's swim speed by 20 feet—if the target does not have a swim speed, this spell grants a swim speed of 20 ft.

I understand a lot of this is flavor text but would this spell allow a purely aquatic creature (a creature without a base land speed, such as a shark) to move across land? Basically, does having no base land speed equal zero or none at all when using this spell? Also, how would Expeditious Retreat work on a similar target?

Thanks in advance.

[Pizza Lord]

For expeditious retreat, I would rule that it works to increase your speed in conjunction with this spell to your land speed. The spell is specific that it doesn't help swimming. If you had no land speed, I would not allow it to grant you a base land speed of 30, however. So no help for a shark.

For the shark, on land, slipstream would help. A creature can spend a full-round action to move 5 feet (so a shark or fish on land could flop back into the water). I would rule that on a full-round action it would get the additional 10 feet, thus letting it move 15 feet (25 feet if going downhill).

I wouldn't count movement over the ground with slipstream to be swimming (though it might look like it were swimming or surfing) because the wording seems to be clear about the difference between movement over the ground and swimming.

[J Scot Shady]

Thanks Pizza Lord.

Does anyone else have an opinion or even better, something official? Thanks.