Refactored Drowning

[MrSmith]

Re: SERVER UPDATES
Post by DM Honk » Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:01 am

March 3rd 2024

General Changes
* Refactored drowning a little to be closer to PnP, and revamped Drowning Aura to be accurate to PnP.
- Fixed a bug where getting out of the water (or drowning aura) would not reset any drowning-related counters. The only way to take a new lungful of air would be to somehow make yourself immune to drowning while underwater, which seems to defeat the point of surfacing for air.
- Fixed a bug where the third round of drowning would not actually do anything besides telling you that you're drowning, and continue doing so until you returned to 0 HP (if you ever did). No, Mr. Adventurer, we expect you to *die.*
- Fixed a rule misinterpretation that allowed drowning creatures to keep making Constitution checks to hold their breath. You've already stopped holding your breath, you can't just suck it back into your lungs.
- Fixed a rule misinterpretation that caused creatures to only be able to hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to *half* their Constitution score instead of *twice* their Constitution score. I shall gracefully accept any and all RP-shaped expressions of gratitude for quadrupling your characters' lung capacities.
- Added some more granularity to the drowning messages displayed after your air runs out. If you pass the Constitution check on a given round, you're not drowning *yet*; you're just struggling to hold your breath. If you drown for three rounds without external intervention, you're not drowning anymore; you *have* drowned.

I would like to discuss the implementation of the Drown spell in the Corpse Forest. I have a 30th level Barbarian with a 28 fortitude and 642 hit points. Since this March 2024 fix, my character seems to be stricken with the Drown Spell every time he traverses the Corpse Forest. The Drown Spell is supposed to inflict bludgeoning damage at 90% hit points (-588). Unfortunately, when I am struck with a Drown Spell, my character crumbles to -321 hit points. Instead of taking 90% damage, my character lays dying after taking 150% hit point damage.

This infliction continues until I log.

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Cheers!
MrSmith

[DaloLorn]

The drowning mechanic is not the same as the Drown spell. Due to technical limitations, I've generally avoided trying to make Drown work as in PnP, since our inability to reliably track whether a creature was trying to save the victim would likely make it just a fancy, delayed save-or-die. Didn't like that idea too much.

What you're encountering in the Corpse Forest isn't exactly either of those, though. First, a recap of the drowning rules:

When you're fully underwater (which is mechanically only implemented on a couple of DM maps), you're able to stay submerged for a number of rounds equal to twice your CON score (unless you're amphibious/breathless for any reason, in which case the timer never ticks). For instance, if you've got 20 CON, you can stay underwater for 40 rounds, or 4 minutes. For the record, you're also unable to cast any spells with verbal components while you're holding your breath.

After those 40 rounds have expired, you start making CON checks (not Fortitude saves!) each round, starting with a DC of 10. The DC then increases by 1 for every subsequent round you've spent underwater, and when you inevitably fail the check, you start drowning, and thus drop to 0 HP. This will happen very quickly, because most characters' CON modifiers give them a 25% or greater chance of failing on the very first round. If you stay submerged and non-amphibious for another round (i.e. nobody saves you with a Water Breathing or a Teleport or something), you drop to -5 HP. And the round after that, you die. It's worth noting that no form of healing will prevent you from dying after 3 rounds of drowning: Someone else has to either make you amphibious/breathless, or get you out of the water, in those 3 rounds.

Now, you may have noticed that the Corpse Forest is primarily inhabited by Drowned. This is a special kind of undead creature, which exudes a drowning aura. That aura fast-forwards through the drowning mechanic, making you immediately start making CON checks to hold your breath. Needless to say, this is extremely dangerous to unprepared combatants, as most PCs will only stay conscious for a couple of rounds before succumbing to the aura's effects and subsequently dying. It's especially dangerous to spellcasters, as they not only tend to have the lowest CON scores, but they also lose most of their spellcasting unless they've prepared silent spells, so they can't fight back or evade in any meaningful capacity.

That said, I've noticed a couple of possible bugs and oversights that might be causing drowned PCs to get stuck in a weird undead state, neither alive nor properly dead. And somehow one of the bugs I fixed back then has cropped back up, too...

[MrSmith]

Thank you for the explanation. I still do not know why my character succumbs to drowning aura with an immediate loss of 150% of his hit points. He has a CON of 26 before Raging.

Cheers!
MrSmith

[Lockonnow]

try and use Spell Water Breathing