I’d say holding your breath in a combat environment would require Concentration, and apply the Concentration mechanics. Not sure what penalty to apply for a failed Con Save. Probably a number of rounds dependent on how much the Con Save was failed by.
So what I have done is while in combat if that haven’t already been in the water and they are being pulled it I use the same rules but instead of minutes I give my players rounds since they are in fight or flight mode essentially. But if they are prepared for going into water I give them the RAW rules of 1+con mod for exploring purposes. It seems to work and my players enjoy it.
I recently used a houseruled "breath point" system to track this, where 1 breath point equals 1 second of underwater time. So, for example, a 12 constitution character gets 120 breath points. Breath points are lost in the following ways:
-Time - Every round the character spends underwater uses 6 breath points
-Spell casting with a verbal component - A spell with a casting time of 1 action uses 6 breath points, a bonus action uses 3
-Taking damage - you lose breath points equal to any damage taken
This worked out pretty well. It wasn't any more cumbersome than just tracking the number of rounds under water, and took into account things that would make you lose your breath.
I love this! And when out of breath (or taken by surprise and dragged under water) it's 6 x con modifier breath points? I am using this for my game. Thank you for this.
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I’d say holding your breath in a combat environment would require Concentration, and apply the Concentration mechanics. Not sure what penalty to apply for a failed Con Save. Probably a number of rounds dependent on how much the Con Save was failed by.
So what I have done is while in combat if that haven’t already been in the water and they are being pulled it I use the same rules but instead of minutes I give my players rounds since they are in fight or flight mode essentially. But if they are prepared for going into water I give them the RAW rules of 1+con mod for exploring purposes. It seems to work and my players enjoy it.
Azel H.
I love this! And when out of breath (or taken by surprise and dragged under water) it's 6 x con modifier breath points? I am using this for my game. Thank you for this.