Water

Water is both a great enabler and great destroyer of civilization. Life can’t exist without it. Trade and travel are made much easier by its presence. Yet water can also kill, from drowning on a personal level to floods and tsunamis on a mass scale. Terrestrial life is dependent on water but at the same time fears it, as evidenced by tales as old as the sea itself, of monsters and the hideous fates that await travelers who dare to sail out of sight of land. What better place to set an adventure than on a twisting river, upon the high seas, or deep in the briny world below?

Aquatic Adventures

An aquatic adventure can take place anywhere that water is the primary terrain feature. This includes marshlands, rivers, lakes, pools, oceans, the Plane of Water, and the like. Aquatic adventures don’t require the PCs to have the ability to breathe water, of course—the inclusion of water hazards for lower-level adventurers to navigate can add a nice bit of suspense and peril to an adventure.

Adapting to Aquatic Environments

The rules presented in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook for underwater combat apply to creatures not native to this dangerous environment, such as most PCs. For extended aquatic adventures or for particularly deep explorations, PCs will doubtless need to use magic to continue their adventures. Water breathing is of obvious use, while endure elements can help with temperature. Pressure damage can be avoided entirely with effects such as freedom of movement. Polymorph spells are perhaps the most useful in water, though, if the form assumed is aquatic in nature.

Natural Adaptation: Any creature that has the aquatic subtype can breathe water easily and is unaffected by water temperature extremes that are found in that creature’s typical environment. Aquatic creatures and creatures with the hold breath ability are much more resistant to pressure damage; they do not suffer damage from pressure unless they are moved instantaneously from one depth to another in the blink of an eye (in which case they adapt to the pressure change after successfully making five successive Fortitude saves against the pressure effects).

Nautical Adventures

Water can also provide the setting for a different and unique game experience—the nautical adventure. In such a scenario, the effects and dangers of underwater adventuring are replaced by surface hazards as the PCs and their opponents use vehicles like ships and boats to navigate the terrain. For the most part, shipboard adventures can be resolved normally, with a combat taking place aboard a ship functioning almost identically to one that occurs on land. If the combat happens during a storm or in heavy seas, treat the ship’s deck as difficult terrain. Remember to take into account the effects on spellcasters’ concentration checks due to weather or the motion of the ship’s deck (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 206–207).