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Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[Sirus]

But what if the things they are fighting either breath water innately (say, some sort of merperson) or don't breath at all?

[BlackFlyme]

Then I guess it's just the usual murderhobo routine.

No-one in the party uses heavy armour, thankfully. Though I can't swim for shit, and you are greatly slowed when compared to moving on land, so no-one on our side was able to attack in the first round. But we all have potions of water breathing to spare still, so that is not a problem.

[Neonivek]

Pathfinder is definitely a lot kinder to under water battles when you don't have some way to breathe instantly than 3.5 is.

Still... I think water is a cool avenue for adventurers.

[Yoink]

Even so, the GM could possibly fudge it to be nice to the player, since he's just trying to... not be a mentally deficient hydra any more.

Tangentially relevant,.   

Also, I miss PnP gaming.

[Rolan7]

Pathfinder is definitely a lot kinder to under water battles when you don't have some way to breathe instantly than 3.5 is.

Still... I think water is a cool avenue for adventurers.

3.5 is already pretty generous.  Actually, looks like the rules for drowning are identical:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/environment/environmental-rules#TOC-Drowning
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#drowning

Basically you can fight for a number of rounds equal to your constitution *score* (not mod).  Then you start making a fort save that grows from 10.  If you take only 1 move action, you use half the air that round.
(I'm only sharing this because it's kinda funny.  Even untrained, adventurers are *amazing* at holding their breath and remaining calm underwater)

As for swimming in heavy armor...  Technically it's just a penalty to the swim check from what I can find.  But it's *double* the normal armor check and encumbrance penalty.  You're trying to hit 10 to move in calm water, 30 if you want to move at normal speed instead of quarter.  6-9 you don't move, 5 or less you fall underwater.

So in full plate with a heavy shield and a medium load, you're looking at (6+2)*2+(3*2)=18 penalty.  DC 24 to tread water, DC 28 to move.
Pretty tough!  Keeping a light load helps a lot though, as would stowing the shield (stowing the armor would help a lot more, of course).  With about a dozen ranks a warrior could probably swim across a lake in the full kit.  They might hit the bottom first though, but they have plenty of air.

But yeah, if they have waterbreathing then they're better off trudging along the bottom.  I'm not sure what the rule is for that but I assume it's half-speed, or maybe full (though that would be silly).

[kilakan]

My guess would be two stacks of difficult terrain (water resistance and the muddy bottom of the lake) so quarter speed.

[Cthulufaic]

My guess would be two stacks of difficult terrain (water resistance and the muddy bottom of the lake) so quarter speed.

That makes sense.  But if it was at the bottom of a canal or other man-made waterway it would just be half, or maybe I don't know shit about canals and they also have mud on the bottom.

[scriver]

Depends on the type of canal

[kilakan]

yeah and some faster moving rivers/mountain waterways+lakes would be stone or sand bottom so probably a lot easier to traverse... the bottom of the ocean now mind you, in most places you'd probably sink a good 15 feet into silt and water breathing or not you'd suffocate in mud.

[Bohandas]

Actually unless Pathfinder dramatically alters magic item usage, no, being a hydra does not allow you to gain stacking benefits from headgear.  You've got two ring slots, one amulet/decorative item, one piece of headgear, one set of eyegear (glasses, lenses, whatever), one set of gloves/gauntlets, one set of footwear, one cloak/cape, one suit of armor, one robe, one vest/shirt, one set of bracers/bracelets and a belt.

In D&D I think you can take a feat to increase the number of item slots

[Neonivek]

Even if it did remember that Pathfinder is very much in the position of "If they used armor, they would be neigh unstoppable" so to speak.

I still remember when a player said he wanted to enhance a Adamantium Golem with a shield... and I was like "No, the golem is already perfect, the shield wouldn't benefit it"

Yet there was no "rule" on it... I maintained it due to the concept of a Adamantine Golem.

The way I like to handle a lot of it is that well... Natural armor lowers the armor bonus of armors by 1 for every 2 natural armor they have.

[wierd]

No, there would still be advantages to having the adamantium golem possess a shield.  Specifically, it would permit it to deflect attacks that would alter its temperature. Otherwise, thermal expansion stresses could theoretically weaken the golem through microfractures in its matrix.

EG, glass cannon wizard duo 1-2 punches the golem repeatedly with cone of cold and fireball. That of course, assumes the DM is going to allow "physics related effects" for mythical substances, like adamantium.

It's also a potentially enchantable item, permiting the golem to possibly have additional magic resistance buff added to its innate physical resistance.

[Neonivek]

No, there would still be advantages to having the adamantium golem possess a shield.  Specifically, it would permit it to deflect attacks that would alter its temperature. Otherwise, thermal expansion stresses could theoretically weaken the golem through microfractures in its matrix.

EG, glass cannon wizard duo 1-2 punches the golem repeatedly with cone of cold and fireball. That of course, assumes the DM is going to allow "physics related effects" for mythical substances, like adamantium.

It's also a potentially enchantable item, permiting the golem to possibly have additional magic resistance buff added to its innate physical resistance.

It is already made of a neigh indestructible material. Anything that would cause the golem to suffer thermally is pretty much nuclear bomb!

[Yoink]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

No, there would still be advantages to having the adamantium golem possess a shield.  Specifically, it would permit it to deflect attacks that would alter its temperature. Otherwise, thermal expansion stresses could theoretically weaken the golem through microfractures in its matrix.

EG, glass cannon wizard duo 1-2 punches the golem repeatedly with cone of cold and fireball. That of course, assumes the DM is going to allow "physics related effects" for mythical substances, like adamantium.

It's also a potentially enchantable item, permiting the golem to possibly have additional magic resistance buff added to its innate physical resistance.

It is already made of a neigh indestructible material. Anything that would cause the golem to suffer thermally is pretty much nuclear bomb!

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Wait, can those 'cool metal' and 'heat metal' spells work on adamantium?
Plus, if you make an adamantium golem, what do you use to smelt the form? A directed nuke in order to melt it?