Underwater D&D 3.5

[Dazdya]

That's one reason I've used the World of Greyhawk for my campaign setting of choice, for all of my online games (save for one set in Hades) since 1995. I can utilize the maps, history, climate, politics, religion, and sites of interest as a springboard. Mind you, not a lot has been written about the undersea realms, which is just as I like it.

Granted the Sinking Isle, Turucambi Reef, and Jungle of Lost ships are all canon Greyhawk references - but I put my own unique spin on them all.

Aeolius has a good point. Most maps ignore undersea environment. If you use one of those maps as a starting point, you can add currents (seasonal or not) where they seem to fit, just like reefs, trade routes, trenches etc. And the players may never even recognise the original map if you simply trace the coastline. I'll remember that trick.

[Debihuman]

Dire Walrus looks like it should be Swim speed at 40 ft. but I'm not sure what the land speed would be. A standard walrus (see Frostburn pg. 166) has a land speed of 10 feet. I'd give a Dire version +5 to land speed and +10 to Swim as you did.

Speed: Land 15 (3 squares), Swim 40 ft.

Like a standard walrus, a dire walrus should be able to hold its breath. This is a standard ability in the SRD.

Hold Breath (Ex):A dire walrus can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 8 × its Constitution score before it risks drowning.

I think Insulated needs a bit more work. It should have Cold Resistance (not immunity) 10 or 15 as it is an Animal not a Magical Beast.

Body Slam should probably be renamed "Crush" as that is a standard attack and especially since you use that term in the text.

One more thing: change Darkvision 60 ft. to low-light vision. Animals normally get low-light vision not darkvision. Walruses are not deep divers according to Wikipedia so giving them low-light vision should be sufficient.

Otherwise, it looks good.

Debby

[hamishspence]

Dragonlance had walrusfolk. And I wonder if anyone's ever played a were-walrus?

[Aeolius]

I recently considered making seawolves:


more like wolffish:

[hamishspence]

Would be an interesting difference.

The idea of merfolk of a wide range of "fish types" has been raised before in these threads- but not fishy-looking seawolves.

[Mutazoia]

Dragonlance had walrusfolk. And I wonder if anyone's ever played a were-walrus?

Were-walrus? You might want to take a look at this

[Zolkabro]

I'm sorry to say that once again I have forgotten about this thread. Sorry.

Anyway, I've decided that I would like to go with Aeolius' suggestion of using the seas of a pre-existing world. I've decided to go with the world on which Tolkein's works are set, Arda:

Spoiler

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(I'm not sure when in the history of Arda this should be, so here are maps from two different eras. We can decide which one to use at a later date.)

I don't know how much anyone knows about the lands beyond Middle Earth, where Lord of the Rings is set, so I'm just gonna explain about them just in case anyone doesn't know.

Basically, the concept behind Arda is that thousands of years ago, the world was flat. There was Middle Earth and other places in the centre, and to the west was Aman, a land of intensely brainy and magical people.
It is from there that the Istari (the wizards, inluding Gandalf) came from, and where the rings came from, and where all magic comes from. After the events of Lord of the Rings, Aman breaks off from the rest of the world. It has fulfilled it's purpose in defeating the Shadow, and so it leaves. Arda becomes round, the continents are reshaped as time goes on, and it becomes the earth we know today. You can see the similarities between the shape of our world and Arda.
But even though Earth and Aman had been completely seperated, the elves still had a way to go between Aman and Earth at will. This is how the White Ship got to Aman. This route is called the Straight Road. They go west from Middle Earth, but instead of their route curving along the face of the earth, it carries on in a perfectly straight line through space, till it reaches Aman.

So, Arda is basically an incredibly detailed land, with all sorts of magical islands and different seas and rugged coastlines that would all be perfect for this.

Here is a page with maps of absolutely everywhere in Arda, including all the islands and oceans.
Ignore all the inland places, but every ocean, sea, bay, reef, etc, I would like to create stuff about.

Currently, places that are already planned are some sort of obsidean and glass realm which was created in the old thread, a city biult out of coral, and places for each race.
The obsidean realm was to be built around a land full of underwater volcanos. Everything is like blown glass, with obsidean making the shapes of everything, even where people live. Look in the original thread for more details.
So, maybe a sea/ocean where everything was made of glass and obsidean like he said, around hot geysers. This is perhaps the favourite idea I have for places.

Now, I decided that instead of having a realm for the Cephalofolk, I thought they could be a sort of nomad race. However, the other races still need places.

I was thinking that maybe the Kokrulis could have some sort of huge library inspired by the buried library in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not the oh-god-can-it-be-any-worse movie, but the original anime which was really good. Anyway, at one point they enter this huge library with information on absolutely everything, but it is guarded by a fearsome creature, who only lets you in to study and then out again if it is for good intentions. If you use the knowledge you have found to harm anyone he will make sure you can never harm anyone every again, either by killing you or trapping you in the endless library forever.
Something like that would suit the Kokrulis. They are guardians of great secrets, but only those who have come to study simply in the pursuit of knowledge have these secrets shared with them. Those who wish to use this knowledge against others, will find nothing but despair in these shelves.
This should maybe be around the enchanted isles, or numenor.

Nix, I don't know, I always imagined them in smallers seas, lakes, estuaries, and other shallows. I really don't know other than that.

The Krazanio and Xixanio maybe could be waging war across the Enegaer, with Krazanio in the South and Xixanio in the North. I always planned for these races to be bitter rivals. Nobody remembers exactly how this eaons-long war began, but everybody knows that the entire other race are all evil scumbags who have been murdering their people for generations.

Saepia could maybe be in the South of the Belegaer, the Great Sea. I think they should have the coral cities. So, an entire reef would have been created, grown, pruned, etc, it would be the home to all the Saepia. I sort of imagined Saepia as like gnomes or dwarves, in that they make good clerics and often live underground. So, they could live inside the huge labrynth-like coral reefs.

And the Sahaguin was made by somebody else on the old thread, and I barely rewrote it, so I don't really know. Unlike the others, I don't have a clear image of this one. So I'm not really sure how it would live.

Anyway, sorry about disappearing without a word.

[Zolkabro]

Okay, this is gonna sound really dumb, but you know how in Finding Nemo, the turtles migrating path was like a tube of lighter coloured water, that marked the way? Is that just in Finding Nemo, or is it real? If it's real, it is now our roads. If it is fake, then I feel really dumb.

And I've written a draft copy of fluff descriptions for two of the areas. I'm gonna edit them a bit, then post them.

[hamishspence]

Fast currents are probably not that dramatic- but they do exist. I doubt they would stand out visually though.

[Zolkabro]

Fast currents are probably not that dramatic- but they do exist. I doubt they would stand out visually though.

Excellent.
So, these will be roads.

I hope to have the environment descriptions up soon.

[Dazdya]

You should keep in mind that the people who live there have evolved in that environment. Even if the currents don't visually stand out, thy will have some way to sense them. Perhaps by temperature, or how much light filters through, who knows. The problem is that you're not telling that to these creatures, but to the players. And the players are just humans, with hardly any racial bonuses.

I would suggest referring to their characters' special senses only once in every while, but most of the time just describing what they 'see'.

[Hyudra]

You should keep in mind that the people who live there have evolved in that environment. Even if the currents don't visually stand out, thy will have some way to sense them. Perhaps by temperature, or how much light filters through, who knows. The problem is that you're not telling that to these creatures, but to the players. And the players are just humans, with hardly any racial bonuses.

I would suggest referring to their characters' special senses only once in every while, but most of the time just describing what they 'see'.

My guess would be that it'd involve the sense of touch more than anything. Whiskers, fins, tendrils, spines, or some combination of such would let a Sea Elf, Merfolk or whatever get a sense of the water currents around them.