Heroes of the Sea (Article)

:This was originally published in Dragon Magazine #250
The seas are not only a setting for high adventure but also another source for heroes. While aquatic elves have already been covered as a character race (in the Complete Book of Elves and PLAYER'S OPTION Skills & Powers), here are rules for playing crabmen, koalinth, locathah, malenti, merfolk, pahari, selkies, and vodyanoi in the same format used in The Complete Book of Humanoids. Like all humanoid characters, members of these races face prejudice as well as physical limitations when trying to interact with surface dwellers. They are also shackled by superstitions that can hinder them in an adventure.
Following the familiar aquatic humanoids is a new demihuman— the liminal, crossbreeds of humans and merfolk. Liminals are not subject to the limitations of humanoid characters but still do not entirely fit in to land-dwelling culture. They are described in the same format as the other demihuman races in the Player's Handbook, with optional rules for using them with the PLAYER'S OPTION: Skills & Powers system of character reaction.
Two additional pieces of information are included for each race: maximum functioning depth and vision.
: Maximum functioning depth is the normal maximum depth at which members of each race can go about their normal activities, as described on pages 76-77 of Of Ships & the Sea.
: The entry for vision provides a multiple to normal human's underwater vision, which is shown on Tables 39-41 in Of Ships and the Sea. Sahuagin, as described in The Sea Devils, can see about three times farther than humans underwater, so they have a vision multiplier of 3 (as do the malenti, described below). This multiplier is applied not only to actual vision ranges but also to depth modifiers. For example, in clear water humans lose one surface condition category per 50 feet of depth-from Clear Day to Overcast, for example. For sahuagin, the category is shifted every 150 feet of depth. For pahari, with a vision modifier of 2.5, the condition category is worsened every 125 feet of depth.
: All of the races described in this article use the "Marine Creature" column on Table 42: Underwater Hearing Ranges in Of Ships and the Sea.
==Of Ships and the Sea Referenced Tables==
 OSAS Table 39: Clear Water Visibility Ranges
SurfaceCondition	Movement	Spotted	Type	ID 	Detail
Clear Day 	100 	80 	60 	40 	5
Overcast 	50 	40 	30 	20 	5
Stormy 	40 	30 	20 	10 	5
Moonlit Night 	25 	20 	15 	10 	10 feet
Moonless Night 	15 	10 	5 	10 feet	5 feet
 OSAS Table 40: Turbid Water Visibility Ranges
SurfaceCondition	Movement	Spotted	Type 	ID 	Detail
Clear Day 	80 	60 	40 	20 	5
Overcast 	40 	30 	20 	10 	5
Stormy 	20 	15 	10 	5 	5 feet
Moonlit Night 	15 	10 	5 	5 feet	—
Moonless Night 	10 	5 	10 feet	— 	—
 OSAS Table 41: Murky Water Visibility Ranges
SurfaceCondition	Movement	Spotted	Type 	ID 	Detail
Clear Day 	20 	15 	10 	5 	5 feet
Overcast 	15 	10 	5 	5 feet	—
Stormy 	10 	5 	5 feet	— 	—
Moonlit Night 	5 	5 feet 	— 	— 	—
Moonless Night 	5 feet 	— 	— 	— 	—
 OSAS Table 42: Underwater Hearing Ranges
Noise 	UnassistedSurfacedweller	AssistedSurfacedweller	MarineCreature
Natural 	 	 	
Moderate 	300 	600 	3,000
Heavy 	600 	1,200 	6,000
Cataclysmic 	1,200 	2,400 	35,000
Speech 	 	 	
Simple 	10 	20 	100
Complex 	5 feet 	10 	50
Surface Activity 	 	 	
Moderate 	100 	200 	1,000
Heavy 	300 	600 	3,000
Underwater Activity	 	 	
Moderate 	150 	300 	1,500
Heavy 	450 	900 	6,000
Category:Dragon Magazine Articles
Category:Articles