Swim (Str; Armor Check Penalty)
The PC can swim and navigate underwater obstacles.
Check: Make a Swim check once per round while the PC is in the water. Success means he can swim up to one-half his speed as a full-round action or one-quarter his speed as a move action. If the check fails by 4 or less, he makes no progress. If the check fails by 5 or more, the PC goes underwater.
If the PC is underwater, either because he failed a Swim check or because he is swimming underwater intentionally, he must hold his breath. A PC can hold his breath for a number of rounds equal to twice his Constitution score, but only if he does nothing other than take move actions or free actions. If he takes a standard or full-round action (such as making an attack), the amount of time he can hold his breath is reduced by 1 round. (Effectively, a character in combat can hold his breath only half as long as normal.) After that period of time, the PC must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round to continue holding his breath. Each round, the DC for that check increases by 1. If the check fails, he begins to drown.
The DC for the Swim check depends on the water, as given on the table below.
| Water | DC |
|---|---|
| Calm water | 10 |
| Rough water | 15 |
| Stormy water | 201 |
1 The PC can’t take 10 on a Swim check in stormy water, even if he isn’t otherwise being threatened or distracted.
Each hour that the PC swims, he must make a DC 20 Swim check or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage from fatigue.
Action: A successful Swim check allows the PC to swim one-quarter of his speed as a move action or one-half his speed as a full-round action.
By taking a -20 penalty on the check, a PC can swim his or her speed as a move action, or double his or her speed as a full-round action.
Special: Swim checks are subject to double the normal armor check penalty and encumbrance penalty.
The Endurance feat grants a +4 bonus on Swim checks made to avoid taking nonlethal damage from fatigue.
A creature with a swim speed can move through water at its indicated speed without making Swim checks. It gains a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. The creature always can choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered when swimming. Such a creature can use the run action while swimming, provided that it swims in a straight line.
