Can You Drink a Potion Under Water?

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The internet is a wonderful thing. Any information we could ever hope to glean is right within our grasp. No question is too dumb, no query too bizarre. And if the answer isn’t readily available, the People of the Internet are always there to help you find your answer–especially if your question is RPG-related.

As a Dungeon Master, it’s up to you to help guide your players through the Dungeons & Dragons campaign you’ve created for them. Sometimes, a player will try to get their PC to do something a bit risky or out-of-the-box in-game, and it’s up to the DM to decide how to deal with the request. One particular DM took to the People of the Internet to help them solve a particular head-scratcher. In the RPG section of Stack Exchange, they asked: can you drink a potion, one-handed, under water? Do you have the player roll a Dex check? Do you let them just do it? Do you say it’s impossible?

Unsurprisingly, the People of the Internet had lots of opinions for this stuck DM, and would stop at nothing to prove that their answer was the correct one. One commenter filled their bathtub and downed some wine while submerged. They found the entire exercise to be rather simple, and felt no roll necessary. As they put it, it’s no harder than extracting your foot from a shoe.

BUT WAIT! Being in your own bathtub sipping wine is much different than drinking a potion (or wine, whatevs) while swimming in moving water, right? Because of this, another helpful commenter took to the literal seas, and tried to uncork and chug a bit of wine while swimming in the ocean–do I have to say don’t try this at home? Because you definitely shouldn’t.  This commenter not only had trouble drinking, but also remaining submerged, keeping the wine in the bottle, and also not getting a sea salt chaser with their booze. The IRL challenge was intense enough that the commenter suggested not only a Dex check, but also a swim check.

Of course the conversation didn’t stop with the two testers. An actual diver chimed in with their experience. A surfer talked about chugging a 5 Hour Energy under water. People asked if the bottle was a corked bottle, as the first two test subjects used, or was the bottle’s cap different? Was it even a glass bottle at all, or was it plastic? Did the player explain how they’d drink the potion under water in a way that made enough sense to allow it? Was it a cool enough addition to the campaign to allow it regardless of how possible it was? Does diluting a potion ruin it’s effectiveness? Things got REAL up in that comments section, y’all, and after a crazy train of comments… we still don’t know what the DM ended up deciding.

Personally, I’m on team “It’s tricky, so roll a Dex check.” I’m working on creating some sweet team t-shirts right now. You can check out the entire thread on Stack Exchange to draw your own conclusions.

What do you think? Can you drink a potion under water? Would you make the player roll a Dex or swimming check? Why or why not? Make your voice heard in this most important of debates in the comments! 

Image credit: Peyton/ Flickr

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