[RPG] How deep does water need to be to switch from “Walking” to “Swimming”

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I have a potential scenario coming up where my PCs will be in the sewers under a large city.
There will be a Circle of the Moon druid who likes to Wildshape as soon as the party enters anywhere dungeonesque. Since there is going to be water in the sewer they might want to use the chance to shift into a giant octopus (or other aquatic shape).

My Question is: How deep would the water in the sewer need to be to allow the player to use the 60ft swimming speed of the octopus over its 10ft walking?

I'd like to accommodate the use of different wild shapes whilst still having the sewers to be realistic.

I'm mostly looking for specific rulings in RAW, or in the rules as intended by the authors, to ensure fairness to the players and allow for parts where they can and can't swim/breathe.

Best Answer

In D&D 5e, a Giant Octopus (MM pg 326) is a large creature taking a space of 10 feet by 10 feet (MM pg 6) or a 2 by 2 square. In both the DMG and PHB (DMG pg 116-117 PHB pg 182/198) nothing is said about how much water is needed to allow something to use its swimming speed.

My personal ruling, in the case of a Giant octopus, I would require at least a 5 ft depth (half the height of its space) to allow it use its swimming speed, but let the player know that any aquatic form they transform into may need a greater depth than half the height of its space in order to perform certain actions (Like a Great Reef Shark jumping out of a river to bite someone on a bridge vs Great Reef Shark jumping out of an ocean to bite someone on a canoe.)

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