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[Felblood]

My cousin was playing DF the other day and he ran into some carp.

They got six of his seven dwarves and the last one killed the fish.

Then he swam to shore and climbed out of the water.

This guy had no swim skills; shouldn't he be dead?

The only explanation we can come up with is the artifact helmet he was wearing (he made it himself while the fish were eating his brothers). Is it possible that some or all artifact helmets have an ability that prevents drowning?

[Hyndis]

Making an artifact is a massive XP boost, which also improves their physical attributes. As such, he probably was far tougher or more agile than the other dwarves, so able to last longer before drowning.

Even with no swimming skills whatsoever, a dwarf can still move a decent distance before drowning.

[Raphite1]

Hmm. I had a legendary wrestler get knocked into a river by a hammergoblin. The dwarf showed no injuries but didn't move a single tile, and eventually drowned. Does the xp gained from military training not affect swimming, but xp gained from building an artifact does?

[Felblood]

I guess that's more plausible.

I've never seen a fortress dwarf do anything other than wait for death, once he get's in the water. I've lost champions with multiple legendary skills, that were right next to ramps, because they were to dub to get out of the water, after they fell in.

There's only one way to be sure. I'll have to make an artifact helmet, and then put it on a recruit, and dunk him. If he drowns, it will be for the sake of science!

[Smitehappy]

My best guess is that the OP's dwarf had a path out of the water through a ramp. They usually don't move in water because there is no place to go to get out of the river,pond,etc.

[Kel the Oblivious]

I have never lost a dwarf to drowning yet. Even when a group of goblins though to sneak into my fortress via my underground fishing post. I set a group of legendary dwarves up there, and when one of them dove into the water, I figured I might as well end it now. Instead, he swam around, killed all the goblins, and then staggered out of the water, no worse for wear.

Swam is a poor choice of words. He sank to the bottom and pull the goblins under, cause he was wearing a full dual set of chain/plate armor, steel shield, and an axe. Then he just walked up the emergency ramp I had.

[Cheshire Cat]

one of my early forts had a well right in the middle of the barracks where all the recruits would spar.

it was a bad idea. they kept falling in when sparring as they dodged around, and it took me a good long while to figure out where on earth these dwarves were occasionally drowning, i kept checking all over the river outside thinking it must be these carp things i had heard of or something. it was only by chance as i was scrolling through z levels that i caught a drowning dwarf making for the underwater hatch to let himself out.

as i was new to the game it took me a while to realize sparring specifically involved jumping blindly around down wells and off ledges, so i left things be for quite a while, and just watched. sometimes dwarves would be able to make it the several tiles to the access hatch that i used to dig the water resovoir, sometimes they would sit there and drown. most would not have injuries, and none started with swim skill. some of my very best soldiers drowned while some of my very new recruits survived. all my guys were dressed in copper chain, as i had lots of copper handy, so no differences really in armor. it seemed totally random. so yeah, while uber stats help sometimes, they dont help allways.

[Iroel]

Yeah, placing wells in the barracks is a classic..
In my current fort, which is my first truly successful, I placed two wells in the barracks, though they were covered by walls like this:

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==+==
=0+0=
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That didn't prevent my very first recruit from falling in, though, which made me a bit miffed, seeing as it was also my first military. Luckily, I was able to remove the floor in the middle, which was covering the stairs I had used to dig the reservoir. The recruit was renamed 'Welljumper', and is now the general in my pocket-sized army, and the space between my wells is instead covered by a hatch. Much easier to fix things down there now, too.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

i have found that if a dwarf is drowning its dead but if its not and theres a ramp and theres somewhere else for it to be i will live. i think that until they start actualy drowning there isnt a priority to get out or something.

[Ampersand]

Yeah, there seems to be a set amount of time that a dwarf can remain underwater before it starts drowning. If it can get out of the water before this time is up, then it won't die. It's probably more complicated than this, but I suspect it has something to do with it's toughness, and agility.

[forsaken1111]

I had a superdwarvenly tough dwarf leap into an underground lake, kill 5 snakemen and a frogman, then swim to shore and climb out. It was epic.

He hadn't made an artifact, nor did he have any on, and he had no swim skill.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

yah those are fun. i had a superdwarvenly tough wrestler dodge into a muddy pound and just stay there even after i built a ramp them like a year later he spots a gobbo ambush gets out the water and go slaughter them all.

[Cheshire Cat]

i remember someone talking about their first experience with a cave pond, and how they lost epic numbers of dwarves as the first two fisherdwarves to get dragged into the water and eaten left their babies swimming around behind them. the person who was talking about this was trying to get them out, not knowing dwarves just ignore other peoples orphans.

aparently one baby drowned, the other eventually grew up and climbed out a legendary swimmer.

DF can be weird sometimes.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

that should be done with all dwarf babys! to live they must swim for their baby years.

[ZeroGravitas]

Making an artifact is a massive XP boost, which also improves their physical attributes. As such, he probably was far tougher or more agile than the other dwarves, so able to last longer before drowning.

Even with no swimming skills whatsoever, a dwarf can still move a decent distance before drowning.

drowning is actually fairly difficult. you have to have deep water tile with a roof above. otherwise dwarves will tread water until they starve to death, or swim out.