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A PC is in water during combat and requires a swim check to move.

Say, a PC chooses to use the move action first, performs their swim check and fail, sinking 5 feet, are they then allow to use their standard action to move again as they would on land (a double move)?

Would they then be required to perform another swim check to swim back to the surface. If they fail again, will they sink another 5 feet on their turn?

I ask specifically for Pathfinder (as the Beginners Box rules aren't explicit on this), but could this apply to 3.5e?

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I've re-read the Hero's Handbook in the Beginner box:

If you make the swim check DC, you can swim 1/4 of your speed as a move action or 1/2 your speed as a full-round action. You must make a check once per move action or full-round action.

It then becomes a matter of whether choosing to retry makes this a full-round action, for which the check has already been made.

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That's a frustrating quote. It seems to contradict the CRB, which states that you only make a swim check once per round. – ladenedge Jul 30 '12 at 20:32
@ladenedge I don't think it does, while it doesn't explicitly mention retries, the whole entry implies that you make one swim check per round, then choose how you move. Rewording "per move action or full-round action" to per round would certainly be clearer. Since the CRB states once per round, that's how I'll run it. – StuperUser Jul 31 '12 at 8:54

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