Water Walking

[Kakashi Hatake]

So this has been more or less wrapped up staff-wise, but in the spirit of discussion I wanted to add my two cents.

The major point in all of this I think is that as the rules are explicitly written currently, you'd need the move. If Omni decides to change this and state that anyone can waterwalk (similar to how we can all now summon rebreathers), then the point becomes moot. He's put a lot of thought into his rules so I imagine he wouldn't have overlooked something like this. This has I think been stated already above, but I wanted to underline it.

As for how it relates to other movements, I have some thoughts. The idea of walking on water inherently gives an advantage to characters that don't have it (again, already stated but humor me). As for how this relates to breathing underwater and swimming well, it's important to note that Omniphysics has a role; stating it as a facet of your character does not give a combat advantage. Most importantly, any 'better swimming' inherent to a character does NOT alter stats. It's just flavor. SPD and TEC always rule how this stuff works, regardless of how your character works. It would be unfair if a character like Kisame just kicked everyone's ass in the 'Deep due to him being a fishy fella.

For breathing underwater/space, any advantages gained by a character not having these would be again, flavor. As they are available to everyone, if you opt out it's a decision you'd need to work with. In a graded fight having a rebreather would not effect your combat at all, it's up to your writing. I'd argue that RPing your character frantically fighting while holding his breath would be a better read anyway. Having a water walk move would allow movement in a way that is not currently allowed to everyone, which separates it from fodder. This is similar to how flight is needed to circumvent how a character normally moves through the air. With both air and water being fluids, they're definitionally different than terrain. Without word from Omni that everyone can waterwalk, it's an advantage in the same way that flight is an advantage as it allows you to work differently with water than you otherwise would.

The Waterwalk vs. Fastswim-Rebreather arguement is not a fair one. With current knowledge, being underwater slows one down. Even with a blurb in your bio about swimming faster, you would still be outpaced by someone with higher SPD stat regardless of medium (yay Omniphysics), and this would be accentuated by one participant being underwater. You'd have a CLEAR advantage in at least SPD. This is why having a 300 OM move is needed. Any move that is fodder is by it's very nature less useful than a costly one. Buying the move would allow you to escape/pull off other moves better as it makes you mobile in a way that others aren't.

Anyway, sorry if a lot of this was repeating what others have said. Hopefully it helps.