Swimming Uses Agi?

[Acolyte]

While preparing my Seraph of Jordi for rknop's PbP game, I read into the Swimming skill, which I don't think I ever have before. The associated characteristic is Agility.

This I do not agree with. Swimming is much more about physical strength and stamina than dexterity. Since IN wraps stamina (what would be Constitution or a Stamina stat somewhere else) and prowess into Strength, that seems overwhelmingly like the appropriate statistic to use.

I note that Strength determines speed with a perhaps boost from Agi, but the fact that a failure at the skill roll translates to either moving nowhere or at worst breathing water indicates a weird disconnect. Either you're moving your Strength in speed + a bonus from agile technique or you're stuck and possibly drowning?

Looking onto wikipedia, it specifies that among the four racing styles (front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly stroke) of swimming, the only one not easily performed by beginners using brute strength to make up for poor technique is the butterfly. This implies that for casual swimming, strength is more important than agility. The timing and coordination aspects (which are definitely Agi-based) really only come into play when making your speed as fast as possible...or when swimming fly.

At the very least, I would have the stat be based on (Strength or Agility, see text) and note that races over short distances would be based on Agility, but casual swimming on Strength, and long-term racing based on both (either successive checks or one modifying the TN of the next; this represents both endurance [Str] and efficiency [Agi]). I'd probably reword it as this:

Swimming (Strength or Agility, see text)

For most swimming tasks, the skill uses the Strength of the swimmer, with the CD added to the base Strength score to get the distance he moves in one round. A skill roll using Agility may be made previous to the Swimming roll; add or subtract the CD of the Agility roll to the actual skill roll's target number. Failure on the Swimming roll indicates no progress (a CD of 6 indicates a hit of damage from breathing water, but this damage is temporary and vanishes with an hour of out-of-water rest).

For contested Swimming rolls (ie, races of at least moderate distance), reverse the order of the rolls. Thus, the CD of a Str+Swimming roll is used to modify the target number of the actual skill roll, an Agi+Swimming roll.