In Wizardry V, a pool may appear at certain spots on the dungeon. These pools generally have various colors and depths, upon which one of the characters may swim. Depending on the depth chosen to swim, the character may receive a positive boon, damage, a status effect, or even face an encounter. When reaching a certain depth level beyond that of the character's Swim rating, there is a slight chance that said rating increases by 1. Thus, it is recommendable to wade carefully, attempting to increase the Swim rating of each character.