Lightning Damage to Creatures in Water or Underwater

Question: If I cast call lighting at a group of monsters in a river. Does the spell do any extra damage or become an area of effect spell? 




Strangely enough Rules As Written (RAW) in D&D 5e doesn't have any solid rules when it comes to Lightning related spells hitting targets in water or underwater. I thought surely this has to be an oversight.. So I actually looked up one of the game designers (Jeremy Crawford) Tweets:




It seems the game designers left a number of environmental interactions up to the DM, which makes things tricky. None of the lightning based spells have any additional text to say they do or do not cause additional damage or get a increase in range for blasting a target in water. 

It is common knowledge that water is a good conductor of electricity. (IE Nobody brings a toasters in the bathtub expecting a good result.) 

But it turns out that isn't exactly the case. Here is a link to the USGS on the matter. Turns out PURE water that is down to the basic elements of hydrogen and oxygen (H2O) is a pretty good insulator against electricity. 

The key word there is "pure". As in distilled or deionized water, which isn't something your adventuring party is going to find while traveling. Rivers, lakes, and oceans will all have some level of additional chemicals and particles that will enable electricity to travel through them. 

So unless the water is in a laboratory or other state where it would be considered "pure" then it is on some level conductive. The only clue I found as to how this would translate to in terms of game mechanics is from the book Tales from the Yawning Portal. One of the adventures has a Giant Lightning Eel in it. 


 
The Giant Lightning Eel has a Lightning Jolt ability, that hits any creature the eel touches within 5 feet, or each creature within 15 fee of it in a body of water, and on a failed save the creatures take 3d8 lightning damage. 

3d8 is pretty close to the damage of the druid spell Call Lightning which does 3d10 damage to every creature within 5 feet. 

So I think it is fair to say that the Area of Effect for Call Lightning and other spells could reasonably be extended when striking creatures standing in a body of water.  

However this is strictly left up to each GM to determine situationally for the game they are running and is not part of the RAW. 




 

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