Suffocating powder from Alchemy Manual: Huh?

[Strife2002]

(Sorry for the length, TL;DR at the end)

Can somebody, either player or designer, chime in and explain how exactly the suffocating powder from Player Companion: Alchemy Manual works? Here's its description:

Alchemy Manual wrote:

This small sack of green-gray powder is thrown as a splash weapon with a range increment of 10 feet. A creature struck by a direct hit must succeed at a DC 18 Fortitude save or begin choking and gasping for air as if suffocating (DC 12 for creatures in the splash radius). Affected creatures cannot breathe or speak for 1 round.

Mythic: You can expend one use of mythic power while throwing a bag of suffocating powder to charge the item with mythic power. Non-mythic creatures do not receive saving throws to avoid the suffocation effect. Affected creatures suffocate for an additional number of rounds equal to your mythic tier.

I know it seems pretty cut-and-dry, but the rules for suffocation don't really gel with this. Here they are below, and I've numbered what I consider to be each "phase" of the suffocation effect.

Suffocation rules wrote:

(Phase 1)A character who has no air to breathe can hold her breath for 2 rounds per point of Constitution. If a character takes a standard or full-round action, the remaining duration that the character can hold her breath is reduced by 1 round. (Phase 2)After this period of time, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution check in order to continue holding her breath. The check must be repeated each round, with the DC increasing by +1 for each previous success.

(Phase 3)When the character fails one of these Constitution checks, she begins to suffocate. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hit points). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she suffocates.

So, ignoring the mythic use this item for now, which phase above does a target start going through when they're hit with suffocating powder?

* If it's Phase #1: This means the powder literally does nothing. Even a creature with a Con score of 1 gets 2 rounds of breath-holding, 1 round with strenuous activity, and suffocating powder's effects only stick around for 1 round. All it does is prevent talking for 1 round, which I guess is good vs. verbal components and voice-based Perform skills for bards and skalds.
* If it's Phase #2: This might be the intended phase to start, but I'm hesitant to believe that because it involves another Constitution check on top of the Fortitude save they just made, and the fact that by the wording of suffocation, it's not until after they've failed this phase that they're considered "suffocating" (and the item says the target is treated "as if suffocating").
* If it's Phase #3: Whoa. This is when the target is, based on wording, "suffocating". If that's the case, then the target(s) immediately falls unconscious, but since this only lasts 1 round they'll be fine the next round. Still, 45 gp for unconscious-inducing ranged touch attack weapon that requires no proficiency seems nutty, and the mythic version of this interpretation gets CRAZY...

It seems that phase 2 (or phase 3, arguably) makes the only logical sense for this effect to begin at. Meanwhile, the mythic use of this item doesn't fair much better. Phase 1 interpretation means a creature with a Con score of at least 6 could hold their breath long enough to negate the effects of a tier 10 mythic character throwing this. Phase 2 probably makes the most sense here, especially considering that a phase 3 interpretation means a mythic character of at least tier 3 can kill MULTIPLE creatures with this with no save whatsoever, for only 45 gp.

Sorry for the length, anyone want to share their 2 cp?

(TL;DR: Suffocating Powder, what does it do? What specifically happens to a character hit by it?)

[Kiesman]

Well, the description of failing the DC seems to indicate, by the wording of "Choking and gasping for air as if suffocating", that it begins in phase 3, which makes this potentially the cheapest kill-option in the game.

However, I believe the next line trumps everything. "Affected creatures cannot breathe or speak for 1 round". I believe the previous section is just the flavour description, the way a lot of spells and special abilities describe what you're doing, even if that can be left to player interpretation.

[Strife2002]

So you're saying you believe the suffocation rules don't really apply whatsoever? That the item's entire purpose is to prevent talking? Interesting. The page reference to the Core Rulebook that typically appears in cases like this, detailing suffocation rules, is missing from this and that definitely supports that theory.

The fact that it repeatedly refers to the effect as a suffocation effect still bothers me, though, and even more so if that's the case.

[Nyerkh]

I assume the 1 round without breathing will virtually never be relevant : as you pointed out, it's too short (and I can't imagine it's anywhere near phase 3, that would absurd).

On the other hand, 1 round of cheap, non-magical, decently tough to resist effective silence isn't bad at all.

Against a Fort dc of 18, you have a very real chance of just neutering low-level casters for 1 round. That's something.

[deuxhero]

I'd go with D: It starts at phase 2, but the DC18/DC12 replaces the DC10. There are already offensive effects that cause environmental (ect) hazards at higher DCs.