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Hey everyone.
Right now I'm in the midst of reading through the Pathfinder rules (and loving them, for the most part) and I came across an old, badly worded rule that has left me wondering how to treat it since the dawn of 3.5e.
Let me recount it so we're all on the same page here.
Holding the Charge: If you don't discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the charge indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action.
The section I've bolded appears to explicitly specify that a caster can hold the charge on a touch spell and then perform touch attacks or willing touches with it round after round, indefinitely, then goes on to explicitly specify that touching ANYTHING or ANYONE intentionally or otherwise, discharges the spell. Furthermore, why even go on to detail the act of touching 6 allies as a full-round action if the first ally you touch will discharge the spell?
Am I missing something here? It appears to me that the rule makes itself impossible. Could it be that the word "discharge" is not defined as the spell's charge being lost but rather that the spell's effect takes place but the charge remains held?
So my question to you all is simple... What's going on here, and how should this rule be adjudicated in-game?