Can you intentionally cast a spell over a longer time?

[BryonD]

I didn't see anything in the casting time section either way.

My specific example is Water Breathing, though other spells could apply.

Water Breathing has a casting time of 1 action, a range of touch and allows the duration to be distributed amongst living creatures touched. Range specifies that you can touch up to 6 willing targets during the casting of a 1 action spell.

I'm pretty certain this means that one casting of Water Breathing is limited to 6 targets.

Is there anything to suggest that a caster could drag out the casting time so that more targets could be included?

Thanks

[Cartigan]

No. There are spells that work like that in PHB 2 but it's specifically specified in the spell.

[BryonD]

I figured as much and that sounds like a good enough reference point to me.

Thanks

[Morgen]

You could use the spell research rules and make a spells that do that too.