Question... freezing sphere states creatures in water are trapped in ice requiring strength check, escape artist to get free. What condition does trapped relate to? I had a group of aboleths get caught in one and we questioned whether or not they could still cast spells until broken free. Thoughts?
It doesn't correlate to a status condition, it is simply a note of what happens. The definition you're looking for is in the dictionary, not the rulebook.
Verbal spells should be fine, somatic spells probably, material components are iffy (depends on whether their hands were above or below the surface when it froze).
Thats what we went with... just wanted to get a consensus. Thanx
"Trapped" is not a condition.
In this case, the top 6" of the surface of the water becomes solid ice and "traps" any creatures swimming on the surface.
So use your imagination. What would happen to you if you were swimming in a lake or pool and suddenly the top 6" of the water froze solid? Couldn't move your arms or legs, right? Maybe couldn't turn your head (which could be a problem if you were face down when it froze - but the spell doesn't include drowning mechanics so I would assume it froze just slowly enough that you got your face out of the water - ice - before it finished freezing).
Now you struggle and try to break free - the spell has mechanics for this.
Does the game explain it further? Nope. You could treat it like being grappled (allows spellcasting), or even being pinned (does not), or even helpless (no spellcasting and can be killed with coup de grace). Any of those seem applicable, though I would argue against helpless because there is a chance to physically struggle to break free which is usually not the case with helpless.
Me, I would go for grappled. There is nothing about "immobile" or "helpless" or "pinned" or "unable to take any actions" or any other similar wording, so if you intend to add special conditions that are not stipulated, then you are actually increasing the power of the spell. In order to NOT increase the spell's power, I suggest taking the simplest applicable ruling here.
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Per the spell description, creatures that were swimming on the surface are trapped. Creatures under the water would not be trapped in the ice, they would be under it. Neither would begin to drown specifically due to the spell.
When a creature swims on the surface of the water, their head, torso and most of their arms are above the water. There is no reflex save described in the spell that victims need to roll in order to avoid having their arms stuck in the ice, so I'd say their arms are free.
If the aboleths were on the surface of the water, they'd just continue what they were doing (if they lived through the damage), and if they wanted to move from their space, they'd have to break free. Since all of their spells are spell-like abilities, and spell-like abiities do not require material components, they wouldn't have to worry about the material components issue. They might even try to use Dominate Monster to try to get the party's stronger characters to help break them out.
If I were looking for a condition to adjudicate any effects of 'trapped' I'd probably look to 'entangled'.