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Okay, so after running some encounter tests for my upcoming game I've gotten some questions I'm looking for official answers on.
1.) It's an AoE that targets things. Does that mean that glitterdust treats as an AoE or a target spell?
2.) Does Glitterdust leave an AoE that someone can trigger by wandering through the area after the spell is cast or is it a one and done affair?
2a.) If it leaves an AoE do creatures that walk through it have to save against the blinding effect or is that something that only happens in the initial burst?
2b.) Does walking through the AoE after it's cast cause one to gain the -40 to stealth or is that something that only occurs with those inside the initial casting? So if you walk through the area are you walking through like a cloud of glitter that now clings to you or is it more like your PC is wandering through a place that was just glitter bombed? Everything is sparkly and glowing but it's not like floating in the air waiting to stick to you?
2c.) Does everything get the -40 penalty for standing inside the AoE after the casting or can they hide amid the glitter and not take the penalty. I.e. if you are in the AoE and it's full of glittering boulders now can you hide among them because you do not glitter or does just being in that 10ft aura mean you now glow as well and can therefore be picked out?
Any help either through direct quotes from the devs or a link to some other faq or errata would be greatly appreciated.
1 It's a spread that affects creatures and things in the area.
2-2c It only affects creatures and things that were in the area at the time the spell was cast.
1) AoE
Area creatures and objects within 10-ft.-radius spread
2a) One and done. If this was not the case, the spell would specify as such. You can look at other spells that have lingering effects (such as pillar of light or wall of flame) for examples on how they word this.
2b) Your second intuition is right. It looks like the place was just glitter bombed, but nothing is floating in the air waiting to stick to you. Same reasoning as above.
2c) If you were not hit by the original spell, you can come in later and hide as normal. Although I do not think it would be an unreasonable houserule to make it difficult to hide among the glitter since they sparkle.
I realize I wasn't able to link to any devs or FAQs or erratas, but that's because the question is very straightforward.
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All of these spells seem to stem from a misunderstanding of how the spell works.
So think of glitterdust as a magical glitterbomb.
You cast it into an area. It explodes. All creatures in the area (invisable or not, targetable or not) get affcted. They become visable and get a -40 to stealth. Also a save vs blindness.
After that the AoE part of the spell is done. The people have had glitter applied to them, but the 'cloud of glitter is gone. The duration is for how long the glitter sticks to people.
All of these spells seem to stem from a misunderstanding of how the spell works.
So think of glitterdust as a magical glitterbomb.
You cast it into an area. It explodes. All creatures in the area (invisible or not, targetable or not) get affected. They become visible and get a -40 to stealth. Also a save vs blindness.
After that the AoE part of the spell is done. The people have had glitter applied to them, but the 'cloud of glitter is gone. The duration is for how long the glitter sticks to people.
The golden particles cover everyone and everything in the area.
All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades.I believe this also applies to the terrain in the AoE, the ground, furniture, vegetation, and what not. It's all covered in sparkling golden dust for the duration.
Normally that won't affect anything, but it's possible that it could.
So the duration is how long the dust continues to sparkle, on those that were within the spell and may have moved out of the AoE as well as the dust covering the spread.
Since the dust cannot be removed, it cannot be kicked up by someone in the area, nor could someone rolling around in the area collect any dust.
Just to be clear, the cloud is instantaneous, then it settles completely, sticking to everything within the area permanently until the duration expires. Only those creatures within the instantaneous cloud need worry about blindness, and only those covered with dust have a stealth penalty.