For those unfamiliar with the Smoke Subdomain, it offers this power:
Cloud of Smoke: As a standard action, you can create a 5-foot-radius cloud of smoke. This power has a range of 30 feet. Creatures inside the cloud take a –2 penalty on attack rolls and Perception skill checks for as long as they remain inside and for 1 round after exiting the cloud. Creatures inside the cloud gain concealment from attacks made by opponents that are not adjacent to them. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
This is all well and dandy, except it doesn't say
1) how long it lasts, and2) what kind of effect the smoke has.
I'm not exactly the first person to wonder about this topic, as it has been around since early 2010, but somehow has never been clarified to my knowledge. The wording doesn't exactly make it seem as if the power is intended to last for one singular round.
Further, I could find a few different sources of smoke by a quick search - the most obvious one being for smoke in general, under the environmental rules / fire hazard rules:
Smoke
A character who breathes heavy smoke must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing. A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Smoke obscures vision, giving concealment (20% miss chance) to characters within it.
Is this intended to apply? I have a hard time reading it without thinking that it should (same name, same concealment mention), but I'm probably misunderstanding something. If not, is then the intent that the smoke created by the smoke subdomain somehow doesn't make it harder to see, save for the 20% concealment granted to the ones in the smoke, that's more than 5 feet away? What about ranged weapon users, if they are targeting someone on the other side of the smoke cloud, does that only apply the 20% penalty, or not at all, since they are not in the smoke? Can they target anyone on the other side of the smoke? What about anyone with reach weapons?
Alternatively, there's the alternative of a smokestick, which says about the smoke that it makes that
The smoke fills a 10-foot cube (treat the effect as a fog cloud spell, except that a moderate or stronger wind dissipates the smoke in 1 round). The stick is consumed after 1 round, and the smoke dissipates naturally after 1 minute.
A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can't use sight to locate the target).
This shares the same effective area (5-foot radius is pretty much equal to a 10-foot square), but doesn't share the same type of concealment. Is this smoke any different from the other two types?
Also, there's the whole business with an eversmoking bottle, but that... seems even more confusing.
Any help?
I guess getting answers to how this is supposed to work after so many years is a bit optimistic, huh.
1. duration is missing, so you'll have to make something up. I'd go with 1 minute.
2. no you do not apply the choking and coughing
3. targeting someone on the other side of the smoke is unclear, but i'd go with rules for applying cover to see if the shooter or reacher suffers from miss chance. They can certainly target because the smoke is thin enough (it doesn't grant total concealment at all)