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There is a lot of confusion within our group on what Sustain a Spell does, some think you can Sustain the same spell multiple times per round to gain the effect of certain spells 3 times in one round but others are saying no that's not how it works. They state that the Sustain a spell action is only for keeping the spell going for another round and spell description of Sustaining the spell is only for that round only thus you can't cast say, Flaming Sphere and move it 3 times in one round.
With Sustain a Spell, it can be disrupted with certain AOO abilities but since a Witches Cackle doesn't have a concentrate tag, then they wouldn't be able to be disrupted by those same abilities thus a Wizard rolling around a Sustained Flaming Sphere could do it 3 times in a round but has a chance to be disrupted while a Witch Cackling wouldn't.
I want to start playing in the Pathfinder Society soon so having an official word on this would help clear up things a lot on how Sustain a Spell & Cackle works.
So anyone from Paizo care to give an Official word on this?
You probably wont get an official response, but there is nothing that says Sustain a Spell can only be used once a turn.
And yes Cackle would avoid causing AoO abilities to trigger that's a benefit of Cackle.
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The definition of Sustain a Spell is on pg 304. You can sustain 1 spell for 1 additional round when you take the action. You can't take it to extend the duration of the same spell multiple times in the same round because the definition says "it now continues until the end of your next turn". But you can sustain multiple active spells.
You probably wont get an official response, but there is nothing that says Sustain a Spell can only be used once a turn.
And yes Cackle would avoid causing AoO abilities to trigger that's a benefit of Cackle.
Well I know you can sustain multiple spells with Sustain A spell IE cast Flaming Sphere, next round, sustain it and cast another Flaming Sphere now you have two spheres you can sustain but why do that when you can just Sustain a single Flaming Sphere 3 times in one round?
One just seems over powered (sustain the same spell 3 times in one round).
By the time you can Sustain 3 spells your 16th level or you can at 16th level Sustain 4 times in a round (that would mean flaming sphere damage just went up)
So a 10th level Flaming Sphere would do something along the lines of 429d6 over a 10 round period.
Surely they didn't mean for Flaming Sphere to be that powerful did they?
The definition of Sustain a Spell is on pg 304. You can sustain 1 spell for 1 additional round when you take the action. You can't take it to extend the duration of the same spell multiple times in the same round because the definition says "it now continues until the end of your next turn". But you can sustain multiple active spells.
That's the way I understand it as well but others in my group are stating that since it doesn't state first time each round you Sustain or once a round when you sustain that it simply means, each time you sustain the spell it deals damage thus you can sustain in 3 (or 4 times after you hit 16th) dealing massive amount of damage.... which is why we really do need Paizo to clarify how Sustain works due to this confusion.
Pathfinder Society is by the book so will need a by the book ruling from Paizo to clear this up.
It's seems obvious to me that RAI is that you are only supposed to be able to sustain a given spell once per round.
RAW is, however, unclear.