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The spell description makes it clear that the spell triggers when you can’t breathe normally. At my tables, and most I’ve seen, that includes situations with gas clouds.
When I read this spell's description, "A bubble of pure air appears around the target's head, allowing it to breathe normally. The effect ends as soon as the target returns to an environment where it can breathe normally," it seems to me it would impact any situation dealing with breathing.
Breathing poison gas really sounds like it would interfere with "breathing normally".
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Sorry, but the Trigger is what matters here
Trigger A creature within range enters an environment where it can't breathe.
So unfortunately, it would only be if they have to hold their breath, or are suffocating, not in an environment that merely causes damage (which sucks).
Get the Breath Control general feat instead.
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Does air bubble trigger off poison gas from traps? I read it and it seems to only be off areas you can't breath, but poison gas does not kill by suffocation but poison damage. So does it trigger?
Talk to your table about it and choose the one that makes the most narrative sense to everyone. Make sure it works the same way for everyone and it will be fine.
People will argue about whether the trigger or the spell description matters more but that is not resolvable by the rules as written.
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Sorry, but the Trigger is what matters here
Trigger A creature within range enters an environment where it can't breathe.
So unfortunately, it would only be if they have to hold their breath, or are suffocating, not in an environment that merely causes damage (which sucks).
I dunno. If I'm in an environment filled with deadly poison gas, I'd be the first to assert, "I can't breathe!!!"
Equating "where it can't breathe" with suffocation is one way to interpret the RAW, but it's a very narrow interpretation and not the only one possible.
Unicore has the right approach.
I would add that the best approach is the one that tells the most interesting and engaging story for your table of gamers. Poison gas is a major obstacle. Your DM needs to weigh the merits of allowing a more liberal interpretation of this ambiguous spell.
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Trigger A creature within range enters an environment where it can't breathe (normally).
A bubble of pure air appears around the target's head, allowing it to breathe normally.
While I agree that the trigger can be read as "can't breathe for the lack of gas" however the descriptive text cleary explains in more detail that this is not only about being submerged, swallowed or otherwise cut of any air supply but about your ability to breathe normally. And while we can techncally breath any type of gas for whatever short period of time, starting with helium for funny voices and ending with outlawed weapons of mass destruction this is entirely not what most people would consider as "breathing normally". So while RAW may be considered ambiguous, RAI is not.
Sorry, but the Trigger is what matters here
Trigger A creature within range enters an environment where it can't breathe.
So unfortunately, it would only be if they have to hold their breath, or are suffocating, not in an environment that merely causes damage (which sucks).
I dunno. If I'm in an environment filled with deadly poison gas, I'd be the first to assert, "I can't breathe!!!"
Equating "where it can't breathe" with suffocation is one way to interpret the RAW, but it's a very narrow interpretation and not the only one possible.
Unicore has the right approach.
I would add that the best approach is the one that tells the most interesting and engaging story for your table of gamers. Poison gas is a major obstacle. Your DM needs to weigh the merits of allowing a more liberal interpretation of this ambiguous spell.
Yeah, and when you weigh it keep in mind this is a pretty niche spell. If someone picks it, then it should probably get a chance to shine.
I'm surprised it doesn't have a heightened version that works for the whole party, though.
Sorry, but the Trigger is what matters here
Trigger A creature within range enters an environment where it can't breathe.
So unfortunately, it would only be if they have to hold their breath, or are suffocating, not in an environment that merely causes damage (which sucks).
I dunno. If I'm in an environment filled with deadly poison gas, I'd be the first to assert, "I can't breathe!!!"
Equating "where it can't breathe" with suffocation is one way to interpret the RAW, but it's a very narrow interpretation and not the only one possible.
Unicore has the right approach.
I would add that the best approach is the one that tells the most interesting and engaging story for your table of gamers. Poison gas is a major obstacle. Your DM needs to weigh the merits of allowing a more liberal interpretation of this ambiguous spell.Yeah, and when you weigh it keep in mind this is a pretty niche spell. If someone picks it, then it should probably get a chance to shine.
I'm surprised it doesn't have a heightened version that works for the whole party, though.
Like one Air bubble that has an area? or each party member? It seems like the fact that it is a reaction that would make multi-targeting a pretty powerful feature.
Its a really poorly worded spell. Clearly poisonous gas is more lethal to you than water. This is exactly the sort of situation where a spell like this should work. I would allow it to work. But technically the trigger is can't breathe.
Ask your GM.
The trigger “you can’t breath” only meaning “you are incapable of inhaling” is completely unfunctional for a spell that creates a bubble of air around your head. If you are being strangled, you most certainly can’t breathe, but that air bubble is going to be meaningless. In any other situation where you are incapable of inhaling (with perhaps the exception of a vacuum), having your head surrounded by air is not likely to help you all that much.
Interpreting the spell air bubble to work underwater and not in a gas cloud is an arbitrary limitation based upon a pretty suspect set of logic about how the mechanics of breathing works. I’d ask any GM that felt the game needs to work this way to explain why if they interpreted it to be so, and if the answer is simply to nerf spell casting from solving environmental problems the party might face, I’d probably not want to play a spell caster in their game.
Its a really poorly worded spell. Clearly poisonous gas is more lethal to you than water. This is exactly the sort of situation where a spell like this should work. I would allow it to work. But technically the trigger is can't breathe.
Ask your GM.
Poisonous gasses are not guaranteed to be more deadly than inhaling water into your lungs.
And there are plenty of poisons in Pathfinder that do things other than kill or damage.
RAW it is clear to me that the spell occurs when you would be forced into a suffocating state by your environment (rules wise). However I would absolutely allow it to circumvent poison effects as it is a cool use for the spell and rewards taking such a niche option.
Ummm, I'm not sure about the pathfinder universe, but poison gasses are absolutely guaranteed to be more dangerous than water. Resuscitation when it comes to drowning is a pretty straight forward process of getting the water out of your lungs. A poison gas wouldn't be something like carbon monoxide (which has the same treatment as water, get it out and breathe in o2, with the added danger of not even knowing you were drowning) to something like a nerve or blister agent (these would be the actual "poisons") which about a million times more dangerous than water.
Now you could argue that there are substances that you shouldn't breathe in that cause long term damage, like fiberglass, but nobody is making a fiberglass powder trap, so its not really relevant.
Either way, the key word in the description is "normally." Breathing normally means the lungs are exchanging o2 with co2, something a "poison gas" would interfere with just as much as "breathing" in water would.
Inhaled coherent water is required to be expelled or it will quickly result in death, there are plenty of poisons that do not require such immediate treatment. Thst doesn't change the danger of it as a coherent substance being in the lungs. Willingly breathing ocean water will kill you faster than breathing in a weak poisonous gas.
No not all inhaled pathfinder poisons are blistering or nerve effecting agents either. (Or in our world but let's put that aside as that is irrelevant to the discussion of the game and game rules)
For example Flayleaf deals no damage, has negative mental effects but won't kill a player.
[url]https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=624[/url]
And then we get into gasses that have no identifiable features.
"A creature within range enters an environment where it can’t breathe." Is almost certainly referring to when a creature, cannot breathe within game rules, aka is suffocating (as called out in the drowning and suffocation section).
Interpreting it otherwise is playing games with interpretations to an extreme and poor sophistry at best.
As I said before, I would allow it to run differently in my game, I am not against the ruling. But intent is pretty clear regarding the trigger.
Other inhaled poisons that don't cause damage and cannot directly kill.
- refined pesh
- yellow musk poison
- addlebrain
- scour
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This came up during one of my games. Total protection against all inhaled threats on a reaction is far more than I would want or expect a 1st level spell to cover. The spell is also worded ambiguously, the trigger seems to clash with the spell text. Things get weirder in situations where you don't know there's an inhaled threat, or when it isn't overtly lethal.
My solution was giving air bubble the same effect as holding your breath versus an inhaled threat (described on CRB 550). Which is to say, a +2 bonus to the save.
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While I see many people talking about the trigger, I then have to ask this. If the trap is a basic save and since you take no damage from it with a critical save, is it an atmosphere you can not breath in them? Since it is a basic save and you will take no damage with the chance of no interruption in breathing, does the trigger go off?