Sustaining a spell


Rules Discussion


Let's say I cast phantom Orchestra first round, on the second round I want to sustain it. So the second round comes around and I want to do a couple actions before, finally for my third action I sustain the spell. Is this allowed? Is there anything that says sustaining a spell must be done at the start of your turn or anything like that?


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A spell with a duration of sustained always lasts until the end of your next turn. Sustaining it extends its duration until the end of your next turn as well. So it doesn't matter when exactly you spend the action to sustain it as long as it happens before the end of your next turn.

So sustaining with your third action is fine.


Another super useful detail I didn't know until more than a year into pf2 play:

Sustaining a spell does not have a range limit. By default, only the initial casting of the spell has that listed range requirement. Once a sustain spell has started, you can back off and sustain from a distance.

There is no direct rule, but the tables I play at do require that you maintain "line of effect" to sustain, which is basically one step more permissive than "line of sight." If shooting an arrow is line of sight, then throwing a boomerang around a corner is "line of effect".

Note that this ruling is made without real text behind it, and is there to prevent cheese like sticking Blood in the Water on a foe, then poofing out of the room so the caster can then sustain them to death with no risk.

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And be sure to pay close attention to what exactly happens on the Sustain! Some spells are a lot better because you can repeat the 1A sustain to make sure it hurts.

There are generally 3 very different types of sustain wording:

* can -only- sustain once per round

* can only -effect- each target via sustain once per round

* can sustain as many times as you want per round


Blave wrote:
So it doesn't matter when exactly you spend the action to sustain it as long as it happens before the end of your next turn.

For the context of the question asked, yes. I would agree with that.

There is an edge case that wasn't asked about. You do have to sustain the spell after the start of your 'next' turn (or rather, after the start of the turn the spell is scheduled to end on) in order for it to extend the duration.

So if you cast a spell on round 1 for your first two actions, then sustain the spell for your third action that round, it doesn't extend the duration farther than the end of round 2.

Similarly, if you cast a spell on round 1, then somehow manage to sustain the spell while it is not your turn before you start your round 2 (readied action or something bizarre like that), it would still set the spell's expiration time to the end of your 'next' turn, which is still going to be the end of round 2.

Sustaining won't set the expiration time of the spell to be the end of round 3 until you are using the sustain action at some point during your round 2. But it doesn't matter when during round 2 you sustain the spell. 'First action' is not required - unless an ability is requiring it (like Effortless Concentration that allows Sustain as a free action, but has a trigger of 'your turn starts').

You can also sustain multiple spells during a round. As many as you have actions to spend on them.


Trip.H wrote:
There is no direct rule, but the tables I play at do require that you maintain "line of effect" to sustain, which is basically one step more permissive than "line of sight." If shooting an arrow is line of sight, then throwing a boomerang around a corner is "line of effect".

I don't disagree with putting some limits on range for the Sustain action. It doesn't come with any limits. Which does allow for some strange things that could be considered shenanigans or cheese. And I think it is fine if that limit involves being able to sustain around corners.

I don't want to call the limit that you have described as 'line of effect' though.

Throwing a boomerang around a corner is actually not line of effect. Line of Effect requires a straight line. Otherwise the example that the rule gives for Fireball doesn't work. There may be a non-straight line between the origin point of the burst and the people hiding fully behind a wall.

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