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Even if it does apply, we don't know what the effect is or would be.
Let's ignore (for a moment) the sentence saying "You can breathe even in hazardous or sparse air".
The next sentence is "You can hold your breath for 25 times as long as usual before suffocating". Well, you won't suffocate on Akiton, so it doesn't apply.
The next sentence is "You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against inhaled threats, such as inhaled poisons, and if you roll a success on such a saving throw, you get a critical success instead." But again there are no inhaled threats, so none of this applies either.
So all you have to go is "you can breath in....sparse air". Well, you can already breath on Akiton, it just has penalties (fatigue) if you're not acclimated. The feat doesn't mention anything that would interact with that, so even it Breath Control is meant to interact with it in some way, it's not clear what it would do exactly. Completely negating the fatigue without mentioning anything related to it seems unlikely.
And then there's the idea that Breath Control is about being able to hold your breath. But even if you hold your breath, eventually you need to breath on Akiton. But the atmosphere just doesn't contain enough oxygen so you're left a bit out of breath (fatigued).
In my opinion, Breath Control will do nothing for it.
It sounds like you're saying it's less about the ability to breathe thin air in general and more about acclimation to Akiton's atmosphere as a whole. Sort of like comparing it to high altitude climbing or deep-sea diving, where supplemental oxygen only goes so far. Is that right? (Then again, we are talking about technically-survivable fantasy Mars.)
Thanks for your detailed and logical thought process! I'm curious to see whether other people have different opinions.
Yep.
Like if you were suddenly exposed to a thin (or no) atmosphere for a brief period, breath control might mitigate that.
Suffocation rules are normally that you can hold your breath for 5 rounds + con mod. And that you tick down 1 per round, unless you attack or cast a spell in which case it ticks down by 2. You also lose rounds if you're critical hit or critically fail a save. And that speaking causes you to lose all remaining air.
So like, suddenly in no atmosphere. With a +3 con and breath control you have like 200 rounds (~20 minutes with limited activity) that you're fine...but after that you would suffocate. On Akiton you won't suffocate, but you'll be out of breath eventually. Perhaps it takes a few hours for you feel the affects, it's not really clear because as written breath control doesn't actually interact with thin atmospheres.
As a GM, I might say with Breath Control you have an hour on Akiton before fatigue sets in. That's unlikely to be helpful, but it might matter.
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My campaign is only in the 3rd module of Strength of Thousands, but we will need the answer to this question ourselves in about a year real-time.
I searched the 5th module, Doorway to the Red Star, on the word "acclimate" to see when the PCs would eventually acclimate to the thin atmosphere. The only two instances of "acclimate" are in the Atmosphere section that SayPikaPika quoted behind a spoiler mask. This means that no-one except PCs legendary in Athletics will acclimate until the GM grows tired of fatigued PCs.
I also searched for "atmosphere," "atmospheric," "pressure," "pressurized," "suit," and "seal" and did not find anything helpful. I guess the module does not provide a method for, "This fatigued condition ends after the character gets a full night’s rest in a familiar atmosphere." The text mentions that the air bubble spell and bottled air item only delay the fatigue from thin atmosphere. Well, air bubble lasts only 1 minute regardless.
I am familiar with air bubble and cleanse air because my PCs regularly prepare those while they are performing archaeology in Bloodsalt, which has waves of poisonous gas from volcanic Terwa Lake on rare occasions. I added such a wave in last week's game session, for the excitement of using their preparations.
I searched for other solutions. Gas Mask of Clean Air merely filters out poison gases. On the other hand, Everair Mask says that it enriches the air with oxygen pulled from the Plane of Air, so it should compensate for the thin atmosphere. The Everair Masks have limited duration but can be used once a day. The greater Everair Mask, item 10, price 160 gp, creates breathable air for 8 hours, enough for a good night's sleep to remove fatigue. The major Everair Mask, item 14, price 625 gp, creates breathable air for 24 hours, so the wearer has breathable air all day. These are invested magic items, but a PCs who can afford to invest 3 more items could just rotate 3 greater Everair Masks, total price 480 gp. The 5th-level uncommon arcane, divine, primal spell Lashunta's Life Bubble creates a replenishing protective bubble of fresh air around one creature for 8 hours, and heightened to 6th level it lasts all day.
As for Breath Control general feat 1, its effect on holding one's breath underwater or against inhaled poisons won't matter for Akiton's thin atmosphere. But it indicates training in breathing. The module says that advanced training in Athletics helps a PC breathe the thin air, so by common sense dedicated training in breathing itself should help, too. I would add a houserule for my players that training in Athletics plus Breathe Control would add up to master proficiency in breathing for resisting the fatigue for 24 hours (great to combine with greater Everair Mask or 5th-level Lashunta's Life Bubble), and master in Athletics plus Breath Control would add up to legendary proficiency in breathing for instant acclimation to the thin air. My excuse is that one paragraph on Atmosphere is too short to cover every case, so it ended with a statement about GM’s discretion. We GMs have to rule on the cases that the paragraph skipped.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My campaign is only in the 3rd module of Strength of Thousands, but we will need the answer to this question ourselves in about a year real-time.
I searched the 5th module, Doorway to the Red Star, on the word "acclimate" to see when the PCs would eventually acclimate to the thin atmosphere. The only two instances of "acclimate" are in the Atmosphere section that SayPikaPika quoted behind a spoiler mask. This means that no-one except PCs legendary in Athletics will acclimate until the GM grows tired of fatigued PCs.
I also searched for "atmosphere," "atmospheric," "pressure," "pressurized," "suit," and "seal" and did not find anything helpful. I guess the module does not provide a method for, "This fatigued condition ends after the character gets a full night’s rest in a familiar atmosphere." The text mentions that the air bubble spell and bottled air item only delay the fatigue from thin atmosphere. Well, air bubble lasts only 1 minute regardless.
I am familiar with air bubble and cleanse air because my PCs regularly prepare those while they are performing archaeology in Bloodsalt, which has waves of poisonous gas from volcanic Terwa Lake on rare occasions. I added such a wave in last week's game session, for the excitement of using their preparations.
I searched for other solutions. Gas Mask of Clean Air merely filters out poison gases. On the other hand, Everair Mask says that it enriches the air with oxygen pulled from the Plane of Air, so it should compensate for the thin atmosphere. The Everair Masks have limited duration but can be used once a day. The greater Everair Mask, item 10, price 160 gp, creates breathable air for 8 hours, enough for a good night's sleep to remove fatigue. The major Everair Mask, item 14, price 625 gp,...
Vital Earth costs 30gp a pop for 24 hours of not needing to breathe. Sounds like the best solution for your players.
Vital Earth costs 30gp a pop for 24 hours of not needing to breathe. Sounds like the best solution for your players.
Ah, I had searched Archives of Nethys on the Air trait. I had not imagined to check the Earth trait for a breathing solution.
I like Mathmuse's solution (as a GM) that if someone had bothered to take the breath control feat, I would let them count as one step better than their training in athletics for reaching acclimation. I might even extend it to acrobatics training as well (if we're homebrewing solutions).
That said, the Vital Earth item is kind of amazing for what it does at it's price point. Removing the need to breath or drink for 1 day is pretty handy.
If a player brought it to my attention, I'd just consider such characters acclimated, per the feat's "You can breathe even in hazardous or sparse air."
Seems like prohibiting it would do more harm than good to my players' trust in me and their enjoyment of my game. It's just not worth it to be pedantic and overly rules strict in this case.
The feat is rarely taken in my experience, and even when it is, situations in which it shines rarely come up. Allow the players to have some fun by letting them celebrate their choices.