Drowning

[The Total Package]

Drowning and Suffocating
Source Player Core pg. 437 2.0
You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier. Reduce your remaining air by 1 round at the end of each of your turns, or by 2 if you attacked or cast any spells that turn. You also lose 1 round worth of air each time you are critically hit or critically fail a save against a damaging effect. If you speak (including Casting a Spell) you lose all remaining air.

When you run out of air, you fall unconscious and start suffocating. You can't recover from being unconscious and must attempt a DC 20 Fortitude save at the end of each of your turns. On a failure, you take 1d10 damage, and on a critical failure, you die. On each check after the first, the DC increases by 5 and the damage by 1d10; these increases are cumulative. Once your access to air is restored, you stop suffocating and are no longer unconscious (unless you're at 0 Hit Points).

My question is if I am Sustaining a Spell is that basically like Casting a Spell in this instance which will reduce my remaining air by 1?

[Xenocrat]

It’s not casting, so it won’t cause you to lose 2 rounds.

[Dr. Frank Funkelstein]

Casting is "lose all air" though
(sustaining is just thinking hard)

[HammerJack]

Dr. Frank Funkelstein wrote:

Casting is "lose all air" though

(sustaining is just thinking hard)

Not exactly true, no. Speaking to cast is "lose all air". However, if you can cast without speaking, like when you cast a Subtle spell, it still costs an extra round of air.

[Claxon]

Yeah, casting does not always equal speaking.

And more complicated is that since the remaster, spells lost the verbal tag for spell components. It was generally replaced with the concentrate tag, but it's possible that a spell required concentration without requiring a verbal component.

So in the remaster...you kind of have to decide which spells required verbal components or rather if you'll allow any exception to concentrate = verbal = speaking.

And to hammerjack's point, it is possible to cast spells that don't require speech, which would still result in an additional round of air lost.

[HammerJack]

Claxon wrote:

Yeah, casting does not always equal speaking.

And more complicated is that since the remaster, spells lost the verbal tag for spell components. It was generally replaced with the concentrate tag, but it's possible that a spell required concentration without requiring a verbal component.

So in the remaster...you kind of have to decide which spells required verbal components or rather if you'll allow any exception to concentrate = verbal = speaking.

And to hammerjack's point, it is possible to cast spells that don't require speech, which would still result in an additional round of air lost.

Which spells require speech in the remaster is not about the Concentrate trait at all. The remaster rule is that all spells do EXCEPT when something like the Subtle trait removes the need to speak.

[Finoan]

HammerJack wrote:

Which spells require speech in the remaster is not about the Concentrate trait at all. The remaster rule is that all spells do EXCEPT when something like the Subtle trait removes the need to speak.

Agreed.

To add rule citations:

Casting Spells wrote:

Casting a spell requires the caster to make gestures and utter incantations, so being unable to speak prevents spellcasting for most casters.

Subtle trait wrote:

A spell with the subtle trait can be cast without incantations and doesn't have obvious manifestations.]

[Claxon]

HammerJack wrote:

Claxon wrote:

Yeah, casting does not always equal speaking.

And more complicated is that since the remaster, spells lost the verbal tag for spell components. It was generally replaced with the concentrate tag, but it's possible that a spell required concentration without requiring a verbal component.

So in the remaster...you kind of have to decide which spells required verbal components or rather if you'll allow any exception to concentrate = verbal = speaking.

And to hammerjack's point, it is possible to cast spells that don't require speech, which would still result in an additional round of air lost.

Which spells require speech in the remaster is not about the Concentrate trait at all. The remaster rule is that all spells do EXCEPT when something like the Subtle trait removes the need to speak.

Oh right, I forgot about that being part of the change in the remaster.

By default all spell require speech unless something explicitly removes the need (like Subtle).

Edit: Some of the changes in remaster while not taking up much word count/space had monumental impacts to how the system actually works, and the old way is so entrenched in my mind that I continually forget about these changes.