Concentration (D&D skill)

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Unofficial rules compendium

Casting Aggressively

This is a variant of defensive casting, where you try to avoid taking attacks of opportunity, but you'd rather risk an attack of opportunity than waste the spell. Casting aggressively has a DC of 20 + Spell Level, and failure indicates you trigger attacks of opportunity for casting the spell. Successful attacks might force you to make further Concentration checks to cast the spell.

Codex:Review: I'm a bit fuzzy here: Where is the trade-off vs normal casting? Is there a situation where you would prefer to not use this option, and cast normally with a plain "trust your AC"? --Mats Öhrman

Codex:Review: Maybe you could get a penalty to the second Concentration test? --TexaS

Answer: no. This is always preferable to normal casting. The only thing you same is a die roll. Do we want this to carry a risk? --Starfox

Maintaining Spells

With the recharge magic system, a spellcaster can maintain a large number of spells with a duration by constantly re-casting them. Constantly re-casting such spells over a long period requires stamina and discipline. Buffing up before a known danger is not a problem; maintaining several spells diligently over a longer period is hard.

When a spellcaster who wants to constantly maintain a number of spells is suddenly faced with the need to see if they are active (such as by an unexpected combat), make a Concentration roll for each such spell, with a DC from the following table.

Condition	DC
Duration 1 round/caster level or one minute	20
Duration 1 minute/caster level or 10 minutes	15
Duration 10 minutes/caster level or one hour	10
Duration 1 hour/caster level	5
Maintaining more than one spell	+ number of spells
Distracted or lowered guard	+5

A successful roll means the spell is active. The remaining duration is one duration multiple per point of margin; a margin of zero means 1d10 rounds remain if the duration was minutes or more and that it ends on your action if the duration was in rounds. Assume all spells maintained in this manner have recharged.

Only roll if sufficient time has passed since the last check (or initial spellcast) for the spell to expire. It is wise to make a list of which spells you are keeping active under different circumstances, so there is no debate.

Maintaining a spell with a duration in rounds over the long run is as exerting as hustling. Maintaining a spell with a duration less than hours is as exerting as walking.