PF - Stasis and Ongoing Effects?

[unseenmage]

I asked this question over in the RAWQ&A thread as well. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22507732&postcount=895)

Magical effects can keep a creature in "stasis". The Scribe's Binding spell and Mirror of Life Trapping magic item among them.

What if the affected creature is of a temporary sort? A Summoned creature, Lesser Simulacrum, or Shadow Duplicate as that created by a Book of Night Without Moon.

What of ongoing but temporary spells? Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and whatnot?

To me 'stasis' is just that and the timer for temporary creatures and spell effects would be suspended.
But I want to be sure of what the RAW says before attempting to implement the idea.

Another query, the book created by Scribe's Binding has one page for each day the subject creature has existed. Each page contains the memories of that day.
If the creature is a copy, but retains the original's menories, does it just get a lifetime's worth of memories on a single page?

[Psyren]

Copying over my concurrence with Calthropstu's answer to your question:


The RAW basis is that spells end at the end of their duration:



Timed Durations

Many durations are measured in rounds, minutes, hours, or other increments. When the time is up, the magic goes away and the spell ends.

The onus is therefore on you to prove that putting a creature in stasis suspends a spell's duration.

[unseenmage]

The RAW basis is that spells end at the end of their duration:

The onus is therefore on you to prove that putting a creature in stasis suspends a spell's duration.
Okay, so what exactly tracks a spell's duration?

I ask because by this logic a fast time plane and a slow time plane and spells with durations become real weird, right?
What of Quintessence? Do spells continue to count down once the subject is encased?

I recognize that your answers are probably what they are because a) RAW is likely silent on the issue and b) to maybe even prevent abuse but it feeks like you're both creating an outside force that tracks spell durations.

Maybe a spell's "timer" is based on the relative time when it was first cast?
That still opens up potentially exploitable weirdness with time varying magics and timer-ed spells.

EDIT Would Time Stop and rulings on its weirdness help here at all?

[Psyren]

I recognize that your answers are probably what they are because a) RAW is likely silent on the issue and b) to maybe even prevent abuse but it feeks like you're both creating an outside force that tracks spell durations.

That force is called "time" :smalltongue: This informs the other answers below.


Okay, so what exactly tracks a spell's duration?

I ask because by this logic a fast time plane and a slow time plane and spells with durations become real weird, right?

Not really. When you're on that plane, there is no difference - a spell that lasts 6 minutes will still last 6 minutes (unless the plane is timeless, in which case every spell's duration is Permanent.) It's only relative to another plane (like the Material) with a different time trait that discrepancies or oddities emerge, and 6 minutes there will equal some other interval of time elsewhere.



What of Quintessence? Do spells continue to count down once the subject is encased?

Quintessence explicitly does stop everything, magic included, because it stops time itself. Scribe's Binding only mentions the creature being in suspended animation. The Mirror is even worse - the creature is pulled inside, but there is no mention of being suspended, and you can even converse with them so time is clearly still moving. Moreover, neither of these entries mention "stasis" at all.


EDIT Would Time Stop and rulings on its weirdness help here at all?

Somewhat paradoxically, Time Stop doesn't interfere with time at all. It just speeds up the caster a whole heck of a lot. All the stuff you do during time stop doesn't start to take effect until it ends because you've functionally done all of it in an instant, due to moving so fast.

[Calthropstu]

Quintessence again affects matter, not spells.
Timestop is a different story. You step outside of time into apparent time where time affects you (and your spells by extension) and no one else. It gets even wonkier when mythic gets involved.
But apart from timestop, you and your spells and those affecting you are all separate entities. Putting you in suspended animation does not change that.

Edit: Or maybe I am wrong with timestop.
Could you explain that Psyren?

[unseenmage]

Hmm. It seems that for the Temporal Stasis spell 'suspended animation' and 'stasis' are synonymous.

Looking about there are a lot of other spells and effects that refer to and inherit from it as well. No surprise that I took any magical stasis to be synonymous.

On the other hand there are also a couple of other spells that, like Quintessence, explicitly stop time and delay ongoing effects.

For my part I tend to agree with the two of you on the RAW but in my opinion the RAI is to use Temporal Stasis use of the terms as precedent.

[Psyren]

Edit: Or maybe I am wrong with timestop.
Could you explain that Psyren?

The spell itself tells you:

"This spell seems to make time cease to flow for everyone but you. In fact, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds."

The use of "seems" and "in fact" there means "it's not actually stopping time."