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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Laurefindel" data-source="post: 8329141" data-attributes="member: 67296">I like these columns. To the point, and with examples and corner cases.One thing that often confuse new players about concentration is that "concentrating on a spell" does not necessarily imply concentration as we know it and use it in everyday life, at least not as an ability to dedicate our attention and devotion so a singular activity.I often describe concentrating  on a spell as having your hands full; lets say, carrying something like a box that is heavy or cumbersome enough to require both hands. Holding that box is relatively taxing - you can't do it forever - but it does not prevent you from walking around, kicking doors open, having a conversation, or even performing a task that requires concentration (defined as an activity requiring attentive commitment) as long as it can be performed without the use of hands. What you cannot do however, is carry another box.And if shaken enough, there is a definite chance that you may drop that box, and you can't be expected to keep on holding to it while sleeping of if you pass out.A concentration spell is like a mental box - it requires you to mentally "carry" it. You can still dedicate your attention to something else, even things requiring an everyday definition of concentration. When you carry a spell like this, you can cast other spells just fine, fight enemies without issues, read a book and learn from it etc, but you can't carry yet another spell that requiring spell concentration. Likewise, if shaken hard enough, you might drop that spell involuntarily.Concentrating to withhold a spell you cast now but intend on releasing it at a later point makes sense under this interpretation, same as slowly building up a spell as a ritual (you need to hold the unfinished parts).I like to see spells requiring concentration as spells that require constant adjustments, as opposed to one-off instants or spells that slowly wear out by themselves. By this definition, there are a few spells that currently require concentration that shouldn't IMO, and perhaps a few that don't require concentration but should.TL;DR: Spell concentration does not require concentration, it's a shelf in you mind saying "we are currently holding spell X". Once there is something on the shelf, there's no room for another, and intense shaking will make it fall off if you can't keep it stable enough.</blockquote>

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