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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Lone Corndog" data-source="post: 77743" data-attributes="member: 3153">Our group just picked up MotW, and our druid asked about Miasma.  I only caught part of the conversation, so my understanding of the exact spell mechanics may be off, but as I understand it, the target drops to zero HP on the first round, unconscious on the second round and dies on the third round, unless some preventative action is taken, right?The preventative action described in the spell is that holding one's breath stops the three-rounds-til-death sequence, at least untill one's Con prevents further breath-holding.  If your ability to hold your breath exceeds the duration of the spell, you live.  My question is this:  when in the sequence of events does the target get to start holding his breath?  Or to put it another way, do you drop to zero hits first, then hold breath to stop the death spiral, or do you get to hold your breath first, so that you don't lose your hits?  Being reduced to zero hits means you have a long time stuck with partial actions til the spell runs its course - which kinda precludes the popular response of 'kill the druid!'I suppose this begs the question of how the target is to know that holding his breath is the appropriate course of action in the first place.  It seems a bit counter-intuitive that if you are suffering an attack that prevents you from breathing (ie, involuntary suffocation), that the first thing you would try is holding your breath (voluntary suffocation).  "Oh, sh*t, I've been set on fire, what do I do?  Oh, right, I'll torch my beard; that ought to help!"  A spellcraft check may inform a spellcaster of the appropriate reaction, but those characters lacking that particular skill seem s.o.l. to me.Obviously, if you have someone handy that can dispell the effect, or (maybe?)neutralize/remove poison, you're fine; again assuming that your savior knows exactly what is wrong with you (since you can't tell them verbally) I dunno.  Without access to the material, I'm just shooting some ideas out here that I didn't see addressed earlier.  We (my group) await our DM's decision whether to allow the spell as is, allow it with some form of nerfage, or rule zero it altogether.  I am interested in how this thread goes, though, so if nothing else, my little contribution will bump it back to the top of the pile.</blockquote>

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