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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 4658016" data-attributes="member: 29252">Per the Spot skill, "spotter distracted" is a flat -5 (and, if you read closely, only applies when determining encounter distance).  It's defined as "not concentrating on being observant".  So someone concentrating to maintain, say, Summon Swarm isn't concentrating on being observant.  Someone simply maintaining Detect Magic is Concentrating, but not on "being observant".  What, then, is the mechanical distinction between "studying an area" and not, bearing in mind that both are concentrating on maintaining a spell, and not on "being observant"?  Where do you get the penalty to spot from?For that, you have to trust that your DM is always fully aware of your abilities and patterns.  Have you ever had a DM forget that you had a particular ability when it makes a significant impact on how you act?Hence AGC's constant going through with "I disbelieve the..." - specifically to avoid both this problem and the "forgetting" aspect.What's the difference between studying and not-studying in-game?  Or rather, if you're going to be doing your "studying" while concentrating anyway, what mechanical advantages are there to *not* studying?  Where are you picking up your mechanical distinction?  If "studying" has a game-mechanical effect, then "not studying" should also have a game mechanical effect.  If there's no benefit to merely maintaining detect magic over using it to "study an area", why would anyone ever use the "merely maintaining" and as a collary, what then is the point of requiring your Wizard player to declare that he's studying the area in front of him as he moves forward down the hallway?</blockquote>

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