Question about concentration and spell duration

[Rpjunkie]

The PHB states under duration on page 151 in the middle of the paragraph regarding duration with concentration + some amount of time that in these cases the spell keeps going for the stated length of time after you stop concentrating. My question is this...

Using Veil a 6th level sor/wiz spell the duration is concentration + 1 hour per level. Would that mean the person theoretically if no sleep or food were needed could concentrate indefinately and the spell would last forever? or would as my Dm states with our 15th level Sorcerer she could cast it and concentrate for 15 hours max before she would have to stop and then the next 15 hours would be the spells duration. He is trying to Quote the last sentence under duration in the concentration paragraph as his reason. it states " Otherwise you must concentrate to maintain the spell, but you can't maintain it for more than a stated duration in any even.


Suggestions please?


RPJ

 

[Grayswandir]

You are correct. Point out to your DM that:

The spell lasts as long as you concentrate on it.

Period. No other qualifiers, no 'sometimes', it always lasts for as long as you concentrate on it. The description then goes on to explain what concentration means, and what you can or cannot do while concentrating. It then says:

Sometimes a spell lasts for a short time after you cease concentrating.

That's the example you're using, for a duration of Concentration + 1 hour / level. The PHB then says

For example ... In this case ...

still referring to spells that last for "a short time after you cease concentrating". It then says:

Otherwise, you must concentrate to maintain the spell, but you can't maintain it for more than a stated duration in any event.

The key word here is 'otherwise' - the book is now explaining about spells that do *not* last "for a short time after you cease concentrating". The spell in your example falls into the first case, not this second one, so this last sentence in the paragraph does not apply to your example spell. The book here is referring to spells such as Calm Emotions, which lasts for "Concentration, up to 1 round / level (D)". This spell lasts for as long as you concentrate, but "you can't maintain it for more than a stated duration", in this case 1 round / level.

[EDIT: Let's clean this up, shall we? Quotes are handy.]

 

[CRGreathouse]

You and Gray were correct - you can concentrate for as long as you choose to, circumstances allowing.

Has anyone else had their characters hold a silent image up for more than 3 consecutive hours?

 

[prodawg]

Where within the PHB does it talk about what you can and cannot do while concentrating?

 

[Grayswandir]

Try the two sections on page 151.

Concentrating [to maintain a spell] is a standard action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity ... You can't cast a spell while concentrating [on another one]

Don't know if this really helps, but it's as much as I can find in the PHB right now.

 

[hong]

Applying Concentration skill checks after the first couple of hours would probably make sense.