5.15 Ability Durations

An ability’s duration determines how long its effect lasts. Abilities can have one of several different kinds of durations.

If an ability targets creatures or objects directly, the effects travel with the subjects for the ability’s duration, even if the subjects go outside the ability’s initial range. If an ability creates or summons objects or creatures, they last for the duration of the ability, and are capable of moving outside the ability’s initial range. Such effects can sometimes be destroyed prior to when their duration ends.

5.15.1 Attuned Abilities

Many abilities last as long as a creature attunes to them. Abilities that require attunement to function have the Attune tag. Attuning to an ability typically require investing a single attunement point. Most abilities that require attunement require a standard action to use, such as the item attunement ability (see Item Attunement).

You can release your attunement to an effect as a free action, which typically ends the effect completely. This allows you to use that attunement point to attune to a different effect. You can never attune to the same ability more than once. Two abilities are considered the same if they have the same name.

Normally, the creature using the attuned ability must attune to it. In the special case of rituals, any number of ritual participants can attune to the ability, and the ability lasts as long as any participant is still attuned to it. There are two special subtypes of attunement abilities: deep attunements and targeted attunements.

Deep Attunement: This ability require investing two attunement points instead of only one. In addition, releasing a deep attunement does not immediately return the invested attunement points. Instead, they only return after you finish a short rest. Deep attunements are identified as Attune (deep).

Targeted Attunement: This ability requires attunement from the target instead of the creature using the ability. If it targets multiple creatures, each target must attune to its own version of the effect. When a target releases its attunement, the effect only ends for it, not for any other targets. Targeted attunements are identified as Attune (target).

If you target a creature with an Attune (target) ability that does not have attunement points, such as an allied animal, you can attune on the target’s behalf. The target intuitively knows how to dismiss the effect if it wants to remove it.

Attunement Time Limits: After you spend a week attuned to an effect, that effect ends on you. You can immediately reattune to the same effect with no consequences, so this typically does not matter for permanent items that you keep with you. However, it limits your ability to benefit from spells or rituals from by spellcasters who do not stay with your group.

5.15.2 Conditions

Many abilities impose conditions on their targets. A condition lasts until it is removed. You can remove conditions by taking a short rest or using the recover ability (see Recover). There are several other abilities that can also remove conditions.

5.15.3 Sustained Abilities

Sustained abilities have the Sustain tag. They last as long as you take an action to sustain them each round. The type of action required is always specified in the ability’s tag, such as “Sustain (standard)” for a standard action, or in the ability’s description. Sustaining an ability is a Swift effect.

At the start of each action phase, the ability is dismissed unless you take the appropriate action to sustain the ability. This happens before your normal turn, so you and your allies can’t gain the benefits of a sustained ability without you sustaining it.

Taking an action to sustain an ability only allows you to sustain a single use of that ability. While you have a sustained ability active, you can’t sustain that same ability again, so using the ability twice does not allow you to sustain two instances of it. However, you can sustain multiple separate abilities at once if you have available actions.

Some sustained abilities include “attuneable” in the tag before the action type. When you use or sustain that ability, you can choose to attune to it. If you do, it gains the Attune tag and loses the Sustain tag, so it stays active as long as you stay attuned to it. While you are attuned to that ability, you are still able to sustain a different instance of the ability, so this allows you to have two instances of the ability active at once.

You can normally only sustain an ability for up to 5 minutes. Sustaining an ability beyond that point is strenuous, and requires an Endurance check (see Endurance).

5.15.4 Permanent Abilities

Some abilities last permanently. Such abilities never expire on their own, but can be dismissed or removed by other abilities appropriately.