Suffocate

Type: Attack

Action: Standard (active)

Range: Touch

Duration: Concentration

Saving Throw: Fortitude

Cost: 2 points per rank

You can cause a target to suffocate. Make a melee attack roll. If successful, the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + Suffocate rank). Targets with Immunity to Suffocation are unaffected, although targets merely immune to certain suffocating conditions (drowning, for example) are not unless your Suffocate descriptors imply they should be.

If the save fails, the target takes a –1 penalty on attack rolls, Defense, and Reflex saves, can only take a standard or move action each round (not both), and moves at half normal speed. The target must make a Constitution check each round (DC 10, +1 DC per round), starting the round the Fortitude save fails. A failed check means the character becomes unconscious. If the effect is maintained after that point, the character’s condition becomes dying on the following

round and dead the round after that.

A successful initial Fortitude save negates the Suffocate effect. You can try again in the same encounter by using extra effort.

EXTRAS

• Alternate Save: Suffocate may be based on Will save for a more mental effect, such as overriding the target’s autonomic nervous system and keeping them from breathing.

• Area: An Area Suffocate effect works on everyone in the area; each target makes a saving throw and compares the result to the effect’s save DC. If you stop maintaining an Area Suffocate effect, it stops working on everyone in the area at once.

• Duration: Sustained Suffocate requires only a free action each round to maintain. Note that Suffocate is not a lasting effect, so when its duration expires, the effect stops. Suffocate cannot be continuous duration.