How does the staggered condition work with the unchained action economy?

Question

Are there rules on how the unchained action economy interacts with the staggered condition?

There are rules on how haste works, but I don't remember there being something for slow/staggered.

I assume that your acts/turn are reduced. But how much? 1 act for one attack or move? That would mean no spellcasting which is possible for staggered casters under the standard action economy. But that would mean move and 1 attack for martials.

Standard action economy:

In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one swift action and one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.

Staggered: A staggered creature may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can he take full-round actions). A staggered creature can still take free, swift and immediate actions. A creature with nonlethal damage exactly equal to its current hit points gains the staggered condition

Under the revised action economy you have 3 acts and different kinds of actions cost different amounts of acts (attack 1 act, cast a spell 2 acts, move 1 act)

One possibility to give someone the staggered condition is the spell slow.

From the PC I'm on I can't access the d20pfsrd so I can't link to the revised (unchained) action economy.

Answer 1

There isn't anything in the RAW that specifically handles this, but there are (as I can see) two ways a DM can rule this.

Option 1, the simplest:
Simply change the wording of staggered to read

... one simple or advanced action.

This would leave the effect of the status relatively unchanged, possibly allowing a few more actions to be performed than before.

Option 2, the specific:
With this option you change the wording to read

... a single attack, or move action, or cast a standard action* spell.

With the sub-note that the spell action economy can he faster, such as a quickened spell etc.
In this scenario you are pretty close to allowing everything the old/original staggered condition allowed for, but with the error margin being on the other side. In that there are some actions that were permitted in the "old" rules, that doesn't fit the new description.

Which of these two options should be used it totally up to your group, if you are indeed using the new action economy. My personal preference, however, might be with the first. Not only for its simplicity, but also because it's always better to have more options (as a player). :)

PS: There are, of course, variations and degrees of these two options. Taking rule #0 into consideration. ;)

PPS: Link to the unchained action economy