Pathfinder 1E New descriptors - Plant and Vapor

[Michael Morris]

I'm considering adding two new descriptors to my setting and games, but would like some feedback. A 'plant' spell is one that controls, manipulates or otherwise targets plants. A well known example - entangle. A vapor spell is one that creates a vapor like cloud - fog, solid fog, cloudkill, glitterdust are all examples.

Thoughts?

 

[GX.Sigma]

Why?

 

[Michael Morris]

There are enough spells within both groups that clearly labeling them could be useful.

 

[Empirate]

Unless the descriptor actually does something mechanically, I wouldn't bother. So if you had a homebrew PrC in mind that focused on [Vapor] spells, for example, I'd just leave things as they are. What are clear labels good for, if you don't use them in a unified way to mechanical ends?

 

[Michael Morris]

Unless the descriptor actually does something mechanically, I wouldn't bother.

Most descriptors do nothing mechanically.

Classing the vapor spells together allows some unification for the rules regarding the dispersal of the vapors. Plant would just be a convenience label.

So if you had a homebrew PrC in mind that focused on [Vapor] spells, for example, I'd just leave things as they are. What are clear labels good for, if you don't use them in a unified way to mechanical ends?

 

[Empirate]

Most descriptors do nothing mechanically.

Name one that doesn't do anything, and has no class feature, racial ability, feat, spell etc. adressing it. I seriously doubt you'll find any. Sure, not all descriptors were picked up in the PHB, but some (like the [Good] or [Creation] descriptors) were.

Classing the vapor spells together allows some unification for the rules regarding the dispersal of the vapors. Plant would just be a convenience label.

Unifying dispersal of vapors, visibility etc. would indeed be a useful project. That would be a houserule (which would likely end up changing the way some individual spells work now), but that'd be fine, of course. Similar things could be done for the [Plant] descriptor, btw, for example you could just state once and for all that there must be vegetation of such-and-such quality and quantity present for the spell to be successful.
That is excactly what I had in mind when I asked what you were doing with your new descriptors mechanically!