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<blockquote data-quote="Dr_Rictus" data-source="post: 955368" data-attributes="member: 850">And you're free to, but the distinction is only &quot;scientific&quot; because you say it is.&nbsp; I'm sure any medieval gemcutter would tell you the same thing.&nbsp; Crystals form facets and break along planes.&nbsp; That's what makes them look like crystals.&nbsp; Glass does not.&nbsp; You don't have to be a scientist to know that there's a difference, you just have to know the facts about the materials in question.However, it's also the case that crystaline structure is what makes crystals more susceptible to sonic vibrations than glass is.&nbsp; A regular crystal structure means that the material has a consistent set of resonant frequencies throughout its structure.Now, that's science, but again, you don't need science to know that it's much easier to break a crystal with the correct (and sufficiently loud) musical note than a glass.Very true, but given that the DM is called upon to interpret it, I think it's more reasonable to interpret it as &quot;creature made of crystal&quot; than &quot;creature made of brittle substance&quot; or &quot;creature made of material that could fool you into thinking it was crystal if you didn't know better.&quot;Also, I might note that the spell description of shatter itself lists glass and crystal as different substances.&nbsp; Which to me makes it kind of hard to argue that shatter means to consider glass as being of a category with crystal.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dr_Rictus, post: 955368, member: 850"] And you're free to, but the distinction is only "scientific" because you say it is. I'm sure any medieval gemcutter would tell you the same thing. Crystals form facets and break along planes. That's what makes them look like crystals. Glass does not. You don't have to be a scientist to know that there's a difference, you just have to know the facts about the materials in question. However, it's also the case that crystaline structure is what [i]makes[/i] crystals more susceptible to sonic vibrations than glass is. A regular crystal structure means that the material has a consistent set of resonant frequencies throughout its structure. Now, [i]that's[/i] science, but again, you don't need science to know that it's much easier to break a crystal with the correct (and sufficiently loud) musical note than a glass. Very true, but given that the DM is called upon to interpret it, I think it's more reasonable to interpret it as "creature made of crystal" than "creature made of brittle substance" or "creature made of material that could fool you into thinking it was crystal if you didn't know better." Also, I might note that the spell description of [i]shatter[/i] itself lists glass and crystal as different substances. Which to me makes it kind of hard to argue that [i]shatter[/i] means to consider glass as being of a category with crystal. [/QUOTE]

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