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Never been clear on this one, can magic alter the terrain for the purposes of ranger Favored Terrain (or similar abilities)?
If so, what spells/how?
At present, I've been looking into classes which are rather terrain dependent (like the Desert Druid, ranger, and so forth). Is there some magical means with which I could alter the battlefield in order to benefit from Favored Terrain without actually being in an area that is naturally that terrain type? Conversely, is there a way to deny an opponent's favored terrain by altering the battlefield enough where it no longer qualifies?
Illusions don't change the reality, so I'd say no.
The ranger gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks when he is in this terrain.
Just believing you're in a desert doesn't make it one.
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Illusions are a tricky subject but the answer is "probably not" because otherwise it leaves things open for exploitation by deliberately failing saves against things that are known to be false.
For rangers there is the spell terrain bond. It's a 4th level hunter/ranger spell so you can buy a scroll of it (or even a wand if you have 30,000 gp sitting around) and make a Caster Level check or a Use Magic Device check. It lasts for 5 hours from a scroll or wand and lets you treat whatever terrain you are in as your most favored terrain (the one with the highest bonus). Note that this only works for classes with the Favored Terrain ability.
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Just believing you're in a desert doesn't make it one.
But at the same time, if I have an illusionist create the illusion of a city over the reality of a forest, the ranger gaining the bonuses for the forest would make it pretty obvious that this wasn't a city...And being able to defy illusions of cities because you are actually in a forest is not one of the abilities that the favored terrain grants.
How about destruction of the existing terrain? At what point does a forest cease to be a forest for the purposes of favored terrain?
Also, how big does the terrain need to be in order qualify as favored terrain? In example, if a city includes a forest within its walls, calling it a park, is that park a forest or urban in terms of favored terrain?
Nothing less than Terraform would actually change the terrain type itself.
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Also, how big does the terrain need to be in order qualify as favored terrain? In example, if a city includes a forest within its walls, calling it a park, is that park a forest or urban in terms of favored terrain?
This is what the GM is for.
A park could, depending on its size, qualify as forest, urban, either, neither, or both.
Again, that's what the GM is for.
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Nothing less than Terraform would actually change the terrain type itself.
Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way.
Are the terrain types defined somewhere? How big an area must be desert to qualify as desert? Can an area qualify as multiple types of favored terrain? Do alterations to the terrain with/without magic count for the purposes of terrain types (like digging a channel and redirecting a river)?
And how does the favored terrain rule manifest? Would a ranger know if they were in (or not in) their favored terrain, despite failing saves for Hallucinatory Terrain?
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The Environment chapter of the rule book describes the terrains.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html
It doesn't give a minimum size. I would say if it is large enough that the environment rules apply and you are in it, it applies.
So if there is a city park, with areas of undergrowth that impede travel and stealth, and enough brush that the rules for maximum perception distance come into play, it counts as forest. If, instead, it is like some of the parks around my house, 4 trees and a grass lawn with concrete paths and stone outbuildings, yeah, it is still urban.
In the case of an illusion, I would say something like "even though this is a city, you find it strangely easy to move through." and give him a bonus to save as per "evidence of an illusion." (In fact, I would probably give him his favored terrain bonus.)
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So if there is a city park, with areas of undergrowth that impede travel and stealth, and enough brush that the rules for maximum perception distance come into play, it counts as forest. If, instead, it is like some of the parks around my house, 4 trees and a grass lawn with concrete paths and stone outbuildings, yeah, it is still urban.
Lol...those "parks" with 4 tress...I know exactly what you are talking about. I'd call that Urban, for sure.
No, I'm from Oregon, I'm thinking about a "proper" city park:
http://www.forestparkconservancy.org/forest-park/