Spell Descriptors? What are they?


Rules Questions

Dark Archive

The reason I ask what Spell Descriptors are is because they don't seem to be materially important to the damage type of a spell.

For instance, a Elemental Spell enhanced Metamagic spell going from Cold to Acid does not change it's Spell Descriptor. But it does Acid damage instead of Cold. So Cold immunity wouldn't matter because the damage is Acid.

Additionally, is there anything that changes the Spell Descriptors like Elemental Magic changes the damage type? This would be for Draconic bloodline or Rime Spell use, I'd imagine.

From what I can see so far, Draconic bloodline arcana would still apply to the dragon type, regardless of damage type because the descriptor doesn't change (with elemental metamagic).

Thoughts? It is kind of a weird thing that is just like "hinted at being in the background of every spell" but not really well explained. IMLHO, of course.

ps. Yes, I have read the "Descriptors" section of the magic section. It just doesn't really seem like the do "a lot" other than just generally define a spell.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I think that the descriptors are just a way to sort spells into categories to allow you to determine interactions with other rules. Rime only applies to spells with the cold descriptor, turning evil by casting spells with the evil descriptor, etc. There are ways to change the descriptors, unfortunately Elemental Spell isn't one of them. Being in the Evocation subschool Admixture and using Versatile Evocation does allow you to do so. This does cause weirdness - Acidball with fire descriptor, but I do like my dragon disciple who uses shocking grasp to still get his +1 from the spell having the same elemental descriptor as his dragon type no matter what he does with the spell via Elemental Spell. Of course one could argue that the +1 is still lightning damage :)

Dark Archive

Yeh, PFS we're running crossblooded sorcerer (1 level) orc/draconic zapper characters atm. They then are going Magus (currently 4thish). If it were a home campaign where I expected to possibly hit level 18 I'd dip straight wizard - 11 levels picking up the Staff like wand Feat, thus allowing them to use a level 1 Shocking Grasp at like CL 14 (well 10+ anyway) for 10d6+20 damage per cast... self made (home campaign) that would only be 7.5 gp a pop - literally POP. lol. Combined with the Magus' spell strike and a nice low level truestrike... sure until he's 15th level with quicken it takes him a round to prep, but a 15-20 crit range, with a +20 (22 if he uses Vanish first) to hit (autoconfirm crits) for 22d6+44ish damage. Well worth 22.5 gp. What else is a 18th level Sorcerer/Magus/Wizard going to spend their gold on besides killing more stuff? Cheaper than a tanglefoot bag. LOL


IMO, it's simply an oversight when the metamagic was written that didn't take into account that it should change the descriptor.

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