Elven Immunities: what is an Enchantment effect, exactly?

[Lynceus]

I'm currently running a game where all the PC's are elves. We had a discussion about what "Elven Immunities" actually grants a save against.

As I see it, it applies to any spell of the Enchantment school, as well as any ability that references such a spell, such as the domination of a vampire (as dominate refers to the spell dominate person, which is an Enchantment spell). Further, since Charms and Compulsions are a sub-set of Enchantment, I believe the bonus applies to all Charm and Compulsion effects as well.

I think some of my players are concerned about corner cases- for example "Most emotion spells are enchantments, except for fear spells, which are usually necromancy"- they infer from this that non-fear Emotion spells should be covered by Elven Immunities as well.

I concede that this might be a possibility, but I've found the Emotion descriptor to be haphazardly applied to various spells and effects- sometimes it's present where it should be and sometimes it isn't, and I have no way to be sure if that's an oversight or not (such as a fear effect that doesn't have the emotion descriptor).

Basically, I have two questions here- Am I correct about the scope of the ability, or is it broader/more limited than I think it is?

Second, how do I fairly rule in corner cases (such as a mind-affecting, emotion effect, for example)?

Elven immunities is very good and seems to grant a +2 bonus to most Will saves- I don't want to take anything away from that, but I don't want to be forced into pausing the game to deliberate if it applies to various monster abilities (which are not always clear about how they interact with other rules).

[Bob Bob Bob]

Step 1: Post what you're talking about.

Elven Immunities wrote:

Elven Immunities: Elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.

Step Dos: Attempt to parse sentence structure. We could do "enchantment spells and effects", but clearly the bonus is for "enchantment spells and effects" because "effects" by itself has no meaning.

Step the third: Determine if this is game terminology or if this is meant to be plain english. Enchantment is a specific school of magic, and the first reference is specifically "enchantment spells". So the "enchantment" most likely means the game definition, the school of magic.

Questions:
First question: Yes, you basically have the right of it. It most likely means "enchantment" as a school of magic, enchantment effects would just be things that reference or are based on enchantment spells.
Question the second: Answer corner cases (things with no equivalent spell) by using the definition of the school.

Enchantment wrote:

Enchantment spells affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior.

So if it's a mind-affecting ability that controls or influence behavior, it's probably enchantment.

[Dannorn]

I'd say your interpretation is accurate. Anything from the Enchantment School (or any Charm/Compulsion effects). Unless described as Enchantment/Charm/Compulsion effects I wouldn't count Emotion spells.

I tend to Occam's Razor rule interpretations, keep them simple so they're easier to explain and harder to argue (thus people are less inclined to waste time doing so). Elves get a +2 bonus to enchantment spells and effects, that means spells and effects from or replicating a spell from the Enchantment school or subsets there of.

[Lynceus]

Thanks for the replies, I really wanted to keep this as simple as possible, but there was just enough ambiguity that I wasn't sure if the ability was intended to have a broader scope or if I was just overthinking it. I never want to deny players advantages, especially specific-situation advantages, but I'm also wary of any potential 'grey areas' of the rules.

I'm not 100% on why there needs to be an 'Emotion' descriptor anyways, the game seems like it would run fine without it, as it just complicates things. I recall a situation where a player had a trait that gave them a bonus on saves versus Emotion effects and the game ground to a halt when his character was affected by dragonfear, which lacks the descriptor.

Anyways, I like your answer, BobX3. Mind-affecting, controls or influences behavior, all stop.