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So I was reading over the spell fabricate when I came across the following line:
If you work with a mineral, the target is reduced to 1 cubic foot per level instead of 10 cubic feet.
As a geologist this got me thinking. Is it specifying one single large crystal here or are we talking about rocks and stone too? What about native element minerals like tin, copper, silver, gold, diamond, graphite, meteoric iron, etc?
If I'm dealing with rock should I just use Stone Shape instead?
Stone Shape cannot do fine details.
Fabricate can.
So, Fabricate could make a fine statue or something out of jade. Stone Shape could make a rough statue out of jade, like something a child would put together.
Really, it just means you can't make something huge and massive out of iron or adamantine or mithral instantly.
==Aelryinth
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My opinion on 'mineral' category for the spell would be anything regarded as metal, crystal, gemstones, or rock, possibly including petrified wood.
Are there judgement calls, sure. Things that might blur the edges would be pearls, amber, or shells (like from clams and oysters)..
Pearls, Amber, Shells, Coral, Bones, Teeth, Ivory aren't inorganically formed so I don't consider them a mineral. Ice on the other hand is a mineral.
Are trees creatures or objects?
Are dead creatures objects?
What about part of a dead creature (bones, etc noted above)?
Currently it seems that fabricate can only be used at it's full volume potential on glass.
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I use the old linnean division
Regnum Animale
Regnum Vegetabile
and anything that don't fall in those two kingdom is the mineral kingdom.
It is what was taught at the to us older guys, and Gygax was older than me.
Hmmm... regnum lapideum translates to the stone kingdom. He had a sub set of that that was actually the minerals (Minerae). This didn't contain (chalk, limestones, asbestos, fossils, some opaque minerals, etc) but did include metals and most transparent crystals.
Dalton didn't develop his atomic theory until the early 1800s, so they didn't realize that stone waw made of minerals nor that minerals were made of atoms. The blessed Gygax and yourself are definitely younger than that though.
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You are too technical. We are playing in a game world with the classical four elements, so "minutiae" like limestone or coal not being minerals isn't relevant for our rules.
The polymorph any object spell give a clear indication of the intended kingdoms:
Same kingdom (animal, vegetable, mineral)
So we only have 3 mutually exclusive choices. It is not animal or vegetal? It is a mineral.
Some stuff can be borderline, like charcoal produced burning plants vs. mined coal (I would class them, in the game, as vegetable and mineral) or fossilized bones (if treated separately from the stone matrix I would classify, in game, as animal), but what we shouldn't do is to classify them using the modern methods.