Can someone walk me through uses of terraform?

[Torbyne]

This spell confuses me, by it's description it is awesome and full of flavor for converting an area into something new for the story... But by the mechanics of it, an hour to cast, 30,000 credits of super tech or magic junk and it only effects a 100' radius area for day/level. So the giant trees go back to grass and shrubs? The water that was pulled up recedes? What does it accomplish aside from a very expensive parlour trick? I would think that at the levels this comes online there would be a tech item that would permanently cause new plant growth or modify an area for about that same price. What do you get aside from two weeks of nice weather and shade? I feel like I am missing something obvious about this one.

[Fuzzypaws]

Hm... looking it over, I think the way I will interpret this spell as GM when it eventually comes up in my game is that the actual terraforming is instantaneous. The spell's duration is how long the spell will artificially maintain the new environment against outside forces. Once the spell wears off, the outside environment is able to "get in," at which time the terraformed environment must "fend for itself."

Radical changes unsupported by the atmosphere and climate would degrade rapidly once the spell wore off. More moderate or clever changes, or changes made within a more secluded and protected geoform like a small dell, may be able to persist longer or indefinitely... especially if you take the extra step to leave behind sapient caretakers, or at least animal life symbiotic to the new kind of environment. I think this is all supported by the wording of how the spell lasts longer if you make more balanced changes which are more appropriate to the area.

[Torbyne]

This still sounds like something that should be accomplished by the 30,000 credit super tech alone. When you are using magic at that level I would expect more of, create new atmosphere, turn sand into fertile soil, actually change ground features. This spell seems limited to plant life, you could make anchoring grass to hold sand in place or trees in that sand but it all falls over and dies within a few days...

[Fuzzypaws]

Remember that you aren't terraforming an entire planet with this spell, unless you're on a very very small asteroid or the like. You are affecting a tiny part of it. So yes, you can transform a 100 ft radius to suit you, pretty drastically if you cast the spell more than once. But your 31,415 square feet of terraforming is insignificant compared to the ~5,490,000,000,000,000 square feet of, say, the Earth.

If you want to preserve your terraforming experiment against an atmosphere incompatible with it, put a dome over it or cast the spell in a cave underground.

[Torbyne]

But that's my very point, what you describe fits perfectly in with a standard tech based or hybrid terraforming lab. For sixth level magic I would expect it to do something more significant, especially with the clause that seems to expect you to use multiple castings to achieve any significant changes... in your tiny little garden. I originally posted because I thought in was missing something, that the spell would do some other awesome thing. But it sounds like, no, just what's on the tin, and that doesn't seem like much for the cost or levels invovled.

[Fuzzypaws]

Bear in mind that /actual/ terraforming is something that would cost (at least) millions of credits and would typically only be available to a major government, huge megacorp or the like. It would also take years. Being able to change a pocket of reality around you to suit you seems suitable to a 6th level spell, even if it's not planet scale like you seem to want. You just have to take steps to protect what you've done if you're going way outside what the planet currently supports, like if you want to create a glacier in the Sahara.

Maybe it should be a radius of 100 ft per level or something instead of only 100, but all the same, it doesn't seem too unreasonable for what it does.

[Torbyne]

Sure, yeah, I don't think planet scale is appropriate either but I wouldn't blink an eye over 100'/level. It just seems to do far too little for what it is.