Rejuvenate Plant on Essential Wood ?

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by Gizensha

...Some of those examples are examples of uses of Essential spells already present.

Essential Motor Oil, that'd be Essential Fuel if cast on motor oil. Essential Meat? Essential food if cast on meat. Essential metal doesn't need a spell of its own, you get that from transforming Essential Earth into metal via Earth to Stone. I think Essential Plastic of those four is the only one you'd need to design yourself, and seeing as the technology college already has some plastic based spells it wouldn't look too out of place in the sort of setting where Seek Plastic, Identify Plastic, Shape Plastic and Body of Plastic are available.

I was aware that some of these existed when I wrote that (though I'd argue that motor oil is a lubricant, not a fuel). My point is, where do you draw the line? What the heck would Essential Plastic even be? Why should we assume it has an "essence" at all?

These spells make sense on a mechanical level, and perhaps on no other. It would be like if we had several more quality levels for blades (let's say ultra-fine, hyper-fine, infinity-fine, and ludicrous-fine). Sure, we could define the effects in game terms, but what the hell would they mean? How could they be explained in narrative terms that fit the mechanics?

[Gizensha]

Originally Posted by Xplo

(though I'd argue that motor oil is a lubricant, not a fuel)

Then, as a non-driver, I presume you are correct and the appropriate type of oil for powering car engines is called something different.

My point is, where do you draw the line? What the heck would Essential Plastic even be? Why should we assume it has an "essence" at all?

Depends on the setting. In one with a cosmology based around Plato's Theory of Forms, because everything has a Platonic Form, and the justification for any Essential spells would be that it's as close to the Platonic Form as you can get on this plane, and in other settings it might be reasonable to disallow all of the essentials, restructuring prerequisits as required. Or might not, depending on the setting's metaphysics and how you justify (or not) the other Essentials.

As for what it might be? No clue. Three times the maleability of the type of plastic you've turned essential at high temperatures with three times the hardness and strength at low temperatures, maybe? I'd say the 'why should we assume it has an "essense" at all,' while certainly valid, applies equally as much to some (maybe all) of the Essential spells Magic already provides.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I was aware that some of these existed when I wrote that (though I'd argue that motor oil is a lubricant, not a fuel). My point is, where do you draw the line? What the heck would Essential Plastic even be? Why should we assume it has an "essence" at all?

These spells make sense on a mechanical level, and perhaps on no other. It would be like if we had several more quality levels for blades (let's say ultra-fine, hyper-fine, infinity-fine, and ludicrous-fine). Sure, we could define the effects in game terms, but what the hell would they mean? How could they be explained in narrative terms that fit the mechanics?

Technomacer treated as it own item to be saught and manipulated. As to why hit ans an essence at all? because it has a concept of unique exsistance.

[Gizensha]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

As to why hit ans an essence at all? because it has a concept of unique exsistance.

...Yeah. Exactly what I was driving at with the half remembered philosophy stuff.

[capnq]

I'd expect an Essential tree to attract/produce an exceptionally dangerous dryad.

[Gudiomen]

Originally Posted by Gizensha

...Yeah. Exactly what I was driving at with the half remembered philosophy stuff.

If you're kantian, all essential trees are exactly alike and perfect ideal trees of which all other trees are mere shadows.
If you're espinosian, essential trees may vary but have certain invariable fundamental qualities, that makes them trees, and those are extra tree-ish on an essential tree.
There's also naughty freudian trees, but that's besides the point...

Edit, on a more serious note, in my games I've also exacerbated other essential qualities of essential elements that players might not be as happy with, but are, nonetheless part of what's commonly associated as traits of that element. For instance, essential stones are thrice as heavy, which poses certain transportation and architectural problems, but stones are, essentially, heavy... we even use "stones" as a measure of weight in some parts of the world.

[Nemi3e]

...Honestly I'd be tempted to kill the caster by having the spell suck too much faitgue out of him and leave you with a semi essential tree as per some of the sugestions upi thread.

Assuming the caster survived with powerstone abuse or something else I'd...I'd do something really really out there. Literal Yggdrasil out there.

[Gudiomen]

A little over the top, no? Unless that was meant as a joke, killing a character for getting creative is hardly good GMing.

[Nemi3e]

Originally Posted by Gudiomen

A little over the top, no? Unless that was meant as a joke, killing a character for getting creative is hardly good GMing.

It might not necessarily be the player that did it. Intresting campaign setting, someone did that spell combo and magic and myth comes back into the world...Possibly with a side of Pak Protectors.

Besides, I tend towards having an astral realm/afterlife in my created worlds, so they wouldn't be dead for good. At the very least they'd be part of the tree.

[nick012000]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I was aware that some of these existed when I wrote that (though I'd argue that motor oil is a lubricant, not a fuel).

I'm pretty sure a diesel engine can burn it as fuel.