[3.5] Do Miracle, Wish, and Limited Wish inherit spell descriptors?

[Jack_Simth]

Hey all,

As the subject. I had a funny thought about spells: Miracle, Wish, and Limited Wish all seem to have their own school & descriptor line; nothing in any of those three spells specifically say that Miracle gains the descriptor of the duplicated spells, as nearly as I can find. So a Miracle for a Fireball doesn't seem to have the Fire Descriptor, a Miracle for Black Tentacles doesn't seem to get the Force descriptor, and so on. Is this correct?

Also, does this mean that a Limited Wish for Charm Monster can Charm an Undead, Ooze, Construct, Vermin, or someone under the effects of Mind Blank, because the descriptor has gone away?

[Jeraa]

They duplicate the effects of spells. If you duplicate something, you have an exact copy of it. To me, that means they copy the spells exactly, except as otherwise noted (such as the save DC being based on Wish/Miracle/Limited Wish instead of the duplicated spell). That would include the spells School and descriptors.

[TuggyNE]

Black tentacles isn't a [force] spell anyway, but I believe your interpretation is correct, OP, at least by strict RAW. (RAI may be closer to Jeraa's notes, but who knows?)

There are a few quirks that are more easily resolved by treating the spells this way; for example, being able to cast a spell from a barred school, resolving Spell Focus effects, and so on.

Of course, as you note, there are some other quirks that arise from this reading, so it's hard to be sure. Still, if you're burning XP on something, it makes sense for it to be more difficult to be immune to, eh?

Note in passing that whichever reading you go by, wish still retains its peerless transportation ability, since it's not tied to imitating any specific spell.