Wish/Miracle and Types/Subtypes using Spell Emulation?

[RubyChaslor]

This is a question involving the use of Wish and Miracle, and to a lesser extent Limited Wish, when emulating pre-existing spells. Do those spells gain the schools and/or subschools and/or descriptors of the spell you are emulating?

As an example, Miracle is used to emulate Deep Slumber. Miracle is of the Evocation school with no subschools or descriptors. Deep Slumber is of the Enchantment school with the (Compulsion) subschool [Mind-Affecting] descriptor. Does Miracle remain Evocation, or does it become an Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting] spell, or somewhere inbetween? Nowhere do I see where it clarifies on the matter, and that's a big huge deal when immunities to schools, subschools and descriptors are involved.

If anyone could help me clarify on the matter that would be amazing. Or, if it would be more likely that this is a ruling up to DM interpretation, that's cool too.

[Anxe]

I'm not finding anything that truly clarifies the issue. The closest thing is where the Wish text states, "Duplicated spells allow saves and spell resistance as normal (but save DCs are for 9th-level spells)."

As a DM I've always treated a duplicated spell as having the same school and subschools as the regular version. So a duplicated Dominate would be a Enchanment spell. The other interpretation is probably also valid.

[Psyren]

While not explicitly stated, it makes sense that as part of duplicating the spell, Wish/Miracle will duplicate everything about that spell too, including schools and descriptors. If it didn't, you'd end up with weird effects like being able to Confuse skeletons or produce figments with no AC.

The only thing these super-spells override is casting time - Wish can reduce any safe effect to a standard action, letting you pull things off like a much faster Raise Dead or Restoration.

Having said all that, don't forget metamagic can break some of these rules too, and that Wish and Miracle has a clear power level to emulate with metamagic involved. For example, if you wanted to hit a Vampire with Hold Monster so you could safely stake it, normally this wouldn't work as Hold Monster is a mind-affecting compulsion. But Miracle could safely emulate Threnodic Hold Monster (a 7th-level spell) to bypass its immunity and render it helpless.