instant terrain feature, just add water

[TheCount]

I feel its more of a debate than a RAW question, as the raw DOES checks out....but anyway, here it is!

So the thread about weird stuff in Shining Shout got me thinking, especially the spell, Coral Growth....
If you have a Dukar Hand Coral and took the Dukar wizard substitute level at 5th (Champions of Valor p63 for the coral and 38 for the substitute levels), can you use the Coral Growth spell to grow your own Dukar Corals?

here is the relevant bit:

Coral Claw (Ex): At 5th level, a Dukar can extend the coral under his skin to form sharp spikes on his hand, giving him a claw attack that deals 1d4 points of damage. The Dukar is automatically proficient in the coral.

And the Coral Growth spell can make almost anithing from a little pice of coral..... as a permament effect.
So with that spell, a hand corall, and a bowl/glass of water you can make walls, stairs, scaffolding and many more..... and then clean up with a dispell spell.....

did i miss something? is it legal? was it know before? or did i managed to find something new?

[The Viscount]

This seems pretty open and shut to me.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

That's pretty cool, could make for a good gish (automatically proficient in whatever exotic weapon you need at the moment) or just utility literally on hand.

[Fizban]

The coral which is in your hand is essentially part of a graft, part of your hand, not a freestanding object that can be targeted by a spell. It's pretty clear that the intent of the spell is that you target living underwater coral, not the coral fingernails you can push out of your hand.

If you were able to cast the spell using your hand as a seed, congratulations, your hand is now very inextricably and very painfully part of that wall. And/or you are now missing a piece of your hand because you were allowed to use part of your hand as a spell component, which are consumed upon casting.

As for extending the area, there's further room to rule that a Permanent-ly created object is not actually a valid target for spells that want a piece of something to target, especially as a component. Much as with illusions there are barely any general Creation spells with durations- but Minor and Major Creation specifically say you can't use them for spell components, and the existence of the Summon Component spell (and the fact that it's a summon) reinforce this- and something created with a Permanent spell is still being magically held together for the duration. You can seed Wall of Stone from Wall of Stone because it instantly creates new real stone, but Coral Growth does not. Plenty of DMs might not care, but it's far from a sure thing.

[TheCount]

Sad to hear you think so.

The spell specifically says you shape it however you want. And only calls out for the coral to be underwater, living and even a small piece is enough.
So, it works. By raw.

But that gave me the idea of using the spell with a magical trinket, specifically a walking stick/staff, with a top ornament of a living coral in a ball of water, snow globe style.....
Or a hollow one with the coral exiting on t HH e lower end, so only that part can grow.....and making it easier to break down the original from the conjured part.

Only time it wouldn't work is if the DM house rules it doesn't.... like you would have done.