Help:Categorizing spells
| Help contents |
|---|
| It is assumed that you are already familiar with basic wiki editing and that you know your way around a wiki. |
| Creating articles |
| Editing articles |
| Copyrights |
| Categorization |
Although the following list is not exhaustive, generally an article about a spell or ritual should be categorized according to certain properties.
Pathfinder Second Edition
Type
Pathfinder Second Edition has spells and rituals. All spells should be categorized as Category:Spells, and all rituals should be categorized as Category:Rituals (Second Edition). Rituals in Second Edition are categorized differently because they have significant canon thematic differences from rituals in Pathfinder First Edition, which are described as occult rituals. (See categorizing for Pathfinder First Edition.)
Trait
- See also: Category:Spells by trait and Category:Rituals by trait
Spells and rituals can have traits of several types.
Rarity
- See also: Category:Spells by rarity and Category:Rituals by rarity
All spells and rituals have a rarity trait, even if none is specified; spells and rituals with no rarity trait are Common. Rarity traits are colored differently from other types of traits, and each rarity has its own color.
For consistency with other uses of rarity traits on PathfinderWiki, categorize rarity traits using only the rarity's name, such as Category:Uncommon spells or Category:Uncommon rituals.
Other traits
Categorize other traits by their trait name, and use the word "trait" to distinguish them from other categories not related to traits. For example, spells and rituals with the Mental trait should be categorized in Category:Mental trait spells and Category:Mental trait rituals, respectively.
Rank
- See also: Category:Spells by rank (2E) and Category:Rituals by rank
Each spell and ritual has a numeric rank reflecting its power level. This rank defines when a class can cast that spell, how much related items might cost, and other mechanical properties. Categorize spells in the appropriate rank category, such as Category:Rank 2 spells, and rituals similarly, such as Category:Rank 2 rituals.
Legacy categories
The Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project removed schools of magic and alignment from the game's mechanics. PathfinderWiki retains legacy content categorization and notes legacy details in the footnotes of infoboxes and articles.
Level
The Pathfinder Remaster renamed spell levels to ranks. See categorizing by Rank. Do not categorize legacy spells by level; the terms "rank" and "level" are fully equivalent in this context.
School
Spells and rituals prior to the Remaster were classified into magical schools based on how they work mechanically. These schools were represented in Second Edition by traits.
While game mechanics are generally not welcome in the bodies of articles, they function well as concrete definitions for categories. Every spell should be categorized by its school, such as necromancy, illusion, conjuration, and enchantment. Using these examples, one would categorize an article in each group as Category:Necromancy trait spells or Category:Necromancy rituals, etc.
Pathfinder First Edition
All Pathfinder First Edition spells should belong to Category:Spells. Subcategories should also be included, as outlined below, but this general category should contain all articles on spells within the project.
Rituals are a separate type of magic from spells in First Edition, and are known as occult rituals. They are categorized otherwise like spells, but go into the Category:Occult rituals category and its school and level subcategories.
|
Some spells or rituals might exist in both Pathfinder First and Second Editions. While wiki policy suggests assuming no conflicts whenever possible, consider separating First Edition and Second Edition spells into separate articles when there are significant mechanical differences between editions. For example, while the Second Edition resurrect ritual performs a similar canon function as the First Edition resurrection spell, their mechanical details differ too significantly to reconcile them into one article. |
School
Spells were classified into magical schools based on how they work mechanically. While game mechanics are generally not welcome in the bodies of articles, they function well as concrete definitions for categories. Every spell should be categorized by its school, such as necromancy, illusion, conjuration, and enchantment. Using these examples, one would categorize an article in each group (respectively) as Category:Necromancy spells, Category:Illusion spells, Category:Conjuration spells, and Category:Enchantment spells.
Subschool
Spells were sometimes further divided up into subschools of the nine schools of magic; this is indicated using parentheses after the school, for example, Conjuration (Summoning), where "Summoning" is a subschool of Conjuration. Every spell should be categorized by its subschool if it has one, such as Charm or Summoning. Using these examples, one would categorize an article in each group, respectively, as Category:Charm spells and Category:Summoning spells.
Descriptor
Some spells had additional categories built into their mechanics which describe how they function. If a spell contains a descriptor, that should also be reflected in its categorization. For example, a spell with the Compulsion, Death, or Mind-affecting descriptor would belong to Category:Compulsion spells, Category:Death spells, or Category:Mind-affecting spells, respectively. A spell may belong to as many descriptor categories as it has descriptors.
Spell level
As with school, spell level was an easy way to categorize spells by relative power, similar to how creatures are categorized by challenge rating. A spell's level should thus be noted through inclusion in a category. A 1st level spell would belong to Category:1st level spells. Some spells have different levels depending on the caster's class. In these cases, a spell should be included in the category for each spell level at which it can be cast.
Class
Spells should also be categorized by the classes who could cast them. These categories take the following format: Category:Cleric spells, Category:Druid spells, Category:Sorcerer/wizard spells. A spell should belong to the category for each class listed as possible casters.
Domain
Generally listed along with a spell's caster classes, a spell's domain should also be noted in its categories. Fireball, for example, was granted by the Fire domain, and should thus be categorized in Category:Fire domain spells.
Miscellaneous
Some spells have a specific connection to a particular deity, region, race, or other flavorful element of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting and should be noted in the spell's category. Thus, a spell unique to the nation of Osirion would belong to Category:Osirion in addition to those categories specific to articles on spells as outlined above. Similarly, a spell granted to followers of Abadar would belong to Category:Abadar.
Unsure about categories?
If you have written an article and are unsure about which categories to apply, or simply want your categories double checked, then please feel free to add this text at the bottom of your article in this format:
[[Category:Please check categories]]
This flags the article's categories for others to review or edit. We hope that, soon thereafter, another wiki editor will be along to help.