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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 2417077" data-attributes="member: 2020">Prismatic Spray, 7th level, 3rd EditionPRISMATIC SPRAY (Conjuration/Summoning)Range:    70 yards - Components:    V, S - Duration:  InstantaneousCasting Time:    1 standard action -  Area of Effect:  70 foot by 15 foot spray - Saving Throw:    See below  This spell invokes Prismatic Magic.  What Prismatic Magic is, exactly, is a matter too lengthy to be discussed here.  Refer to a supplement specifically dealing with this subject for more background information.  It can be said in brief, however, that Prismatic Magic combines seven different magics, concepts of magic, or theories of magic, and melds them all together into one supreme effect, which manifests as a rainbow-like creation.  This multicolored magic then affects all target beings and objects according to the background behind each of the magics ... a different effect for each color of the rainbow manifested:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  Of course, to describe a Prismatic Spray as a mere rainbow effect is like comparing a feeble nightlight to a mighty arc-light.  No mundane rainbow that ever manifested within curtains of rain struck by the bright sunlight could ever equal the dazzling glory of a Prismatic Spray.  The glory of the Prismatic Spray shames all of the famed Chromatic Magic, whelms the fireworks of the mighty Disintegrate beam, and outshines a dozen Fireballs or even a hundred Fireballs.  We are talking about glory on a level with Bifrost itself, the fabled Rainbow Bridge that connects the Mortal World with the Realm of the Gods!  Prismatic Spray begins as the mage employs her knowledge of the Weave to concentrate it around her, then to call forth Prismatic Magic, and loose it upon her foes in the form of a spray of multicolored light - all seven main colors of the visible spectrum are there - which lasts for only a split second.  She stores within herself, then expends, a truly colossal amount of magic, in order to conjure this Prismatic Spray and direct it.  This is power on a truly titantic level.  The simple unleashing of it will rock an entire dungeon or town, or cause all the proud buildings of an great city to tremble.  It produces a blast wave that expands outward for thousands of feet, stunning people, breaking windows, and rattling trees and structures alike as it goes, leaving behind wondrously fresh air rich in ozone and filled to overflowing with spent magic, concussions of magic, reflections of magic, side effects of magic, and minor wild magics.  The light from the Prismatic Spray is discernable as a bright flash 40 miles away in broad daylight, for the Prismatic Spray is 10 times brighter than the tropical desert sun at noon.  At night, the sky would flash momentarily, this effect being noticeable 150 miles away.  The split second of unleashed power that is the Prismatic Spray is comparable to some Celestial Blast hurled by a Solar.  It contains a destructive force equal to TEN TIMES that of a great red wyrm's breath weapon blast in it's entirety.  It will blast a hole (up to 15 feet in diameter) 3 feet deep into solid adamantite, or 5 feet through solid mithril.  It will penetrate 10 feet of steel, 30 feet of iron, 100 feet of solid granite, 500 feet of sandstone, 1,000 feet of hardwood, 3,000 feet of softwood, 3,000 feet of normal earth, a mile of water, or any combination thereof - assuming the beam could extend that far, which - fortunately for the non-spellcasting world - it does not.  The beam blasts through buildings, which are typically walled with only thin sections of adobe or wood or stone, almost as if they were not there.  The beam would drill right through the 10 foot width of a stonework city wall, through the people standing beyond the wall, through the Emperor's iron statue beyond them, then through as many buildings as it's range would allow for, with the same ease of a typical person punching through rotted gauze.  Again, it is fortunate perhaps that Prismatic Spray is limited in it's range.  But it is MOST CERTAINLY FORTUNATE that it only lasts that split second!  Due to this, the mage can only aim and fire the Spray.  Were the spray to last several seconds, then she could sweep it back and forth like a wand or a sword.  Such a sweep would chop down large stretches of woodland and/or entire towns, or goodly sections of cities.  It could carve apart whole hills, or the sides of the mountains themselves, if such might could be sustained for just a mere second!     However, Prismatic Spray is one of the weakest exercises in the mighty craft of wielding Prismatic Magic, and it cannot sustain such a long lasting beam.  And, obviously, it is limited to 70 feet in range, so the lucky inhabitants of the world need not worry about instantaneously destruction of their capital city in one fell sweep of a Prismatic Spray ... at least, not one of 7th level (one can only imagine, what the Arcanists of Netheril did with Prismatic Magic ...)    Fragile living flesh is no match for a Prismatic Beam.  If the Prismatic Beam kills someone, it is assumed to have gone right through that person, nicely evaporating any part of the person struck (which might well be the entire person, in which case the body is simply gone.)  If the Prismatic Beam does not kill said person, that person is assumed to have somehow dodged sufficiently to avoid more than a mere passing effect (or that person's innate magic somehow defended him, or he had divine luck, or something else rather radical happened to protect him.)    This applies to undead, constructs, and all other beings targeted by the Prismatic Spray:  whatever parts of them that were struck, aren't there anymore.  If these targets survived, then that is because they managed to dodge the Spray and were not struck by it:  they merely caught the side effects of a near miss!  In any case, ALL of the Spray (all seven colors of the Spray) continue onward, whether a target struck is killed or not, and whether or not some part of it was directly struck or not.  Even large beings like dragons do not hinder the passage of a Prismatic Spray:  All the colors continue on past the dragon to affect other things behind it.  This also applies to inanimate stone or steel:  all the colors of the Spray pass on through to affect targets behind said stone or steel (and said stone or steel is gone.  Simply gone.)  In game terms, this means a Prismatic Beam can affect one person, then the person standing behind him, then the people standing behind him, and so on, out to the limit of it's range, with each and every one of it's seven colors.  There is almost never a situation where one or more colors are blocked (hiding behind an artifact or relic, or a Prismatic Wall or Sphere, would be one of those exceptions.)  Thinking that one can defend oneself against a Prismatic Spray with the usual run of magic is foolish.  Prismatic Spray will instantly blow a hole through the vaunted Wall of Force, then proceed to destroy what that Wall was protecting.  Most other magical force effects - Bigby's Hands, Otiluke's Screens, Mordenkainen's Sword and Hound, Shield, Leomund's Tiny Hut, and so on - are destroyed as well, without negating or weakening the Prismatic Spray in any way.  Even the Anti-Magic Shell has a 50% chance of being destroyed by a Prismatic Spray, and if it is downed those protected within are subject to the full effects of the spell.  Of course, the clever defender might elect to put an illusory image of himself out to be shot at.  Or charm the mage into not attacking him.  Or throwing Dispel Magic or some other powerful abjuration, or the standard Counterspell ... and hope it works.  Certain very powerful spells such as Mystic Shield and Mystic Sphere, created by the phaerimm, or the awesomely powerful 10th level spell known as the Srinshee's Spellshift (created by said very famous mage in question) will stop a Prismatic Spray.    Prismatic Spray is an autohit affair.  There is no saving throw.  There is no appeal.  But the hapless target can take comfort in the fact that he will only suffer the near miss effects of one, or perhaps two, of the colors of the Spray.    This assumes the target is trying to evade the Spray, obviously.  Any target NOT attempting to evade the Spray is directly hit by it and all it's colors, taking maximum possible damage plus all the other effects with no saving throw allowed for any of them:  the target is, thus, gone.  ALL items carried and/or worn must make Item Saves versus Dragons Breath (if the DM is real nice) or Disintegrate (if the DM is not as nice) or be destroyed (as per 1st edition.)  If two beams strike the target, all items carried and/or worn must make two Item Saves.  There is no appeal:  the target is automatically hit, and regardless of whether he makes his own Save versus the effects to halve or nullify them, his items must still make those Item Saves.  If his items are thus destroyed by the Spray that is unfortunate, but that is the way it is.  Items destroyed by Prismatic Spray are simply gone, vaporized or transformed into energy, sent to other places, or otherwise affected as per the type of magic in the ray striking the target (again, see the supplements of Prismatic Magic for more on this.)  Only artifacts and relics are immune to this effect:  they are strong enough to withstand the blast of multiple magics.  If targets survive the Prismatic Spray and their items do not, they may be rendered partially or fully nude afterwards, and probably will very unhappy about the new state of affairs ... but wise targets would quickly realize just how incredibly lucky they were just to be alive at all, and take some sort of protective action before the mage chooses to vent her SECOND memorized Prismatic Spray upon them!  In what everyone would call Crunch Terms:    The Prismatic Spray originates from the hand of the caster, and shoots forward in a split second to it's limit of 70 feet (the caster can choose to project a Prismatic Spray shorter than the 70 foot maximum allowed.)  As the ray shoots forward, it widens gradually until it is 15 feet in diameter at the 70 foot mark (if the Prismatic Spray is shortened by the caster, it is 15 feet in diameter at whatever point she chooses it to terminate.)  All objects, living beings, undead (even incorporeal undead), constructs, Planars, monstrous plants and animals, and most everything else (even bizarre beings from the Deep Void, such as the Minions of Cthulu) sustain damage as described in the Fluff above, and in the chart below.   Fully astral or ethereal or out of phase beings are not affected, if they remain that way during the momentary flash of the Prismatic Spray.  If they can see into the Prime Material Plane, however, they are subject to the temporary blindness it causes (see the next paragraph.)  Any and all beings within the area of effect that have visual capacity of any sort (from normal light to x-ray vision to Darksight, and so on) are immediately blinded with no saving throw for 2 to 4 turns, if they have 8 Character Levels or under.    Creatures with more than 8 Character Levels are not blinded, but they might well be overwhelmed, stunned, or at least startled by the onslaught of almost Godly light that is the Prismatic Spray.  The DM now rolls 1d8 for each possible target, and consults the following chart:  1:  Target affected (if still alive) or struck (if dead or a great part of target evaporated) by the Red Beam (the red part of the main beam)  The target must make a Reflex Save to take 10 points of damage.  A failed save indicates 20 points of damage.  (Either way, all items must make Item Saving Throws.)  2:  Target affected or struck by Orange Beam.  Reflex Save.  40 or 20 points of damage.  3:  Yellow Beam.  Reflex Save.  80 or 40 points of damage.  4:  Green Beam.  Fortitude Save.  Death by poison or 20 points of damage.  (Death is instant, and the mage chooses whether the poison leaves the target a shrunken, blackened husk, a puddle of poisoned goo, with no discernable damage, or any effect in between occurs.)  5:  Blue Beam.  Fortitude Save.  Petrification or no effect.  If petrified, all items are also petrified with no Item Saves allowed, but in this case restoring the target restores the items also.  Breaking the statue kills the character and destroys all his items, with no Save or Item Saves allowed.  6:  Indigo Beam.  Will Save.  Permanent insanity or no effect.  If insane, the insanity can only be healed by a Restoration spell or other curative magics or item effects of 7th level or greater.  The 6th level Heal will not work.  The insanity will be one of the most severe and dangerous type possible (the mage gets first choice of the type of insanity) with immediate harmful effects for the companions of the target if applicable.   7:  Violet Beam.  Will Save.  Sent to another plane or no effect.  If sent to another Plane, this is determined randomly.  Death may occur instantly upon arrival.  (If the target is sent to the Lower Planes, death may be desired and - sadly - not possible upon arrival.)  Returning home is the target's problem, if he survives for any time in the Plane he was sent to (Dispel Magic and other such spells will not return the target to his original Plane of existence, even if thrown upon him by a Planar on the Plane the target was sent to.  A Wish spell might return the target to his original Plane and location.)  8:  The target is unlucky.  He is affected or directly struck by two rays, with two Saving Throws required for him, and two sets of Item Saving Throws for his carried and/or worn items.  Roll 1d8 again to determine which two rays strike the target, and ignore a second roll of 8 (that is, the target cannot normally be struck by 3 or more rays.  He can thank the Gods for small favors!)</blockquote>

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