Prismatic Wall and Divination

[shilsen]

The blue color of a prismatic wall blocks divinations. How exactly does this work?

If a wizard casts a prismatic wall and stands beside it, does it block divinations cast by anyone whose line of effect is blocked by the wall?

What if the person whose line of effect is blocked is a cleric casting a commune spell about the wizard behind the prismatic wall? Does his deity become unable to answer questions about the wizard?

Or suppose the wizard is in a room with walls facing north, south, east and west, and casts a prismatic wall along the northern wall. Does that block a clairvoyance spell cast by a caster to the north, but not one to east, west and south?

Inquiring minds (okay, one inquiring mind) want to know. Thanks, in advance.

 

[The Souljourner]

I would assume that anything requiring line of effect would be blocked. Thus, clairvoyance and detect thoughts couldn't go through it, but most of the divine "ask a question and get an answer" type things would. I don't know.... it's a very odd thing to have on a wall.

-The Souljourner

 

[the Jester]

I would posit that a prismatic sphere (or prismatic armor ) would provide complete protection from communes and such- but could you get answers about previous stuff, when the caster wasn't in the sphere...? For instance, what he did last Tuesday?

 

[shilsen]

I don't know.... it's a very odd thing to have on a wall.

True. If it was just the prismatic sphere it would be a lot easier to adjudicate. But having a wall block divinations raises a lot of questions about the in-game mechanics for it.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I think it works well to have it included in the wall description, to avoid any confusion about whether it applies to the sphere in a different way. I'd go for the "line of effect" ruling myself, but something like a commune would still work, since it's the God that answering the questions, and from another plane of existence a mere wall isn't going to make any difference.

 

[UltimaGabe]

Keep in mind, of course, that it would also block things like True Seeing and See Invisibility. So there could be a person right on the other side chucking Dominate Monster spells at you, and you wouldn't be able to see them.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I would assume that anything requiring line of effect would be blocked. Thus, clairvoyance and detect thoughts couldn't go through it, but most of the divine "ask a question and get an answer" type things would. I don't know.... it's a very odd thing to have on a wall.

Um? Clairvoyance explicitly doesn't need line of effect...?

-Hyp.

 

[shilsen]

Keep in mind, of course, that it would also block things like True Seeing and See Invisibility. So there could be a person right on the other side chucking Dominate Monster spells at you, and you wouldn't be able to see them.

Actually some of the above will not work through the wall anyway, since it blocks line of sight (it's opaque). So, for example, you can't cast Dominate Monster on anyone on the other side of the wall, since you can't see through it.