Prismatic Wall: Like a Regular Wall, but Unnecessarily Complicated

Usable By: Wizard

Spell Level: 9

School: Abjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

Duration: 10 minutes

Components: V, S

A shimmering, multicolored plane of light forms a vertical opaque wall—up to 90 feet long, 30 feet high, and 1 inch thick—centered on a point you can see within range. Alternatively, you can shape the wall into a sphere up to 30 feet in diameter centered on a point you choose within range. The wall remains in place for the duration. If you position the wall so that it passes through a space occupied by a creature, the spell fails, and your action and the spell slot are wasted.

The wall sheds bright light out to a range of 100 feet and dim light for an additional 100 feet. You and creatures you designate at the time you cast the spell can pass through and remain near the wall without harm. If another creature that can see the wall moves to within 20 feet of it or starts its turn there, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or become blinded for 1 minute.

The wall consists of seven layers, each with a different color. When a creature attempts to reach into or pass through the wall, it does so one layer at a time through all the wall’s layers. As it passes or reaches through each layer, the creature must make a Dexterity saving throw or be affected by that layer’s properties as described below.

The wall can be destroyed, also one layer at a time, in order from red to violet, by means specific to each layer. Once a layer is destroyed, it remains so for the duration of the spell. A rod of cancellation destroys a prismatic wall, but an antimagic field has no effect on it.

1. Red. The creature takes 10d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. While this layer is in place, nonmagical ranged attacks can’t pass through the wall. The layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 25 cold damage to it.

2. Orange. The creature takes 10d6 acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. While this layer is in place, magical ranged attacks can’t pass through the wall. The layer is destroyed by a strong wind.

3. Yellow. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. This layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 60 force damage to it.

4. Green. The creature takes 10d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A Passwall spell, or another spell of equal or greater level that can open a portal on a solid surface, destroys this layer.

5. Blue. The creature takes 10d6 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. This layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 25 fire damage to it.

6. Indigo. On a failed save, the creature is restrained. It must then make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If it successfully saves three times, the spell ends. If it fails its save three times, it permanently turns to stone and is subjected to the petrified condition. The successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive; keep track of both until the creature collects three of a kind. While this layer is in place, spells can’t be cast through the wall. The layer is destroyed by bright light shed by a Daylight spell or a similar spell of equal or higher level.

7. Violet. On a failed save, the creature is blinded. It must then make a Wisdom saving throw at the start of your next turn. A successful save ends the blindness. If it fails that save, the creature is transported to another plane of the GM’s choosing and is no longer blinded. (Typically, a creature that is on a plane that isn’t its home plane is banished home, while other creatures are usually cast into the Astral or Ethereal planes.) This layer is destroyed by a Dispel Magic spell or a similar spell of equal or higher level that can end spells and magical effects.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

I tend to be harsh on 9th level spells. They’re the peak of what magic is supposed to be able to do in D&D, and with options like granting literal wishes or messing around with time, a lot of top end spells just aren’t doing enough. Prismatic Wall has the opposite problem; this spell does so many individual things that possibly interacting and navigating around a Prismatic Wall feels tedious. From a player’s perspective, the spell is sweet; DMing it is awful.

Each layer comes with three elements, making it so with just an inch of light has SEVENTEEN different things to manage.You’ll notice seventeen is not in fact divisible by seven, because some of the layers have bonus effects that negate incoming things while others don’t!

Five of these seventeen things at least are just damage, but the remaining eleven are all different ways the wall interacts with the outside world. You need to know 25 cold damage breaks red, wind breaks orange, 60 force damage breaks yellow, random portal magic breaks green, 25 fire damage breaks blue, Daylight magic breaks indigo, and Dispel Magic breaks violet. All of these need to be broken IN ORDER. There is no world in which I’m preparing for a fight and remembering to pack in tools to deal with each of those layers. It's just not happening.

On top of the random breaking rules, the wall negates incoming ranged non-magical attacks at layer one. As a DM, this is now the only layer I care about. I’m throwing a Fireball at it then shooting arrows for the rest of time because I have no desire to worry about the rest of this text. Orange stops magical ranged attacks, making it better to have mundane weapons against this than magical, which is kind of neat? All spells don’t work up till layer six, though, so no magic is coming into this thing ever.

Should a monster be dumb enough to walk through it, it’s next to never getting there. 40d6 damage of varying types followed by potential petrification and banishment just makes it so there is no reasonable way to attempt to force through it. For all intents and purposes, this is an impenetrable wall, which is fine, I guess? Forcecage seems like an easier way to trap an enemy, but you can absolutely do it with this too.

If you love all the little things to track and manage, this spell is right up your alley. I do not; I forever and always will recommend players go elsewhere, but should they really want Prismatic Wall, they’ll probably get a lot of use from it. It's worth the slot; it isn’t worth the sanity.

5e Spells

Prismatic Wall: Like a Regular Wall, but Unnecessarily Complicated