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. Antimagic field has no effect on the wall, and dispel magic can affect only the violet layer.
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.
Would someone care to explain how to take down the first (Red) layer of this spell with ANY cold spell? NONE of them affect non-creature targets, except two, both of which only can enchant weapons to do cold damage: Elemental Weapon and Absorb Elements. So how does one use any spell whatsoever to take down the Red layer first?
I don't know the RAW answer here, but as a DM I would allow any cold spell that normally targets a creature target this wall. A ray of frost is still a ray of frost even if it doesnt hit a creature.
My frustration comes with the RAW, doubled down upon recently by Jeremy Crawford, that a spell without a valid target cannot be cast.
Could fire a cone of cold into it, or a Freezing Sphere or a Wall of Ice. Ice storm can affect it because it’s an area. Prismatic Spray if it lands on ice.
Plenty of spells that can effect it, but Prismatic Wall is a 9th level spell; it’s intentionally difficult to deal with.
All of those spells specify they do damage to creatures within the AoE. Ice Storm: "A creature takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage and 4d6 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one." Cone of Cold: "Each creature in a 60-foot cone must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 8d8 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one." Freezing Sphere: "Each creature within the area must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 10d6 cold damage" and its only effect on non-creatures: "If the globe strikes a body of water or a liquid that is principally water (not including water-based creatures), it freezes the liquid to a depth of 6 inches over an area 30 feet square. This ice lasts for 1 minute." Wall of Ice: " On a failed save, the creature takes 10d6 cold damage, or half as much damage on a successful save."
None of these, RAW, affect objects with damage. Only creatures.
I think for the effects of breaking through a prismatic wall, the different layers can be considered a "creature" for the purposes of pumping damage into it.
Umm does that mean that the entire wall is dispelled? Or that section of the wall? Or the condition itself?
I would rule that just the condition ends, because otherwise the spell would be better if this layer simply didn't exist.
This takes a very large variety of spells to deal with
"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."
Does this means when Tarrasque just sits on wall for 3 turns and soaks 150d6 worth of damage but makes these three con saves it causes wall to short circuit itself down. Or just Indigo layer, or just petrification effect on that specific Tarrasque?
Rainbows have never been so scary.
EVIL 😈!
Could someone explain the dexterity saving throw part to me? they make it seem like you're jumping out of the way of the effect. Is it more like where you have to steadily move through the wall slowly? I like to make sure things make sense in my campaign.
better suggestion, cast prismatic wall first, then reverse gravity. they'll suffer the effects going into the wall, and falling
This spells specifies in the blocked text that it must make a dexterity saving throw but in the top part it says Con save. Make up your mind game, although I agree with Con save more than dex save. Dex save makes no sense in this instance since your either purposely moving into the wall or being forced to and need to make a con save to resist the damage and effects.
Con vs the blinding light
Dex vs the colours of the wall
But I agree that all con would make more sense.
When casting Prismatic Wall, do you get to choose which side of the wall Red and Violet are? or is there any kind of indication of which way they go? cuz if not, you can just trap someone in a dome with violet facing inward, and they'd have no way of destroying it since RAW states that you have to destroy the wall in order from red to violet.
Yes. A creature takes halve damage on a save. An object has no saving throw. Nowhere is written taht these spells only target creatures, only that creatures get a save.
"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 ..."
So the creature rolls the accompanying Wisdom saving throw at the start of the spell caster's turn, rather than as it hits the wall? So party members can still attack etc before it potentially is banished?
This spell is so sloppily worded. It's ironically ambiguous considering its length.
The best readings I've seen from the internet so far:
A: The whole "When a creature attempts to reach into or pass through the wall" line... the best reading I've seen is that if a creature isn't deliberately trying to pass through the wall, it acts as, well, a wall. So you can't telekinetically chuck or gravity manipulate someone into passing through the wall and taking the 25+ dice worth of damage, nor do they just phase through unharmed (Otherwise, in theory, an enemy could cast Prismatic Wall and, as long as your ally was resisting you while you pushed them, they could pass through the wall... which is just silly, since it completely negates the 9th level spell if you use that logic.)
With the wall acting as a wall unless you're actively trying to pass through it, you remove the player's ability to weaponize the wall for ultimate cheese while keeping both the letter of the law and also the wall's basic purpose; namely, to be an impassible obstacle. (Additionally this logic helps negate the AOE spell effect argument if you use it, since most AOE spells can't pass through walls, and you'd be hard-pressed to argue a spell is attempting to pass through the wall without also having that spell target something through the wall).
B: https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/933437785075097600?lang=en seems to imply intent against teleportation style spells (since Misty Step requires line of sight and the walls are all opaque), but also letter of the law states Dimension Door is instant (e.g. no travel) and doesn't require line of sight, just knowledge of a coordinate to land on, implying it should work... if you want conclusive evidence of this spell being sloppily worded, there you go.
C: AOE spell effects are tricky, due solely to the awful wording of the indigo wall. "While this layer is in place, spells can't be cast through the wall." One commenter on Reddit brings up a good point that https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/globe-of-invulnerability actually specifies against AOE effects while Prismatic Wall doesn't. However a different commenter posits something along the lines of "Objects also need to make the same checks when passing through, so logically magical fire from Fireball would also need to survive going through all seven walls. Meaning in theory it could pass through, but it's unlikely" which I find the most logical solution (which does of course require the assumption that objects (which the spell never talks about outside of "nonmagical ranged attacks") are actually affected by the wall as well). I will also note the Orange wall's "magical ranged attacks can't pass through the wall" doesn't actually cover this, since apparently AOE attacks aren't defacto ranged magical attacks.
In conclusion, this spell is clearly a remnant of older versions of DnD and was not given the attention it needed when being updated to 5e. It's a very amusing spell - the type of spell you could build a whole zelda-dungeon campaign around (introduce first just the red wall alone, let the players learn how to break it while in a safe space with a dungeon item nearby which casts cold damage, and then introduce the orange wall later etc before ending with the final boss casting the spell properly). But it's still very sloppy and silly.