Prismatic Wall really specifically unwieldy?


Rules Discussion


The text of Prismatic Wall states:

You create an opaque wall of shimmering, multicolored light. The wall is straight and vertical, stretching 60 feet long and 30 feet high. You must form the wall in an unbroken open space so its edges don't pass through any creatures or objects, or the spell is lost.

I had a question about this... isn't this kind of unusable? It requires a space that is 60 feet wide and 30 feet high, meaning it can't be used indoors in the vast majority of indoor spaces or the edges would brush up against some wall or ceiling or another, which I can't imagine is anything other than 'an object'. I'm really struggling to see how you could use this well given how enormous and unwieldy it is. I rarely see battles where there is that much open space with no objects whatsoever. Since you can't shrink the wall to fit, and can't reshape it (that would kind of step on the toes of the Prismatic Sphere spell one spell level up) it seems nearly unusable. It would either be impossible to place or fairly simple to go around/over/underneath. Similarly, Prismatic Sphere shares the same issue. If you're standing on the ground, the spell fails. Are the ground and walls and ceiling not considered objects? There's no definition that I am aware of for what exactly constitutes an 'object'. Am I missing something?

EDIT: It also seems strange considering a very similar spell, Chromatic Wall, does not break the wall on objects, only on creatures.


Prismatic Wall isn't really a combat spell. It's more the kind of thing you would store in a Glyph of Warding in a hall or chamber built for that purpose. At least that's my thought.

Although, looking at the maps in books 5 and 6 of the published APs (when you'd be high enough level to get this spell), there are quite a few maps that are large enough to facilitate the casting of this spell in combat.

Prismatic Sphere has a Range of 10 feet. Presumably you'd cast it 10 feet in the air, at the corner of your space.


I disagree - castable with 3 actions suggests using it in combat is perfectly reasonable. Also, the 'corner of your space' 10 feet in the air? Is your space 10 feet tall? Is it not a 5-foot square? If you cast Prismatic Sphere 10 feet in the air, the only square that is fully inside of it on the ground is your own (And not even entirely, for if it touches the ground, it poofs). Far from 'protecting an area', you could barely stand inside it. This is very different from every other interpretation of Prismatic Sphere ever seen before. Doesn't seem likely. It also sidesteps the issue of placement. Must all Prismatic Wall hallways be exactly these dimensions? The Elemental bloodline gets this spell as a bloodline spell, but unless they own some kind of structure purpose-built for this spell, it's nigh-useless to them.


Esdain wrote:
I disagree - castable with 3 actions suggests using it in combat is perfectly reasonable. Also, the 'corner of your space' 10 feet in the air? Is your space 10 feet tall? Is it not a 5-foot square? If you cast Prismatic Sphere 10 feet in the air, the only square that is fully inside of it on the ground is your own (And not even entirely, for if it touches the ground, it poofs). Far from 'protecting an area', you could barely stand inside it. This is very different from every other interpretation of Prismatic Sphere ever seen before. Doesn't seem likely. It also sidesteps the issue of placement. Must all Prismatic Wall hallways be exactly these dimensions? The Elemental bloodline gets this spell as a bloodline spell, but unless they own some kind of structure purpose-built for this spell, it's nigh-useless to them.

A lot of PCs are more than 5 feet tall. The majority of the rules also treat the game as a 2D game, only referencing vertical height when it's specific to the ability at hand. They also gave Prismatic Sphere a Range of 10 Feet. So yes, I think it's perfectly reasonable, in this instance, to assume that you are casting it 10 Feet in the air, at the corner of your square, which would fully protect the 4 squares around that point.


-sigh- I don't know, this just feels very strange to me. Why not simply allow it to be hemispherical? It always has been in the past. A fully upright 20-foot diameter sphere in the middle of the battlefield looks really odd, especially considering it can't quite touch the ground. It reduces the area that can be protected by the sphere at ground-level where most combat takes place. It would make a lot more sense if walls/floors and such were not considered objects, but I'm not sure how they could be described as anything but. It seems an awful lot of inconvenience for 8th/9th level spells, powerful though they may be.

And again, there's the issue of Chromatic Wall. Prismatic Wall is undoubtedly a more powerful version of this spell, why introduce this limitation now? It feels like a mistake to me. I realize PF2 will be different than PF1, but the spell seems player-hostile in how difficult it is to use.


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I think this is a case where it is most beneficial to interpret the spell as though the author intended it to be used in combat in "normal" campaigns - by which I mean it seems like the word "object" is being used in a way that doesn't include floors/walls/ceilings, or alternatively like there is an implied "up to" when it comes to mentioning the size of a wall because if you read all the wall spells in the book you'll find the same ideas worded several different ways.

edit to add: prismatic sphere shouldn't have a range entry because it is required to be "centered on a corner of your space", it should have an area entry. It's like globe of invulnerability, but with prismatic wall traits.

Liberty's Edge

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I don't think prismatic sphere is affected by the rules the way you think, because it's a burst area, and bursts are already limited by line of effect, which the ground provides. The sphere doesn't attempt to extend below it.


After rereading the spells this morning and realizing that it only ever mentions Creatures and Objects, I agree with Shisumo. Walls and floors are not Objects, they are walls and floors. The wording is to prevent you from dropping the Wall on top of an enemy.

I would edit or delete my previous posts if the forums didn't arbitrarily prevent that.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

This seems like a case where the corollary to the "Too good to be true" rule would apply. If it seems like it can't work, your interpretation is probably incorrect.

For prismatic sphere, since the spell doesn't seem like it would work if it needs a full unbroken sphere, then it's probably meant to work as a hemisphere when on the ground. As an extension of that, I'd personally allow a quarter-sphere if abutting the spell against a wall or an eighth-sphere in a corner, but unlike the hemisphere that's more GM-dependent.


Prismatic sphere's sizing is so that 1 large or up to 4 medium creatures (including the caster) can be inside it and protected on all sides.

At least, that's the case if you assume 1) spells are supposed to be useful, and 2) they are also supposed to function.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
thenobledrake wrote:
Prismatic sphere's sizing is so that 1 large or up to 4 medium creatures (including the caster) can be inside it and protected on all sides.

2 Large (with room leftover for 4 Medium) or 12 medium. A 10ft burst has a radius of 10ft, so it covers a 4x4 square with the corners excluded


Yup, that's true... I keep forgetting the measurement the game gives for circles and spheres is radius instead of diameter.

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