The Colour of Magic

[Godshoe]

Hi there magi fellas! Can I cal you spellas? Mhah, whatever.

Somewhere dip in my mind I remember, that every caster in d&d has personal manifestation of magic and every magic spell has own colour depending on the school to which it belongs. But I have not find a description of which color corresponds to which school. I know that maybe it's wrong forum to ask and probably that I must asking in 3.5 or even in older edition forums. But I'm playing in 5th and hope there's some modern description.
Especially when considering what changes have occurred in the magic in the transition from one edition to the next.

I can write myself how it could be, but I'm searching something official from WotC or half-official. So maybe someone can help me with it.

Oh, and by the way, does anyone know where you can read more about dweomer, some kind of fiction?

[CantigThimble]

Well, the only things I can think of that sound like what you want are the idea of an individual magic effect from the Goblins webcomic (http://www.goblinscomic.org/08042006/) and Octarine, which is the eighth color and the color of magic in the Diskworld series.

Beyond that, I'm sure people have done this before and you could try googling whatever lists they made or just make your own list of color-school associations.

[Aelyn]

Other things along the same lines are the five colours of magic in Magic: the Gathering, the eight schools of battle magic in Warhammer, and the different coloured mages in Final Fantasy. But I've never heard of anything like that for D&D specifically.

[RoutineInsanity]

I could be wrong, but are you asking what color the spells would manifest as depending on what spell class(alteration/evocation/conjuration) they were using? Like Mage Hand would be blue, or Fireball would be red, Witch Bolt....blue I guess, cause of the lightning, Arms of Hadar would be black?

Well....Arms of Hadar is described as black....so I guess there's not much debate on that one.

But for the spells that don't give a specific color, I think you should let each caster choose what his/hers looks like. Like if you have two wizards (say you have a 10 man party) and they want to see who can do the most damage to that group of goblins that's rushing in, say both of them cast Fireball. One should be able to make his green, while the other makes his blue.

[lunaticfringe]

It is also Common in Order of the Stick. Keith Baker also encouraged people to do this with Paladins and Divine Casters with his Eberron Articles.

[JackPhoenix]

Green Flame Blade is, obviously, green
Finger of Death was described as green
Lightning based spells are propably the same color as electric arcs... blue, white, yellow
Fire spells are propably colored the same way as normal fires... red, yellow, orange, white
Ice spells are ice colored... white, blue
Chromatic Orb is multicolored, as is Prismatic whatever and Color Spray

[King539]

I fluff my Paladin/Gold Draconic Sorcerer's spells as all gold. Green-Flam Blade is gold, so is Fireball, etc.

[Addaran]

I remember in the little book for the Baldur's Gate game, there was a table with the color associated with each school. I think the idea was for wizard to wear robe of the color they specialize in. Could also be useful for Detect Magic, where the aura is described by the color.

Maybe that's what the OP was mentionning?

[Naanomi]

Would make the school of illusion (and to a lesser degree, enchantment) pretty miserable. 'Ah! He summoned a demon... wait... never mind guys it had a purple aura not an orange one, ignore it!'

[lunaticfringe]

Lol why illusions with visuals allow control over the image. Any Illusionists could give it a purple aura if the choose. Also not everyone has rank in the appropriate Knowledge skill to know purple is wrong.

Think of V. Fireballs look like red/orange normal fire, but things like Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Suggestion often show up pinkish.

[Asmotherion]

I believe you are refearing to Nystul's Magic Aura and Detect Magic fluf. They both at least imply this idead.


Wile I was unable to find any official colour code, this is the ones we use with my group:

Abjuration: Trensparent
Conjuration: Light Blue
Divination: Yellow
Enchantment: Green
Evocation: Red
Illusion: Purple
Necromancy: Black
Transmutation: Orange

This is for what you see with Detect Magic only, and is not visible otherwise, except by special abilities.

We also have a variant rule that, as long as it does not interfere with the spell's description and/or effect, the caster can chose the visual colour of spells. For example, I don't mind people casting black fire balls or blue magic missiles, but I do mind a color-chanded Green-Flame Blade or Finger of death.

[RazDelacroix]

The original Baldur's Gate series for the PC has what you are looking for. While the color/manifestation of each spell was different in accordance to what it was supposed to do, the act of casting a spell would first involve a colorful effect based on the spell's relevant school. This was released using the Advanced 2nd Edition rule-set of D&D, but the color use was not because of any actual rule-book denoting color variances, but was a visual indicator introduced in the video games.



Though for the life of me I cannot recall the PRECISE colors used with each school... GAH! I HAVE TO FIND MY COPY AND RELOAD IT NOW!

[Addaran]

Though for the life of me I cannot recall the PRECISE colors used with each school... GAH! I HAVE TO FIND MY COPY AND RELOAD IT NOW!

Abjuration=Green
Transmutation=Blue (light)
Conjuration=Orange
Divination=White/Pearl
Enchanter=Magenta
Illusionist=Multicolored (rainbow)
Evoker=Red
Necromance=Ice/Blue (dark)

If we can believe this guy. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2jvx5?What-colours-are-the-spell-schools
I remembered Conjuration was Orange for some reason, probably cause they had my favorite spells.

[Baptor]

Hi there magi fellas! Can I cal you spellas? Mhah, whatever.

Somewhere dip in my mind I remember, that every caster in d&d has personal manifestation of magic and every magic spell has own colour depending on the school to which it belongs. But I have not find a description of which color corresponds to which school. I know that maybe it's wrong forum to ask and probably that I must asking in 3.5 or even in older edition forums. But I'm playing in 5th and hope there's some modern description.
Especially when considering what changes have occurred in the magic in the transition from one edition to the next.

I can write myself how it could be, but I'm searching something official from WotC or half-official. So maybe someone can help me with it.

Oh, and by the way, does anyone know where you can read more about dweomer, some kind of fiction?

The Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale computer games had colors for schools of magic, though oddly they were not the same even though both games were made by the same people.

In BG for example, evocation was red, transmutation was green, enchantment was gold, etc.

[Godshoe]

and Octarine, which is the eighth color and the color of magic in the Diskworld series.
Reference in title, lol
About goblins I know. But Tarol has his own world and rules of d&d in there's have their own peculiarities and differences with the original system. I like his ideas, but, hm, we've got so many questions to him :/


Would make the school of illusion (and to a lesser degree, enchantment) pretty miserable. 'Ah! He summoned a demon... wait... never mind guys it had a purple aura not an orange one, ignore it!'
Yes! Especially for this you need illusions, and especially for this you may use detect magic.


I believe you are refearing to Nystul's Magic Aura and Detect Magic fluf. They both at least imply this idead.
Exactly! Yep, it's the main reason why I start it, case detect magic a-priory working with it: the easiest way to visually distinguish the school - it is concluded that each has its own color, which does not overlap with others.

http://i.imgur.com/IdW983z.jpg

And I see that all of you have your own opinion about how colours suit each school. And even your examples from Baldur and Icewind confirm this. Funny and sad in same time. And it's second reason why I'm asked about something from WotC. Sad that there's no answer from them :c

Maybe this question isn't such important in most d&d parties, but I founded it pretty interesting in terms of opportunities to some puzzles for players.

[JackPhoenix]

I don't think there's anything official. While some spells have explicit color in their description, in all WotC editions it always was "it's just fluff, do it however you like" (Finger of Death in 3.5e was green colored save or die effect. Don't tell me I'm the only one who called it Avada Kedavra). Seriously, though, if you want to use it to create puzzles for your players, what prevents you from creating your own version? They'll have to use it anyway, as you've noticed yourself, there is more then just one version floating around, and you can't expect the players to randomly find, remember and use the same one as you.

[Greeniron]

I believe the 3.5 phb had a sidebar in it for what colors each school was or it may have been under the detect magic or identify spells.