Rainbow spell (Dragon Magazine #321)

[Nifft]

A Rainbow of Shoot Flavors


Anyone know what it was updated from?

https://i.imgur.com/3Ks8sEj.png


This is a funky spell.

- 1 hour/level duration means no Persist necessary.
- Unlimited supply of specialty materials to penetrate most non-Epic DR.
- Bane arrows vs. 7 different critter types (construct, plant, magical beast, undead, elemental, aberration, dragon).

I guess it's good for a Cleric who suddenly needs to be an archer all day... or a Chameleon.


In Complete Mage there's a spell Prismatic Bow (Sorc/Wiz 8) which also creates a +1 longbow, but you can only fire each color's arrow once, and it only lasts for 1 minute/level or until you run out of colors.

I would probably never use Prismatic Bow, but this Dragon Magazine Rainbow spell seems pretty interesting.

Maybe it ought to be adapted for specialist Rangers or Bards instead of Clerics.

In Eberron, this seems like an interesting Druid spell for one of the sects (maybe Greensinger).


I'm not sure if unlimited +3 arrows are too good for a level 6 spell.

Thoughts?

[Mike Miller]

Could it possibly be an update of a spell from an earlier Dragon magazine? Possibly a 3.0 edition issue?

[ATHATH]

Note that as far as I can tell, you don't have to use the +1 longbow to fire the special arrows- you can put on your back or something and use your own heavily-enchanted, custom-made bow to fire the arrows instead.

[Mike Miller]

As far as what the spell is updating, that dragon magazine issue is from 2004 and complete mage is from 2006, so it certainly isn't an update of the CM spell you mention.

[Nifft]

Could it possibly be an update of a spell from an earlier Dragon magazine? Possibly a 3.0 edition issue? It could be.

There's a 1e Rainbow spell but it's a level 0 Illusionist cantrip, and IIRC it just makes an illusion of a rainbow.

That's probably not the correct spell.


Note that as far as I can tell, you don't have to use the +1 longbow to fire the special arrows- you can put on your back or something and use your own heavily-enchanted, custom-made bow to fire the arrows instead. Absolutely, but note that the spell's bow also imparts proficiency. If you're not an Elf then you might want that proficiency.

As an alternate to using your own bow, you could also 'modify' the spell's provided bow by casting greater magic weapon and weapon of energy and such on it.


As far as what the spell is updating, that dragon magazine issue is from 2004 and complete mage is from 2006, so it certainly isn't an update of the CM spell you mention. Absolutely right.

It might be the case that the CM spell is intended to be an update to Dr#321 Rainbow, or the previous (unknown) spell which Rainbow was updating.