foxroe wrote:I would say that the sentence "The spell caster is able to affect 1 level or hit dice of creatures for each of his or her levels of experience." was a mistake.
However, something else to consider is a spell scroll that contains Color Spray. The spell will be at the sixth level for purposes of effects (DMG, pg.128). So the question is, would a 2nd level Illusionist using the scroll simply be able to affect 6HD/6Levels, or would he/she be able to affect 6HD/6Levels but the target gets to save or only suffer a lesser effect?
Normally when a spell is cast off a scroll all of its effects are based on the level of the scroll, not the level of the person using that scroll. I don't see why this spell would be an exception (unless someone's trying to win a No-Prize by explaining why that reference wasn't an error ).
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Here is a the origonal (OD&D) version "Color Spray: A sheet of bright conflicting colors. They affect 1-6 levels of creatures, rendering them unconscious through confusion. (Note: for every 5 levels above Trickster the caster has obtained, add one to'the die roll for amount of levels, the number never to exceed 6.) The distribution of the effect if there are more target levels than spell levels is semi-random, first one creature u fully affected, then another, till all the levels are assigned, there being no more than one partially affected creature. There is no saving throw vs this spell if the creature is fully affected, if all but one level is affected, it gets a normal saving throw, for every level unaffected beyond the first, it gets an additional +2 on its saving throw, in any case, it will not affect any creature above the 6th level. Range 24"." peter aronson
That probably gives you a clue as to origonal intent, but it clearly was a very weak spell. Since the AD&D version is nonsensical, it falls to each DM to make a version for their own game; wether strong or weak.
Interesting bit in the above description about partially affecting a creature, you could see how that idea could kind of be used to make sense of the AD&D spell(Or perhaps not!). For example, if you've got say a 6 level MU facing off against say a 9 HD Creature, he can use the spell to affect the creature but the spell effects are as described for a creature 3 HD/Levels above him i.e. he has a chance of stunning it if it fails the save. That is, when the spell description says "The spell caster is able to affect 1 level or hit dice of creatures for each of his or her levels of experience." it's not an all or nothing deal. (Gets palm and face ready, just in case.)
One way I took the HD limit literaly & still had the spell desc make sense was to assume the HD are cumulative, much like in some of the psionic disciplines such as hypnosis, invisibility or telekinesis.
Level 1= 1 HD max
Level 2=1+2=3 HD max
Level 3=1+2+3=6 hd max
Level 4= 1+2+3+4=10 HD max
Level 5=15HD max
L6=21 HD max
ect
).