AD&D: Problems with Color Spray

I have finally completed my project to convert the Players Handbook into a searchable, editable Word file on my computer, faithfully reproduced with the Twentieth Century font and scanned images. I've noticed quite a few typos and omissions in the text, mainly in the spells section. It also seems that near the end of the book, Gary ran out of space and had to cut short his excellent advice on dungeon (and wilderness) adventures.

However, the glaring errors occur in the spells section. Sloppy editing or just plain not bothering to re-read the spells as written, is probably to blame. But the illusionists seem to have gotten the worst of it. Besides the problems encountered in trying to DM illusions (which were poorly explained to begin with), some of the spells just don't work.

In this example, we will be looking at Color Spray:

COLOR SPRAY

Level: 1
Range: 1"/level
Duration: 1 segment
Area of Effect: ½" x 2" x 2" wedge
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 segment
Saving Throw: Special

Explanation/Description: Upon casting this spell, the illusionist causes a vivid fan-shaped spray of clashing colors to spring forth from his or her hand. From 1 to 6 creatures within the area of effect can be affected. The spell caster is able to affect 1 level or hit die of creatures for each of his or her levels of experience. Affected creatures are struck unconscious for 2 to 8 rounds if their level is less than or equal to that of the spell caster; they are blinded for 1 to 4 rounds if their level or number of hit dice is 1 or 2 greater than the illusionist; and they are stunned (cf. power word, stun, seventh level magic-user spell) for 2 to 8 segments if their level or number of hit dice is 3 or more greater than the spell caster. All creatures above the level of the spell caster and all creatures of 6th level or 6 hit dice are entitled to a saving throw versus the color spray spell. The material components of this spell are a pinch each of powder or sand colored red, yellow and blue.

The first line indicates that this spell creates a fan-shaped spray of colors from the caster's hands. Nothing special about that. It's like the fan of burning hands, but more technicolor. Then it states that 1 to 6 creatures within this area are affected. Is that supposed to be a random roll? or is it based on something? The next line states that the caster can affect 1 level/HD of creature per caster level. OK, so that limits the number of creatures to be affected I guess, sort of like the sleep spell. So long as the levels or HD are less than or equal to the caster, the affected creatures are struck unconscious for 2-8 rounds. Awesome! Sort of a burning hands effect that causes sleep!

Then the rest of the spell makes little or no sense. It seems that if the levels/HD of the affected creatures are 1 to 2 levels above the spell caster.... wait, HUH? How can that ever be? Remember that the caster can only affect a number of HD/levels equal to his caster level. So how can this EVER happen? It then goes on with another stipulation if the levels/HD affected are 3+ levels more than the caster, but this can never happen either! Something is screwy here...

As an example, lets take a look at some illusionists and creatures:

1st level illusionist  -- he can affect 1 HD of creature (1 orc or  normal man, or 2 kobolds)
2nd level illusionist -- he can affect 2 HD of creatures (1 gnoll, 2 orcs or men, or 4 kobolds)
3rd level illusionist -- he can affect 3 HD of creatures (1 bugbear, 3 orcs or men, or 6 kobolds)
4th level illusionist -- he can affect 4 HD of creatures (1 ogre, 2 gnolls, 4 orcs or men, or 6 kobolds*)
5th level illusionist -- he can affect 5 HD of creatures (2 gnolls + 1 man,
5 orcs or men, or 6 kobolds*)
6th level illusionist -- he can affect 6 HD of creatures (1 troll, 3 gnolls, 6 orcs or men, or 6 kobolds*)

*Remember, the number of creatures is only 1 to 6 in the area of effect, no matter their HD.

How will the illusionist ever be able to affect more HD than he has levels according to this description? Say he's a 1st level illusionist up against an ogre (mean, but it has happened). His caster level is only 1 vs. a 4 HD creature. There is only 1 ogre. But the illusionist doesn't have enough HD of effect to cause the spell to work against the ogre. So he CANNOT stun the target creature in the area of effect because he can only affect 1 HD of creatures at 1st level.

UNLESS.... the line about HD/Levels is WRONG!! perhaps it was supposed to read that the illusionist can affect 1 CREATURE per caster level in the area of effect, up to 6. That would allow the rest of the spell description to work properly. Because then the ogre in the example above would be 1 creature in the area of effect of 3+ HD above the level of the caster, and would be stunned for 2-8 segments by the spell.

Hmm, all creatures above the level of the caster and those of 6 levels or 6 HD are entitled to a save. That would never happen in the spell description as written until the caster himself is at least 6th level, because he could not ever affect more HD/Levels than his caster level, and would not be able to affect creatures of 6 HD/Levels until he is himself a 6th level caster.

There is another interpretation of the spell, but it is rather convoluted and is not really supported by the language. In this interpretation, the main effect of the spell (unconsciousness) only affects those creatures of equal to or less than the caster level of illusionist. However, if there are any creatures above and beyond this level in the area of effect, they will be either blinded or stunned, as appropriate, according to their HD/Level. No more than 6 creatures can be affected by the spell.

I'm not really sure which interpretation is correct, or if the spell is simply broken. It really makes no sense as written.Let's see some more hypothetical examples:

1) A 1st level illusionist and his party comes across a band of 7 goblins in a dungeon corridor. He casts color spray on the 1st round. What happens? Does he affect only 1 goblin? Does he affect up to 6 goblins?

2) A 5th level illusionist and his party encounters a pair of trolls in a dungeon chamber. He casts color spray on the two trolls. What happens? Does he fail to affect the trolls? Does he affect both trolls but only blinds them? Do they get saving throws?

3) A 7th level illusionist and her party encounters a mind flayer in the tunnels of the underworld. She casts color spray at the creature. What happens? Is the creature affected? If so, is it blinded if it fails it's save?

4) A 9th level illusionist and her party encounters a fire giant and a pair of large hell hounds. She casts color spray at them. Will she be able to affect more than one of the creatures? Does it affect the lower HD creatures first? Will it affect all the creatures with different results for each type? Will it affect the giant at all?

Let's go back to the original spell description in DRAGON Magazine #1:

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 is 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”.

Well, at least that's a bit more concise. The range is ridiculous on this version of the spells, assuming that the effect begins at the caster. Then again, the range of the spell in 1st edition makes little sense, assuming that it springs from the caster's hands. How can it be 1"/level if the area of effect is a static 5' x 20' x 20' wedge? Someone didn't think this through very well.....

It appears that, as with the sleep spell, there is a hard limit of 6 HD/levels that can be affected by the spell. However, the saving throw makes more sense. Those affected FIRST by the spell are those of the least HD. Anyone of higher HD that is partially affected gets a save, otherwise, no save. For every level unaffected, the save is at a bonus of +2. Therefore, using this version of the spell, if the 1st level illusionist uses this spell on the ogre and rolls a 2 for the levels affected, the ogre gets a saving throw at +4 to avoid the effects, otherwise he is unconscious from the colors. There is no duration listed here so it's assumed that it lasts until the creature is revived somehow. There is a hard limited of 6 HD, meaning that this spell would be useless on giants, powerful dragons, etc. This makes more sense than the convoluted spell description for AD&D 1st edition. But still not very helpful.

OK, so perhaps the whole "higher HD than the illusionist" thing occurs only when an illusionist casts this on a creature not normally affected by the spell (i.e. higher than the spell's HD capacity). This would give the creature a saving throw against the effect AND only be able to blind or temporarily delay the actions of the creature. It's important to note that if the DM doesn't understand initiative, then the segments duration of the stun effect will probably be taken incorrectly or ignored. Ugh, such a confusing spell! But I can see how the original was twisted into the current AD&D version. It could have been much better explained in my opinion, since it obviously was meant to allow illusionists to keep using the spell beyond 6th level casting ability.