Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Blog

Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > D&D Prismatic Light Sorcerer – A Bright Idea for a Sorcerous Origin
Playing D&D

D&D Prismatic Light Sorcerer – A Bright Idea for a Sorcerous Origin

The D&D Beholder - Randomized!
Marvelous Phile: FEATS and the Universal Table Color Chart

Hello! Nerditor Doug here to introduce guest poster Kyle Ellis, coming to Nerdarchy.com directly from a recent live chat with YouTuber Kenneth Woody whose work you’ll also find here on our site.

In the chat Kyle mentioned something about a rainbow sorcerous origin for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons sorcerer class. Sorcerer is one of my favorite classes to tinker around with subclass ideas (psychic mind mage WIP I swear) and light- or color-based characters in particular fascinate me. So let’s get to it, the Prismatic Light Bloodline sorcerous origin for D&D.

Sorcerous origin – Prismatic Light Bloodline

The power held within light is greatly unexplored. You or an ancestor were exposed to the closest a mortal can come to the true source of light. A rainbow that lands upon one can infuse them or descendants they have with this mystical power. Other causes for this bloodline exist but are less common.

Shade of the Day

Starting at 1st level, your essence aligns along the prismatic spectrum each day. When you finish a long rest, roll 1d8 and refer to the table below to determine your prismatic spectrum position. Or you can use this handy Chartopia chart for your Shade of the Day. You have resistance to the damage type indicated in the table. At 18th level in this class, your resistance becomes immunity to the damage type.

D&D prismatic sorcerous origin

A spellcaster faces down chuul with the prismatic spray spell, as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

d8                            Color                          Damage type

1                               Red                             fire

2                               Orange                       acid

3                               Yellow                         lightning

4                               Green                         poison

5                               Blue                            cold

6                               Indigo                        necrotic

7                               Violet                         psychic

8                               White                         radiant

Inner Light

At 1st Level, dim light counts as bright light to you.

Let it Shine

At 6th level, you can create a rainbow that starts from your location and ends at a point you can see. It can be as long as 50 feet and it projects bright light 25 feet away and dim light a further 25 feet. It lasts for up to an hour or until you cancel it. You can use an action to transport from one end of the rainbow to the other. Once you use this feature you cant use it again until you take a long or a short
rest.

True Colours

At 14th level you can refract the light from yourself and create 6 illusory duplicates of yourself that appear in your space and all seven of you shine a different colour. Until the spell ends, the duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. You can use your action to dismiss the illusory duplicates.

Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll a d20 to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates. If you have six duplicates, you must roll a 5 or higher to change the attack’s target to a duplicate. With five duplicates, you must roll a 7 or higher. With four duplicates, you must roll a 9 or higher. With three duplicates, you must roll an 11 or higher. With two duplicates you must roll a 13 or higher and with one duplicate you must roll a fifteen.

A duplicate’s AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier. If an attack hits a duplicate, the duplicate is destroyed. A duplicate can be destroyed only by an attack that hits it. It ignores all other damage and effects. The spell ends when all 6 duplicates are destroyed. A creature is unaffected by this spell if it can’t see, if it relies on senses other than sight, such as blindsight, or if it can perceive illusions as false, as with truesight. Once you use this feature you cant use it again until you take a long or short rest.

Shining Through

At 18th level while in bright light you have advantage on saving throws against spells from farther than 10 feet and attacks against you have disadvantage from farther then 10 feet.

[NERDITOR’S NOTE: I am totally going to play a D&D version of Nite Lite now.]

There’s more D&D goodness?!

On top of sharing a bright idea for a light-themed D&D sorcerer, Kyle threw in an added bonus with a new creature he created, inspired by Nerdarchy’s game play in the homebrew world of Ulthe-Gana. The adventurers in Nerdarchists Dave and Ted’s shared campaign world mostly operate out of the city of Gryphongaffe. This gaffon creature is a hybrid house cat/dove (probably created by a mad wizard because that’s how they do).

If you’re looking for even more creatures for your D&D game, learn more about Nerdarchy’s Chimes of Discordia: Fantastical Mounts book with five new creatures plus variants, rules for training and riding these beasts, trade goods and more or head directly to the store and pick up a copy. Be sure to leave a review and let us know what you think

Gaffon

D&D

Amazing what you can find searching for pictures of “winged cat with beak.” This illustration from Joannie Goulet is used with permission. Click the link or visit Griffonne.com for more.

It is unknown whether these adorable creatures are a natural occurence, an offshoot of the griffon, or an all new creation of a wizard. What is known is they first were discovered around the town of Gryphongaffe and shortly afterwards become something of a mascot of the town. Excellent at pest removal, they even keep the skies clear of many pests like pigeons. As griffons are a hybrid between a lion and an eagle, gaffons are likewise a cross between the house cat and a dove. They do have one dove and one cat eye.

Tiny beast, unaligned

Armour Class 12

Hit Points 5 (2d4)

Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft., fly 40 ft.

STR          DEX           CON         INT         WIS       CHA

3 (-4)       15 (+2)       10 (0)       11 (0)     14 (+2)    12 (+1)

Skills Perception +5

Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages None

Challenge 0 (10 xp)

Keen Senses. The gaffon has advantage on Perception checks.

Multiattack. The gaffon can use both of its attacks against a single target.

Claws. Melee weapon attack: +0 to hit, Reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 slashing damage.

Peck. Melee weapon attack: +0 to hit, Reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Let us know what you think about the Prismatic Light Bloodline sorcerous origin and gaffon creature for D&D in the comments below. Both of these cool new things sprang directly out of Nerdarchy’s live chat M-F noon eastern on YouTube. We are always looking for new writers to work with and new voices to share on our website, so if you have any ideas head over to the Contact Us page and get in touch with us. We also have a Discord where Nerdarchists and the Nerdarchy community hangs out talking about games and other nerdy stuff, so be sure to join us over there too.
And above all else, stay nerdy!
[amazon_link asins=’B005MUAYZE,B01KYWRMA4,0786966114′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’dfa5d5ca-f28c-11e7-bd07-dfaa9c166791′]
Share
Kyle Ellis

3 Comments

  • Chartopia (@d12dev)
    January 10, 2018 at 5:30 pm

    Glenn from Chartopia here. It’s fantastic to see you link to a chart you’ve created, but it’s currently set to “private” so only the author of the chart can see it.

    • Doug Vehovec
      January 10, 2018 at 10:27 pm

      Good call sir. I was looking for where to change that prior to publishing and didn’t spot the option so I assumed public was default. Thank you for pointing that out!!

Leave a Reply to Doug VehovecCancel reply