Can you target a magic missile at an object?

[dcollins]

...The candlestick is an animated object which is currently not moving.
What happens to the spell?

a) Magic missles streak from the wizard's hand, hitting all the objects in question, but only the candlestick is affected.

b) Only the missle which targets the candlestick actually materialize - the other two simply fizzle

c) The entire spell fizzles

I'll chime in on this one, because I've been thinking about it recently. I definitely think the proper and intended ruling is "A".

Note that there is no reference to "fizzle" anywhere in the core rules, that's something that people have created after-the-fact. Look very closely at what it says in the core rules:

If the character casts a targeted spell on the wrong sort of target the spell has no effect.

So this implies that you can in fact "cast a targeted spell on the wrong sort of target". You do actually successfully cast the spell in this case. It's not that it doesn't get cast or fails to happen -- that would be different terminology. It's just that "the spell has no effect" in this case.

And when you interpret "no effect" I think that that has to be done narrowly in this context. The spell doesn't effect the target, in the technical sense of any damage, enchantment, penalty, etc. But the spell still does cause magic to shoot from the caster at the target. The spell does get cast, it's just that it has no effect (on the wrong sort of target).

 

[Tarangil]

To solve the problem, just have your Wizard research a Magic Missle spell that can target objects and creatures. It'll probably be higher than a lvl one spell.

That kind of spell would be useful. Objects seem to have their own hit points it seems, Imagine a magic missle spell capeable of destroying weapons, damaging and reducing the effectiveness of armor, or making the smelly cigar in that Dwarfs mouth explode! Although, saves or touch attacks may have to be added in as a factor for fairness and not to make it too powerful.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hyp - I'm curious how you would handle this situation as a DM...

Strictly as written, I'd say C, based on the quote dcollins provided. You cast the spell on an invalid target; the spell has no effect.

As a DM, I'd use B.

ARandomGod - the definitions of Wisdom and Charisma are from the Monster Manual, under 'Nonabilities'. The definition of creature is from the Glossary.

-Hyp.

 

[AuraSeer]

Note that there is no reference to "fizzle" anywhere in the core rules, that's something that people have created after-the-fact.

I believe the word was borrowed from Magic: The Gathering. It used to be their official term for what happens to a spell when its target is invalid. Their rules do specify that a spell goes away when that happens; they're real sticklers for the letter of the law, seeing as how theirs is an adversarial game with no DM to adjudicate the corner cases.

I'm told that the term "fizzle" has become obsolete, and spells in that state are now said to be "countered upon resolution."

(Bored yet? Yeah, me too. I'll stop now.)

 

[dcollins]

Actually, that's nice to know where that comes from. Thanks!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Actually, that's nice to know where that comes from. Thanks!

Huh; I thought everyone knew that!

Of course, I did used to play Magic, so ...

The term's been co-opted to basically refer to any time a spell fails to go off, for whatever reasong. It's particularly prevalent in MMORPGs like EverQuest, where generally you need to attempt to cast (and fail, or fizzle) a particular kind of spell quite often before you can reliably cast it.

 

[CyberSpyder]

That kind of spell would be useful. Objects seem to have their own hit points it seems, Imagine a magic missle spell capeable of destroying weapons, damaging and reducing the effectiveness of armor, or making the smelly cigar in that Dwarfs mouth explode! Although, saves or touch attacks may have to be added in as a factor for fairness and not to make it too powerful.

Since each missile can do a maximum of five damage, and since the lowest weapon hardness given is 5, it's unlikely that the magic missiles would end up doing much damage to...well, anything but the cigar.

Though that also means that magic missile isn't going to be terribly effective against animated objects, either.

 

[Scion]

I cant seem to find the reference but I thought that force ignores hardness

 

[Hypersmurf]

I cant seem to find the reference but I thought that force ignores hardness

It appears in the FAQ.

Of course, that's the same FAQ that says that acid and sonic damage ignores hardness, and that hardness applies to acid and sonic damage...

-Hyp.