Mirror Image and Combat Reflexes

[ThirdWizard]

4) A Magic Missile targetted at an image streaks out and hit the selected figment, with no effect whatsoever.

It's really a flavor thing. Does the magic missile fly to the target and disperse? Explode as soon as it leaves the caster's fingertips? Merely not come into existance? What it looks like seems to be completely up to the whim of the DM, and as such the most important thing is to remain consistant with regard to spells with invalid targets.

In the specific case of an Ogre made to look like a Kobold, the key question is whether the illusion is cast on the Ogre, or whether there's an illusion of a kobold that the ogre is merely benefitting from.

It is worth noting that unless the illusion spell actually makes a being look like another, then that being will still be visible. So, if you used silent image to try to pull this off, you would also need an invisibility on the ogre as well, or it would just look like the overlaping image of an ogre and a kobold. In the case where the ogre is invisible and a caster is using silent image (or an advanced version thereof) then I would agree that an attack spell targeting the kobold would not hit the ogre, and a magic missle would not attain a suitable target.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh, I don't know...

If an illusionist can make a realistic kobold appear out of nowhere, he shouldn't have much problem making the rest of the ogre look like the background.

Heck...he could make the WHOLE ogre look like the background, depending on the spell.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If an illusionist can make a realistic kobold appear out of nowhere, he shouldn't have much problem making the rest of the ogre look like the background.

Not with a Silent Image, though.

Firstly, it's a figment, and "Figments cannot make something seem to be something else."

Secondly: "This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you."

If you're using the spell to create the visual illusion of a kobold, you can't also use it to make the ogre look like the background...

-Hyp.

 

[delericho]

It's really a flavor thing. Does the magic missile fly to the target and disperse? Explode as soon as it leaves the caster's fingertips? Merely not come into existance? What it looks like seems to be completely up to the whim of the DM, and as such the most important thing is to remain consistant with regard to spells with invalid targets.

I would rules that it appears to work exactly like it would if the target were a creature. It's just that it does no actual damage, does not disrupt the image, and so on. Similarly, if targetted at an object, the missile would streak out, hit the object, and do no damage. Or, if the target had Spell Resistance, and the missile failed to penetrate, the missile would streak out, hit the target, and do nothing.

As a hack to justify why Magic Missile can only affect creatures and not objects, allow me to submit the following: Perhaps force is not a totally generic thing, but rather an undifferentiated energy type that nonetheless comes in different 'flavours'. The flavour of force used for Magic Missile attacks the primal animating 'stuff' that makes a creature a creature. Humans have this 'stuff' by virtue of their birth, while animated objects get it when they are made animate. Yes, that's a hack, and there's nothing really in the rules to give that interpretation, but I'm of the opinion that you can justify almost any silliness that the rules throw at you in terms of the 'story' of the world.

That said, the way I'd prefer Magic Missile to work is that it generates a bolt (or bolts) of force that spring out and strike targets. Each missile does 1d4 damage, and requires to be targetted with a ranged touch attack with a +20 bonus on the roll (same as True Strike).

But that's just me.

 

[Diirk]

That said, the way I'd prefer Magic Missile to work is that it generates a bolt (or bolts) of force that spring out and strike targets. Each missile does 1d4 damage, and requires to be targetted with a ranged touch attack with a +20 bonus on the roll (same as True Strike).

Ooh, sneak attacks with magic missile !

 

[delericho]

Ooh, sneak attacks with magic missile !

Ah, hell. Looks like you've found the problem with my proposed implementation.