Mirror Image and Combat Reflexes

[Dracomeander]

As to the original question, I see no difference between taking multiple AoO at the images as the mage moves and taking them at a squad of mooks that break morale and flee. Granted the mooks are all supposed to have their own initiatives, but most DMs I know just roll 1 initiative for the opponents (bad idea) or 1 initiative for each discreet group of opponents (i.e. mage in a, cleric in b, rogues in c, fighters in d, zombies in e, etc...) It gets too cumbersome to break down the initiative any further.

If the being the squad is breaking away from has combat reflexes, the being gets an attack on each of them up to the limit of his combat reflexes. The same should be true if the being is in the position of threatening multiple images from the mirror image spell.

I'm not even going to get involved with the interaction of magic missile and mirror image. There is no one right way to rule in that situation as the two spells are directly contradictory in how they are supposed to work. Magic Missile targets creatures which figments aren't, but Mirror Image provides additional targets for all incoming attacks to confuse the issue. Direct contradictory effects. How to determine which takes precedence is up to each individual DM until an official ruling is made.

 

[dcollins]

The argument still holds. The magic missile strikes the creature it was targetted at, and all the figments look like they're being struck, hence not revealing which one is the real target.

Doesn't this ruling directly contradict the spell description that "Enemies attempting to attack you or cast spells at you must select from among indistinguishable targets. Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment."?

"Figments seem to react normally to area spells (such as looking like they’re burned or dead after being hit by a fireball)", but magic missile is not an area spell, which you seem to have lumped it in with.

 

[werk]

To the origianl thread question:

I would not allow multiple AoO. There is only one provoking action, caster moving out, so only one target/one attack. The images are not real creatures, and cannot be intentionally targeted...if they drew AoO, they would draw AoO constantly and you'd have to place mini's for them and all that. No thanks.

As for magic missle, I see that mirror image says that they target you (not the images), then roll randomly to decide if you or the image was hit. So if you cast MM against someone with MI, you would just say I target the guy with MI and the DM tells you the result (random rolls). I guess I don't see the problem with that.

 

[Pinotage]

Doesn't this ruling directly contradict the spell description that "Enemies attempting to attack you or cast spells at you must select from among indistinguishable targets. Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment."?

"Figments seem to react normally to area spells (such as looking like they’re burned or dead after being hit by a fireball)", but magic missile is not an area spell, which you seem to have lumped it in with.

True. But if Magic Missile can't affect figments, it must either fizzle or work as I suggested?

Pinotage

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

True. But if Magic Missile can't affect figments, it must either fizzle or work as I suggested?

Or, the missiles targeted against the figments would fizzle, while that targeted against the actual creature would work.

 

[IndyPendant]

Well, really, whether MM or AoO's would count can be open to debate. RAW, MM cannot target the images. What happens, according to RAW, when the caster tries to target the MI'd foe is open to debate. That having been said however, to answer the OP's question:

How you handle MM and AoO's is pretty clearly up to the GM, just going by the debate in this thread. One thing I'd have to say though, is if you allow MM to target individual images, then you pretty much have to allow the player multiple AoO's against the images retreating from him. In other words, whatever you decide really must be decided the same for both situations.

In that respect, I agree with the player.

 

[MojoGM]

How you handle MM and AoO's is pretty clearly up to the GM, just going by the debate in this thread. One thing I'd have to say though, is if you allow MM to target individual images, then you pretty much have to allow the player multiple AoO's against the images retreating from him. In other words, whatever you decide really must be decided the same for both situations.

In that respect, I agree with the player.

True...I definately think I made an error. I'm just not 100% sure on which ruling yet. One of them is wrong though....

 

[Menexenus]

Personally, I agree with everything Hypersmurf has written in this thread.

(Usually I don't submit "me too" replies, but it sounds like the person who started the thread wanted a general idea about what people in the D&D community think. Hence, a "me too" is appropriate in this case.)

 

[dcollins]

True. But if Magic Missile can't affect figments, it must either fizzle or work as I suggested?

I don't see that. Based on "Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment" I see the following options:
(1) Aim your missiles at one target. As this is the "general" case, roll randomly to see if you targeted the real thing or an image.
(2) Aim your missiles at different indistinguishable targets. Not the "general" case, in this instance you hit both the real thing and a number of images.

In some sense there can't be a difference between targeting the real guy and mirror images, because the spell itself says they are "indistinguishable".

 

[dshai527]

Mirror image creates a figment and Magic missle attacks a creature unerringly, so I guess it depends on whether you consider a figment a creature or not. Since the definition in the SRD says that a figment is a false sensation I would say that the caster percieves a creature but his MM would fizzle when cast at any other than the real target.

On the melee side I agree that all images are performing a task that allows for an AOO, but I also agree that they are happening simultaneously so only 1 AOO may happen.