Cabral said:
I don't see a problem with Magic Missle. It doesn't do much damage and is susceptable to Spell Resistance.
As chill touch and burning hands, too.
Look at chill touch. It does 1d6 points of damage +1 point of strength damage per touch and the Fortitude only negates the strength damage and you get one touch per level with no upper limit.
And you have to make a touch attack; furthermore, the additional touches per level all take up actions in the subsequent rounds, so you can't cast another spell, ot touch anything, etc.
Burning hands does comparable damage but it progresses faster (1d4 per level max 5d4 versus 1d4+1 per two levels max 5d4+5) and affects an area. If you want Magic Missle to affect multiple enemies, you have to split up the area.
It affects an area directly in front of you. Furthermore, it does energy damage - easily to have resistance against it, many monsters do have it.
And it has a save.
I agree that some parts of MM are not too powerful; only MM in its whole is too powerful.
No save
hits always
medium range
splittable
more max. damage than any other spell in one round
hits incorporeal/ethereal beings
no energy damage, but force effect
1 action to cast
no material component
Name one 2nd level spell that is better for attack purposes. Because that may be the only gripe in MM. It is a pure attack spell; no other uses.
If I was a wizard 5th, and was fighting against an opponent with lightning resistance, I would choose 3d4+3 garanteed damage (~10 points of damage) to 5d6 points minus resistance, then perhaps halved by a save. The average damage with 5d6 is 17, so even a resistance of 5 would make MM almost equal, and then there's still the save.
7th: 4d4+4 (~14) to 7d6 (~24) minus resistance plus save for half. Even then I can see using magic missile.
Even when not fighting such a monster, I might go for MM. I can memorize more 1st level than 3rd level spells, and the garanteed damage could make me save the loghtning bolt for more decisive moments.
One player in our group had a wizard who cast MM against major foes, instead of using his more powerful spells... and it wasn't much of a disadvantage.
As I said, give me a second level spell that suprasses MM.
Berandor