• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

Magic Missile


log in or register to remove this ad


Or if the bad guys can move their allies....

I would gladly allow any of the bad guys to waste actions saving minions.

If the fight is determined because a monster was able to save a minion from an At-will attack power, then I am doing something terribly wrong, like rolling a D12 to attack.
 

OD&D Magic Missiles were autohit,
No, it was not. I can quote you the entry in the Greyhawk supplement where MM first appeared.

in red box,
I double-checked the Mentzer Basic Set, and it seems my memory failed me. It was auto-hit in those rules (as long as the target is visible). My bad.

blue box,
I don't think you'll find MM mentioned in the Expert rules.

and in Rules Cyclopedia.
Never got myself that product, but it probably aligns with the Basic Rules.

Anyhow, MM started with an attack roll and became auto-hit when AD&D PHB was released in 1978. So WotC should have waited two more years to upgrade it, if they wanted to be really classical about it. :)
 



To set the record straight:

In the Red/Purple Moldvay Basic set, Magic missile was not auto hit, and did 2 added missiles for every five levels for 1d6+1 damage each. Auto hit was not mentioned.

In the Holmes Basic edition, it just says, "equal to a magic arrow" (I just checked), for 1d6+1, and just says that "higher level casters can make more arrows."

After the Moldvay Edition, they added the auto-hit to put it in line with Gary's 1978 AD&D version.
 

Only until the minion's turn. Unless you're concerned about someone else 'stealing' your kill, that's not a delay worth worrying about.
If you try to clear a path, it should be cleared before the other player acts... and it is nice, if the one you cleared the path for doesn´t have to run through dagger shards.

*roll eyes* kill stealing... are we playing DOTA?

@camelot: Not if you wan´t to autokill the minion ;)
 
Last edited:

To set the record straight:

In the Red/Purple Moldvay Basic set, Magic missile was not auto hit, and did 2 added missiles for every five levels for 1d6+1 damage each. Auto hit was not mentioned.

In the Holmes Basic edition, it just says, "equal to a magic arrow" (I just checked), for 1d6+1, and just says that "higher level casters can make more arrows."

After the Moldvay Edition, they added the auto-hit to put it in line with Gary's 1978 AD&D version.
This is not correct. On page B16 of the Moldvay Basic Rules it is stated that

It will automatically hit any visible target.
 


Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top