D&D 5E Speed of Magical Attack Spells Emanating from a Caster

[Krachek]

I think spell go slow,
almost as slow as laser beam in Star Wars that go slower than actual bullet.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I think spell go slow,
almost as slow as laser beam in Star Wars that go slower than actual bullet.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Upon further retrospection, the speed of a blaster shot is very close to the speed of a hex in Harry Potter, which is probably the best visual representation of this game effect in visual media.

 

[Oofta]

I think spell go slow,
almost as slow as laser beam in Star Wars that go slower than actual bullet.

T

I think spell go slow,
almost as slow as laser beam in Star Wars that go slower than actual bullet.

Technically they never use lasers in the movies, although they may in a book.

Han has a "blaster", not a laser gun.

 

[Tony Vargas]

(mostly, for me, in terms of long range ship to ship combats where the maximum range of spells is a huge deal and distances may remain great for prolonged periods)

I've done a bit of that, and I find it helps to use longer turns than the 6 second round - at least until the boarding action.

Han has a "blaster", not a laser gun.

In the original, an officer refers to the Death Star's AAA as "turbo-lasers" and their F/X behaved exactly like the small-arms 'blasters.'
But, hey, "sound in space" - how much realism do you expect from science-fantasy, anyway?

 

[Oofta]

I've done a bit of that, and I find it helps to use longer turns than the 6 second round - at least until the boarding action.

In the original, an officer refers to the Death Star's AAA as "turbo-lasers" and their F/X behaved exactly like the small-arms 'blasters.'
But, hey, "sound in space" - how much realism do you expect from science-fantasy, anyway?

Well we all know how technically ignorant management is. So I'm sticking to my [blaster] guns.

But Lucas was never one for consistency. Or logic.

 

[jasper]

Faster than a rules lawyer find a fault
Faster than a science nerd do maths
More powerful than ............nevermind

 

[Lanefan]

Depends on the spell.

Lightning moves as fast as - well, lightning; and "dodging" it doesn't mean you actually moved out of the way, it means you got lucky and the bolt didn't happen to contact you (or you just happened to be perfectly grounded).

Magic missiles I've always seen as very much resembling roman candle fireworks, except moving at about the speed of a fired arrow or bolt in a straight line without arching. Other spells where something physical is "thrown" e.g. fireball work about the same only without the light show from the missile.

 

[Oofta]

Again, I am primarily asking for purposes of seeing what people are imagining when they picture these combats. While there are a few mechanical concerns I might consider (mostly, for me, in terms of long range ship to ship combats where the maximum range of spells is a huge deal and distances may remain great for prolonged periods), that is not the primary goal.

Some spells, like meteor storm don't go out directly from the caster, the meteors appear instantaneously at a specified point.

If other spells go out at roughly blaster speed (about 50 ft/s) then you are right, the sniper would be a bit problematic. Solution there of course is that much like blasters fired from ships in space is that the bolt goes roughly twice as fast (or as fast as they need to to get to the target on the same round).

On the other hand I might envision magic missile as being as fast as an arrow which is why they automatically hit.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I tend to think of it somewhere between a fastball and an arrow, depending on the specific spell and the specific way it works for that caster (ie, we have two casters with eldritch blast in a party, and the spell looks different when cast by each of them). Lighting spells though move at the speed of lighting (more or less).

Disappointingly, meteor swarm (in 1e-3e, and 5e at least) actually shoots out from the caster's hand. I forgot that for many years and remember being disappointed by it. I like to say that a rarer, cooler alternate version of the spell exists in my multiverse (and was actually cast by a gold great wyrm in an epic battle between armies of giants and dragons we had):

 

[R_J_K75]

Id say the spells starts and "ends" (if it does that round) within the casters turn the round its cast.