D&D (2024) Magic Missile is saved! Hooray!

[MerricB]

To be fair, Crawford's interpretation never made it into official use, it was just a tweet. I don't believe it was even added to sage advice.

The amount I heard it talked about, I felt it MUST have made it into Sage Advice!

But... when's the last time Sage Advice got updated?

 

[Reynard]

... If you hit a bless-casted cleric with a 1st level magic missile, are they making 1 concentration check or 3?

This is really the only important question. Issues of damage otherwise come out in the wash over time.

 

[pukunui]

... If you hit a bless-casted cleric with a 1st level magic missile, are they making 1 concentration check or 3?

Isn't it one Con save per missile?

But... when's the last time Sage Advice got updated?

v2.7 was released in 2021.

 

[MerricB]

Isn't it one Con save per missile?

The ruling was at one time that all the damage was taken simultaneously, so it's one save vs. the total damage.

As opposed to being hit with scorching rays, where the attack rolls are made sequentially.

No idea what it is currently!

 

[pukunui]

The ruling was at one time that all the damage was taken simultaneously, so it's one save vs. the total damage.

As opposed to being hit with scorching rays, where the attack rolls are made sequentially.

No idea what it is currently!

Concentration: "If you take damage, you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw to maintain Concentration."

I'd argue that just because each missile strikes simultaneously, that doesn't mean they aren't still separate things. I would still call for a separate Con save for each one.

 

[Maxperson]

It's weird because if you hit one target with two missiles and one target with one missile, the rules don't really apply without bending them a lot.

Crawford reached quite a bit in that ruling, IMO, but the rule he relied on has now changed.

Cheers!

Crawford reached quite a bit in a bunch of his rulings. I can't express to you in words just how little I felt obligated to follow his rulings.

 

[Maxperson]

Concentration: "If you take damage, you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw to maintain Concentration."

I'd argue that just because each missile strikes simultaneously, that doesn't mean they aren't still separate things. I would still call for a separate Con save for each one.

Would you call for a con save for each chunk of ice that hits someone in an Ice Storm?

 

[pukunui]

Would you call for a con save for each chunk of ice that hits someone in an Ice Storm?

No, because they aren’t counted separately in the spell description, unlike the missiles in magic missile.

If ice storm said you conjured up five chunks of ice that battered one or more fired simultaneously, then I might rule it the same way.

 

[cbwjm]

The amount I heard it talked about, I felt it MUST have made it into Sage Advice!

But... when's the last time Sage Advice got updated?

I'm not sure it was updated once it was decided to revise the game, but the magic missile tweet had been around for quite a while before the last update.

I was like you and felt it must have been in there, I've checked a couple of times since. I believe that Crawford also followed that tweet with abother which basically said that it's also fine to roll for each missile which is how it was done in the games he ran at PAX.

 

[Maxperson]

No, because they aren’t counted separately in the spell description, unlike the missiles in magic missile.

If ice storm said you conjured up five chunks of ice that battered one or more fired simultaneously, then I might rule it the same way.

How about the physical and fire damage from Meteor Swarm? Those are listed separately.