Do you let Magic Missiles destroy Mirror Images?

[RigaMortus2]

No - a figment is not 'Up to five creatures'...

-Hyp.

Hyp is, as usual, correct.

You have to ask yourself, How many creatures am I targetting with magic missile? In this case, the answer is zero. Zero is "up to five creatures".

 

[Infiniti2000]

I rule in my game just as Hyp does...and as alot of people do, I suspect.

Only if by "a lot" you mean at most 16%.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If a 1st-level spell can, by its innate nature, distinguish between an illusory creature and a real one before it ever interacts with them...

It distinguishes with them by interacting with them.

The target has to be valid before the missile of energy is created, because the missile of energy is a result of the casting being successful, and if you cast a spell on the wrong sort of target, the casting fails.

If you want to flavour text it, consider the target aspect of the spell to be a 'lock' that the missile homes in on, and if the lock isn't there, the casting fails before the missile ever starts homing. It doesn't matter how you describe it; if you cast a spell on the wrong sort of target, the casting fails, and whether anyone can tell by looking or not, a figment is the wrong sort of target for Hold Person, or Implosion, or Message, or Magic Missile.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

You have to ask yourself, How many creatures am I targetting with magic missile? In this case, the answer is zero. Zero is "up to five creatures".

But your targets are restricted to up to five creatures, so you have to ask yourself "How many creatures am I targeting?", and also "Am I targeting non-creatures?"

A non-creature is not "Up to five creatures". It is zero creatures and also one non-creature, which is outside the characteristics of the spell.

-Hyp.

 

[MarkB]

If you want to flavour text it, consider the target aspect of the spell to be a 'lock' that the missile homes in on, and if the lock isn't there, the casting fails before the missile ever starts homing.

Shouldn't it, then, be trivially easy to create a "detect target-lock" spell that lets you distinguish between valid and invalid targets for any category of spell, and thus identify illusions, disguises and transformations with ease at low levels? After all, this "target lock" ability is built into even 0th-level spells.

 

[Transit]

I'm trying hard to understand this.

So we're saying that if there's a real gargoyle standing next to a STATUE of a gargoyle, I can tell them apart by aiming a Magic Missile at them. It will fire normally at the real gargoyle, but the spell will fizzle and not discharge when aimed at the gargoyle statue?

Or if several cloaked figures are spotted in the forest ahead. One is a Rogue, and the others are cloaks thrown over tree stumps. I can't tell which is which, but if I fire Magic Missile at them it can tell them apart?

If this is true, then Magic Missile just got a whole lot more useful as a "creature detector." Perhaps it should be reclassified as a fourth or fifth level spell?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Shouldn't it, then, be trivially easy to create a "detect target-lock" spell that lets you distinguish between valid and invalid targets for any category of spell, and thus identify illusions, disguises and transformations with ease at low levels? After all, this "target lock" ability is built into even 0th-level spells.

I don't see why not.

If you create a 'Make Orc Glow' spell with a target of 'One orc', and cast it on something that looks like an orc, then if it starts glowing, it's an orc. If it doesn't start glowing, it made its save (which the caster would detect), it has SR, it's in an AMF, or it's not an orc.

If you cast Charm Person on a dog, the casting fails and the spell is wasted. That's the example we have to work from.

-Hyp.

 

[KarinsDad]

Shouldn't it, then, be trivially easy to create a "detect target-lock" spell that lets you distinguish between valid and invalid targets for any category of spell, and thus identify illusions, disguises and transformations with ease at low levels? After all, this "target lock" ability is built into even 0th-level spells.

Yes. It's called True Seeing.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If this is true, then Magic Missile just got a whole lot more useful as a "creature detector."

It didn't 'just get a whole lot more useful'. It was a spell that targets creatures when 3E was first released six years ago.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So we're saying that if there's a real gargoyle standing next to a STATUE of a gargoyle, I can tell them apart by aiming a Magic Missile at them. It will fire normally at the real gargoyle, but the spell will fizzle and not discharge when aimed at the gargoyle statue?

Or if several cloaked figures are spotted in the forest ahead. One is a Rogue, and the others are cloaks thrown over tree stumps. I can't tell which is which, but if I fire Magic Missile at them it can tell them apart?

There's a first level spell that does this, and doesn't require multiple castings - Deathwatch. And it has the advantage of not alerting your target by zapping him with a glowing dart of force.

After all, what's the gargoyle going to be doing while you're throwing Magic Missiles around?

-Hyp.