D&D 5E Magic Missile and Death Saving Throws

[clearstream]

[MENTION=71699]clearstream[/MENTION] I think your ruling was fair and supported by the rules you quoted. It seems unlikely that the intention is magic missile is a spell NPCs or monsters use to snuff out dying PCs, especially as it wouldn't work the other way unless the DM is using the dying rules on NPCs or monsters.

I agree with you. It does seem improbable that the spell was designed to have that function!

That's what I found quizzical: that the mechanics as written yield an "evil" spell.

 

[iserith]

I prefer the ruling that the damage on a magic missile is single source, one-off and therefore they don't cause multiple failed death saves or multiple Constitution saves for Concentration. That seems fairer and cleaner to me.

 

[Ristamar]

But that's how checks work. The DC represents the difficulty, not the number of checks. A more distracting situation calls for a higher DC, not more checks.

That's how they usually work. There are always exceptions. The number of checks, the difficulty of checks, and the timing of checks in a general ability/skill challenge is typically under the purview of the DM.

 

[Ristamar]

I prefer the ruling that the damage on a magic missile is single source, one-off and therefore they don't cause multiple failed death saves or multiple Constitution saves for Concentration. That seems fairer and cleaner to me.

I'm starting to lean back that in that direction, as well. I'm less concerned about the perception of fairness, but the design feels clumsy given all the baggage that comes with it. I don't want to have to keep a note card to remind me of the edge case quirks of magic missile.

 

[5ekyu]

I'm starting to lean back that in that direction, as well. I'm less concerned about the perception of fairness, but the design feels clumsy given all the baggage that comes with it. I don't want to have to keep a note card to remind me of the edge case quirks of magic missile.

Ice Storm, flood of hail storms cause 2d8 bludgeon and 4d6 cold and only afaik one concentration or death save fsil...

So, to me, two or more specifically simultaneous force darts are also one save fail or one chevk.

Esp since iirc there was s ruling that if multiple targets are chosen you just toll a single d4 and apply that to each dart as if it were an AoE effect.

For my game, however, I treat MM as one source, one effect so only one save/check *but* I still roll dmg for each missile as they hit different spots. Feels better - so - ruling.

 

[Stalker0]

Ultimately you have two choices:

1) one damage source. One concentration check, one death save.

2) multiple damage source. Multiple concentration checks, multiple death saves.

Pick one. The sage has said number 2 is correct, for those who like to use sage arguments in their rulings. But nothing is 100% rules definitive here, just pick a ruling and go with it

 

[clearstream]

Ultimately you have two choices:

1) one damage source. One concentration check, one death save.

2) multiple damage source. Multiple concentration checks, multiple death saves.

Pick one. The sage has said number 2 is correct, for those who like to use sage arguments in their rulings. But nothing is 100% rules definitive here, just pick a ruling and go with it

and 3) Multiple simultaneous damage source = multiple concentration checks, and multiple death saves for characters on 0 HP before any missiles hit