Magic Missile. How have you and how do you roll the damage.

[cbwjm]

Up until 5e and the sage ruling saying that you roll the damage dice once, it never would have occurred to me to roll once and apply the result to each missile. Every edition beforehand where magic missile created multiple missiles I rolled for each missile. This seems to be how it works in various CRPGs as well, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 had variable numbers, NVN uses variables and now, though not a WotC product, pathfinder kingmaker adds variable damage to each missile.

Have you ever rolled one die and applied the result to each missile before 5e? For me, I'm always going to roll damage for each missile instead of once for the whole spell.

 

[Caliban]

Never did it that way before 5e, but I have in 5e. It seems counter-intuitive, but it actually does follow a certain twisted logic. A lot of things are subtly different in 5e, this is one of them.

As a DM, I let the players roll it however they prefer. Most like rolling more dice, but some like rolling a single die. Especially if they are sorcerers with Empower Metamagic (second chance at getting max damage).

 

[Guest 6801328]

If you cast it on the Darkness it's an automatic crit.

 

[Jester David]

I think the Sage Advice ruling is off and doesn't quite match the RAW.
Which makes sense, as it's just him responding to an ad hoc question quickly on Twitter during his off hours. He likely spent less time really thinking of the answer than I've spent so far writing this response.

However, his treating it as a single "effect" and rolling once, is also really to avoid the spell counting as multiple individual spells or attacks for effects where you add an Ability Score to damage. So that's also at work.

 

[cbwjm]

I think the Sage Advice ruling is off and doesn't quite match the RAW.
Which makes sense, as it's just him responding to an ad hoc question quickly on Twitter during his off hours. He likely spent less time really thinking of the answer than I've spent so far writing this response.

However, his treating it as a single "effect" and rolling once, is also really to avoid the spell counting as multiple individual spells or attacks for effects where you add an Ability Score to damage. So that's also at work.

I thought those abilities state or have been clarified as only applying once per spell, not once per missile. With the current sage advice, evokers are able to apply their intelligence bonus to the single die roll meaning each missile deals 1d4+6 force damage.

 

[Oofta]

I let the player choose which way they want to do it. As long as they are consistent, I don't care.

 

[TwoSix]

How I've rolled damage in the past: Like a boss.

How I roll damage now: Still a boss.

 

[the Jester]

I've never rolled one die and applied it to each missile in any edition. I still don't.

 

[pukunui]

I've ignored that bit of sage advice. Players in my games roll one d4 for each missile. The 5e DMs I play with do the same.

I also ignore the "you only get to add your bonus to one part of a spell" errata. I find it too fiddly for a game that prides itself on being straightforward and simple. Just let the modifier apply to all the scorching rays, not just one, and so on. Easier. Simpler. More fun.

 

[ccs]

MMs in my game are rolled per missile just as they've always been.