Magic missile too strong?

[BlueBlackRed]

I'll agree with Crothian.
I've played with Magic Missile for years and have never felt that it was overpowered in the slightest.
The only thing it is guilty of is being used too often because there were no other replacements for it until the Lesser Orb spells came out.

 

[Mistwell]

The way I knew Magic Missle was overpowered was when our party sorceror, for the first ten levels, used it almost every single combat, usually multiple times.

In fact she used it so often that she found the need to calculate how many times she could use it, assuming she was converting higher level spell slots into magic missles.

She ROUTINELY used 4th level spell slots to cast magic missle.

When a spell becomes so all-encompassing that you are willing to forget about most of your charaacter's other abilities so that you can zap a person behind cover while they are grappling, then yeah it is probably overpowered.

And WOTC knew this going in. That's why they included magic items to defend specifically against this spell, and other spells that protect against this spell. They admitted in playtesting that magic missle dominated a lot of combats.

Monte Cook's fix recently to make it an exotic spell was a good one.

 

[Question]

Why didnt your sorcerer do something use a orb of X? Unless the DM was throwing tons of incorporeal enemies with high energy resists, even a orb of force is better.

 

[Pbartender]

Some time ago, I threw my PCs up against an orc shaman... he had a whole bunch of levels in Sorcerer, and I'd decided to alter the descriptions (but not the mechanics) of the effects of some of his spells just to change things up a bit. Of course, he had Magic Missile as one of his first level spells. After a few rounds of the PCs tussling with the shaman's bodyguards, the shaman decides to throw a magic missile at the party's heavily armored fighter. I described it like so...

"The Shaman, standing nearly a hundred feet away, mutters a chant and slashes at the air in front of him with an oddly shaped ceremonial dagger. With each slash, you feel a stinging, burning cut drawn deep across your chest. Even though your armor hasn't even been scratched, you can feel the blood beneath it dribbling down your chest and soaking into your tunic. Take... [DICE ROLL] ...12 points of damage."

"Doesn't he get a saving throw?" asks the party wizard.
"No," I reply.
"But you didn't make an attack roll," he wonders.
"That's right," I answer.
"So..." he concludes, incredulously, "It's a spell that did 12 points of damage from a hundred feet away without requiring an attack roll or a saving throw, and it bypasses armor?"
"You got it," I confirm.
"Wow, he says to the other players, "I hope he's got that spell on a scroll or something... I've GOT to scribe that into my spellbook."

Without explicitly knowing which spell it was, and only seeing the end results, the player was boggling... Until I told him that it was just a magic missile, it was a must have spell that seemed too good to be true.

 

[Mistwell]

Why didnt your sorcerer do something use a orb of X? Unless the DM was throwing tons of incorporeal enemies with high energy resists, even a orb of force is better.

Like I said, she was targeting things behind cover and in a grapple for example. Orb of force requires a ranged touch attack. Those are not that difficult normally, but when cover and chances of hitting your ally come into play, then it's not nearly as good as the sure-thing of a MM.

With many encounters, it's not about the quantity of hit points your opponant has. It's about their strategy and protections. Magic Missle foils most strategy and protections of an opponant. Orb of force foils some, but not as many.

Plus, why waste a precious "Spells Known" choice on a redundant spell like Orb spell when you already have magic missle that scales well for many levels?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Magic Missile sucks... At low levels it does crappy damage, and can easily be negated with Shield spell. At higher levels, the damage still sucks, and there are even more ways to negate it.

 

[Henry]

Keep also in mind that most wizards and sorcerers don't take precise shot. I know the ones I create almost ALWAYS do, because ranged touch spells are so prevalent. For the ones who don't, magic missile is much better than stocking up with yet another feather fall, jump, or exped. retreat.

 

[Wilphe]

Other people have said it better, but I'll say it shorter:

For a 1st Level characters I wouldn't even consider it, there are way better things you can be doing than 1d4+1.

For a fifth level character it starts to look more interesting

For a ninth level or above, it's probably the best thing to do with your 1st level slots.

 

[brehobit]

With folks comparing MM to the damage dealt by a fighter and the like, I think one important issue needs to be raised. A lot of how powerful MM is depends on how character stats are done. If you are using a 25 point point-buy, then magic missile looks a whole lot nastier than it does if you are using a 40 point buy.

At more points everyone has a CON of 14 or better (other than maybe elves), so MM does less % of hitpoint damage. And the fighters-types all have a 16 or 18 STR. At 25 points, neither of those things will likely be true.

That may explain some of the differences folks are noticing. Plus, as others have noted, I'd only start _thinking_ about using it at 3rd level. And only seriously useing it starting at 5th...

 

[Caliban]

I don't think it's useful until 3rd level, when it outdamages your light-crossbow. =)

At higher levels, my sorcerer usually has more interesting spells to cast, but I could see a sorcerer stocking up on utility spells and using metamagic feats to keep MM useful.

My Sorcerer 10/Argent Savant 2 uses Magic Missile and Force Orb as his most common damage spells (+2 on attack rolls and +1 per die of damage from the prestige class on Force spells makes them very effective).

For him:

1st level spell slot = MM for 5d4+10, average of 22 points of damage, no save

3rd level spell slot = Empowered MM for (5d4+10)x1.5, average of 33 points of damage, no save).

4th level spell slot = Force Orb for 10d6+10, average of 45 points of damage, no save but requires a ranged touch attack.

6th level spell slot (when he gets it) = Empowered Force Orb (10d6+10)x1.5, average of 67 points of damage, no save but requires a ranged touch attack.

If I had taken twin spell, it would have given me twinned magic missiles in the 5th level spell slot, for 10d4+20 , (average 45 points of damage, no save, no attack roll).

Without the boost from Argent Savent on damage, the average damage drops significantly, making other spells of higher level more optimal.