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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2880122" data-attributes="member: 2011">Shield and Mage Armor are fine for a fighting first level Wizard. But, it does take up two of his two (or three) spells and makes him mostly worthless except as a combatant. If he is doing that, Magic Missile is the least of his worries.And given the choice, I do not know of anyone who would take Shield over Mage Armor at lower levels unless the player knew the character would be fighting an arcane spell casting opponent.I think you are grossly overestimating the value of a Shield spell against Magic Missile in the vast majority of situations since the vast majority of opponents (in most campaigns) do not have Magic Missile, nor do the vast majority of characters in a game have a Shield spell available.Your original point with the Shield spell, Tower Shield, and Smoke Stick examples was that Magic Missile is a balanced spell because these defenses exist. Since most characters do not have the Shield spell, the Tower Shield does not stop Magic Missile at all, and a Smoke Stick can at best delay it for few rounds (and not necessarily for a single round), I do not think your original point had much weight to it since these defenses are mostly worthless and minimally few and far between.In the big picture of the game, these defenses hardly help at all against Magic Missile. Your balance claim is like saying that a defense against getting bombed in Iraq by the U.S. is that one day out of the month, you will not be in Iraq. That one day doesn't really help on the other days of the month if an attack does occur. If you do not use or have a Smoke Stick or a Shield spell (which is true for the vast majority of characters and situations), you can still get Magic Missiled.PS. A smart tactic is to use Magic Missile against ant seriously wounded opponent at most levels. They tend to have no defense (except maybe SR at higher levels) and if you drop them, then you shift the number of opponent vs. allies odds towards your side's favor. Targeting a spell caster is usually only decisive if he is already wounded or he is in the midst of casting a spell. Except at first level, most spell casters at most (equivalent) levels have enough hit points to absorb two Magic Missile spells, even Empowered ones.</blockquote>

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