D&D 5E Magic Missile vs. Mirror Image

[FrogReaver]

Yeah but in this case he is plainly correct.

I'm going with my gut. It told me he was obviously wrong about feats like shield master the first time he ruled on it and finally I get vindicated years later. A bunch of people were saying he was plainly correct then too. So I'm not going to hold my breath for you guys to come around.

 

[FrogReaver]

In case anyone wants to know why magic missile is actually an attack, it's because it hits. In 5e the only thing ever described in the rules as hitting another creature is an attack.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

So...using the JC logic, the magic missiles hit the real target and cause damage but the mirror images all imitate the real target and appear as if they were taking damage, too. But the mirror images don't take damage and still can confound any other attacks. Yes?

 

[Caliban]

So...using the JC logic, the magic missiles hit the real target and cause damage but the mirror images all imitate the real target and appear as if they were taking damage, too. But the mirror images don't take damage and still can confound any other attacks. Yes?

Correct.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

In case anyone wants to know why magic missile is actually an attack, it's because it hits. In 5e the only thing ever described in the rules as hitting another creature is an attack.

While I agree with Jeremy Crawford that magic missile is not an attack, I appreciate your reasoning. It's the only time I've actually heard a valid piece of evidence for treating it as an attack.

 

[Maxperson]

While I agree with Jeremy Crawford that magic missile is not an attack, I appreciate your reasoning. It's the only time I've actually heard a valid piece of evidence for treating it as an attack.

This is my view on the spell from an earlier post in this thread.

"So I was looking at the various incarnations of the spell. 1e specified melee attack, so it is consistent with the 5e version. 2e specified melee or missile attack, magic or otherwise, so if you squinted sideways you could include magic missile. 3e specified melee or missile attacks and spells, so things like hold person and magic missile could absolutely be misdirected by the images. 4e I'm not all that familiar with. I didn't see mirror image as a wizard spell in the PHB, but it could have appeared later or been a sorcerer spell I suppose. I didn't look further.

For myself, I'm inclined to treat the 5e version the same as 3e. The images are designed to confuse people as to the target, so it makes the most sense. The offensive spells are not intelligent or omniscient, so it's the caster picking the target out and he can't tell which the original is. If he could, then so could a melee attacker."

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Forget the idea that 5e mirror image creates actual "images" which are entities. It doesn't. It changes the appearance of the caster to look like there are multiple versions of them. Think of it like blur. They both make you look different, but don't stop things from targeting you. Are we really going to say that you can target the part of the blurred caster that is or isn't blurred? No, you target the person. Same with mirror image. It's all the caster, it just looks weird to trick you, like blur. Mirror image doesn't hide the caster's location, it just alters their appearance.

In 3e terms, pretend that 5e mirror image is a glamer, not a figment.

 

[Dausuul]

So, how would you rule this? Does the magic missile simply bypass Mirror Image, since it has no attack roll, and thus it's not an "attack"? Would you allow them to target 1 missile at each duplicate in an effort to destroy them? (as a 2nd level spell, you could target 1 missile at each image you see, only 1 of which would be the real).

I'm pretty sure this will come up. How would you handle it?

By the book, magic missile ignores mirror image. Magic missile is not an attack (no attack roll) and thus does not interact with mirror image at all. I don't think I would house-rule it to work otherwise, either.

However, I might house-rule that PCs can take advantage of magic missile's auto-hit by readying an attack to strike whichever creature the missiles target. (I would only allow this with a readied attack - if you wait till your own turn, it's too late, the images have shifted.)

 

[Maxperson]

Forget the idea that 5e mirror image creates actual "images" which are entities. It doesn't. It changes the appearance of the caster to look like there are multiple versions of them. Think of it like blur. They both make you look different, but don't stop things from targeting you. Are we really going to say that you can target the part of the blurred caster that is or isn't blurred? No, you target the person. Same with mirror image. It's all the caster, it just looks weird to trick you, like blur. Mirror image doesn't hide the caster's location, it just alters their appearance.

In 3e terms, pretend that 5e mirror image is a glamer, not a figment.

From the 5e PHB:

Three illusory duplicates of yourself appear in your space. Until the spell ends, the duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. You can use your action to dismiss the illusory duplicates."

So yeah, it does create images. The spell explicitly calls them out as separate AND calls them images. What it does not say anywhere, is that it's some sort of change in appearance. Feel free to play it that way if you want to, but that's not what the spell does as written.

As further proof that these are separate images that are targeted or not, the following is said:

"Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll a d20 to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates."

This is not some sort of miss chance like blur, but rather the person doing the targeting being fooled by the spell into targeting the image. That's the function of the spell. To fool people into believing one of the images is you and getting you to target it instead. Magic Missile is not a god. It's a freaking 1st level spell. It shouldn't be better at figuring out which image is real than the genius(presumably) wizard who cast it.

So yes, while magic missile is not explicitly an attack, it does require the caster to know the target. If a caster of a magic missile can unerringly know which image the real, then so can a melee attacker. If a melee attacker can be fooled into aiming at a different target, then so can a magic missile caster.

 

[Arial Black]

From the 5e PHB:

Three illusory duplicates of yourself appear in your space. Until the spell ends, the duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. You can use your action to dismiss the illusory duplicates."

So yeah, it does create images. The spell explicitly calls them out as separate AND calls them images. What it does not say anywhere, is that it's some sort of change in appearance. Feel free to play it that way if you want to, but that's not what the spell does as written.

As further proof that these are separate images that are targeted or not, the following is said:

"Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll a d20 to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates."

This is not some sort of miss chance like blur, but rather the person doing the targeting being fooled by the spell into targeting the image. That's the function of the spell. To fool people into believing one of the images is you and getting you to target it instead. Magic Missile is not a god. It's a freaking 1st level spell. It shouldn't be better at figuring out which image is real than the genius(presumably) wizard who cast it.

So yes, while magic missile is not explicitly an attack, it does require the caster to know the target. If a caster of a magic missile can unerringly know which image the real, then so can a melee attacker. If a melee attacker can be fooled into aiming at a different target, then so can a magic missile caster.

No.

Magic missile cannot be fooled because it is not sentient; does not make decisions of any kind.

According to the spell, "each missile hits a creature that you can see". The spell not only has no effect on images, it is not possible to target images with this spell, it can only target creatures.

The caster of magic missile cannot target a door, an object, a specific part of a creature, cannot deliberately miss. The only things targetable are 'creatures'.