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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Twig" data-source="post: 6904768" data-attributes="member: 31754">I didn't read this whole thread, but I have read quite a few similar threads. Personally I gave up on RAW in 5th edition quite a while ago. Which I think is actually the RAI.By a strict reading Magic Missile can only target creatures. So you can't hit a door with it, for example. (And I swear this is going somewhere relevant to MM vs. MI. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )So, lets say you see a creature ahead of you in the darkness that is lying on the ground. Now he might be trying to hide, or he could just be dead and lying on the ground. So you cast Magic Missile at him. If he's alive the Magic Missile automatically hits, if he's dead he isn't a valid target for your spell and it fizzles.Likewise if you target something you think is a creature, but turns out to be a scarecrow, or a dummy, you cast the spell, but it fizzles as the target is invalid.Personally I rule that no matter what, when you cast Magic Missile, the magical bolts appear and fly at the target you have chosen. If the target is a living creature the magical energy tears into it and does damage. If it is not a living creature then the instant the missile touches the target it bursts into a harmless flash of light and the target is completely unharmed.If you want to cast Magic Missile at a door? Go for it. It will hit the door and do absolutely nothing. However, if the door turns out to be a Mimic it will rip into it and do some damage.So for Magic Missile vs. Mirror Image I rule that you choose all of the targets you want to hit. If you want to pick just one for all the missiles, roll to see if you got the right one. If you have 3 missiles and the target has 2 images, plus himself, it is easy. Both images and the target are each hit once. When a Magic Missile hits an image it fizzles as soon as it touches the image, but it also disrupts the image as it is now obvious that it is just an illusion.If the number of missiles don't match the number of images then I have to reason out how to determine whether the actual target is hit or not, but this is pretty easy. For example, if you have 3 missiles and the target only has 1 image, then just roll like normal to see if the extra missile hits the target or the image. If you have 3 missiles and the target has 3 images then you have to roll a d20 for each missile. On a 6 or higher you hit an image. On a 5 or less you hit the target. Once you hit the target once he can't be hit again, so all other missiles hit, and destroy, an image.So this is the ruling I have come up with based on the RAW. Some of it is obviously extrapolation, but I don't think any of it directly contradicts the RAW and it makes sense to me from an in-game perspective.</blockquote>

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