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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6904898" data-attributes="member: 6677017">(All text in every 5e book (as well as the statement of one of the  probably only two people who typed the actual text in the PHB, and that  the other defers to as the rules guy) supports the principle that only  things with attack rolls are attacks, so I'm not even going to join that part of the discussion.)It seems clear to me that magic missile cannot dispel an image, since it has no effect on the mirror image spell.Now, interpreting the remaining elements is difficult, but its difficult primarily because of certain effects only being able to target creatures.I see there being two primary ways of looking at it.Option 1 is the most by the book: You target the caster, and, barring shield, counterspell, or some such, all of your missiles hit the target interacting in no way with the images. All images remain--it is as if the mirror image spell just didn't exist for purposes of the magic missile casting.But this means magic missile isn't totally targeted by sight, but also has a "seeking" function that allows it to know what a valid target is (ie, what is and is not a creature). (There are plenty of other spells, including ones that actually are attacks with this same problem (take ray of frost as an example)--they only target creatures, but not objects.) By the book, you can't even cast one of those spells on an object, because an object isn't a valid target. (It is unclear whether or not you simply can't cast the spell, or whether you cast the spell (and use the slot, if applicable) and it just fizzles.) So, as was mentioned, that makes these great illusion/creature detectors--which probably isn't intended. That is, however, the most by the book interpretation.Option 2 requires a ruling that isn't by the book. You can rule that you can cast a "creature only" target spell at an object, the spell goes off, it does target and potentially hit the object, it simply doesn't have any effect on the object. So when you attempt to cast ray of frost at a rock, you shoot the ray, hit the rock, but the rock is unimpressed. Assuming this house rule, but taking everything else by the book, magic missile (and ray frost) should have the same chance of targeting the image as shooting an arrow would (ie, randomly roll for each missile to see which image it targets, and magic missile doesn't need an attack roll). In the case of magic missile, since it is not an attack, any missile that hits an image has no effect--the image is unimpressed. (In the case of a ray of frost it is unclear whether the image should be dispelled or not, since it is an attack and this option allows it to actually hit.)This option only requires allowing "creature only" spells to actually target and hit objects, simply without (or perhaps with negligible) effect, otherwise it doesn't alter the rules of the game.I had a heck of time trying to figure my answer to this question when I was running Lost Mine of Phandelver. I can't even remember exactly how I ruled it, and it quite possibly was neither of those options I just offered.In my current preference, option 2 seems the more desirable, since it has no real downsides and the house rule improves other aspects of the game rather than messing them up. (In the case of ray of frost I'd probably rule that it doesn't dispel the image, since it only effects creatures.) Other options are possible, but they seem to be too fiddly or specific to mirror image whereas option 2 just makes a single rule/ruling for the whole game that can resolve this sort of ambiguity.</blockquote>

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