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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 7105935" data-attributes="member: 6799649">Okay then, rules to one side for the moment....conceptually, how do the creatures in our D&D worlds 'target' their weapon attacks and spells (that require a target)?Do they have to aim at the creature like a sniper aims through a scope? Does the 'barrel' of the attack/spell have to be pointing at the body mass of the target, and if the aim is off then they fail to choose their target?No!All that is required is that they can see their target, and that the target is within range.If an archer is facing a line of 20 guards, he can choose the 'target' just by wanting to. If he wants to 'target' the third guy on the left then he 100% 'targets' him. The 'target' part isn't a challenge; he's not going to mess up and accidentally 'target' the regimental goat!Choosing the target is not a problem. Successfully shooting his arrow into his target is the uncertain part; he needs to make an attack roll. This is the part that is like looking down a scope of a sniper rifle. You can't aim anywhere and expect the target you freely chose to be hit by the arrow. Unless you have a Homing Arrow, of course. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />If a caster, facing the same 20 guards, wants to cast hold person on the officer, then he must target the officer. Now, he might be wrong about who the officer is (there could be some disguise shenanigans going on) but if he targets 'that guy with all the gold braid shouting at the others' then the caster doesn't need to precisely aim anything at all. It doesn't matter if it's a different guy in disguise, it doesn't matter if he's protected by blur or disguise self or mirror image, that guy gets 'targeted' 100%. Whether he actually gets held is the part that is uncertain (save please!), not the 'choosing to target' him.If the caster wants to cast magic missile at the officer, he does not have to precisely aim at the guy in order to 'target' that guy. Just like the archer or the caster of other spells like hold person, choosing to 'target' that guy is automatically 100% reliable. Just like the others, it doesn't matter if the guy is protected by blur/disguise self/mirror image, because choosing to target a creature never has any uncertainty. The uncertainty comes in if the attacker needs an attack roll or the target gets a save.Magic missile just has to be 'targeted'; it does not have to be 'aimed'. To use a modern analogy, it's 'locked on' to it's target (automatically 100%), even if its target is 'the guy with the images'. It doesn't need to be aimed. Just choose the target and press the button and the missile will do the rest.It all makes sense, and this 'automatic targeting' is completely consistent with the rest of the 5E rules-set.Mirror image does not make it impossible to target the caster! The spell makes it impossible to tell which image is real, but the 'caster' is 'the guy made up of those 4 images'. If you don't need to precisely aim the spell if there is only 1 image to aim at then you don't have to precisely aim at the target if there are 4 or 400 images to aim at. 'Aiming' is not required!</blockquote>

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