magic missle house rules?

[Shard O'Glase]

It's not the effect... it's the likelihood the spell will be in effect at any given time.

To get Shield working on someone else, you need to pull tricks with Ioun Stones. And they need to decide when to activate their short-term Magic Missile barrier.


-Hyp.

Or just have broaches of shielding. At the low epic range I'd find it much more likely to see a party equiped with broches of shielding with some spares, than to see a party totally protected by mind blank. It's an 8th level spell and you don't get that many of them even at epic levels.

 

[Darklone]

Give my brain a bump, what's wrong with potions of shield?

 

[LGodamus]

Though in this case, if the party wizard or sorceror wins Initiative, the damage can be significintally reduced. (Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, heck).

And there is the question if 150 mages can be on a single battlefield. If the answer is no, then it`s merely a very theoretical situation.

or he could use the shield spell and block them all?

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I reduced Quicken Spell to +2 spell levels IMC for this reason. Now that haste has been nerfed, the boom spell guys need the ability to crank up the damage output if they're going to seriously compete with the big sword guys. Of course, I also dumped a lot of instakill spells.

For higher level casters, the real cost of MM is an Action. Whether MM is a 0th, 1st, or 2nd level spell matters extremely little. 3rd starts to really hurt because you would be giving up beefy spells that even a high level Wiz hates to do without, e.g. Fly, Dispel Magic, Haste, Clairvoyance, etc.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Give my brain a bump, what's wrong with potions of shield?

From the SRD:

CREATING POTIONS
The creator of a potion needs a level working surface and at least a few containers in which to mix liquids, as well as a source of heat to boil the brew. In addition, he needs ingredients. The costs for materials and ingredients are subsumed in the cost for brewing the potion—25 gp x the level of the spell x the level of the caster. All ingredients and materials used to brew a potion must be fresh and unused. The character must pay the full cost for brewing each potion. (Economies of scale do not apply.)

The imbiber of the potion is both the caster and the target. Spells with a range of personal cannot be made into potions.

-Hyp.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I don't like MM because the mechanic is different, not because it's overpowered.

But I've seen too many high level spellcasters not use fireball but MM instead because of this difference in mechanics. That's why I don't like the spell as written.

At higher levels, I think the problem is with the mechanics for Fireball. Fire resistance (and Evasion) are fairly common.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

My MM variant:

Reflex save to avoid each missile
No Reflex save bonuses from cover apply (missiles are seeking)
Damage bumped up to 1d8 per missile

My players are fine with it. It's not a sure shot, but there's actually some fun in the uncertaintly of how many missiles will hit. When they do, the damage is 1 pt higher than MM standard per missile (4.5 instead of 3.5) with a wider range of possible outcomes (1-8 instead of 2-5). The critical factor here is that because of the Reflex save, the usefulness of the spell decreases with increasing level of opponents (as their Reflex save bonuses go up). Gee, a 1st level spell that is more useful against low level opponents than high levels ones. Not like there's precedent for that or anything

 

[Darklone]

From the SRD:
The imbiber of the potion is both the caster and the target. Spells with a range of personal cannot be made into potions.

-Hyp.

Thankee...

Would have been too easy

 

[Mr.WaeseL]

On the other hand, those 150+ 1st level wizards could all have prepared Charm Person instead. The odds of rolling 4 natural 1s on 150 saves is much greater than 50-50.

1 - 0.05^3*0.95^147*150!/(3!*(147!)) +
0.05^2*0.95^148*150!/(2!*(148!)) + 0.05^1*0.95^149*150!/(1!*(149!)) +
0.05^0*0.95^150*150!/(0!*(150!)) = 0.981538

So the chance of rolling 4 or more natural 1's is 98.15 %

The chance for exactly 4 natural 1's is 0.05^4*0.95^146*150!/(4!*(146!)) = 0.0708226 wich is 7.08%, a bit lower than 50-50

 

[Plane Sailing]

Interestingly, when Magic Missile was first introduced in the Greyhawk supplement it did conjured a magic arrow which did 1d6+1 damage - and wizards got an additional two arrows for every five levels.

Of course, having your one 1st level spell a one-shot magic arrow wasn't dreadfully attractive, and it was rarely taken in those days IME!