Magic Missle: overpowered???

[j_lovescoffee]

"A missle of magical energy darts forth from your fingertip and strikes its targe, dealing 1d4+1 points of force damage. The missle strikes unerringly, even if the target is in melee combat..."

I've always thought this was a rather overpowered spell - near as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong) this gets past most DR, damages every kind of creature despite most protections (there's no "protection from force" spell out there, for instance), and, as the description states, goes unerringly to the target.

I'm thinking of downgrading the spell for the upcoming campaign I'm running, but I'm wondering if all the monsters and their CRs were built assuming someone in the party could cast MM? What are folks' thoughts on that? Also, what do folks think the best way to downgrade is? I've thought of making the damage piercing instead of force or of making it a ranged touch attack... other thoughts?

 

[Kirin'Tor]

I find Magic Missle to be an extremly handy spell to have, even at high levels, as a wizard... I wouldn't call it overpowered at those levels, tho. At most I might call it a 2nd level spell, if I was rounding up. I'd call it a Level 1.75 spell, if spells had levels liek that.

Now, as to the CR of creatures, I'd imagine some _are_ assuming MM's get thrown around in the battle. MM is a 1st level spell for both main Arcane casters, and while I can't speak directly for the designers, I do know that the 'acid test' party for CR includes an arcane caster (and thus MM).

 

[smootrk]

MM is very handy, and maybe slightly out of balance. However, you are dealing with a Sacred Cow of D&D. I cannot imagine the game without MM's flying everywhere when mages do battle.

If you think it is out of balance, just make a point of having your NPC's and other foes have the spell at their disposal as well. Instant balance in many situations.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've always thought this was a rather overpowered spell - near as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong) this gets past most DR, damages every kind of creature despite most protections (there's no "protection from force" spell out there, for instance)

Not a complete answer, but there is a 1st level spell which completely negates it (Shield), arguably better than a 'protection from force' spell...

 

[Eternalknight]

As Kirin'Tor stated, it's one of those spells that is at the upper end of the level 1 spells in terms of power. Still, I wouldn't go as far as making it level 2; maybe make the wizard casting it make a ranged touch attack (or, my favourite, a ranged attack using Intelligence as the modifier instead of Dexterity).

 

[Victim]

Magic Missile isn't overpowered. While its damage is reliable, it also scales more slowly than say burning hands and is basically single target. Given the energy resistances and high saves of many monsters (mainly outsiders, or buffed paladins), it seems that magic missile (and other similar hard to resist spells) were considered so the caster can have something to do.

 

[Spatzimaus]

MM is very efficient at single-target damage; like you said, there are very few spells that can stop it (Shield, Spell immunity, the Globes of invulnerability, etc.), and it's only a first-level spell. But, at high level, in my experience, the limiting factor is TIME. What's the point of using a Magic Missile when I can drop meteors on my target in the same 6-second round? No matter how you cut it, an unenhanced MM will never do more than 25 damage, and typically will average 17-18. When my alternatives are save-or-die, area-effect, or both... what's the point? In other words, MM at high level becomes the fallback spell, the one you cast when nothing else seems to work; it won't do much, but it's better than nothing. And if you're a Sorcerer approaching 20th level, it's not even really the best choice for that; there are plenty of 2nd and 3rd level attack spells, and it's practically guaranteed ONE of them will work.

But let's say you're just doing a low-level comparison, comparing MM to other 1st-level spells.
The first thing to realize is that elemental resistances are RARE at low level. The various fire spells (Burning Hands) remain a better source of raw damage until level 10ish, in my experience.
The second point is saves. A no-save spell is great, of course, but many other spells come close to that; with a casting stat of 18, you're looking at DC 15 for a level 1 spell, and at low levels, most characters would be lucky to beat that half the time (especially if you tailor spells to the target). Towards higher level those low-level attacks become worthless, but as I pointed out above, that's true of MM, too.
So while on paper MM beats the other 1st-level attack spells, in practice it's not really a huge difference.

Now, since this is the House Rule forum, I'll mention something we tried. Our biggest complaint for MM was that it was just too... general. We wanted our spells to be more rock-paper-scissors, and so we switched MM to be more of an anti-caster spell. What we did was this:
> Drop the damage to a flat 2 per bolt.
> The DC of any Concentration check a target attempts during the next round increases by the amount of MM damage taken, as if the MM was an interrupting spell. (You can use MM as a readied action to interrupt a spell, but there's no additional bonus, it's still 10+damage)
> Even if there's no other trigger for a Concentration check, a target attempting to cast any spell during the next round has to make a Concentration check, DC 10 + (MM damage/2), as if taking continuous damage.

It actually became a pretty popular spell to have around; by high level, DC 15-20 isn't that hard to reach, but if you can get two or more people to cast MMs at one target, you can still shut him down. And, it gave us room to add higher-level versions of the same concept.

 

[ElvishBard]

Magic missle is rather weak in my opinion. At low levels, it is only 5 damage max, and you could do more than that using a bow easily (crossbow or longbow). The only things it has going for it is the fact that it never misses and is useful against incorpal stuff. At the low levels color spray is much more effective, and at higher levels magic missle is just a I want to help spell but not use the good stuff.

It is fun to use with a spell weaver (MM2) though, casting 6 magic missles that can do 25 damage each hurts really bad .

 

[ARandomGod]

As Kirin'Tor stated, it's one of those spells that is at the upper end of the level 1 spells in terms of power. Still, I wouldn't go as far as making it level 2; maybe make the wizard casting it make a ranged touch attack (or, my favourite, a ranged attack using Intelligence as the modifier instead of Dexterity).

Making it a ranged touch attack... My arcane trickster would *love* that alteration. That would increase the power level of the spell dramatically!

Ahem.

Anyhow, it's a good spell, but I don't really think it needs to be nerfed. It's situational, it's handy, and more often than not it's a fallback spell. Very good in certain cased, and a spell that either is rarely used or is used last after all your better spells have been exhausted.

 

[Sravoff]

If you make it ranged touch that allows for critical hits. And for feats like improved critical, I think, and should be.....I say fine the way it is. Sords and sorcery had flaming missle or something that was an extra missle ever two level above first, no cap, and required a ranged touch attack. oh, and did fire damage. I didn't like that.....

-Sravoff