Magic Missle: overpowered???

[Sravoff]

It seems overly powerful in my current game, but only because most of the party is built for personlity rather than power, and the party sorcerer is a machine gun. It is actually such a defining aspect of his character that he is moving into the Force missle mage PrC - giving up a caster level for better magic missles, it tops out at 7 missles instead of 5 (11th level /10th caster)
The sorcerer has no offensive 2nd level spells, so all combat is a choice of fireball or magic missle. He has been known to burn 2nd level slots for more magic missles, if the utility of an entire party with spider climb, false life or invisibility isn't necessary.

I wanna meet this guy!

-Sravoff

 

[Sravoff]

IMC, I simply cap 1st level spells at 5th level caster -- so you get up to three Magic Missiles.

The slow scaling *is* an excellent balance factor, up until it starts doing the same damage as Shocking Grasp.

-- N

So if it cast as a second level spell does the cap increase to 10th level? and third to 15th? That would be cool...

-Sravoff

 

[Sravoff]

My fault, 4d6

And yes, 2 scorching rays would be a problem at 4th level (it's 1 ray plus 1 every 4 levels over third)

I hate it when the short hand forgets the down side!

-Sravoff

 

[Staffan]

At lower levels, MM is balanced against other 1st-level spells by its slow scaling (a 5th level wizard could either do 5d4 to a nearby area with burning hands, 5d6 with a touch attack with shocking grasp, or an unerring 3d4+4 at a distance with magic missile). However, at higher levels it keeps scaling, so that at ninth level burning hands and shocking grasp still do the same damage as they did at fifth, while the magic missile has now caught up and is also doing 5d4+5 damage.

If you're going to change anything about magic missile, the first thing to do should probably be to limit it to three missiles, thereby capping it at the same level as burning hands and shocking grasp.

 

[Nifft]

So if it cast as a second level spell does the cap increase to 10th level? and third to 15th? That would be cool...

Interesting idea. Do you allow Fireball to go up to 15d6 if cast as a 5th level spell?

IMC, I do not allow such scaling.

-- N

 

[j_lovescoffee]

Anyway, why begrudge the sorcerer or wizard his 1d4+1 damage per round? It's not like he can keep it up indefinitely, no like some other classes that can deal out 1d6 damage with a ranged touch attack round after round.

Its not that I mind the damage later on. But a first level spell that has no saves, gets through DR, and is perfectly accurate? Seems a tad overpowered to me.

 

[j_lovescoffee]

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.

The damage isn't my gripe, nor is the scaling. Its the unerring hit as a first level spell, the cut through DR as a first level spell. It just seems overpowered to me. For a first level spell. I mean, if I just said - "Its piercing, not force damage" it might solve that problem nicely.

 

[ARandomGod]

The damage isn't my gripe, nor is the scaling. Its the unerring hit as a first level spell, the cut through DR as a first level spell. It just seems overpowered to me. For a first level spell. I mean, if I just said - "Its piercing, not force damage" it might solve that problem nicely.

At first level wizards often need that unerring auto-hit. The DR and no saves are to maintain it's viability at later levels, when the unerringness is no longer really an issue but resistances and saving throws become important.

All spells cut through DR, I'm assuming you mean energy resistance (you might not, but cutting through DR is one of the main strengths of a spellcaster, note that they don't cut through an unlimited number of times per day, which is the counterbalancing weakness) ... even then I don't see it as that big a deal, it's still subject to SR, and if/when a mage is reduced to using his MM spells just to cut through energy resistance he really, really needs it. But that's really simply fixed if that's your main gripe, just say that it has to be one of the "real" energy types, although to maintain it's flexibility I'd allow the exact type to be chosen at memorization (but what about sorcs? Hey, they need it even more, so few spells)... however as a house rule you can still have it be reset every morning, letting the sorc choose then for the day.

 

[Ferrix]

The damage isn't my gripe, nor is the scaling. Its the unerring hit as a first level spell, the cut through DR as a first level spell. It just seems overpowered to me. For a first level spell. I mean, if I just said - "Its piercing, not force damage" it might solve that problem nicely.

And for a first level wizard, they get at most 2 of these a day. For a whopping 2d4+2 damage burning their two 1st level spells. Even if they are auto-hits which cut through DR, that's an average of 7 damage for both of the wizards most powerful spells at that level. A fighter with a mediocre strength and a great sword (2d6 damage) will average 7 damage before strength bonus, all day, on every swing so long as he connects, while it may not be every swing, he can do it every round all combat long.

The low level wizard is better of using spells which cause various effects (sleep, color spray, grease) to disable and control the battlefield or take out opponents instantly rather then wasting their magic on a piddly amount of damage. At low levels dealing damage is the fighters job.

Heck, the wizard could pick up a greatsword, cast true strike and deal the same amount of damage nearly guaranteed on all but 1 in 20 chances at first level. Even with the non-proficiency penalty.

I think you're nit-picking over something which although it might be a more powerful 1st level spell later on (past 5th level), is definately not over-powered at 1st level when the things that make magic missile "powerful" are something most 1st level characters should not be encountering (damage reduction and very high AC's).