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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Etan Moonstar" data-source="post: 935968" data-attributes="member: 7762">For purposes of targetting, the figment is considered to be a creature, because it appears to be that creature to the spellcaster.  Thus magic missile can target a figment, and when it strikes the figment, the figment disappears (having been struck by a targetted source of damage).  The best way of getting rid of images, in fact, is to target a separate image with each missile (magic missile creates up to 5 missiles, independently targetable).Let's compare the effects of other spells.As per the PHB description, area effect spells do not destroy figments--the figments instead appear to be affected by the spell.  Thus untargetted sources of damage do not destroy images; the image merely appears to be damaged.This covers two situations--targetted sources of damage, and untargetted sources of damage.  This brings us to the type of spell we are debating about--targetted spells which are not a source of damage.Let us refer to our primary sources on mirror image to look for an answer to this question.By reading the FAQ, we see that the question being answered is about area effect spells (not about targetted spells of any type).  The answer to the question reaffirms that untargetted (area of effect) spells do not destroy images, and it then informs you how you can tell if a spell is area of effect or not (if it has a target or requires an attack roll to hit, it is not area of effect and CAN therefore destroy an image).  Granted, the way the answer is worded ("targetted spells do [destroy figments]") is not as clear as I would have written, but this is why we must look at the context in which this statement is made--answering a question about area of effect spells.  The obvious interpretation is that no area of effect spell can destroy a figment, but a qualified (i.e. damage-dealing) targetted spell does destroy a figment.  The FAQ, taken in context, says nothing about non-damaging targetted spells destroying figments.So let us turn to the PHB and see if therein we can learn what effect non-damaging targetted spells have on figments.The PHB, as it turns out, says nothing about non-damaging spells used on mirror images.  It does state two things which can be used to create a logical and balanced extrapolation, however: 1. images disappear when struck (this is the only thing listed as causing them to disappear), and 2. images affected by non-targetted (area of effect) spells appear to be affected by the spell.Here it may be useful to clarify what "strike" means in the PHB.  A search of the SRD (for convenience, as it is quicker to search for a term in a document than to carefully read the entire PHB) for the words "strike" and "struck" reveals that EVERY time strike/struck is used, it's context gives it the meaning "to hit for damage"--unarmed strike, strike an object, strike a weapon, falling block trap striking multiple characters, etc.It becomes fairly clear, then, that only striking (i.e. dealing targetted damage to) an image makes it disappear.  So what happens to an image affected by hold person or message?  Extrapolating from what the image does when hit by an area of effect spell (such as fireball), the image appears to be affected by the spell.  So the image is held, appears to hear your whispered image, etc., but continues to exist until struck (receiving targetted damage).</blockquote>

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