tomBitonti
Hero
Targetting is important
That magic missiles can only target creatures, that could be interpreted as a
requirement of a magic missile's ability to hone in their target unerringly: there
has to be a living (or semi-living: construct, undead, elemental) entity there to
lock onto and to damage. The force effect might only come into play when the
force of the spell achieves a focus on the target.
To provide an answer re: MM and MI, couldn't one just rule that "A magic missile,
one or more of a salvo from a single casting, may target a creature under the
effects of mirror image; in this case, the missile strikes randomly at the creature
or at one of the figments; if a figment is targetted, it is dissipated by the missile.
Note: this is an exception to the normal targetting rules for magic missile. Each
missile is directed at a random target, even if all were initially targetted at the
same image."
No particular logic; perhaps the result of an escalation between mages refining
magic missile and others refining mirror image, with the ability to target a mirror
image figment being a special enhancement added to magic missile, taking
advantage of the leaching through of the creatureness of the figments caused
by the random exchange of figments and the caster.
As a side note, the text of mirror image seems to imply that the shifting of the
caster amoung the images happens when the caster ** moves **. In that
case, if you get lucky to hit the caster on the first of iterative attacks, say,
from haste or from a high BAB, wouldn't you get to target the caster on your
remaining attacks? That's not how my groups play it, but an interesting reading.
Also, the text of the spell seems to imply that you can exchange positions with
an image. So, let's say that out of combat you string a line of four images across
a room with a deadly trap. The images don't set off the trap. (Or do they?)
Then you exchange yourself with the image on the far side of the room, neatly
bypassing the trap. Again, that's not how my groups play it, but fun interpretation.
(The two readings are probably mistaking movement as move actions, where the
spell text just means the basic shifting of the caster in place, not actual move
actions.)
Thx,
TFB
That magic missiles can only target creatures, that could be interpreted as a
requirement of a magic missile's ability to hone in their target unerringly: there
has to be a living (or semi-living: construct, undead, elemental) entity there to
lock onto and to damage. The force effect might only come into play when the
force of the spell achieves a focus on the target.
To provide an answer re: MM and MI, couldn't one just rule that "A magic missile,
one or more of a salvo from a single casting, may target a creature under the
effects of mirror image; in this case, the missile strikes randomly at the creature
or at one of the figments; if a figment is targetted, it is dissipated by the missile.
Note: this is an exception to the normal targetting rules for magic missile. Each
missile is directed at a random target, even if all were initially targetted at the
same image."
No particular logic; perhaps the result of an escalation between mages refining
magic missile and others refining mirror image, with the ability to target a mirror
image figment being a special enhancement added to magic missile, taking
advantage of the leaching through of the creatureness of the figments caused
by the random exchange of figments and the caster.
As a side note, the text of mirror image seems to imply that the shifting of the
caster amoung the images happens when the caster ** moves **. In that
case, if you get lucky to hit the caster on the first of iterative attacks, say,
from haste or from a high BAB, wouldn't you get to target the caster on your
remaining attacks? That's not how my groups play it, but an interesting reading.
Also, the text of the spell seems to imply that you can exchange positions with
an image. So, let's say that out of combat you string a line of four images across
a room with a deadly trap. The images don't set off the trap. (Or do they?)
Then you exchange yourself with the image on the far side of the room, neatly
bypassing the trap. Again, that's not how my groups play it, but fun interpretation.
(The two readings are probably mistaking movement as move actions, where the
spell text just means the basic shifting of the caster in place, not actual move
actions.)
Thx,
TFB
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