Mirror Image vs Magic Missile

[gnfnrf]

Answer: They are indistinguishable (barring a special circumstance). You can't apriori chose the spell caster from among the possible targets. If you chose a target that is an invalid target for the spell Magic Missile, your spell fails.

If they are indistinguishable, how can Magic Missile target some of them and not the rest? Maybe they are indistinguishable to Magic Missile as well?

--
gnfnrf

 

[Nail]

If they are indistinguishable, how can Magic Missile target some of them and not the rest?

You can chose any target you like. (The spell does not chose for you.) Just because all of the potential targets are indistinguishable doesn't mean you can't chose one of them.

If the target is invalid, the spell "is wasted".

 

[Merkuri]

You know, one could read the magic missile description in a way to allow targeting of anything, but any inanimate objects targeted are simply not damaged. The missile hits it, and disappears.

I would rule that in the case of targetting the wrong mirror image figure, the spell would hit the image, but do no damage. The fact that it hit, however, means the image disappears, the same way an axe blow doesn't "damage" the image, but eliminates it.

 

[wildstarsreach]

You can chose any target you like. (The spell does not chose for you.) Just because all of the potential targets are indistinguishable doesn't mean you can't chose one of them.

If the target is invalid, the spell "is wasted".

9th level caster fires off a magic missile with five missiles. The target including himself has 6 images. I state hit with one missile each images 1-5. By your statement, I would assume that all the images survive unless the wizard is one of images 1-5 and only that one would do damage. The four images survive because it's an invalid target. I like and use merkuri's suggestion that the nature of being hit destroys the target even if it does no damage.

 

[brehobit]

OK,
So this came up in a game a few days ago....

Cleric targeted a mirror-imaged caster with "blindness".

I've chosen to rule that
A) he had to roll to see if he got the real one and
B) it caused the image to go away.

B is, pretty clearly, a house rule. I'm just curious what others do here (I've never had it come up before...)

Mark

 

[Merkuri]

...
Cleric targeted a mirror-imaged caster with "blindness".
...
B) it caused the image to go away.

I think that's fair. Hitting an image with any effect (minus area effect spells, which are specifically called out in the mirror image description as not causing images to go away) would make them go away, even those that don't normally do damage.

The spell description says, "The figments stay near you and disappear when struck." I'd rule that "struck" doesn't limit it to physical attacks, but applies to targetted spells as well.

 

[Nail]

9th level caster fires off a magic missile with five missiles. The target including himself has 6 images. I state hit with one missile each images 1-5.

Then the Magic Missile spell has an invalid target and "is wasted".

I like and use merkuri's suggestion that the nature of being hit destroys the target even if it does no damage.

I use a house rule that you can target the images with Magic Missile. I do not use a more lenient house rule that any targeted spell can destroy the images.

 

[KarinsDad]

These particular illusions are also not inananimate. Indeed, they are specifically animate.

Not really relevant.

Figments are not objects, regardless of whether they are animate or not.

Figments are spell effects.

There are effectively 3 game elements: creatures, objects, effects.

A figment is not a creature, hence, cannot be targeted. Even though Magic Missile calls out that it cannot affect objects, it also cannot affect effects either unless the effect explicilty states that Magic Missile can affect it. Mirror Image is not an effect that states this.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The spell description says, "The figments stay near you and disappear when struck." I'd rule that "struck" doesn't limit it to physical attacks, but applies to targetted spells as well.

Ooh, I use Message, then.

Targeted spell, and handles twice as many as Magic Missile!

If someone has 8 images up, a 9th level caster only gets 5 missiles, so he'll need two spells to clear all the images away. But he gets nine targets for his Message spell - that's all eight images plus the original target!

-Hyp.

 

[Nail]

Mirror Images just HATE being whispered to.




...since they can't whisper back....