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<blockquote data-quote="Galfridus" data-source="post: 807906" data-attributes="member: 119">Magic Missile rant on.Staple or not, Magic Missile is too powerful as is. 1) It has excellent range, never misses and has no saving throw. This makes it hard for the DM to include low HP foes, as they will always (unless they have Shield) get zapped. Oh yeah, and cover/concealment doesn't matter either -- if you can see it, you can zap it.2) It's a force effect, so it hits incorporeal creatures automatically and has no resistance built in. This means that right from level 1, incorporeal creatures lose a lot of their &quot;mystique&quot;. Oooh, a ghost -- BZZZT. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown&nbsp; &nbsp; :("&nbsp; data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />3) And of course, it scales very well, retaining it's usefulness for a long time.It's so good that any character who can take it would be foolish not to take it. It's far, far better than any other 1st level attack spell -- so taking any other 1st level attack spell is just a bad call.I'm rather dismayed that all they could think to try for 3.5 was the same failed idea as they tried in the 3e playtest. Some ideas I have toyed with:-- Does 1d4 damage instead of 1d4+1. Probably not enough.-- Does elemental damage (fire, probably) instead of force. At least then an Endure Elements will render you immune.-- Ranged touch attack.Personally, I wouldn't start another campaign without changing it, just to provide some variety in low level attack spells.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Galfridus, post: 807906, member: 119"] Magic Missile rant on. Staple or not, Magic Missile is too powerful as is. 1) It has excellent range, never misses and has no saving throw. This makes it hard for the DM to include low HP foes, as they will always (unless they have Shield) get zapped. Oh yeah, and cover/concealment doesn't matter either -- if you can see it, you can zap it. 2) It's a force effect, so it hits incorporeal creatures automatically and has no resistance built in. This means that right from level 1, incorporeal creatures lose a lot of their "mystique". Oooh, a ghost -- BZZZT. :( 3) And of course, it scales very well, retaining it's usefulness for a long time. It's so good that any character who can take it would be foolish not to take it. It's far, far better than any other 1st level attack spell -- so taking any other 1st level attack spell is just a bad call. I'm rather dismayed that all they could think to try for 3.5 was the same failed idea as they tried in the 3e playtest. Some ideas I have toyed with: -- Does 1d4 damage instead of 1d4+1. Probably not enough. -- Does elemental damage (fire, probably) instead of force. At least then an Endure Elements will render you immune. -- Ranged touch attack. Personally, I wouldn't start another campaign without changing it, just to provide some variety in low level attack spells. [/QUOTE]

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