Sick of Magic Missile

[Mark CMG]

It sounds like you might want to adapt the campaign a bit. If the group lived near a swamp and was breeding frogs to deal with an insect problem, would you lower the number of insects and eventually bring more predators into the area that would eat frogs or would you just let them know it worked and move on? You could have a large number of NPC arcanists using the spell, also, and have a large number of anti-MM devices start appearing on the market/scene. Of course, some players feel campaigns are more fun when the players are always having to react rather than the DM reacting to the players.. There will come a point where MM just isn't powerful enough to be used extensively anymore (becoming a waste of a round, in some battles), so you can probably just ignore it. Only you can determine how your group might feel about those possibilities, so good luck.

 

[William Ronald]

That's how you know it's too good. Haste was described as "the spell many players wrote on their sheets in ink," and that's pretty much magic missile's designation, too, after about 6th character level or so.

Monte Cook, in his Arcana Unearthed, even removed it (and some other spells) from the spell lists, replacing it with spells effective at first level, but decreasing in use further on.

As some suggestions:
--Make it a ranged touch attack
--make it fire damage instead of force damage
--replace it with the lesser acid ball, fire call, electricity ball, etc. spells from Complete Arcane / Tome and Blood.

These are good suggestions. Also, I think Mudball from Arcana Unearthed -- which is a ranged touch attack spell -- also has the benefit of a PC saying to a foe "Here's mud in your eye."

Another option besides changing the energy type is to change the appearance. So, instead of magic missiles appearing perhaps small magical daggers appear then vanish. (There is a great article in Dragon 200 about changing the appearance of spells, as well as some other details to create spells that fit a csster's style. So, an ice wizard may have a magic missile spell that launches shards of ice.)

 

[DaveMage]

This reply makes me feel like you didn't read any part of my post but the title.

I don't mind that it's effective, I care that it's dull. In my experience, from a mechanical standpoint at least, a fighter swinging has sword has a lot greater variety of options and considerations regarding the opponents capabilities and tactical position than does the magic missile slinger. At least the opponents qualities - armor, dex, class abilities, etc - figure into the AC, and the fighter is often maneuvering for cleaves, making charges, choosing power attack amounts, fighting defensively. There's just enough more variety there to keep it interesting for me when designing and running opponents.

A golem tends to trump all spells, so that's not really a magic missile specific solution, is it?


Edit - Just to be clear, while I do find Magic Missile to be lacking in flavor, my bigger beef is that it's mechanically dull.

Well, since you are having an emotional reaction to a spell ("it's dull"), a logical argument on the merits of the spell probably won't change your mind.

Emotionally, I think the magic missile spell is cool.

You wanna spice it up by changing it - do it.

So there.

 

[Henry]

I don't follow your logic here. Are you saying a 6th level mage would choose to cast 3 1d4+1 magic missiles over a 6d6 fireball?...Or are you saying that it's a great 1st-level spell for a 6th-level caster?

No, no, I'm talking about the latter - that most 6th level wizards might have magic missile, maybe one feather fall, and darned little else in his 1st level slots. Any spell that becomes the only useful spell in a given level means that it's probably out of the league for that level of spells. You'll always have the utility casters, those guys who stock all manner of 1st level utility spells, but 9 times out of 10 the caster will stock magic missile, and carry any utility spells on scroll to have in emergency.

 

[DaveMage]

No, no, I'm talking about the latter - that most 6th level wizards might have magic missile, maybe one feather fall, and darned little else in his 1st level slots. Any spell that becomes the only useful spell in a given level means that it's probably out of the league for that level of spells. You'll always have the utility casters, those guys who stock all manner of 1st level utility spells, but 9 times out of 10 the caster will stock magic missile, and carry any utility spells on scroll to have in emergency.

True. However, I don't think it's too powerful since as you get up in levels, especially 10+, magic missile, while it's on most arcane caster's lists, becomes used very infrequently (at least, in my experience).

 

[JoeBlank]

From the WotC website, the old Spellbook feature:

"New this month, we have a spell that player characters can use as an alternative to the ever-popular magic missile. It’s an interesting option from the player’s perspective, in that it offers a higher damage potential. However, the target gets a save. Try them both, and decide for yourself!

Arcane Bolt

Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets: Up to five creatures, no two of which can be more than 15 ft.
apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

A bolt of magical energy shoots forth from your fingertips at its target, dealing 1d6+1 points of damage.

For every two levels of experience past 1st, you gain an additional bolt, which you fire at the same time. You have two at 3rd level, three at 5th level, four at 7th level, and the maximum of five bolts at 9th level or higher. If you shoot multiple bolts, you can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single bolt can strike only one creature. You must designate targets before you roll for SR or roll damage.

This spell counts as magic missile for spell, items, or special qualities that protect a target from magic missile, such as a brooch of shielding and shield."

http://wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20001001a

Written by Monte Cook

 

[Slobber Monster]

True. However, I don't think it's too powerful since as you get up in levels, especially 10+, magic missile, while it's on most arcane caster's lists, becomes used very infrequently (at least, in my experience).

I agree, and I'm looking forward to hitting those levels for this reason. Like I said, my group is pretty much in the sweet spot for its effectiveness right now.

Really I just wanted to vent. I'm not going to nerf it - I'd rather let them have their fun, and they're not really stealing spotlight time. Plus I think the Sorcerer is going for whatever the force effect focused prestige class is from Complete Arcane (Argent Savant, maybe?). Hopefully he'll have fun using Telekenesis which I know I would enjoy more.

 

[diaglo]

From the WotC website, the old Spellbook feature:

"New this month, we have a spell that player characters can use as an alternative to the ever-popular magic missile. It’s an interesting option from the player’s perspective, in that it offers a higher damage potential. However, the target gets a save. Try them both, and decide for yourself!

Arcane Bolt

Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets: Up to five creatures, no two of which can be more than 15 ft.
apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

A bolt of magical energy shoots forth from your fingertips at its target, dealing 1d6+1 points of damage.

For every two levels of experience past 1st, you gain an additional bolt, which you fire at the same time. You have two at 3rd level, three at 5th level, four at 7th level, and the maximum of five bolts at 9th level or higher. If you shoot multiple bolts, you can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single bolt can strike only one creature. You must designate targets before you roll for SR or roll damage.

This spell counts as magic missile for spell, items, or special qualities that protect a target from magic missile, such as a brooch of shielding and shield."

http://wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20001001a

Written by Monte Cook

which is closer to what magic missile was Originally. OD&D (1974)

you had to roll to hit with the Original version. but it did that damage.

 

[Henry]

which is closer to what magic missile was Originally. OD&D (1974)

you had to roll to hit with the Original version. but it did that damage.

Yeah, and it was like, one bolt per six levels, wasn't it? My memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember something different about the number of missiles, too.

 

[RangerWickett]

You can't really fix the problem without taking away the spell. Would that piss off your players?

What if you said this: Instead of having magic missile as a spell, every arcane spellcaster gets an automatic 'arcane blast' attack. It's a ranged touch attack, range increment 30 ft., and does 1d6 damage. You can sacrifice spell levels (either prepared or spontaneous) to increase the damage, but it can never do more dice than your character level.

And, depending on the spell selection of the character, give the attack some extra options. So a fire-heavy mage could make his attack set things on fire. A necromancer could make anyone he kills with it rise as a zombie for a few rounds. An illusionist could cause any illusions he's controlling to explode with arcane energy, hurting people around them but cancelling the spell.

The benefit is that, hey, the spellcaster is always armed. They don't need to have any spell slots left. They just mutter some words, point, and shoot. They even get to decide how powerful it is. But it's not unerring like magic missile. That should be more flavorful, right?