Why does't magic missile have a save?

[EOL]

As most have said it was designated a "sacred cow" though as others have mentioned despite that designation they tried to change it and then got playtester feedback along the lines of "leave Magic Missile alone." In any event what's done is done, I'm noticing a lot of what might be called second generation moaning lately. First generation was people complaining about things that were obviously broken and most of that has been resolved in one fashion or another. Second generation is stuff that is not 100% balanced, but nevertheless has no tangible game-effect if it's just left alone, people have to complain about something so when all the good targets are gone. People take up the scraps start complaining about that.

Yes, magic missile is not 100% balanced, yes you can house rule it if you want, NO, leaving it as it is will not break anything!

 

[Galfridus]

Yes, magic missile is not 100% balanced, yes you can house rule it if you want, NO, leaving it as it is will not break anything!

I totally agree that this is "second generational moaning". However, I disagree that it doesn't break anything.

Right now Magic Missile is /the/ 1st level damage spell, hands down. Arcane Bolt, the Lesser Orbs from T&B, all other 1st level damage spells pale before Magic Missile. Why? Because it is guaranteed damage. When fighting something with low hitpoints, you can guarantee that you will take it down in some number of rounds with Magic Missile. Since it's not one of the five "elemental" types of damage, it's hard to protect against without specialized spells. I see the effect of this imbalance every time someone makes an arcane spellcaster; it's incredibly hard not to pick Magic Missile, because it is so useful.

Now, it's true that my campaign isn't going to fall into the swamp because of this, but I would like to give players the feeling that they have some choice of 1st level spell. It's small enough that I'm not working into my existing campaign; but if I started again, I would.

 

[Tsyr]

As someone pointed out, there is a very easy spell to counter Magic Missle with...

In fact, there was a fairly large debate many months back about more or less this topic... Basicly, it was more or less agreed that, realisticly, Magic Missle would start to have very little use in a campagin world as a result... since every mage and his brother knew magic missle, every mage and his brother would probably know the counter too. Through in a persistant spell metamagic and viola... Magic Missle becomes sorta ineffective.

 

[Zappo]

My position is that yes, Magic Missile is much more powerful than all the other 1st level damaging spells, and that it should stay so. Why?

Short answer: it is a sacred cow. And that's a very good reason, BTW.

Long answer:
the power of Magic Missile has become not only a matter of rules, but also an aspect of the 'setting' of D&D. Part of the tone of the game, if you want. It's a wizard classic - it is the spell.
"I wanna cast a spell". What comes next?

The Magic Missile is practically a symbol of the whole game, something that when you speak about it, everyone knows that you are talking about D&D.

For that reasons, I think it can be allowed to be overpowered.

BTW, there are a gazillion spells that deal automatic damage, and even cleric have a few. Flame Strike comes to mind, but there are others. You can save, but you're going to get toasted at least a bit anyway (ok, unless you're a lucky rogue).

 

[MythandLore]

Don't mess with the Magic Missle, is good enuff as is.

"First Rule about the magic missle, don't talk about the magic missle."
"Second Rule about the Magic Missle, don't talk about the Magic Missle."
"And the third Rule about the MAGIC-MISSLE is don't talk about the MAGIC-MISSLE!"

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Your MM usually does less damage than the grunt or archer in the party when they connect. While auto-hit is an advantage, you do not get many per day...unless you are a Sorceror.

 

[Darkness]

Fortunately a 1st level spell (Shield) makes you immune to it, and there's a pretty cheap magic item (brooch of shielding) that does too. Unless I'm forgetting something...

What the Original Grand Poobah said!

Also, it can't be used against objects, you have to see your enemy to use it (whereas you could use burning hands even when you don't see the enemy), and since it's so common, pretty much every sorcerer or wizard out there can counterspell it!

 

[BluWolf]

The "WHY" answer to your question is no better than its the way it has always been and we don't want to piss off the loyal.

MY answer is, who cares? Its fine the way it is. I've never felt it was too powerful. AND if you are using sorcerers as written in the book, changing MM would take the PHB red headed step child and just throw him the dust.

But thats just my opinion.

 

[Altalazar]

First, there is a history.

Second, it can be so easily negated.

Third - it is just about the only useful offensive spell for a first level mage. And a first level mage gets like two spells, right?

How much would it suck to basically have one spell, no other skills worth mentioning, then you cast it and your one missile shoots out and NOTHING HAPPENS because they saved or you missed.

Otherwise, a simple BOW and ARROW would be much more powerful for a first level mage than magic missile.

That's why I think it is totally appropriate that it has no save. Especially maxing out at 5 missiles, automatic negation by sheild, and there are those pesky brooches as well.

 

[Pielorinho]

I figured out a great way to balance magic missile in my campaign:

I threw it out.

It's one of a very small set of spells that I won't allow arcane spellcasters to take -- still, every time someone creates an arcane spellcasting character, they ask if they can have MM.

People play lots of arcane magic users in my game, though, so apparently it hasn't hurt the sex appeal of arcane magic.

I don't like the spell's flavor, and I don't like its ubiquity. I want to create a Turkish-flavored campaign world; magic missile is too FR-flavored for me.

Daniel