Hi there, I am a DM and one of my players has asked an interesting question regarding the Melf's Minute Meteors spell: what do the meteors do while not thrown?

Specifically, if he, as a small creature, would enter the space of a medium or alrger creature, wouldn't the meteors explode on impact just circling around him? I don't really know how to rule this, so any pointers on logic and balancing it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

The meteors orbit harmlessly, I guess they will avoid anything else in the immediate environment.

The spell description only indicates what happens when one is launched at a target - therefore nothing happens until they are launched.

Agreed. If a spells says it does something it does. If it doesn't say it, it doesn't do it.

You create six tiny meteors in your space. They float in the air and orbit you for the spell’s duration.

Now, if you as the DM want to wander away from that as a table rule, I might urge reconsidering. 

Quote from Kaavel >>

Agreed. If a spells says it does something it does. If it doesn't say it, it doesn't do it.

You create six tiny meteors in your space. They float in the air and orbit you for the spell’s duration.

Now, if you as the DM want to wander away from that as a table rule, I might urge reconsidering. 

 

 Yeah, I can just image a DM allowing this, and then the PC runs at the boss to get all 6 six triggered in the same round.

Take a look at the rules for interacting with an orbiting Ioun Stone.  I think interacting with Melf's Minute Meteors would be similar.

I don't think I understand the correlation of interaction with an Ioun Stone, and interacting with this particular spell effect. 

RAW, the spell doesn't interact with anything the way an Ioun Stone does.

Think of it like... those little throwable poppers they sell around 4th of July. They just contain some sand and silver fulminate, which just rests harmlessly unless enough kinetic force is put on them to cause a small explosion. Melf's Minute Meteors float weightlessly around the caster... maybe you could say that they bump harmlessly against any other object or creature that enters the space, but unless activated as part of the spell they never move with enough force to trigger the explosion.

The only challenge this runs into is if the character say... jumps off a cliff and bodyslams into an opponent. RAW, this shouldn't do anything, but I'd probably let a player trigger at least some of their meteor's in this manner, since they're basically catching themselves in the explosion and taking the fall damage as well. But it's not something I would want to become a regular tactic. Still, that's entirely homebrew, and I wouldn't assume that could happen unless confirming with the DM ahead of time that this trick will work as intended.

Quote from DanManPlanNan >>

Hi there, I am a DM and one of my players has asked an interesting question regarding the Melf's Minute Meteors spell: what do the meteors do while not thrown?

Specifically, if he, as a small creature, would enter the space of a medium or alrger creature, wouldn't the meteors explode on impact just circling around him? I don't really know how to rule this, so any pointers on logic and balancing it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

1. Bear in mind if the PC isn't a lightfoot halfling your question only makes sense in the context of riding a mount.
2. The meteors wouldn't automatically impact anything just like anything the PC is holding won't automatically impact anything. 
3. If you need to house-rule mechanics for something targeting a meteor, the suggestion in this thread that you have it work like Ioun Stones is a decent homebrew.  RAW, the meteors are attended objects and can't be independently targeted, in the same way you can't independently target an object someone is holding.