Level
1st
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
120 ft
Components
V, S
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Evocation
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Force
You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range. A dart deals 1d4 + 1 force damage to its target. The darts all strike simultaneously, and you can direct them to hit one creature or several.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the spell creates one more dart for each slot level above 1st.
For anyone lost af on how this spell works:
The three darts automatically hit unless stopped by Shield, which is another spell, or something that specifically says it blocks it. If it is not Shield or whatever else that says it specifically blocks this spell, it automatically hits, guaranteeing damage (which is one of the main reasons why it's so friggin good).
Now, it's up to interpretation, but the most balanced way I've found for rolling damage is to roll a d4 for each dart (as in, 3d4+3 instead of (1d4+1)x3). You can use either method, but it's more fun and a lot more balanced in my experience to use 3d4+1. It also says that A DART does 1d4+1 instead of specifically noting that you would roll 1d4+1 and multiply.
In other words, if you choose to, you can roll 1d4+1 for each individual dart that you create. At higher levels it can bog down the game a bit, but I'd ask my DM if you can change it over once it gets to really high levels, just to save time. Either way is fine.
I don't see any difference in "a dart deals 1d4+1", "all darts deal 1d4+1", "all darts deal 1d4+1 each" or "each dart deals 1d4+1"
As it all comes down to the same statement and doesn't solve anything, it's still a matter of interpretation.
It would been easier to simply implement a wording like "roll 1d4+1 force damange once, this damage is applied to each dart" or "roll 1d4+1 force damage for every dart separately".
I agree that Crawfords statement is kinda nonsense, especially the with the second ruling that each dart is a separate damage source, causing concentration/death saves for EACH dart, yet you only roll once because it's "supposed to be an aoe-spell" where this rule does NOT apply.
So he has to make up his mind. either we roll for each missile individually, or it's just ONE source of damage. You can't have both, UNLESS they don't hit simultaneously.
What about if you are on a boat and fire magic missile at a fish under the water. You automatically hit what you see but this is the refracted image of the fish not which does not appear to be in the same place as the actual fish. As the spell unerringly hits what you see it hits where refraction makes the fish appear to be and thus automatically misses the fish every time.
In this case it will never hit the intended target and always miss it!
Takko: I cast Magic Missile
The classic TAZ spell
What materials are required? What motion is needed for casting?
pew pew pew
I have just learned that the official explanation of damage for this spell (and eldritch blast, scorching ray, and chain lightning) is you only roll the damage die once and apply it to all darts.
A 5th level magic missile (7 darts) targeting 7 different creatures, you roll 1d4+1 and apply that to all targets. You do not roll 7d4. You can thank Jeremy Crawford for this stupid ruling.
According to Jeremy Crawford you only roll 1d4 regardless of the number of darts made and apply that damage to all darts, which would make this add the d8 to all darts.
Edit: it's a non-issue magic missiles isn't an artificer spell
Die or survive on live
Accord
When rolling damage, it only does one bolt at a time and when it gets to a higher level it gets hard to calculate damage.
I look at this issue a little differently.
The first sentence describes what the spell actually does, in this case the spell creates "...three glowing darts of magical force." The rest of the text describes the properties of these darts.
First indicating the targeting requirements: creature, seen, in range.
Then indicating how much damage they do (unfortunately, the wording is still too vague and either, one roll, or multiple rolls, could be reasonably interpreted, though I feel one roll makes a stronger case).
And finally indicating that they strike simultaneously, and the freedom to target one or several targets.
An interesting implication of this approach is that the level 10 evoker ability would NOT apply at all! This is because the spell itself (by this reading) is not dealing damage, it is only creating the darts, and the darts are what do the damage. (Obviously this is an odd interpretation that would also affect other spells like Scorching Ray, but not Eldritch Blast.)
I use a similar approach to adjudicating the famous "Goodberry/Life Cleric" combo. The spell Goodberry does not actually restore hitpoints, it just makes magic berries. So for a life cleric with Goodberry, (through multi-class or feats) casts it, they are not actually casting a spell that restores hitpoints, so their Disciple of Life does not apply.
Regarding the death save 1 vs many failures question: This shouldn't even be relevant; unless you are homebrewing something interesting, death saves are only for PC's damaged by enemy NPC's (unless PvP but screw PvP). So the only scenario that many saves creates is a PC being killed by the DM with one action and a level 1 spell slot. We as DM's are supposed to facilitate everyone at the table being able to have fun, and that is a very un-fun way to approach potentially killing a PC.
I am aware that there are many ways to insta-kill a PC, like with massive damage, Disintigrate, Power Word Kill, etc. but those would require either high-level spells, large damage outputs, or other extra resources, not a level 1 spell without a save.
Regarding one or many concentration checks: Meh, adjudicate as you please, as long as it applies equally to both PC's and NPC's.
Do you add your spellcasting ability modifier to the damage roll?
yes
Okay question, so casting it shows as one ability. So does that mean the caster uses their turn to "cast" this spell, and the second turn the missile's hit the target?
Awhile back, while I was running my first short campaign, a player of mine who was a druid of the land (at level 12) decided to summon a fire elemental and then turn into a fire elemental himself (I messed up not knowing only Moon Druids can do that, but whatever) kill a bartender (because the NPC would not give the player any alcohol), and then explode the tavern killing 12 other NPC's.
A band of soldiers came rushing towards the plume of smoke and screams. A band of soldiers was 1 captain of the guard, and 10 soldiers behind him. 5 on the captains right, and 5 on the captains left. All soldiers, including the captain, could cast magic missile at level 1 because they were all taught this by their general who was a level 17 warlock. The guards came before this player and told him to surrender or he would be put down. The murder hobo that was my player refused, and so the magic missiles were shot. I didn't know that magic missile was supposed to work like this: [1d4 + 1 x 30], so instead I rolled [10d4 + 10 x 3] - He still nevertheless took 108 points of force damage, did not die, turned into a Titanoboa (still didn't know he couldn't do that), and escaped into the nearby river (which should not have been able to house such a beast). xD
Add more powwaaaaa
yes
Remember tho can't use spells while raging
Single 1d4+1× darts