The Truth About D&D's Magic Missile May Surprise You - Meagan & Todd

Meagan and Todd Kenreck talks about some of the surprising aspects and rules regarding on of D&D's most famous spells Magic Missle.

We are a Dungeons and Dragons documentary. We interview the creators of D&D and people in the DnD community. Every week we post new videos on how D&D gets made and tips and tricks on being a player and a Dungeon Master. This show is made possible by the amazing Dungeons & Dragons community and by our subscribers on Patreon.

We are a Dungeons and Dragons documentary. We interview the creators of D&D and people in the DnD community. Every week we post new videos on how D&D gets made and tips and tricks on being a player and a Dungeon Master. This show is made possible by the amazing Dungeons & Dragons community and by our subscribers on Patreon.

[jamesbuckingham]

I rolled 1d4 once in 1981, and I've been using that result ever since.

[hpxp]

"I never thought this hard about magic missile."

Us too, Todd. Us too.

[chrisweed]

Rules as Written: the single damage roll for all missiles, story-wise, would mean each missile is the same power and so does the same damage.
Rolling damage for each missile, story-wise, means each missile strikes different areas of the body doing more or less damage.
Describing where each missile hits can be part of the narrative and can make for more dramatic combat.
Just my 2 cents ...

[aquachicken]

"I recognise that the Council has made a decision. But given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it." (Just a meme with love, you guys are great <3 )

[tobyforrest]

This is actually really interesting, makes it real fun if you get max damage, but real sad if you get min

[Kaladon]

"...roll the damage once for all of them..." Gotcha, roll all the d4s at once.

[Grey_Shard]

"playing since 1e" (raises coffee cup to salute fellow old gamer)

[seamiharte]

You guys missed the main controversy about Magic Missile. Concentration!
Jeremy says "Concentration: "You make a separate saving throw for each source of damage" (PH, 203). Roll for each missile."
Even though the spell says "The darts all strike simultaneously" and you only roll 1 die for all three missiles.

[philcapernaros]

Two observations. First, magic missile is not an area of effect spell, it is a point target spell that can have multiple point targets, and this makes a difference. Second, the rule quoted does not call for one die to be rolled and multiplied, it calls for all of the dice to be rolled and then applied to all affected targets equally, not the same thing.

[SCOMish]

rolling a single 1d4 also makes it a great signature spell for an Evocation Wizard.

[michaelbraem]

What I find interesting is that it says, "If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them." It does mention what to do if it deals damage to only one target. It says quite literally that you roll damage once *if a spell deals damage to more than one target at the same time*. If we're interpreting this correctly (English as written), rolling damage once would not necessarily apply if you're dealing all the damage to a single target, and I would argue that you could roll several d4 if all the darts were hitting the same creature.

[matthewcarvery]

This confusion comes from a rewording across editions. The 1e Players Handbook states that "Each missile does 2 to 5 hit points (d4 + 1) of damage." 1e Rules as written seem to intend that the missiles' damage be determined individually.

The wording in 5e is more ambiguous. "Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range. A dart deals 1d4 + 1 force damage to its target."

[sodabob]

Crawford is wrong in this case. The spell description states, "A dart deals 1d4 + 1 force damage to its target." This is the English equivalent of saying "EACH dart deals 1d4 + 1..."

Since specific rules beat general rules, you roll a separate die for each dart.

[MikeDePaul]

This really feels like an unintended consequence of the wording. I get it for an AOE like Fireball or Flame Strike, but not necessarily for MM. You could argue that each MM is from the same casting thus has the same damage, I just don't find the PHB rational convincing (but it does say that).

[captcorajus]

There are a few caveats, and I'm not saying that Todd's interpretation of the rule is 'wrong'. Magic Missile is a special case in that the dart can target one target or multiple targets as the caster decides. Fireball is an area effect attack, so it makes sense that everyone in the area takes the same damage and you only roll once. The 'roll once' rule has a major downside in that if you roll poorly, then all the darts score low damage. Certainly the opposite is true, but its a real shame to waste a spell slot, especially if casting at a higher level, and roll a 1 on the die.

[johnfree]

The all at once thing is interesting because that mean that all the missile travel at different speeds based solely off of the distance it must travel to the target relative to other targets of the other missiles. A missile that must travel 120 feet must increase it's speed or a missile that is hitting a target 10 feet away must travel slower so that they all hit at the same time.

[Hedgeclipperz]

Something not touched on, by I find really interesting is the fact that Jeremy Crawford confirmed that each missile is a separate hit for the purpose of rolling to maintain concentration. Which means a caster would need to roll three concentration checks if hit with a full burst of level one MM.

But that would also mean that they’re three separate sources of damage for the purposes of failing death saves. So an unconscious character hit with a burst of MM would automatically fail all three death saves.

I almost lost my character to this. I had badly antagonized a villain (killed someone they cared about right in front of them), so they pulled out a wand of MM and let off all seven charges. So that’s 9 bolts, and I only had 9 HP left. Even a 1 on the damage die would’ve brought me to 0 with 4 bolts remaining, then taken out all of my death saves.

Thankfully, my Eldritch Knight had Shield, which the DM forgot negated MM. He was so relieved when I survived and it felt like a super badass moment for me!

[scifi]

I have always rolled one D4 (+1 of course) per missile which makes sense especially if you are dealing with multiple targets. As we know the "rules" are written over several versions of the same game. If the magic missile spell was an area of effect spell then maybe sure roll 1 d4(+1) times the number of darts allotted to area divided by the number of targets

[billjaimez]

Great video I always let the player decide at the beginning of the campaign which way he will roll for magic missile after seeing Jeremy's post. Once they choose that's how they do it for the campaign.

I am so glad you and Megan have decided to do videos together. This was fantastic.

[davidirving]

Really enjoying your channel. Keep up the good work.