Magic Missile can be one of the best blast spells in Dnd 5e! - Advanced guide to Magic Missile

Please check them out and if you like what you see, use the coupon code Gator for 15% discount!

I also want to give a shout out to Tabletop builds because they recently made an article on the Hexvoker build!

It provides even more info I didn't cover.

Link to patreon, merch shop, discord and twitter:

[PackTactics]

Video Error: I say dpr and show dpr for everything when it's actually average damage, I went pretty much autopilot in everything by mistake. I didn't notice it until upload and someone pointed it out. Sorry for being dumb.

I also want to give a shout out to Tabletop builds because they recently made an article on the Hexvoker build!




Please check them out and if you like what you see, use the coupon code Gator for 15% discount!

[justsomerandoontheinternet]

Party on a 'Hard mode' campaign: starts making death saving throws
The DM who wasn't kidding: so anyways, I started blasting.

[AndrewChumKaser]

At the end of our campaign there was an epic battle and in order to close portals we had to hit them a number of times (damage for each hit did not matter, purely the number of times hit.) I cast magic missile and closed one portal instantly, and soon enough we realized since it's guaranteed hits, the range is great, and the fact I could split up the darts to use them efficiently, I quickly spent nearly every round after that smashing portals as soon as possible. Upcasting the spell even was useful since all we were concerned about was the number of darts, and I was pretty frequently able to close multiple portals in one turn, giving my team time to focus on the enemies that spawned from them. I felt great.

[EpifanesEuergetes]

In my head canon mages got fed up with their concentration getting interrupted by Magic Missiles so they developed Shield to counter that inconvenience. The +5 AC was just a positive side effect.

[Spyger]

"Just say you have amnesia. Then the DM has to think of things."
As a DM, this is a level of optimization that goes TOO FAR!

[thehunmun]

One time my little halfling wizard was grappled by a giant spider and so the DM said that I had disadvantage on attack rolls. I looked at him and said, " Do I" as I cast Magic Missile.

[MyLittlePonyTheater]

Quick note: Empowered Evocation reads "you can add your Intelligence modifier to **one** damage roll of any wizard evocation spell you cast." This only buffs the Magic Missile spell if you roll once for the damage for all darts. If you're rolling multiple times, they are counted as multiple damage rolls for a single spell, and you can only add your Intelligence modifier to one of those rolls.

Make sure your DM allows you to roll once for the damage for all Magic Missile darts before you go for Empowered Evocation.

[jurakarok]

The feat 'mage slayer' is a great counter mage option to stack with magic missile. The second point of mage slayer gives disadvantage to the enemy spellcaster's concentration checks, when you deal damage to them. No restrictions on range or how that damage needs to be delivered.

[cas]

Wand of Magic Missile is my go-to magic item in any campaign. I love having a stockpile of them to the point that it's become a meme of me always having a gatling gun made out of 6 Wands of Magic Missile.

[minaly]

I have done this with a Scribe Wizard instead. I can target specific weaknesses by switching elements from force to whatever they are weak to. Like we fought something weak against fire and I just doubled my magic missile damage.

EDIT: The biggest enemy of magic missile pew pew wizard is the flameskull. They have the shield spell, and are immune to fire (no firebolt and fireball for you), also resist the common elements.

[estebanramirez]

Similarly to the rule with concentration, this also applies to death saving throws. A downed target with a first level Magic Missile is a guaranteed death.

[loserlw]

I still remember the day I killed a mid boss with a magic surge magic missile while I was casting magic missile as a sorcerer.
It was glorious

[jacobchapman]

Magic Missile can also be incredibly useful against charm effects that are repeated when the target takes damage. You can split your shots to hit the barbarian and fighter that failed their saves to give them another roll, and toss the last one at the enemy.

[sgt.doughnut]

Magic missile is great when you need guaranteed damage.

[RobKinneySouthpaw]

Nice thing about using magic missile against monsters with shield is that those same casters will probably have counterspell. So you can burn their reaction with one spell or the other, and have somebody else hit them with an even bigger spell

[zacharylona]

Nothing I didn't know for once! I feel like I'm starting to be a real rules lawyer now.

Sarcasm aside, I love how informative and thorough this video was. This is an excellent resource for players and DMs alike to explore this spell's mechanics, as it's been around for a very long time and has quite the history throughout various editions, which can of course lead to edition bleed where people misremember rules from an edition they're not currently playing.

[ThePiMan]

If you're a goblin wizard, once per short rest you can use Fury of the Small and add your character level to the damage roll. Ultimate boss killer. At level 11 as described in this video, you're getting 2.5+1+5+4+11=23.5 *per dart*, so make that 5th level magic missile casting deal 164.5 on average and slay dragons to your hearts content.

[laschicvalisca]

Best instance I had in casting Magic Missile was back in 3.5E. The DM had a naga hiding within a darkness spell area (we didn't know what the creature was before we initiated combat btw, ) and it was taunting us and talking down at us. However, the DM made one very clear mistake: we could see through the dark area that the creature's eyes were glowing red. So I cast Magic Missile, and the DM said, "You can't see the creature. It's in a Darkness spell area." I replied, "But you also said I could see it's eyes glowing red. You can't take that back, and this spell has a 100% hit rate, and I'm aiming right between the eyes!" The DM looked flummoxed for a moment, and actually took a moment to look at the spell! After reading it for a moment and letting out a sigh, they relented when they released their mistake and said, "Ok, you got me. I said it, so I'll let it happen."

[wolfVFV]

Forcing a enemy to Take 3 concentration Checks guaranteed is relevenat at(edit: almost) all lvls of Play.

Many high CR spellcaster enemys have 1-2 insane high lvl spells that have concentration and Change the entire Fight. Almost guaranteeing it to instantly Stop that is massive

Edit: as Said in the comments only exception would be the very high lvls where spellcasters get sich high Bonus on concentration Checks that increasing the DC by dealing a huge amount of damage is better(Concentration Check DC = half the damage Dealed or 10 If less then 10)
So dealing 50 damage in 1 Punch gives the spellcaster a DC of 25 on the concentration

[quonomonna]

conversely I might use magic missile to get the arcane caster to use its reaction casting shield so it can't counterspell whatever the other casters in the party are going to do