D&D 5E Do magic missiles automatically hit

[Falcon10275]

something very vague in players guide and caused a HUGE argument at the game table last ngiht. It doesn't say if magical missles spell casting has to make an attack roll, or if they are just assumed ot automtacially hit?

any ideas?

 

[Mistwell]

something very vague in players guide and caused a HUGE argument at the game table last ngiht. It doesn't say if magical missles spell casting has to make an attack roll, or if they are just assumed ot automtacially hit?

any ideas?

They automatically hit.

 

[the Jester]

They automatically hit.

This. If a spell requires an attack roll, or allows a saving throw, it will say so in the description.

 

[Tormyr]

Yes, magic missiles automatically hit. I lost my first character, Tormyr the shiny lawful good paladin, to a group of level 1 wizards in training. The wizard school had turned evil and started blowing up parts of the town and we were sent to investigate. We approached the tower and saw a group of 10 students led by prefect going into it. The students looked scared, so my paladin stepped out and tried to talk to the students to see if they were in need of help, what is going on in the school, etc. After a bit of talking, the prefect shouted, "Now!" 11 simultaneous castings of magic missile hit my level 4 paladin for 110 damage. Wrote up a new character that had the Shield spell.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Yes, magic missiles automatically hit. I lost my first character, Tormyr the shiny lawful good paladin, to a group of level 1 wizards in training. The wizard school had turned evil and started blowing up parts of the town and we were sent to investigate. We approached the tower and saw a group of 10 students led by prefect going into it. The students looked scared, so my paladin stepped out and tried to talk to the students to see if they were in need of help, what is going on in the school, etc. After a bit of talking, the prefect shouted, "Now!" 11 simultaneous castings of magic missile hit my level 4 paladin for 110 damage. Wrote up a new character that had the Shield spell.

With all due respect, your DM seems a bit... hardcore, let's say.

 

[doctorhook]

Yes, magic missiles automatically hit. I lost my first character, Tormyr the shiny lawful good paladin, to a group of level 1 wizards in training. The wizard school had turned evil and started blowing up parts of the town and we were sent to investigate. We approached the tower and saw a group of 10 students led by prefect going into it. The students looked scared, so my paladin stepped out and tried to talk to the students to see if they were in need of help, what is going on in the school, etc. After a bit of talking, the prefect shouted, "Now!" 11 simultaneous castings of magic missile hit my level 4 paladin for 110 damage. Wrote up a new character that had the Shield spell.

Sounds like your DM had it out for you; there was no possibility for your character (or just about any other) to survive that. Honestly, they'd have probably still finished you if only half of them took the shot. If we assume they were all first-level wizards (two 2st-level slots each), then you took nearly 50% of that encounter group's damage capacity within a single round. That's a firing squad, not an encounter.

 

[Thaumaturge]

If silence is cast in the woods, can anyone hear it?

Thaumaturge?

 

[aramis erak]

something very vague in players guide and caused a HUGE argument at the game table last ngiht. It doesn't say if magical missles spell casting has to make an attack roll, or if they are just assumed ot automtacially hit?

any ideas?

They have automatically hit since the very beginning.

They're weak, but assured hits. No save, no to-hit. No mercy...

 

[Boarstorm]

Sounds like your DM had it out for you; there was no possibility for your character (or just about any other) to survive that. Honestly, they'd have probably still finished you if only half of them took the shot. If we assume they were all first-level wizards (two 2st-level slots each), then you took nearly 50% of that encounter group's damage capacity within a single round. That's a firing squad, not an encounter.

I was going to say that he should have stayed behind cover but then I remembered, "Magic Missile." Yeah, not much you can do about that. An execution, pure and simple.

 

[Paraxis]

I was in the middle of making the following post, when I started thinking about it and looking for examples, when I realized in this edition it is wrong.

It is better to say they automatically damage. Since there is no attack roll, they don't trigger things that say "on a hit".


In 5e Magic Missiles do automatically "hit", this doesn't do much as there is very little other effects that could trigger on a spell hit that is not built into the spell.

Two of the interesting ones I found were the rogue assassin subclass ability "assassinate" that turns any hit on a surprised creature into a critical hit and attacking an unconscious creature while within five feet of it that also turns any hit into a critical hit. So normally a magic missile spell can not critically hit because there is no attack roll, these two exceptions allow the spell to.