Magic Missile as a 0th-9th level spell...

[Creamsteak]

I've seen some attempts at this before, and I'm trying my hand at it now. How do you balance a magic missile at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 0th levels? You can 'empower' magic missiles for 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level spells (albeit a bit too weak possibly), but how would you handle even numbered spells?

 

[Gez]

0: Up to 1 missile.
1: Up to 5 missiles.
2: Up to 10 missiles.
3: Up to 12 missiles.
4: Up to 15 missiles.
5: Up to 17 missiles.
6: Up to 20 missiles.
7: Up to 22 missiles.
8: Up to 25 missiles.
9: Up to 30 missiles.

 

[Technik4]

Practically agree with Gez.

0: 1 missile 1d4 damage, short range
1: up to 5 missiles 1d4+1, medium range
2: up to 7 missiles 1d4+1, long range
3: up to 10 missiles 1d4+1, medium range
4: up to 12 missiles 1d4+1, long range
5: up to 15 missiles 1d4+1, mediumrange
6: up to 17 missiles 1d4+1, long range
7: up to 20 missiles 1d4+1, medium range
8: up to 22 missiles 1d4+1, long range
9: up to 25 missiles 1d4+1, long range

If you want you can mix some of them up, shortening the range but upping the damage, or lowering the missile cap and upping the damage.

Technik

 

[Creamsteak]

Here is what I ended up producing:

Magic Missile as a 0th-9th level spell
0th Level 1 point (max 3) (average 1/missile) (1 missile per 2 levels after 1st)
1st Level 1d4+1 (max 5) (average 3.5/missile) (1 missile per 2 levels after 1st)
2nd Level 2d3 (max 5) (average 4/missile) (1 missile per 2 levels after 1st)
3rd Level 1d6+1 (max 7) (average 4.5/missile) (3 missiles + 1 missile per 2 levels after 5th)
4th Level 2d4 (max 7) (average 5/missile) (4 missiles + 1 missile per 2 levels after 7th)
5th Level 1d8+1 (max 9) (average 5.5/missile) (5 missiles + 1 missile per 2 levels after 9th)
6th Level 1d10+1 (max 9) (average 6.5/missile) (6 missiles + 1 missile per 2 levels after 11th)
7th Level 2d6 (max 11) (average 7/missile) (7 missiles + 1 missile per 2 levels after 13th)
8th Level 1d12+1 (max 11) (average 7.5/missile) (9 missiles + 1 missile per 2 levels after 15th)
9th Level 2d6+1 (max 13) (average 8/missile) (10 missles + 1 missile per level after 17th)

 

[Numion]

Some of the suggestions are funny in the way that an empowered 7th level MM as is a lot more powerful than a 9th level version. Of course the mage has spent a feat to empower it, but that just seems wrong to me.

I guess some core spells have the same problem.

 

[Dakkareth]

Well, normally empowering has the disadvantage of not raising the save DC making the spell easier to resist. With a spell that allows no save that disadvantage is non-existant, of course.

 

[Jens]

At 9th caster level, MM averages 17.5 points of damage. If each 2 levels were to increase damage by 50%, as to keep up with Empower, a 9th level version of MM should average 17.5 * (1.5)^4 = 88.6 points of damage when cast by a sufficiently high-level caster. How does that compare with official high-level spells?

 

[Creamsteak]

I'd say it's weak at 9th level. It's 'good' in that it is one of those spells that effects most things, but it can be blocked with shield (if you allow shield to still block it)... but then you think, that 88 damage is only if all missiles are concentrated on one target. Against one target it's balanced, but most 9th level spells affect a larger group.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Most of these seem fine, although I'd point out that rolling lots of d4's gets really annoying, so if you use die size increases you can reduce some headaches.

Anyway, my friends and I made a homebrew setting, and one of the keys to its magic is a bunch of "X-level spells", spells you could learn once and memorize at whatever spell level you wanted, with the spell's effects changing to match the new level. One of these was loosely based on Magic Missile; it scaled with caster level a bit more slowly (but didn't stop at level 9).

If memorized at level X, you fire X missiles, each of which does 1d4 + X damage. Then, for every three caster levels, you increase the damage die one size (1d4 at 1st level, 1d6 at 3rd, 1d8 at 6th, 1d10 at 9th, 1d12 at 12th, 2d8 at 15th, 3d6 at 18th)

So, a 20th-level Wizard using a 9th-level slot gets 9 missiles, each of which does 3d6+9 damage (average ~180 damage), assuming he puts all 9 on the same target. If he used a 1st-level spell slot, he'd get 1 missile that does 3d6+1 damage (average 11.5 damage); still useful since it has no save, but not quite as good as the 3E spell.

The cantrip version fires one missile that does 1d4 damage no matter what your caster level is.
Defensive force spells that are said to block MM (like Shield) block one missile per volley per spell level of the defensive spell (so Shield blocks 1, and if you made a version of Shield that took a 4th-level slot it'd block 4).