Magic missile conversion question

[Goemoe]

Hey,

no I don't intend to change it. This spell is D&D since its first appearance. I wonder why there is no other spell like Magic Missile. One of my players would like to find/invent one, which does lightning damage instead of force damage.

In theory this should be possible, but I wonder what I would have to think of as well. There are items and spells with a special Magic Missile feature. Would/should this works with a lightning variant as well?

What about different versions of MM? Imagine a third level single target autohit spell. It would be easy to create one but what could be the drawbacks or the reason there is none in all the D&D rulebocks I know of?

I am just looking for input before I decide doing stuff for my campaign.

 

[Redthistle]

Forked lightning, perhaps? Just house-rule the change in damage type.

Magic Missile may be an iconic spell and useful enough at a low level, but IMO the damage just doesn't scale up well compared to other damaging spells. If you use Magic Missile with a 3rd-level slot, it will do 5d4 + 5 force damage. Lightning Bolt, another 3rd-level spell, does 8d6 lightning damage. That's a damage range of 10-to-25 hit points (guaranteed) against a single target vs. 8-to-32 points of damage each against multiple targets on successful hits (and failed saving throws).

[I still maintain that it would make more sense if Magic Missile were a cantrip with cantrip-style damage scaling.]

For flavor consistency, I can see a PC having Magic (Lightning) Missile early on; it does have the advantage over Lightning Bolt of being capable of hitting scattered targets and the always lovely guaranteed hit. For a wizardly Benjamin Franklin, fascinated by electricity, I think that it's fitting.

 

[Goemoe]

I wouldn't want to see autohit cantrips in melee situations. It is nice to see the magicuser struggle what to do about meleesituations. Our sorcerer changed a cantrip after a levelup just because of this. A autohit cantrip would be the single most cast cantrip ever, I think. Which might be the reason why there are so few of this type of spells. People would care about the rest... Thank you! Your input has been helpful.

 

[Redthistle]

I wouldn't want to see autohit cantrips in melee situations. It is nice to see the magicuser struggle what to do about meleesituations. Our sorcerer changed a cantrip after a levelup just because of this. A autohit cantrip would be the single most cast cantrip ever, I think. Which might be the reason why there are so few of this type of spells. People would care about the rest... Thank you! Your input has been helpful.

You're right; that would be too much of a killer cantrip.

As a spell, I still feel that its damage scales up too weakly at higher slot levels. Perhaps, instead of +1 added to the damage die roll at every slot level, add the slot level itself, i.e., when casting the spell using the 3rd-level spell slot mentioned in Comment #2, the damage for each missile would be 1d4+3, for a cumulative damage range with all five missiles against a single target of 20-to-35 points ... hmmm. As a guaranteed hit, that does seem a tad over-powered.

Let me compare that to a 5th-level rogue's damage with Sneak Attack. Sneak Attack is only conditionally applicable, but can potentially be used multiple times a day. Magic Missile can be used only once per day per spell slot level (if I'm understanding the RAW/RAI correctly), once each with a 1st-level, 2nd-level, and 3rd-level spell slot, or only once per day total (if I misunderstood the RAW/RAI). With Sneak Attack using a rapier, the damage of 1d8 + 3d6 gives a damage range of 4-to-26 hit points, possible each time circumstances permit.

Say my liberal interpretation of the rules allowed the spellcaster to cast Magic Missile (following a long rest) once each at the three sequential spell slot levels. The damage, each time targeting all the missiles against a single target, would yield 3d4 +3 force damage with the 1st-level spell slot for 6-to-15 hit points, 4d4 +8 force damage against one target with the 2nd-level spell slot for 14-to-24 hit points, and using the result from above, 20-to-35 hit points applied against the target, for a day-long potential damage delivery of 40-to-74 hit points. That's a simplistic average of about 19 hit points per spell attack.

If the rogue made only three successful Sneak Attacks in a day, the potential cumulative damage delivered would be 12-to-78 hit points, for a rough average of 15 hit points per attack.

I've just refuted my own idea. "Aw, shucks," as Porky Pig was wont to lament.

Magic Missile may be iconic to the wizard, but it should remain at the RAW/RAI damage level, because Sneak Attack is just as iconic to the rogue, and I for one, would not want to overshadow the joy the player of a rogue gets when the dice roll nicely.

This has been a long diversion from your original question, so I'll shut up now.

 

[transcendantviewer]

You could just homebrew that there are alternate versions of spells that deal different forms of damage and have different effects. I recently saw a thread about something similar to this on the D&D 5e Forums. But, theirs was in the case of changing damage types of Evocation spells. You could do something about that. Create an alternate version of Magic Missile that just deals Lightning Damage. Shouldn't upset the game-balance at all.

 

[Goemoe]

I might create some NPC wizards with a couple of evocation spells doing different types of damage. I will name them, let my player find the info and an old school, where all of those npcs studied once. There he will be able to relearn his spell.

Thanks so far.

 

[derickmoore25]

You can cast any apell you know with any slot Its lwvwl or higher. 4 lst slots and 2 2nd that means 4 lvl one casts and 2 lvl 2 casts.

 

[Eltab]

Sneak Attack is only conditionally applicable, but can potentially be used multiple times a day.

If your fellow-players understand "teamwork", Sneak Attack can be used ...
Every. Single. Turn.

And as DM, I actively encourage new Rogue players to pair up with the group's Fighter / Paladin, so they DO get their Sneak Attack and get to roll plenty of dice and see the results of their labors.

 

[Illithidbix]

Very few creatures in 5E D&D are resistant or immune to force damage. The only one I'm aware of is the Helmed Horror.
More creatures are resistant/immune to lightning.
So if it's literally a variant of magic missile that does lightning damage instead of force damage, then I see no problem with this.
There might be a few more class abilities that boost/piggyback of lightning damage (the Tempest Cleric for example), but I still not aware of any that would be hugely problematic.

 

[derickmoore25]

Agreed I think downgrading elements on a spell should be fine. I don't think fire and poison should be changeable cause they are so common but things like force are resisted so little that you are weakening the spell over all. So I'd allow the element changed.