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Chronos
2017-10-19, 03:32 PM
Magic Missile has been in every version of D&D since the beginning, and it's always had more or less the same effect: A low-level spell to provide a small amount of reliable damage. We've all cast it at some point or another, or been at a table where someone else has. But it occurs to me that I have no idea what it looks like. I've seen it depicted as glowy balls, black balls, arrow-shaped things, and other shapes, but I don't think there's any definitive description. Is there such a description, or failing that, what does everyone else think they look like?

Segev
2017-10-19, 03:54 PM
http://www.mtgeezer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/R-MMissile.png




Though ever since I saw the D&D arcade game as a little kid, I've pictured magic missiles as green spheres that zip out and around to hit their targets at oblique angles.

Amaril
2017-10-19, 04:19 PM
I like magic missile largely because of how flexible its description is. Since it's so iconic and considered an essential for wizards, I like to imagine every wizard has their own version, which becomes something of a signature of theirs.

Some descriptions I favor include:

Invisible blasts of blunt force, less a missile and more punching someone with telekinesis
Sort of like fireworks, specifically the ones that go spiralling and looping in all directions before striking a target
Miniature shooting stars, hurled from portals that open behind the caster, through which the target can glimpse alien constellations

dascarletm
2017-10-19, 04:25 PM
Yeah, I think it is open to interpretation. In a western campaign, I had an NPC that threw magical daggers of force as his magic missiles.

Nifft
2017-10-19, 04:34 PM
According to the Baldur's Gate series -- which is the authoritative source for 2e D&D -- the magic missile spell produces brightly glowing pastel-pink missiles:


https://i.imgur.com/vgArFC5.jpg

Mr Beer
2017-10-19, 05:26 PM
I tend to imagine glowing yellow darts, but it's not something I'm dogmatic about. I'd happily let a player customise the look of their character's magic missiles.

JBPuffin
2017-10-19, 05:55 PM
They’re green bolts that, on contact, brand the target with “Jim Darkmagic”.

LughSpear
2017-10-19, 06:00 PM
I see them as projectiles made of pure magic energy.

The format or the colors depends on the caster.

I'm found of both arrow like:

https://orig00.deviantart.net/f641/f/2014/121/e/2/ezren_vs_storm_hag_by_rhineville-d7gr40s.jpg
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/3/3d/FFIX_Matra_Magic.png/revision/latest?cb=20091215044229
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/4/4b/Arena_of_War_-_Spell_-_Magic_Missile.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140528231841

And spherical:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/d/d1/Advent_Children_Matra_Magic.png/revision/latest?cb=20120310143924
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bloodborne/images/b/be/Tumblr_nryjfalHmo1rn9ge0o1_540.gif/revision/latest?cb=20170616094553
https://media.giphy.com/media/3ov9k5Jh0hPkiQRbwY/giphy.gif

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-19, 06:10 PM
If I am the DM, I have enough to do. You're the darn mage, you figure it out, it's your character. Well, as long as the result doesn't involve genitalia or other factors that make me or other players throw things at your head.

Mr Beer
2017-10-19, 07:26 PM
If I am the DM, I have enough to do. You're the darn mage, you figure it out, it's your character. Well, as long as the result doesn't involve genitalia or other factors that make me or other players throw things at your head.

Or worse, throw genitals at their head.

Ravens_cry
2017-10-19, 07:32 PM
Or worse, throw genitals at their head.
Puts a new spin on the phrase 'crotch rocket'. :smallbiggrin:
***
OK, answering seriously? As long as the description doesn't logically create additional effects beyond what the spell is meant to do, whatever the heck you want.

Chronos
2017-10-19, 09:34 PM
OK, it's whatever you want... So what do you guys want?

Or, to ask a slightly different question, if I wanted to create a depiction of a wizard casting Magic Missile, and wanted to make it recognizable to most gamers on sight, what should I show?

It looks like a lot of the imaginings of them feature meteor-like trails behind the missiles... Is that accurate?

NorthernPhoenix
2017-10-19, 09:51 PM
I imagine it like the "arcane missiles" spell in World of Warcraft

Incorrect
2017-10-20, 12:59 AM
When I GM, I will always require the caster to describe their magic missiles when they first cast it.
I don't really do this with other spells, maybe because it is so nondescript and commonly used.

The most common is small, glowing balls of different colors. I've also seen smoking skulls, and the before mentioned magic arrows.
Personally I have used vibrantly red roses being thrown to people, hurting them.

Mordaedil
2017-10-20, 01:31 AM
I really like how they look in Temple of Elemental Evil, but I'm more used to how they look in Neverwinter Nights, where they look a lot like the Final Fantasy gif above there.

Though I made a video of that 11 years ago.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0Q2m0DIJ2A
That was a frickin' long time ago and it was before HD video was a thing on YouTube.

Lord Torath
2017-10-20, 07:31 AM
When I was six, I imagined they looked (and worked) like a 1 foot rocket (Everyone knows missiles explode, right? Just like on GI Joe and Voltron!). I was mightily disappointed when a single one didn't crack open the shell of a giant crab that was attacking us. :smallamused:

CharonsHelper
2017-10-20, 07:35 AM
Personally I have used vibrantly red roses being thrown to people, hurting them.

*girlish sigh*

"Tuxedo Mask!!"

LibraryOgre
2017-10-20, 09:36 AM
I picture yellow-gold pyramidal polygons... like missiles from an old wireframe computer game.

Vogie
2017-10-20, 10:25 AM
I imagine it like the "arcane missiles" spell in World of Warcraft

That was my first thought.

I think it would be whatever the character thinks is a "normal" ranged attack look liked. Darts, bolts, arrows, sling rocks, small harpoons, itty bitty comets. If they're more savvy, they may use something more to their theme, like playing cards, icicles, dragon skulls, glowing fists or flying fish

Segev
2017-10-20, 10:32 AM
I'll go ahead, just for amusement value, and also discuss briefly what I think of "force effects" doing as damage. It's easy to think of magic missiles, for example, as balls of force field (or arrow-shaped force fields) that bash or pierce the target, like a stone or dart hurled at them. But we know, from D&D mechanics, that this isn't what's happening. DR doesn't apply, for instance.

So force effects must do damage in a different way. How I think of it is as raw force-vectors moving through the target. A spherical magic missile is actually a sphere of outward-pointing force vectors; when it passes through something, it exerts outward force in all directions on the material through which it passes. It whistles through the air because it shoves it out and lets it collapse back in behind it. It does bludgeoning-type damage for the first moments as it enters your flesh, but swiftly is doing ripping and tearing damage as it is within you and shoving parts of you away from each other and into the surrounding areas, moving through and continuing until the effect disperses after having been fully beneath your flesh. It does the same to incorporeal, ethereal, and inorganic materials and creatures.

Blackhawk748
2017-10-20, 10:35 AM
This is my standard go to:

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimg3.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb2014 0528231841%2Fforgottenrealms%2Fimages%2F4%2F4b%2FA rena_of_War_-_Spell_-_Magic_Missile.jpg&f=1

It usually varies on the shade of blue, but 9/10 its blue. Now, thats the default. I've had green glowing skulls, dragon heads, miniature ICBMs (complete with being a MIRV), knives, random assorted food (ok that was a buddy not me), rocks, runes that shoot the energy blast, claws, fangs, birds, wolves, snakes, scythe blades, etc.

Basically you can make it look like however you want, cuz Damage Spell is pretty open.

Guizonde
2017-10-20, 10:49 AM
i've never cast magic missile or seen it cast (blame a dm that had a thing against magic missile), but i did have a similar problem with "searing light". depending on translations, it's either a pencil-thin beam of pure light, a 5in thick rod of flames, or said rod of pure light.

... as long as it's a "frikkin' laser beam!!" i'm completely fine with it. it also was my go-to solution for my rsop, funnily enough. the wizard threw gratuitously large fireballs (as in, 3m diameter things down hallways).

were i to imagine magic missile, a white orb with a comet's tail, like some of the illustrations seen. were i to cast magic missile, probably a rude gesture. at least, that's what i did with anything created by bigby. the grasping hand becomes really humiliating when you're crushed in a fist whose middle finger is raised towards your allies.

victim 1: "dude! you got hit in the face with a middle finger!"
victim 2: "that's not too bad, you got hit in the face with a flying butt!"
victim 3:"... i'm kind of happy i only got hit by a flying subpoena, all things considered".
dm: "guizonde has had his magic missile privileges removed."

Segev
2017-10-20, 11:06 AM
i've never cast magic missile or seen it cast (blame a dm that had a thing against magic missile)

How did this "thing against magic missile" present itself? What was its cause and what did he do about it that made people never cast it? This sounds like a neat story!

Joe the Rat
2017-10-20, 11:07 AM
According to old Elmore art, it conjures arrow-shaped missiles...

Curse you, Bargle!


Puts a new spin on the phrase 'crotch rocket'. :smallbiggrin:
Now I know what I'm using for a somatic component...
Woof!

Tinkerer
2017-10-20, 01:05 PM
Mine was always pretty much as pictured in BlackHawk's post only quite a bit smaller (about the size of a dart only fatter). I used to dislike people being able to customize their spells simply because there was a spell in 2nd ed which allowed you to customize your spells and I thought it stepped on that. Until I realized that the purpose of that spell was much different than I had originally thought (I was young when I read it).

Guizonde
2017-10-20, 01:36 PM
How did this "thing against magic missile" present itself? What was its cause and what did he do about it that made people never cast it? This sounds like a neat story!

neat, i don't know. basically, he had a "one true way" of playing dnd. he was (probably still is) of the "grognard no shenanigans allowed" variety about the fluff. for example, he banned halfling paladins (canon in faerun), halfling outriders (prc in dnd 2e), bards who specialized in fear using death growls, hitting people with a dobro guitar (even if it's one of the few instruments who can take that sort of abuse regularly)...

as for magic missile, iirc it was the auto-hit capability of the spell that he found "cheap". all a wizard (or gods forbid a sorceror, he hated those) had to do according to him was load up on magic missile and bore himself to death spamming the same move. i played with him for quite a few years, too many to be perfectly honest, but credit where credit is due: the dude could spin one hell of a yarn. i mean, i played a game that i dislike the mechanics and crunch of just for the sake of the story, and looked forward to it every week. that's no mean feat.

if we ever did something he disliked, he bullied us both in game and out of game until we stopped. he drove some players to tears. one time, he went overboard and decided to dump his fiancée at the game table. she was pregnant with their second child. his fiancée was my teammate in game, so when he got too confrontational about it, i kind of sort of slightly knocked him down. repeatedly. i ended up knocking him out, fearing for the safety of his fiancée and his kid and unborn. the game stopped after that. not proud of my violent side, but to be fair, he pushed his wang-waving too far out that time. just because mister psycho dm was supposedly ex spec-ops and a dm that had been playing for almost 20 years did not give him the right to threaten or bully anyone. i'm no fighter, but i'm nothing if not resilient and intransigeant in the face of abuse.

now that i think about it, it may be the reason i prefer playing lethal joke characters to this day, just to unconsciously spite that guy.

VoxRationis
2017-10-20, 01:51 PM
I've been rather influenced by Baldur's Gate, so I tend to imagine my magic missiles as being crimson orbs or possibly darts.

gkathellar
2017-10-20, 02:12 PM
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/V-2_lift-off.jpg

But magical.

Chronos
2017-10-20, 02:19 PM
Quoth Mark Hall:

I picture yellow-gold pyramidal polygons... like missiles from an old wireframe computer game.
You mean, like d4s? :smallamused:

Nifft
2017-10-20, 02:22 PM
You mean, like d4s? :smallamused:

The most painful type of die?

The caltrop that hides in carpeting?

That makes a horrifying amount of sense.

Deophaun
2017-10-20, 02:31 PM
https://i.imgur.com/LvVhOHr.gif

Blackhawk748
2017-10-20, 02:33 PM
https://i.imgur.com/LvVhOHr.gif

Magical MIRV my dudes.

gkathellar
2017-10-20, 02:44 PM
https://i.imgur.com/LvVhOHr.gif

Okay what is that from that's awesome

Deophaun
2017-10-20, 02:44 PM
Okay what is that from that's awesome
Little Witch Academia

Segev
2017-10-20, 03:31 PM
neat, i don't know. basically, he had a "one true way" of playing dnd. he was (probably still is) of the "grognard no shenanigans allowed" variety about the fluff. for example, he banned halfling paladins (canon in faerun), halfling outriders (prc in dnd 2e), bards who specialized in fear using death growls, hitting people with a dobro guitar (even if it's one of the few instruments who can take that sort of abuse regularly)...

as for magic missile, iirc it was the auto-hit capability of the spell that he found "cheap". all a wizard (or gods forbid a sorceror, he hated those) had to do according to him was load up on magic missile and bore himself to death spamming the same move. i played with him for quite a few years, too many to be perfectly honest, but credit where credit is due: the dude could spin one hell of a yarn. i mean, i played a game that i dislike the mechanics and crunch of just for the sake of the story, and looked forward to it every week. that's no mean feat.

if we ever did something he disliked, he bullied us both in game and out of game until we stopped. he drove some players to tears. one time, he went overboard and decided to dump his fiancée at the game table. she was pregnant with their second child. his fiancée was my teammate in game, so when he got too confrontational about it, i kind of sort of slightly knocked him down. repeatedly. i ended up knocking him out, fearing for the safety of his fiancée and his kid and unborn. the game stopped after that. not proud of my violent side, but to be fair, he pushed his wang-waving too far out that time. just because mister psycho dm was supposedly ex spec-ops and a dm that had been playing for almost 20 years did not give him the right to threaten or bully anyone. i'm no fighter, but i'm nothing if not resilient and intransigeant in the face of abuse.

now that i think about it, it may be the reason i prefer playing lethal joke characters to this day, just to unconsciously spite that guy.
Thanks for the story. Wow, that guy sounds like he had...issues. Treating his pregnant betrothed like that? :smalleek::smallyuk:

No brains
2017-10-20, 04:02 PM
The Forgotten Realms: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games made magic missiles look like blue lights that left trails, but they VERY erringly hit targets and maybe shouldn't be considered canon.
http://allplatformgaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Baldurs-Gate-Dark-Alliance-USA2.jpg
Here's a video of a beholder apparently sneezing magic missiles in that game. https://youtu.be/-dOXkdxP1ig?t=1m39s

I like to imagine magic missiles looking like ghostly versions of those rainbow anodized titanium throwing knives. They would less stab a creature and more disruptively phase into them- that's how I'd imagine force damage that only hurts creatures would work.

As for other sensory effects, I'm not sure what sounds they would make. I don't know if they would be perfectly silent, but casting them might make some noise, at least as much as launching another weapon. Getting hit by one would probably feel pretty unique and a creature would probably not die silently if downed by the spell. I imagine it would feel similar to being electrocuted, but not exactly so.

Guizonde
2017-10-20, 04:06 PM
Thanks for the story. Wow, that guy sounds like he had...issues. Treating his pregnant betrothed like that? :smalleek::smallyuk:

saying he had issues is like saying a supernova is the death of a star. it conveys nothing of the scale or violence of the thing involved. i'm really glad to not be anywhere near this sorry excuse for a waste of oxygen.

worst thing about it? he's a pathological liar, so we don't know truth from fiction about him. for all we know he got fragged in a 2e dnd game by a halfling using magic missile and that's why he hates halflings and magic missiles. hell, i know i hate quite a few things in rpg's because of bad sessions. namely, spiders. love the little things irl, hate them with a passion in rpg's. might make my magic missile a bursting spider sack. anytime a dm says "spiders", i reach for my cigar and something flammable. it's either pavlovian conditionning or good preemptive tactics. i can never tell which because rather than say "i cast magic missile at the darkness", i say "let's pull a trogdor on the thingies before they kill us to death". since talking is a free action, the length of this sentence (in french) allows me to physically pull out a cigar and a bottle of something medicinal saved for just such an emergency.

soooo, yeah, not a "neat" story, but definitely a worthy tale to tell for signs of how to notice your dm might be a dude to drop like a burning demon baby. down a dried up well.

Silent Hunter
2017-10-20, 04:52 PM
Pictures here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.550_Magic)

LibraryOgre
2017-10-20, 04:58 PM
You mean, like d4s? :smallamused:

Longer, but the same general idea. :smallbiggrin:

Tanarii
2017-10-20, 05:06 PM
Bargle killed Aleena with one in the Red Box Basic set, so I've known exactly what they look like since I started at ten years old:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IXKqKTE0His/UkrtF3wW5XI/AAAAAAAAB3I/_DJvrUgWi6o/s1600/Aleena+by+Larry+Elmore.jpg

For those who are sadly deprived in their D&D education:
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2013/10/on-iconic-characters-in-dungeons.html

Nifft
2017-10-20, 05:11 PM
Bargle killed Aleena with one in the Red Box Basic set, so I've known exactly what they look like since I started at ten years old:

https://goo.gl/images/NSNhqs

Some people can't see that image -- you can, Tanarii, but perhaps only because it's in your browser cache.

You gotta re-host stuff that you find.

Imgur is good for re-hosting, like this:

https://i.imgur.com/FaqM3A5.jpg

Potato_Priest
2017-10-20, 06:29 PM
I picture approximately fist-sized blue pellets about the same shape as a D8.

Jormengand
2017-10-21, 10:59 AM
I always pictured them as being purple spheres which left a trail behind them as they're fired, mainly because that's what they looked like in Neverwinter Nights.

Slipperychicken
2017-10-21, 01:25 PM
I think of grey-blue, oval shaped things that shine dully. Like sparkly sling bullets.

Puh Laden
2017-10-21, 08:13 PM
I like to imagine them as colorless transparent rockets with white outlines and fins and everything. But I guess having an "outline" in three-dimensional space doesn't make much sense.

Blacky the Blackball
2017-10-22, 07:32 AM
Bargle killed Aleena with one in the Red Box Basic set, so I've known exactly what they look like since I started at ten years old:


https://i.imgur.com/FaqM3A5.jpg

It should also be noted that in older editions of D&D, Magic Missile used to do 1d6+1 damage per missile, the same as a Arrow +1, rather than the 1d4+1 it does in more recent editions. It seems clear that in the earliest versions of the spell the magic user was specifically creating physical arrows (albeit enchanted ones) rather than any kind of "force bolts" or the like.

gkathellar
2017-10-22, 08:20 AM
I like to imagine them as colorless transparent rockets with white outlines and fins and everything. But I guess having an "outline" in three-dimensional space doesn't make much sense.

Polarized light, yo.

DrMartin
2017-10-22, 08:38 AM
It should also be noted that in older editions of D&D, Magic Missile used to do 1d6+1 damage per missile, the same as a Arrow +1, rather than the 1d4+1 it does in more recent editions. It seems clear that in the earliest versions of the spell the magic user was specifically creating physical arrows (albeit enchanted ones) rather than any kind of "force bolts" or the like.

In older editions, if memory serves, you could cast the spell preemptively and it would create a floating arrow that follows the wizard for a hour or so, until a target is declared.

Segev
2017-10-22, 02:32 PM
In older editions, if memory serves, you could cast the spell preemptively and it would create a floating arrow that follows the wizard for a hour or so, until a target is declared.

Must be pre-AD&D, because 1e AD&D had the 1d4+1 per two levels, each targetable individually and auto-hitting. As well as shield auto-blocking it.

DrMartin
2017-10-22, 04:04 PM
Must be pre-AD&D, because 1e AD&D had the 1d4+1 per two levels, each targetable individually and auto-hitting. As well as shield auto-blocking it.

Back to the books, this was the rules for BECMI. 1d6+1 per missile, two extra missiles every 5 levels, and it would wait until a target is called

Joe the Rat
2017-10-22, 08:00 PM
I had that image in my head as well, but I don't know where it would have been the case.

I just checked my Metzner, and there it is called out as an arrow, one-round duration.

Tanarii
2017-10-22, 08:23 PM
It's something like 1 turn in B/X, and then by BECMI Rules Cylopedia it was 1 round. No idea what it was in BECMI Red Box.

Edit: apparently it was supposed to be 1 turn in Mentzer Red Box too, and the 1 round under the spell listing in the Red Box and the Rules Cyclopedia was a misprint. Or something. It's not clear to me without the Red Box in front of me. See post number five, including some quoted discussion with Mentzer responses:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=43095

Joe the Rat
2017-10-22, 08:29 PM
Hmm, so I'm not crazy. Or at least that part is real.

Funny thing, on the magic-user "short list" it says one turn, but the full spell description says one round.
(May 1983 first printing, for reference)

Grek
2017-10-23, 05:32 AM
I usually go with stitching needles that go through the person and out the other side.

Vinyadan
2017-10-23, 06:23 AM
Ball bearings aiming for your teeth.

DrMartin
2017-10-23, 07:34 AM
Hmm, so I'm not crazy.

which makes me wonder where my memory of it lasting 1 hour originates. My first foray into d&d was the 1991 "black box" - the one with the adventure/tutorial about escaping slavery in the evil wizard's salt mines. Sadly my black box is half a world away in my parent's basement so I cannot check if in that edition magic missile worked as I remember - but maybe some other playgrounder has one laying around and can clear this up

N810
2017-10-23, 11:01 AM
https://i.makeagif.com/media/3-13-2016/esTLcZ.gif

MesiDoomstalker
2017-10-23, 11:52 AM
https://i.makeagif.com/media/3-13-2016/esTLcZ.gif

Ya, same. Pretty much Ki blasts of your preferred color.

wumpus
2017-10-23, 12:20 PM
DDO used glowing purple orbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5kQ2Sx7wZ0
In epic play this became (and probably still is) critical as the "ranger epic path" grants special effects on critical missile hits. Of course, this is useless to melee rangers and not all that effective to bow rangers, it *really* helps sorcerers and mages that can simply spam magic missile (at four missiles a go) with a good chance on critting each go.

I'm pretty sure I remember a black and white drawing that showed a magic missile with a thin "dragonish" head. Probably in the Dragon magazine in the 1e era.

Tanarii
2017-10-23, 12:52 PM
In epic play this became (and probably still is) critical as the "ranger epic path" grants special effects on critical missile hits. Of course, this is useless to melee rangers and not all that effective to bow rangers, it *really* helps sorcerers and mages that can simply spam magic missile (at four missiles a go) with a good chance on critting each go.I thought 3e magic missile couldn't crit, that it was just an automatic hit?

gkathellar
2017-10-23, 12:58 PM
I thought 3e magic missile couldn't crit, that it was just an automatic hit?

DDO is faux-3e, but has a very different rule set in practice.

ATHATH
2017-10-24, 12:20 AM
Whatever you want them to look like, provided that the changes are only/purely cosmetic.

My Magic Missiles tend to look like the following (in my mind, at least):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XfovzhAxXc

Tinkerer
2017-10-24, 11:47 AM
Here's a follow up question, what do Magic Missiles sound like? In my games they have a rather distinctive THWP sound, similar but distinct to the sound of an arrow going into a soft target. I've also played under people where they make no sound at all or a whoom sound.

Deophaun
2017-10-24, 12:13 PM
Because the last thing your enemies should hear should be pure hate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB1CJ0l8kAc

Chronos
2017-10-24, 12:59 PM
Huh, so the original version was sort of like Yondu's arrow? That was before my time (started in 2nd edition).

JamesDodds
2017-10-24, 01:05 PM
However the game master wants them to look :smallwink:

But in all seriousness, I've thought of them like small blue fireballs or ice shards I guess.

Joe the Rat
2017-10-25, 10:25 AM
Huh, so the original version was sort of like Yondu's arrow? That was before my time (started in 2nd edition).

Well, except that he had to shoot them from his bow first (Back in the 80's).

I think I'm going to have to pester my players about their sensory effects - what does said missle/bolt/blast look like?

LordCdrMilitant
2017-10-25, 10:42 AM
I've always imagined them as a point of white/blue light leading a dimmer tracer trail that flies straight and true to its target very quickly.

I generally imagine them leaving and arriving in rapid succession as a sort of burst of magic bullets, despite the spell description saying they impact simultaneously, and making a sound like a Star Wars turbolaser.

The verbal component of spells I usually imagine to be the spell name and the somatic component as pointing-and-shooting with the mage's rod/wand/staff/finger.

Lord Torath
2017-10-25, 12:00 PM
Well, except that he had to shoot them from his bow first (Back in the 80's).

I think I'm going to have to pester my players about their sensory effects - what does said missle/bolt/blast look like?The 2E Dragon Kings (Dark Sun) Rulebook has some great tables for sensory effects of arcane spellcasting, from standard five senses effects to big things like storm clouds gathering overhead or the earth shaking. More powerful spells get more types and more noticeable effects (In a world where arcane casting is verboten, these effects can be a serious drawback).

RedMage125
2017-10-26, 02:31 AM
I've always allowed my players to dictate flavor things like this, and I've always taken the liberty to do so myself.

One of my characters, all his magic effects were purple. Magic Missile was purple darts, his fireball was purple fire, Bigby's Hand was a purple hand, etc.

Another had Magic Missiles that looked like arrows. His fireball was a flaming arrow that streaked towards the target before exploding, and so on.

Most of my characters essentially had Spell Thematics without the increased DC to identify, lol.

Coretron03
2017-10-26, 04:56 AM
I've always pictured them as something like the hearthstone (Greater) arcane missile card, a volley of purple diamond-shaped objects.

LordCdrMilitant
2017-10-26, 07:45 AM
I think a greater question is "what sort of injury do they leave?'

I've always wondered that. There's a few spells that do damage that I've always wondered what damage they did.

Hunter Noventa
2017-10-26, 07:53 AM
I swear I remember reading something somewhere, maybe the 3.5 DMG or Complete Arcane, but the gist was "Your spells look however you want them to look within reason. Your magic missiles are gloved hands slapping someone in the face? Fine. Your fireball is shaped like a red dragon's head? Sure. Your fireball looks like a red dragon is breathing fire? No, because that's adding an illusionary effect to it."

Concrete
2017-10-26, 09:50 AM
I always thought of them as vert small, roughly the size of those ball bearings you use with a slingshot, moving as fast, hitting as hard, and glowing very brightly.

I also like the idea of firing them from the tip of your finger, using more and more fingers the more missiles you get.

kivzirrum
2017-10-26, 10:03 AM
I've also always pictured them in the Baldur's Gate style.

D+1
2017-10-27, 03:18 PM
Just like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuVY83HU5Mw&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqqqBah_XT1kSsKhyG7xcIRL&index=3

Which was probably the original source/inspiration for the spell.

Hypersmith
2017-10-27, 03:35 PM
They look however you want them to look. On an upcoming "sand sorcerer" (reflavored sea sorc), parts of his skin disintegrates and forms into piercing arcs of sand.

Lord Torath
2017-10-27, 04:22 PM
Just like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuVY83HU5Mw&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqqqBah_XT1kSsKhyG7xcIRL&index=3

Which was probably the original source/inspiration for the spell.Wow. They really broke the special effects budget with that one, didn't they? :smallamused:

DrewID
2017-10-27, 04:43 PM
Magic Missile has been in every version of D&D since the beginning, and it's always had more or less the same effect: A low-level spell to provide a small amount of reliable damage. We've all cast it at some point or another, or been at a table where someone else has. But it occurs to me that I have no idea what it looks like. I've seen it depicted as glowy balls, black balls, arrow-shaped things, and other shapes, but I don't think there's any definitive description. Is there such a description, or failing that, what does everyone else think they look like?

I was surprised on checking to find that your first statement is not quite true: the spell Magic Missile first appeared in Supplement I: Greyhawk. Which isn't quite the beginning (even ignoring Chainmail which had, what, 16 spells).


Magic Missile: This is a conjured missile equivalent to a magic arrow, and it does
full damage (2-7 points) to any creature it strikes. For every five levels the magic-user has
attained he may add an additional two missiles when employing this spell, so a 6th level
magic-user may cast three magic missiles at his target, an 11th level magic-user casts
five, and so on. Range 15"

Also: Curse you, Bargle!

DrewID

No brains
2017-10-27, 05:59 PM
Just like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuVY83HU5Mw&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqqqBah_XT1kSsKhyG7xcIRL&index=3

Which was probably the original source/inspiration for the spell.

It looks like a door opening in someone's face? :smallamused: I know, you mean the little green rays at the end of the clip. It helps if you make a note or use the share button to select the time that the clip plays. :smallsmile:

Nifft
2017-10-27, 07:49 PM
Just like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuVY83HU5Mw&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqqqBah_XT1kSsKhyG7xcIRL&index=3

Which was probably the original source/inspiration for the spell.

That's obviously Psychic damage though, which means Psychic damage is green.

Segev
2017-10-27, 07:59 PM
Wow. They really broke the special effects budget with that one, didn't they? :smallamused:

1963, made-for-TV movie. That was Vincent Price firing those missiles.

Also, The Raven. I haven't thought about that movie in ages.

Jormengand
2017-10-28, 07:16 AM
Here's a follow up question, what do Magic Missiles sound like? In my games they have a rather distinctive THWP sound, similar but distinct to the sound of an arrow going into a soft target. I've also played under people where they make no sound at all or a whoom sound.

I think of them as having a loud, but muffled-sounding splashing sound.

Chronos
2017-10-28, 03:11 PM
Quoth Lord Torath:

Wow. They really broke the special effects budget with that one, didn't they?
Exactly what I was thinking. That, and that it's a good thing that axe-dude didn't know how to walk forward before swinging.

Deophaun
2017-10-28, 04:16 PM
Exactly what I was thinking. That, and that it's a good thing that axe-dude didn't know how to walk forward before swinging.
That was going to be his next feat, after the one that allowed him to attack with a door while opening it and getting immunity to pottery.

Yeah, fighter feats were even worse back then.

Akal Saris
2017-10-28, 05:01 PM
I've also always pictured them in the Baldur's Gate style.

Oh good, I'm not alone!!

TeChameleon
2017-10-28, 05:27 PM
Huh.

I have a very distinct mental picture of how Magic Missiles 'look'- namely, a brilliant bluish-purple light (shading to white at the center) inside a nearly-transparent shell of energy the same colour, leaving a narrow 'tracer' tail as it macrosses towards the target (that bit where missiles all fire out at random angles, arcing inwards to all hit the target at the same time).

Thing is, I'd assumed it was from a video game, probably WoW, but looking around, it doesn't seem to be from any that I could find thus far. Bit weird, honestly.

Vinyadan
2017-10-28, 06:07 PM
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWAb5NVALw