[3.5] Magic Missile Wizard

[EnnPeeCee]

So, I've been thinking about how interesting it would be to play as a wizard (or other caster) that does nothing but spam Magic Missiles. But then I started thinking that it would rapidly lose effectiveness, even with throwing metamagics on. I did see a Magic Missile focused PrC mentioned somewhere, but I'd like to avoid Dragon Magazine stuff.

I was also wondering if anything like the missile storm spells from NWN exist somewhere for D&D. From what I can tell they don't, but I'm hoping.

I realize a warlock kinda does this with his blasts, but I'd like to try it with a caster.

Anyway, what can one do with just Magic Missiles to be effective at higher levels?

[infinitypanda]

I've heard Fell Drain tossed around a lot.

Edit: Oh, and take Arcane Thesis.

[Tyndmyr]

Well, it depends...are you also using the magic missile knockoffs?

Using twin spell, fell drain and quicken, magic missile and it's bigger cousins remain pretty powerful at higher levels at well. Stacking them all and abusing reducers, you can drain 4 levels per target per round. More w celerity abuse and immunity to stunning.

Im not sure exactly what missile storm in NWN does, but you might be thinking of the SpC version. Pretty decent.

Obviously, you'd want to be an evocation foc spec, since you're going to want some volume. You'll probably want a few utility spells as well, but you could stick to just MM and variants for blaster spells.

[sofawall]

I seem to recall a force missile mage mentioned.

Warmage from one of the Dragonlance books (Age of Dreams, maybe?) is pretty nice. There's an advanced missile spell floating around in one of the books.

There are ways to make it work. It won't be Batman, but it can do quite well in a reasonable party.

[EnnPeeCee]

I haven't spent much time looking over spells outside of core, what're some of the new missiles?

I know metas will work well with MM, but I just wasn't sure if it would be worth taking a meta MM as a 9th level slot.

The Missile storm spells were basically higher slot MM with higher caps for the maximum number of missiles. (10 and 15 I think)

I was thinking a Warmage would work well, Evoker would work just fine too though.

I'll look around for this Advanced Missile.

Force Missile Mage I believe is from Drag. Mag.

[Tyndmyr]

There's a force orb too...it's a pretty decent basis for damage, IMO.

[Grumman]

There's Chain Missile from the Spell Compendium, which hits the primary target with up to 10 magic missiles, then another 10 targets with one each.

I'd pick up Arcane Thesis (Magic Missile) and Arcane Thesis (Chain Missile), probably Incantatrix too, then metamagic it up.

[EnnPeeCee]

Ooh, Chain Missile is fun.

And I know there are more (and probably better) blasting spells. MM just happens to be one of my favorites.

[Shardan]

you need to also pick up MM as an inate so you never run out of it, lol

[Anonymouswizard]

If your willing to go to spells that are not quite MM, I'd suggest taking chain spell and orb of force, then buffing your conjuration DC as high as you can. 1 target at 15d8 (that's what I think) damage, and then CL (max 20) targets at half damage? that could be a better blaster spell then a metamaigcked MM.

But then, you do have to lose out on metamagic feats for MM, (except for chain spell, MM is a targeted spell, RIGHT?), but you could deal insane amounts of damage a round with that combo.

[Sliver]

You should research some MM of your own to show it your love!

NPC's love missile or something..

[Mongoose87]

You could develop your own Magic Missiles - Improved Magic Missile, which uses d6s, Greater Magic Missile, which uses d8s, and Supreme Magic Missile, which uses d10s! Of course, you'd also increase the cap on the number of missiles with each improvement.

[EnnPeeCee]

Haha, I like this idea of making new spells. Is it is the DM's that it goes over the rules for that?

[Edwin]

Haha, I like this idea of making new spells. Is it is the DM's that it goes over the rules for that?

You do it yourself.

Then the DM approves it.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

There's a feat I've seen mentioned on here that removes the CL cap on spells. If you can find that, use it. The low cap is killer.

[Edwin]

There's a feat I've seen mentioned on here that removes the CL cap on spells. If you can find that, use it. The low cap is killer.

If you're referring to the CL cap on damage, I think its a metamagic feat.

[Siosilvar]

There's a feat I've seen mentioned on here that removes the CL cap on spells. If you can find that, use it. The low cap is killer.

It's an Epic feat and only applies to spells whose damage dice are your level or half your level... not particularly applicable to Magic Missile because you only increase the number of missiles, not damage dice, and the progression is "1 missile + 1 per two levels after 1st", not a number of missiles equal to half your level.

Reference

[Ozymandias9]

So, I've been thinking about how interesting it would be to play as a wizard (or other caster) that does nothing but spam Magic Missiles. But then I started thinking that it would rapidly lose effectiveness, even with throwing metamagics on. I did see a Magic Missile focused PrC mentioned somewhere, but I'd like to avoid Dragon Magazine stuff.

I was also wondering if anything like the missile storm spells from NWN exist somewhere for D&D. From what I can tell they don't, but I'm hoping.

I realize a warlock kinda does this with his blasts, but I'd like to try it with a caster.

Anyway, what can one do with just Magic Missiles to be effective at higher levels?

The Class you're think of is in fact from Dragon (it's Force Missile Mage): even if you don't usually take Dragon mag stuff, you might look at this-- it sacrifices caster progression at 1st level, so its hardly overpowered. Really it just nets you 2 extra missiles per cast. You can grab 1 level of Argent Savant (CMage? CArcane? something like that) for +1 to every die, but it has the same caster progression loss at 1st level.

You should definitely be looking at Incantertrix (sp? help me out here, I haven't slept in a day and a half) and arcane thesis so that you can afford more metamagic.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

It's an Epic feat and only applies to spells whose damage dice are your level or half your level... not particularly applicable to Magic Missile because you only increase the number of missiles, not damage dice, and the progression is "1 missile + 1 per two levels after 1st", not a number of missiles equal to half your level.

Reference

Huh. I thought some obscure source had a version that just removed the cap completely(and not just from damage). Eh.

Also, Enhanced Spell is following the tradition of Epic feats. +4 meta, adds 10 dice. There's better non-epic meta than that for damage, that applies to more spells, and also boosts the non-damage effects. Or you could just use Wings of Flurry or Maw of Chaos or something. Really, who thought that feat was a good idea?

[Claudius Maximus]

Reserves of Strength from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting is the feat that blows off caps.

[herrhauptmann]

There's an evocation reserve feat that does force damage. It's less powerful than most of the spells getting suggested here, but it would fit thematically with your missile wizard.

[Zovc]

You could be a Domain Wizard, a Battle Sorceror, both from Unearthed Arcana (which is part of the SRD, so it's technically "core").

The Warmage is a base class (found in the Complete Arcane or the Miniatures Handbook) that focuses almost (or totally, not sure) exclusively on evocation spells. They have some class features that help them overcome SR, or something like that, but they are considered "full casters," as well.

Argent Savant (in the Complete Arcane) is a prestige class has you give up a caster level (something you pretty much never want to do, but beyond CL10 won't really matter to you that much if all you do is cast Magic Missile and metamagicked Magic Missile.

Force Missile Mage has been mentioned, it is not overpowered, but will make you significantly better at using Magic Missile.

There is a feat in the Player's Handbook II that makes it a lot easier to put metamagic on one spell (per taking of the feat) of your choice, and increases your caster level by 2 for said spell. You should check that out.
(There is also a sorcerer variant in the PHB II that gives up their familiar to be able to use metamagic normally, if you play a sorcerer, I highly recommend it.)

You can play your blasty, magic missile loving mage, but your DM may or may not think you're overpowered. Chances are you won't be, but it's hard to change a lot of peoples' minds on that.

[Sliver]

You could take the feat that allows you to refluff your spells.. Something I thought you could do anyway without needing to pay for it.. So the benefit is harder to identify spells...

[herrhauptmann]

I think part of the idea behind the feat for refluffed appearance of the spells, is that it's also harder to identify them for counterspelling.
WIthout the difficulty in identifying them, your DM probably won't require the feat.

[desmond1323]

The Missile storm spells were basically higher slot MM with higher caps for the maximum number of missiles. (10 and 15 I think)

Seriously? Bad memories aside, these are two spells that DESERVE to be remembered! These spells were a crap ton better than just any ol' Magic Missile. Heck, with a quick save to load if it fails SR, Isaac's Greater Missile Storm was the easiest way to kill any dragon ever. I haven't yet, but I'm going to argue for a homebrewed version of both these spells with my DM.

Now for details:

Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm
4th level spell
Evocation
Long range
Max missile: 10, with 1 per CL
Damage: 1d6 per missile
Saves/SR: No/Yes

Isaac's Greater Missile Storm
6th level spell
Evocation
Long range
Max Missile: 20(!!!), with 1 per CL
Damage: 2d6 per missile
Saves/SR: No/Yes

So at 11th level, when you can cast IGMS, that's 11 near-unblockable 2d6 missiles, best used against one enemy.

A beautiful thing.

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

The Force Missile Mage w/ repeat spell and/or twin spell feats, Shred in some Incantitrix cheese and sprinkle Arcane Thesis will get the macross missile effect you are looking for.

[Magnor Criol]

Procure a copy of SpC if you don't have it to add Chain Missile (Level 3) and Force Missile (level 4) to your repertoire.

Chain missile, as has been said, hits one target with up to 10 missiles, with each missile ricocheting. Unfortunately you can only hit a secondary target once (so you can't bounce all 10 missiles to one guy.) But it's GREAT for those "bad guy is surrounded by his weak goons" moments. And you can choose your targets, so you can avoid hitting allies.

Force Missile is really cool; one missile / 4 CLs, more damage per missile (2d6), and when each missile hits, it explodes for half damage to everyone adjacent to the target. Again, a good crowd killer.

I also recommend looking into the Reserve feats; there's two based on force, and both increase your CL for force spells by 1. With Invisible Needle you can make a ranged touch attack to throw a dart of force, which deals damage based on the highest-level Force spell you have uncast (and could probably easily be refluffed so that it's based on a missile rather than a dart.) Blade of Force is the other one, and...I think it lets you add to a weapon's damage for one attack, I don't remember. The important part is the +1 CL.

I'd suggest taking chain spell and orb of force...

This tactic won't work for either. Chain Spell has can only be applied to spells which say "Target: One..." None of the missile spells say that, though they are targeted, and *maybe* you could persuade your DM that as long as you're only targeting one creature it counts; that's not RAW, though. And Orb of Force is an Effect, not a Target spell.

[Radar]

The Force Missile Mage w/ repeat spell and/or twin spell feats, Shred in some Incantitrix cheese and sprinkle Arcane Thesis will get the macross missile effect you are looking for.

Better yet: start as a sorcerer and unleash Arcane Fusion/Arcane Spellsurge combo to unload even more absurd ammount of missiles in one round (sprinkle with Celerity, if something absolutely, positively shouldn't live to see another day).

[EleventhHour]

Isaac's Greater Missile Storm
6th level spell
Evocation
Long range
Max Missile: 20(!!!), with 1 per CL
Damage: 2d6 per missile
Saves/SR: No/Yes

Twinned, Chain Isaac's Greater Missle Storm

"Crowd of people? What crowd of people?"

[Sliver]

And I thought we were past the point people suggest to chain those spells...