Where is Jim’s Magic Missile from?

[Citadel97501]

Hello all, I saw a spell mentioned in a thread here and I was wondering where its from? The spell in question is Jim’s Magic Missile, which seems to be extremely good for a blaster and allows a really interesting critical fishing High elf build.

[Sigreid]

Are you sure it wasn't just a Magic Missile spell used by Jim? Or a hypothetical example being used?

[ProsecutorGodot]

Acquisition's Incorporated, a spell named after the Wizard in that game called Jim Darkmagic.

[P. G. Macer]

It’s in Acquisitions Incorporated, a sourcebook WotC made in collaboration with Penny Arcade, based on their long-running popular D&D web series. Because of the book’s largely office-drama-parodying content, many DMs allow little or none of the material from the book in their games, so you should absolutely check with your DM before making the build.

[Citadel97501]

It’s in Acquisitions Incorporated, a sourcebook WotC made in collaboration with Penny Arcade, based on their long-running popular D&D web series. Because of the book’s largely office-drama-parodying content, many DMs allow little or none of the material from the book in their games, so you should absolutely check with your DM before making the build.

Thank you all, I will check thanks :)

[Tanarii]

Hello all, I saw a spell mentioned in a thread here and I was wondering where its from? The spell in question is Jim’s Magic Missile, which seems to be extremely good for a blaster and allows a really interesting critical fishing High elf build.

It's inferior to MM unless you have a greater than 70% chance to hit. and has a non-trivial chance of doing no damage to any targets and instead inflicting some damage to yourself due to rolling a 1 on any of the attacks blowing them all up in your face.

At first glance, it appears if you can get Elven Accuracy advantage on the ranged attack the ability to do crit damage (and inherent high hit chance from 3d20b1) looks great. Unfortunately it's also a correspondingly greater chance of rolling a 1 on any of those 3 die, inflicting self damage and wasting the shot.

[MaxWilson]

It's inferior to MM unless you have a greater than 70% chance to hit. and has a non-trivial chance of doing no damage to any targets and instead inflicting some damage to yourself due to rolling a 1 on any of the attacks blowing them all up in your face.

At first glance, it appears if you can get Elven Accuracy advantage on the ranged attack the ability to do crit damage (and inherent high hit chance from 3d20b1) looks great. Unfortunately it's also a correspondingly greater chance of rolling a 1 on any of those 3 die, inflicting self damage and wasting the shot.

Basically, it's a spell for players who think accidentally blowing yourself up with Fireball is hilarious. (I might be one of those players, sometimes.) Definitely not for deadly-serious campaigns.

[Edea]

Basically, it's a spell for players who think accidentally blowing yourself up with Fireball is hilarious. (I might be one of those players, sometimes.) Definitely not for deadly-serious campaigns.

Jim Darkmagic, on the other hand, is absolutely one of those types.

[Citadel97501]

Jim Darkmagic, on the other hand, is absolutely one of those types.

hmmm perhaps its better on Halflings since you get to keep rolling to get rid of those 1's, although that does reduce the Scorching Ray benefit...

[MaxWilson]

hmmm perhaps its better on Halflings since you get to keep rolling to get rid of those 1's, although that does reduce the Scorching Ray benefit...

Mmmm, maybe. Because of the miss chance you'd probably need to combine our with something like Hex or paralyzation/unconsciousness or both to get maximum value out of each hit.

In the best-case scenario, an Int 20 14th level Evoker with access to Hex (from Warlock 1 or some other source like feats) can Overchannel Jim's Magic Missile V against a Hexed, Paralyzed target 5' away for 25+2d6 (32) per hit, which against a low AC target like a Commoner is about 7 x 32 (224) force/necrotic damage, as opposed to the 7 x 10 (70) force damage a regular Evoker would get from Magic Missile V against the same target. Without Overchannel it's 7 x 24.5 (171.5) to 7 x 8.5 (59.5), again against a low-AC target.

Is that worthwhile? Depends how often you expect to be zapping low-AC, paralyzed targets. And you should probably be a halfling just in case.

It's a lot of eggs to put in one basket unless you were planning on being e.g. a Mark of Healing halfling already, and/or adventuring with a silver dragon companion (paralyzation breath) or a warlock who likes to summon Chasmes (Unconsciousness aura, if the DM rules that the missiles are simultaneous/target doesn't wake up until all the missiles hit).

[Citadel97501]

Mmmm, maybe. Because of the miss chance you'd probably need to combine our with something like Hex or paralyzation/unconsciousness or both to get maximum value out of each hit.

In the best-case scenario, an Int 20 14th level Evoker with access to Hex (from Warlock 1 or some other source like feats) can Overchannel Jim's Magic Missile V against a Hexed, Paralyzed target 5' away for 25+2d6 (32) per hit, which against a low AC target like a Commoner is about 7 x 32 (224) force/necrotic damage, as opposed to the 7 x 10 (70) force damage a regular Evoker would get from Magic Missile V against the same target. Without Overchannel it's 7 x 24.5 (171.5) to 7 x 8.5 (59.5), again against a low-AC target.

Is that worthwhile? Depends how often you expect to be zapping low-AC, paralyzed targets. And you should probably be a halfling just in case.

It's a lot of eggs to put in one basket unless you were planning on being e.g. a Mark of Healing halfling already, and/or adventuring with a silver dragon companion (paralyzation breath) or a warlock who likes to summon Chasmes (Unconsciousness aura, if the DM rules that the missiles are simultaneous/target doesn't wake up until all the missiles hit).

I think just using Assassin would work fine :)

[LudicSavant]

At first glance, it appears if you can get Elven Accuracy advantage on the ranged attack the ability to do crit damage (and inherent high hit chance from 3d20b1) looks great. Unfortunately it's also a correspondingly greater chance of rolling a 1 on any of those 3 die, inflicting self damage and wasting the shot.

Wouldn't the attack roll only be a 1 if all 3 dice on elven accuracy were 1s? Or is that not how it works?

[Lunali]

Wouldn't the attack roll only be a 1 if all 3 dice on elven accuracy were 1s? Or is that not how it works?

Yea, it would only blow up if the final attack roll for a missile were a 1.

[Tanarii]

Yea, it would only blow up if the final attack roll for a missile were a 1.

Normally yes. But the way they worded it is "if any of the attack rolls is a natural 1", so it encompassed all dice rolled.

[LudicSavant]

Normally yes. But the way they worded it is "if any of the attack rolls is a natural 1", so it encompassed all dice rolled.

I don't think you make '3 attack rolls' when you roll elven accuracy. You make 1 attack roll, the result of which is the highest of 3 dice.

[Edea]

Yeah, the "1" determination is only made after Accuracy and advantage are applied and you've selected a die result for the attack roll. You'd have to have (1, 1) and then an Accuracy re-roll of (1) for the spell to blow up in your face.

In fact, simply having advantage at all would be bad with the other interpretation, as now you have double the odds of rolling a 1, which sounds nonsensical.

[Tanarii]

In fact, simply having advantage at all would be bad with the other interpretation, as now you have double the odds of rolling a 1, which sounds nonsensical.

It is pretty nonsensical. But its a 3rd party splatbook. Poor writing is common.

Certainly its easy to fix at any table that wants to use it.

[MaxWilson]

It is pretty nonsensical. But its a 3rd party splatbook. Poor writing is common.

Certainly its easy to fix at any table that wants to use it.

I don't think it needs fixing. The RAW is clear:

Advantage and Disadvantage
Sometimes a special ability or spell tells you that you have advantage or disadvantage on an ability check, a saving throw, or an attack roll. When that happens, you roll a second d20 when you make the roll. Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage, and use the lower roll if you have disadvantage. For example, if you have disadvantage and roll a 17 and a 5, you use the 5. If you instead have advantage and roll those numbers, you use the 17.

Jim's Magic Missile
If the attack roll scores a critical hit, the target of that missile takes 5d4 force damage instead of you rolling damage twice for a critical hit. If the attack roll for any missile is a 1, all missiles miss their targets and blow up in your face, dealing 1 force damage per missile to you.

If you roll with advantage (1,17), you use the 17, which is not a 1, so the attack roll for that missile is not a 1, so nothing blows up.

I think just using Assassin would work fine :)

Well, maybe. You'll be at the mercy of the DM for gaining surprise (are these monsters suspicious enough that they perceive a threat? is this the first fight of the dungeon? were any monsters warned by shouts or explosions previously?), and if you do gain surprise (Pass Without Trace for the whole party?) you may have such a large action economy advantage that it's not even worth burning a big spell slot on Jim's Magic Missile.

It could work, but... I think maybe Assassin has its reputation for a reason.

[JackPhoenix]

I don't think it needs fixing. The RAW is clear:

If you roll with advantage (1,17), you use the 17, which is not a 1, so the attack roll for that missile is not a 1, so nothing blows up.

Funny thing: It's pretty much impossible to have an attack roll of 1 with a spell, as attack roll is described as a roll of d20 + modifier, and it's separate from the dice roll itself:

"Attack Rolls
When you make an attack, your attack roll determines whether the attack hits or misses. To make an attack roll, roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. If the total of the roll plus modifiers equals or exceeds the target’s Armor Class (AC), the attack hits. The AC of a character is determined at character creation, whereas the AC of a monster is in its stat block."

"Rolling 1 or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC."

Notably, other similar abilities (Vorpal Sword or Spear of Backbiting) are worded to work when you *roll* 20 or 1 (respectively) on your attack roll, but Jim's Magic Missile backfires when your attack roll... i.e. the total... *is* 1. So yes, the wording needs fixing... the intent is clear, but RAW doesn't work out that way.

[Lunali]

Normally yes. But the way they worded it is "if any of the attack rolls is a natural 1", so it encompassed all dice rolled.

It's not "if any of the attack rolls is a 1" it's "If the attack roll for any missile is a 1" so you resolve the advantage/disadvantage for each missile before determining if it's a 1.

[Monster Manuel]

It's not "if any of the attack rolls is a 1" it's "If the attack roll for any missile is a 1" so you resolve the advantage/disadvantage for each missile before determining if it's a 1.

Serious/ not-serious question here. Given that the source material is the acquisitions inc. book, isn't it possible that the wobbly RAW is deliberate? Maybe it's worded this way because it would be funny for Jim Darkmagic to word the spell this way, just so they could do a bit with arguing the semantics of what the "attack roll" is?

I haven't listened to much of the show, and haven't read the book, so I'm reaching a bit here. But would that kind of meta-joke be on brand for them?

[ProsecutorGodot]

Serious/ not-serious question here. Given that the source material is the acquisitions inc. book, isn't it possible that the wobbly RAW is deliberate? Maybe it's worded this way because it would be funny for Jim Darkmagic to word the spell this way, just so they could do a bit with arguing the semantics of what the "attack roll" is?

I haven't listened to much of the show, and haven't read the book, so I'm reaching a bit here. But would that kind of meta-joke be on brand for them?

Yes, it would be on brand, that's why casting the spell requires a royalty fee... Which Jim foolishly forgot to have the spell consume.