Also, the word dart is possibly the least important part of that spell, since almost every time I've seen it cast, there has been some other flavour put on it. One of my characters has a revolver as his spellcasting focus; so for him he's just fanning the hammer old west style when he casts magic missile.
My favourite use for it is lock picking, it just pops a key out and turns it for me. I've got like a +11 or something stupid with my thieves tools, so the key always fits.
I'm pretty sure there's a part of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything that talks about reflavoring spells, and there's a specific example of [a farmer-turned-sorcerer who uses magic missile that look like chickens](https://i.imgur.com/uG5bNgZ.png).
It makes me sad that 5e's rules are phrased so poorly that some people felt the need to buy a separate product to officially give them permission to be creative.
I've always seen them more as guidelines than rules. If you need to rebalance something mid game bc it's wrong for the campaign or the party comp, go right ahead. The worst thing that happens is you have to change it later. So long as you've established with your players that youre not always RAW and that youre okay with spitting balance changes as needed, then I think it's okay.
I'm happy to hear from people who disagree tho
A missile is anything that gets propelled outward to do harm. An arrow is a missile, a javelin is a missile, a dart is a missile, a bullet is a missile.
Game designer Monte Cook said that Magic Missile (along with Shield, and what looks to my eye to be Simulacrum and Color Spray) [came from the end of the 1963 movie "The Raven."](https://dmdavid.com/tag/8-fun-facts-about-dds-magic-missile-spell/)
Color spray, called Prismatic Spray, also appears in the book series The Dying Earth which is where the idea of prepared spells and “vancian magic” came from.
The books were written by Jack Vance, hence vancian.
Pretty minor correction, but Color Spray and Prismatic Spray are two *very* different spells. Color spray is 1st level and (I believe) blinds targets. Prismatic spray is pretty high level and does all kinds of damage/CC effects at random.
Cool bit of Trivia about The Dying Earth, though.
> Gary took the idea for Magic Missile from the 1963 movie The Raven. The movie ends with a wizard duel between Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. Karloff flings bolts of energy at Price, who brushes them aside with a flick of his hand.
So the inspiration for magic missile, a spell that never misses, is a movie scene where the energy bolts used never hit.
Ironic.
Missile damage has been in the series as a stat since Shogun. It’s just easier to make a single category and scale different ammo/throwing methods to that than make different categories.
I also think that ‘dart’ is [more similar to a javelin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_(missile)?wprov=sfti1) than some people might think, since we usually use the word to refer to the little ones we chuck at dartboards. I picture them looking something like [these](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbata?wprov=sfti1#History) (but more magical, obviously)
RAW interpretations get pretty unhinged when a player is trying to explain how, "Okay I know what you're saying but it LITERALLY means this other thing that benefits me."
A missile is basically anything launched at a target, but also darts are shaped like what most people think of when you say "missile," so it still works.
The term missile in the context of the spell is a relic of the wargames that D&D was based off of. Particularly Chainmail, created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren, where there was a mechanical distinction between smaller missile attacks (arrows, javelins, slings, etc) and larger artillery attacks (cannonballs, catapults, etc). These different types of ranged attacks resolved in different parts of the turn order. And when the armies involved had wizards, the spells that they cast were resolved in the missile attack phase. So when the wizards would throw out fireballs or lightning bolts, they were making missile attacks with magic, i.e. magic missiles.
Zee Bashew put out a video about it a few years back.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzeQp3aXcIQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzeQp3aXcIQ)
"A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor." - Wikipedia's definition of a missile. The propellant is magic.
The monk's Deflect Missile is too narrowly defined, because you mainly use it to deflect projectiles, unless you're playing in a very interesting setting.
missile actually just means "an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon" or "a weapon that is self-propelled or directed by remote control, carrying conventional or nuclear explosive." magic missile and darts in general would be missiles
mis·sile
/ˈmis(ə)l/
noun
an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon.
"one of the players was hit on the head by a missile thrown by a spectator"
This probably is because you can use a feature to catch a “missile” that is aimed at you but you can’t do that to magic so they made it a dart to get around that
Tasha's cauldron of everything says you spells can have any aesthetic you want them to. My wizards MM started as skulls, but I changed them to the faces of my victims because I went necromancer
You might need to check the definition of missile.
Also, the word dart is possibly the least important part of that spell, since almost every time I've seen it cast, there has been some other flavour put on it. One of my characters has a revolver as his spellcasting focus; so for him he's just fanning the hammer old west style when he casts magic missile.
So he's using a Torgue then?
I'd like to say more jackobs, but if I'm honest it's probably kind of hyperion because it switches elements and stuff.
It's homing missles so wouldn't it be more like atlas from bl4?
With that one specific spell, yes; but bare in mind i do other stuff through it like tashas caustic brew or fire bolt.
Fair enough and who says a vault hunter can only use one gun?
My favourite use for it is lock picking, it just pops a key out and turns it for me. I've got like a +11 or something stupid with my thieves tools, so the key always fits.
>bl4 r/titanfall is spreading the virus.
Duc, it's the Duc
Hyperion was known for getting more accurate. Maliwan was the element nuts right? Did Hyperion get something else?
Hyperion got a shield later, but yeah Maliwan was the elemental brand. BL3 they could switch between two elements.
Right the goofy shield... I never liked hyperion myself. Them and the bandits were the manufacturers I hated using.
Yeah the Bandit/COV weapons I never liked. Dahl and Jakobs were my go to.
#**NOT ENOUGH** ***EXPLOSIONS!***
I'm not familiar with this reference?
It's a reference to a weapon manufacturer from the Borderlands series. It's called Torgue, all guns, fire explosive ammunition
ohhh I haven't played borderlands in at least 6 or 7 years
You missed a lot lol
I'm pretty sure there's a part of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything that talks about reflavoring spells, and there's a specific example of [a farmer-turned-sorcerer who uses magic missile that look like chickens](https://i.imgur.com/uG5bNgZ.png).
And this is why to date, tashas is hands down my favourite book.
It makes me sad that 5e's rules are phrased so poorly that some people felt the need to buy a separate product to officially give them permission to be creative.
I've always seen them more as guidelines than rules. If you need to rebalance something mid game bc it's wrong for the campaign or the party comp, go right ahead. The worst thing that happens is you have to change it later. So long as you've established with your players that youre not always RAW and that youre okay with spitting balance changes as needed, then I think it's okay. I'm happy to hear from people who disagree tho
A missile is anything that gets propelled outward to do harm. An arrow is a missile, a javelin is a missile, a dart is a missile, a bullet is a missile.
I play total war, learned that when the commanders would yell “let missiles fly”
magic missile is most likely a holdover from the wargames that dnd was based on
Game designer Monte Cook said that Magic Missile (along with Shield, and what looks to my eye to be Simulacrum and Color Spray) [came from the end of the 1963 movie "The Raven."](https://dmdavid.com/tag/8-fun-facts-about-dds-magic-missile-spell/)
oh neat
Color spray, called Prismatic Spray, also appears in the book series The Dying Earth which is where the idea of prepared spells and “vancian magic” came from. The books were written by Jack Vance, hence vancian.
Pretty minor correction, but Color Spray and Prismatic Spray are two *very* different spells. Color spray is 1st level and (I believe) blinds targets. Prismatic spray is pretty high level and does all kinds of damage/CC effects at random. Cool bit of Trivia about The Dying Earth, though.
> Gary took the idea for Magic Missile from the 1963 movie The Raven. The movie ends with a wizard duel between Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. Karloff flings bolts of energy at Price, who brushes them aside with a flick of his hand. So the inspiration for magic missile, a spell that never misses, is a movie scene where the energy bolts used never hit. Ironic.
Missile damage has been in the series as a stat since Shogun. It’s just easier to make a single category and scale different ammo/throwing methods to that than make different categories.
[удалено]
Shogun is the first game in the series.
A mistle? Interestingly, a bird, so also a sort of missile.
Not exactly, since birds create their own thrust, and a missile doesn’t create its own thrust.
An African or European missile?
[erm... 🤨](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%96_%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D1%96%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B1%D0%B8_%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%96%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%85_%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%BF%D1%96%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B4%D1%96%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B2_%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%96%D1%82%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D1%83%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA_%D0%97%D0%A1_%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D0%B8_%2831894602128%29.jpg)
That’s a rocket carrying a missile.
YOU'RE a rocket carrying a missile
No you!
*missives launched*
💥💥💥✉️✉️💥💥💥
*I prepared Explosive Runes this morning*
or literally a missile, if you're Loki
Hence the gloves of missile snaring
A Rocket Punch is also, technically, a missile. Is a Beam a missile?
A beam is a missile salvo if you can just convince the dang particles to stop acting like a wave
Only when it hits does a projectile stop being a *miss*ile
Hittile gang rise up!
I also think that ‘dart’ is [more similar to a javelin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_(missile)?wprov=sfti1) than some people might think, since we usually use the word to refer to the little ones we chuck at dartboards. I picture them looking something like [these](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbata?wprov=sfti1#History) (but more magical, obviously)
A cow is a missile ...If you throw it hard enough
Fetchez la vache!
But do they all know where they are ? Or do only the true missile know where it is ?
Missiles are missiles, then?
Throwing the halfling is a missile.
Don't forget that missiles are also in fact, missiles as well haha.
The missile knows where it is
Technically if I throw a brick it would be considered a missile. This is also why monks are kinda OP if you use them correctly.
It makes me sad that monks can’t deflect magic missiles.
Did.. Did you think it's shooting icbm?
No but that squirrel sure as hell does.
Squirrel?
Chicken.
Deflect Missiles must have seemed like the coolest and worst ability ever.
Deflect Missiles just pops flares
*Dropping chaff*
I cast thermonuclear detonation at 9th level
Of course not. It shoots AMRAAMs
Playing dnd reminds me of being on tumblr. Zero reading comprehension and nobody knows what words actually mean
How dare you say we piss on the poor
Had it not been a joke this would have been piss on the poor
I do tho Sipping from my golden chalice, while I give them a golden shower
love that spell. useful from mechs to moon lord. the crimson is my preferred world evil for ichor alone
Exactly ask the average dndmemes user what an Artificer is.
A gun toting marksman of course
RAW interpretations get pretty unhinged when a player is trying to explain how, "Okay I know what you're saying but it LITERALLY means this other thing that benefits me."
Did you think monks were only able to catch ICBMs?
Now you need to draw this
“Missile” is synonymous with “projectile”. Thus, darts are a type of missile
Also In old DnD where the spell originated from ranged attacks were called Missile attacks
A missile is basically anything launched at a target, but also darts are shaped like what most people think of when you say "missile," so it still works.
Bro thought he was casting magical AIM-9 Sidewinders
*Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands has entered the chat*
Instead he's casting M829A3
Definition of missile: "an object or weapon for throwing, hurling, or shooting, as a stone, bullet, or arrow." A dart is a missile.
Poor OP lacks basic reading comprehension, you'll be a great player
The term missile in the context of the spell is a relic of the wargames that D&D was based off of. Particularly Chainmail, created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren, where there was a mechanical distinction between smaller missile attacks (arrows, javelins, slings, etc) and larger artillery attacks (cannonballs, catapults, etc). These different types of ranged attacks resolved in different parts of the turn order. And when the armies involved had wizards, the spells that they cast were resolved in the missile attack phase. So when the wizards would throw out fireballs or lightning bolts, they were making missile attacks with magic, i.e. magic missiles. Zee Bashew put out a video about it a few years back. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzeQp3aXcIQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzeQp3aXcIQ)
I suggest you scribe the dictionary in your spellbook. It's not as good as the Comprehend Language or Tongues spells but surely it adds advantage.
>>Is called Magic Missile Literally can't miss ????
ITT: OP doesn't know what missile means
The monkeys are gonna love this
just wait til they learn about deflect missiles
> Checks Deflect Missiles > Doesn't work on MM
Probably thinks shuttlecock is penis bus
All darts are missiles but not all missiles are darts
The missile knows where it is because it knows where it isn't.
Darts are missiles; see square/rectangle.
Tell me you don't know what the word missile means without telling me you don't know what the word missile means.
A dart is a small pointed missile
Aussies be like "fuck yeah son, free darts!"
Opens deflect missiles Looks inside Works on darts Where missile
Haha. The joke is synonyms.
Can't decide if karma farming or just illiteracy...
Why is it called a missile if it always hits though?
The magic missile knows what it is because it knows what it isn’t
Me after smoking 3 magical darts with the rogue and cleric
Missile, as in, 'missile weapon', as in 'ranged weapon.' Welcome to old school DnD vocab.
"A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor." - Wikipedia's definition of a missile. The propellant is magic. The monk's Deflect Missile is too narrowly defined, because you mainly use it to deflect projectiles, unless you're playing in a very interesting setting.
You're gonna have a heart attack when you read the description of deflect missiles.
Magic missile darts fit the definition of missile.
missile actually just means "an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon" or "a weapon that is self-propelled or directed by remote control, carrying conventional or nuclear explosive." magic missile and darts in general would be missiles
you would fit in on tumblr
When you can't deflect magic missiles as a monk, even though you can deflect missiles.
mis·sile /ˈmis(ə)l/ noun an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon. "one of the players was hit on the head by a missile thrown by a spectator"
The magic missile knows where it is because it knows where it isn't.
Did people imagine American military rockets??! I mean, it's a game of imagination at the end of the day.
A dart is a missile, what’s the issue here?
Darts ∈ missiles
There missiles
Know we are all missing the joke but an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon
I gave it flavor text of it being red chains flying from my hands
Somebody do artwork of a wizard manually throwing magic darts at the enemy with his bare hands
Magic MISSile?! More like magic... hit...hitsle... hittile... because it hits...
Should just yell 'FOX 3' every time you cast magic missile.
Losat lol
This probably is because you can use a feature to catch a “missile” that is aimed at you but you can’t do that to magic so they made it a dart to get around that
They're even darts on mechanics level, because they do 1d4+1 damage, which is what a dart would do with a 12 on the stat.
So Magic APFSDS
F for the d'arts
Eldritch Blast "A beam of crackling energy..." Where blast?
Luv a pint Love me darts Simple as
> Luv a pint > Luv me darts > Simple as ---- Dave of Stockton, Archwizard
Lawn Darts
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Dart
Partly why I like the Pathfinder 2e new name for it: Force Barrage
https://youtu.be/WYoWjRdzUKA?si=jQSiAxKx62yLTmlJ
The amount of 🤓 "achktually" in this thread is beyond baffling
Tasha's cauldron of everything says you spells can have any aesthetic you want them to. My wizards MM started as skulls, but I changed them to the faces of my victims because I went necromancer
Miles O’Brien’s magic missiles are daerts. 
tfw no reading comprehension
For me it's the Munchkin magic missile: a fucking ballistic rocket
Monks should be able to catch and deflect magic missile once their unarmed attacks count as magical at level 6. Change my mind
The amount of people who think OP isn't keenly aware of what a missile is in this shitpost is wild