Old Magic Missile Discussion

I moved this section from the main page here as it wasn't that great for the actual article -- Andreas J. May 2020

The Roll20 Compendium entry for the Magic Missile spell uses the damage of 3d4+3 as its base. This damage output includes all three magic missiles generated at 1st level. This decision was made so that Magic Missile functions the same as all other spells, where you only have to roll the spell a single time to see the output of its damage, rather than three times (once for each missile). If you need to determine the order of damage per missile, you can hover over the damage output in the chat pane to see what each dice rolled and in what order. This is true for the damage output as well as Higher Casting damage.

If you would like the Magic Missile spell set up to roll only 1d4+1 per roll, you can set up a version of the Magic Missile spell that has a DAMAGE section of 1d4 + 1 and no HIGHER LVL CAST DMG or AT HIGHER LEVELS data.

_{Note: Whilst the above paragraphs are wonderful examples of performing the action which they describe, almost 2 years ago, Jeremy E. Crawford pointed out that Magic Missile falls under the "Roll once for all Damage" category in the PHB Page 196 Damage section, so, by R.A.W. it should technically be:}

_{[[((1d4+1) *(2 +?{Cast at what level?}))]]}

_{Although he also pointed out that R.A.I. is you decide which method to use.}

_{By Proxy, this ruling should also be applied to Eldritch Blast. Would someone please let the Sheet Author know this, as well as ask the Sheet Author to include floor() & ceil() in the preview calculations of the Repeating Weapons List the same way they included round(), & Fix the Spellcasting Ability's "+" at the end of the Stat (eg: " @{charisma_mod}+ ")? --Blue64 )}

_{Clarification regarding the above: Eldritch Blast actually makes up to four consecutive attack rolls, each one getting its own damage roll. Magic Missile acts the way it does because it does not use attack rolls, meaning it only rolls damage once (like spells with saving throws instead of attack rolls).}

_{(correction Eldritch Blast qualifies --Blue64 )}

_{Uh... The tweet you linked is about magic missile, and specifically quotes its description. There's a single damage roll for magic missile specifically because it says all the darts strike simultaneously, which eldritch blast doesn't. Anyway, the body of this article is not the place to debate this. --V2Blast (talk) 05:40, 15 October 2019 (UTC)}