Magic Misiles, can someone explain to me please.

[JamesHuds]

As it stands, the wizard in my group is using magic misiles allot, which she can do, she has the spell slots, anyway she is evocation, and usually rolls a d4+1 for each misile, then adds her Intense spells for being evo to each missile, so that is an extra 4 on each as she is level 8.

So, last night she hit an npc with the 4 missiles she has, they came up 4, 5, 3, 4, plus the intense spells for each missile means, 8+9+7+8

So that is 32 damage right of that bat that cant be avoided unless they have SR, and can cast them 7 times a day atm.

This all seemed fine to me till i read the Intense spells rule

This bonus only applies once to a spell, not once per missile or ray, and cannot be split between multiple missiles or rays

so have we been doing this right, if not how does the damage for magic missiles work with intense spells?

[Nefreet]

Intense Spells wrote:

Whenever you cast an evocation spell that deals hit point damage, add 1/2 your wizard level to the damage (minimum +1). This bonus only applies once to a spell, not once per missile or ray, and cannot be split between multiple missiles or rays. This bonus damage is not increased by Empower Spell or similar effects. This damage is of the same type as the spell. At 20th level, whenever you cast an evocation spell you can roll twice to penetrate a creature's spell resistance and take the better result.

Your player has been doing it wrong.

[Karui Kage]

The damage from intense spells applies once. She should choose one of the missiles that hits and apply the extra damage to that single missile. No other missile would get the bonus.

If firing all missiles at the same target, it's easy: just add the intense spells damage once. Only if she's splitting them up does she need to decide which missile has the extra damage.

[SlimGauge]

Do you mean the metamagic feat Intensified Spell?

Intensified Spell raises the damage cap that certain spells (like Burning Hands, that caps at 5d4) have. Magic Missile doesn't have a damage cap, so Intensified Spell does nothing for Magic Missile.

EDIT: ninja'd and you didn't mean Intensified Spell, you meant the evocation school power Intense Spell.

[Shadowlords]

This is a common case of players "Selective reading" everyone has done it at some point or another. The player read the bonus and then either stopped reading or ignored the negative part. I would reread the entire passage of intense spell with the player before it is used again.

[Wolfsnap]

If you're going to roll this back and the player has been doing it for a while, it might be good to help the player come up with some alternate "big zappy" spells or metamagic applications so that she doesn't feel like she's suddenly lost something character-defining.

[ryric]

Also remember that the first level spell shield makes the caster completely immune to magic missiles. Don't overuse it, but occasionally fighting someone who has that basic defense up is not unusual.

[MeanMutton]

SlimGauge wrote:

Do you mean the metamagic feat Intensified Spell?

Intensified Spell raises the damage cap that certain spells (like Burning Hands, that caps at 5d4) have. Magic Missile doesn't have a damage cap, so Intensified Spell does nothing for Magic Missile.

EDIT: ninja'd and you didn't mean Intensified Spell, you meant the evocation school power Intense Spell.

Magic missile has a damage cap - 5 missiles at 9th level.

[Imbicatus]

MeanMutton wrote:

SlimGauge wrote:

Do you mean the metamagic feat Intensified Spell?

Intensified Spell raises the damage cap that certain spells (like Burning Hands, that caps at 5d4) have. Magic Missile doesn't have a damage cap, so Intensified Spell does nothing for Magic Missile.

EDIT: ninja'd and you didn't mean Intensified Spell, you meant the evocation school power Intense Spell.

Magic missile has a damage cap - 5 missiles at 9th level.

Yes, but caster level doesn't add more damage dice, it adds more missiles. Intensified spell does nothing for it.

[DM_Blake]

Aside from the fact that that 32 damage should have been 20 damage, this is so much not a problem that you (the GM) shouldn't worry about it at all, even if you let her keep doing it the wrong way.

32 damage at 8th level is AWFUL.

That same wizard could prepare a Fireball and do 8d6 (average 28 damage) to possibly a dozen enemies at the same time (if they're crowded together enough). Even if they all save, that's still 168 damage.

Even worse, that same wizard could cast Hold Person on a BBEG and let the party fighter kill it with a coup de grace and it won't matter how many HP the BBEG had, the wizard basically did enough "damage" to guarantee his death (on the failed save).

And by way of comparison, that player could retire her wizard and roll a level 8 barbarian and could easily do 32 HP damage EVERY round ALL DAY LONG (not just 7 times).

This really is not a problem. But, for the rules' sake, the Intense bonus should only be applied once, as the others have said.