Reverse Missiles / not an "attack"

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

That's just the range penalty for the increased range and the only roll to hit in the process is the one the original attacker made. If that was successful the Reverse shot is unfailing.

But my point is that whereas, in a vacuum, a moving object with its momentum magically reversed would travel back exactly the way it came, air resistance in an atmosphere would cause such a projectile to move on a different course going back than the one it took coming in (the projectile is moving slower when it approaches the mage then it was moving than when it was launched [assuming both mage and archer are at the same elevation], and it is moving slower yet after being launched back towards the original archer, so it will fall somewhat farther going than coming it if travels over the same distance of ground- whether this results in the archer getting shot in the abdomen or the legs, or whether it results in the arrow ploughing into the ground at his feet, depends on details of ballistics that I am not competent to determine).

EDIT: The Reversed Missile, of course, does hit the archer per the spell description, so my point is that the spell must be doing something slightly more complicated than strictly reversing the path of the incoming missile, presumably throwing in a precise amount of extra force to get the missile exactly back to its origin.