The D&D/d20 Spell Conversion Thread

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by A Ladder

What I always liked about Magic Missile was that it never missed (unless they had a shield spell). I would put that back into interpretation. I'm deviating from the original idea of striking multiple targets because that's crazy. Here's my build:

Mana Missile
Missile
College: Meta-Magic
Lets the caster fire a projectile made of pure magical energy. This has 1/2D 25, Max 50, Acc 0. Determine your odds to hit using Innate Attack (Projectile) skill. If your effective skill is 3+, you hit, no roll necessary. Your target can only defend with Blocking spells and being behind an Utter Dome/Wall.

Argh. It is wrong to think that Magic Missile can't be dodged. You have to bear in mind what the equivalent of "dodging" in D&D is. It's hit points. Magic Missiles ignore armour, and could probably operate functionally without need for a roll to hit. But they can be dodged and deflected.

[Bruno]

I have two spells in the Meta-Magic category on my wiki that intersect with the idea of Magic Missile. They're based more on the implementation of similar spells in World of Warcraft than in D&D.

New Spell: Magic Volley
Special/R-DX spell
This is not a missile spell. There is no roll to hit, nor a defense roll; the result of the spell is determined by resistance, and damage interacts with DR normally.
This spell fires a volley of target-seeking magical bolts at the subject. You hit with one bolt per point you win the resistance contest by, up to a maximum of six missiles. Each missile does N+1 cr where N is the energy put into the spell, to a maximum N of 5.
You may target a specific hit location by taking a penalty to your spell skill equal to the hit location penalty - otherwise you strike a random hit location.
This spell is treated as a Regular spell, but takes distance penalties based on the speed/range table instead of -1/yard.
Cost: Energy equal to the damage per missile -1, minimum final cost of 1. For double the cost, the missiles gain an armor divisor of 1/2.
For example, if 1 energy is spent, each missile does 2 damage. If 5 energy is spent, each missile does 6 damage.
Prerequisites: Magery 1 and 5 Meta-Magic spells.

New Spell: Magic Barrage
Special/R-DX spell
As per Magic Volley, but you hit with two bolts per point you win the resistance contest by, up to a maximum of twelve.
Cost: 1 per point of damage. For double the cost, the missiles gain an armor divisor of 1/2.
For example, if 1 energy is spent, each missile does 1 damage. If 5 energy is spent, each missile does 5 damage.
Prerequisites: Magery 2, Magic Volley Version 2, and 10 Meta-Magic spells.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Bruno

For double the cost, the missiles gain an armor divisor of 1/2.

I think they should be getting an AD of 2 instead of 1/2. A foe's DR is reduced to DR/AD if an attack has an AD. An attack with an AD of 1/2 would face DR/(1/2) = 2*DR, or twice the DR. In fact, ADs of 1/2 are a limitation you can take on an attack.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I think they should be getting an AD of 2 instead of 1/2. A foe's DR is reduced to DR/AD if an attack has an AD. An attack with an AD of 1/2 would face DR/(1/2) = 2*DR, or twice the DR. In fact, ADs of 1/2 are a limitation you can take on an attack.

You are correct, that's a notation issue (ie, typo/brain-o)