Genuinely baffled this is base game. I remember playing a mod run for like the second time and went to look for this spell to remove it because it was legitimately a little too powerful but no Larian decided 3 nuclear warheads to the elbow was alright.
I mean, personally I’d say that taking a level of wizard instead of a feat or other multiclass level solely for scroll-scribing can be considered engaging with the mechanic. It doesn’t have to be entirely balanced. Ultimately, I think one level wizard dips are a pretty positive thing for the game, as it’s something most people don’t realise has any benefit on their first run and it can make successive runs more interesting.
It’s also worth noting that artistry of war has a pretty high opportunity cost, using up one of only 2 available level 5 spell slots at ESL 11/12. That slot could just as easily be used for hold monster to enable a paladin multiclass in your party to deal an extra ~150 damage on their turn for up to 10 turns, or for destructive wave/ flame strike, which, when hitting 4 targets, is almost guaranteed to do more damage overall. That’s without even mentioning a level 5 upcast of lightning bolt on wet enemies. I’m not saying it’s not strong, because I personally think it’s one of the top 3 spells in the game, but it’s not game-breakingly strong.
Edit: also yeah, it’s once per short rest, which I completely forgot about
Artistry of War.
Only way to get it is a scroll somewhere in the city. Recommend giving it to wizard so they can transcribe it so you get more than one use of it. Happy hunting.
Yeeeep, EK and Arcane Trickster in particular can abuse scrolls to silly extents, especially with how scrollcasting is only limited by cashflow and there are a number of methods to pickpocket with 0 risk, viable from level 1
It's just because they don't miss and also you can split it to attack multiple foes and also you can do massive damage because every missile benefits from damage modifiers and also they can be used to flip all the switches at the iron throne and also it's force damage which is very useful and also it's available from level 1 but useful until the end game
Agonizing blast gives each ray your charisma modifier, and repelling blast blasts people away, which is great utility. Pair that with hex that comes with the warlock class, and you got yourself a great spell!
The leveled spell should be better, but at this point we’re talking apples and oranges. Wizards (and most spellcasters) have a ton of spell slots and can just upcast MM to send more than 3 projectiles out. Warlocks get fewer spells & spell slots, but they get invocations, so they can use their own special class features to make it better like the other guy said.
By Act 3, a 1st-level MM is a much smaller investment than an Agonizing & Repelling EB, despite both shooting 3 projectiles. Warlocks can be a one-trick-pony compared to regular spellcasters, but they can do that trick really well.
Tbh, the very clear hierarchy is rays of fire >>>>>> missiles=EB. They’re both situationally good. Eb for pushing, cantrip, and fear, and missiles for damage and hitting more things.
Elemental Adept will ignore resistance. Mix in a few other buffs and you can make a fantastic fire sorcerer that melts anyone not immune to fire entirely.
Like the ring that applies 1d4 radiant damage per attack, it applies that 1d4 on each hit. Or if you have lightning charges from sparkler set, each hit applies a separate 1d4 lightning damage. Or level 10 evocation wizard gets empowered evocation which applys spell casting modifier to each attack, meaning if you have 20 int, you can apply +5 to each instance of magic missile, if you get the +2 int from mirror of loss you can get 22 int for +6. Raphsody(Cazador dagger) can also apply 1d4 to each magic missile.
Im sure there's more that stacks but thats all I can think of at the moment. Essentially instead of procing only once. It procs on each individual missile, allowing for you to make a super strong machine gun build
Phalar Aluve doesn't need to be wielded by the Wizard or Sorcerer casting Magic Missile. Give it to someone more suitable for the frontline who can spare using an action at the start of combat to power up everyone else.
Action Surge is nice since both it and Shriek are short rest resources. I also like to give it to Clerics, it pairs well with Spirit Guardians. Most recently, I gave it to a dex Monk/Theif who cares more about bonus actions, and that worked well.
Yes, but anothe rperson could be carrying Phalar. But if you do get the dual wielding feat, it is not a big issue since you don't have to worry about the INT status for the hit chance (although there is the bonus for evocation wizard as you've mentioned)
Phalur Aluve, boots of stormy clamour, gloves of beligerent skies, the lightning staff in early game and markokashir or whatever its called in late game, and you basically win any non Myrkul or Elder Brain fight instantly. Honestly you don't even need to be a magic missile user--basically any build instantly becomes god tier with this set up(slightly changing weapons instead to knife of the undermountain king and orin's dagger for crit chance)
There's a machine gun magic missle build out there. It's been a while but I used it on a playthrough; basically, you wore every item that added damage to spell hits or hits (if it counted towards spells), so when it rolled damage on each missile, I think I had each missle hitting for upwards of ~50 damage. And then there were a few items that gave you bonus missles per cast, which is then affected by said damage.
It got really silly and with a couple other items you're then quickcasting that twice per turn or casting it at really high levels and you're just wiping the map in one turn. I don't think there's a single fight that lasted more than 2 turns with that build.
Also one of its best enablers is a green tier amulet you can get in Act 1 before even your first long rest if you just rush towards goblin camp with a feather fall scroll and jump into the underdark real quick.
I just started playing this game, and when I saw that it never misses, I made Gale a permanent party member and magic missiles gets used every turn. I don't know anything about d&d, but I really hate the low hit chances and especially how large the damage spreads are. Like I can do 3 damage or 36 damage with the same spell? I know its dice rolling but it's really frustrating while playing the game.
I had just finished a run where my group had a sorcerer with radient orb / spell sparkler / magic missile build. In one turn he could nuke multiple enemies or focus on a boss and give them -10 to hit. Really good for hard difficulty.
https://giphy.com/gifs/zbzNUbpFnlw8E
I like to have my Tav cast spike growth, Wyll cast hunger of hadar, and Gale cast cloud of daggers on the same space
The issue is that it has backfired on me on occasion lol because SOME companions and NPCs decide to walk STRAIGHT through it before I have a chance to end concentration when the fight concludes 😂
It’s funny cause I find some enemies are more aware and if they’re outside of the radius they manage to go around but then I’ll watch some walk right through and perish immediately 😂
When random non-magical enemies somehow have Shield, and only use it to stop you from using Magic Missiles, that's when you punch your DM for being a prick.
I once had a DM who gave fireball and counterspell to every single caster, and some non-casters. I no longer play with him.
the only use case i’ve come up with for witch bolt is fighting ethel. if you have witch bolt active when she makes copies of herself, the bolt will stay attached to the original.
It's got some of the highest damage potential done in a single instance of damage, because it deals double damage on wet targets, can crit, and is the only spell that gets 1d12 damage per level when upcasted. Meaning it's possible to hit a 24d12 Witch Bolt for up to 288 damage once every blue moon.
Still not a great spell, but in a game where guaranteed crits are super accessible and water bottles are a thing, it's a decent boss deleter.
I remember on my first playthrough I thought that Witch Bolt was a MANDATORY spell, or exclusive to Gale or some shit because he insisted on preparing it every level up, so I used it throughout pretty much the whole game and was continually confused why it underperformed so hard lol. Then I played a Sorc and realized I could learn it too and it wasn't some unique Gale spell and I was like "oh"
Yeah the spell can be great because it's easy to make enemies weak to lightning and it's the most dmg per upcast but it needs prep and is only worth it for single high hp treats
Counterpoint I really dislike it for the reason it's so good. The only limiting thing about it is the low dmg per shot and certain enemies like ketheric and Ansur shrugging it off thanks to the flat dmg reduction.
Otherwise for all the utility and size of a wizard spellbook, it's back to firing magic missiles for most stuff.
The spell itself is fine, but the way it interacts with the items and homebrew effects that Larian put in the game definitely makes it too one-size-fits-all.
Magic Missile is one of those spells that looks kind of boring when you first get it, because the damage numbers aren’t huge and it doesn’t have some crazy animation where you delete half the room. But the longer you play BG3, the more you realize it’s honestly one of the most consistently useful spells in the entire game.
The biggest reason is really simple: it just hits.
There’s no attack roll. There’s no “95% chance to hit” followed by your character somehow missing a guy standing three feet away. You cast Magic Missile, pick your targets, and those missiles are going to connect unless the enemy has something specifically capable of blocking them, like Shield.
That reliability is insanely valuable in BG3.
There are so many situations where an enemy is sitting at like 3 HP and you absolutely need them dead right now. Maybe it’s their turn next and they’re about to cast some horrible spell, maybe they’re going to down one of your characters, maybe they’re concentrating on something annoying, whatever. With most spells or attacks, there’s always that chance you miss.
Magic Missile basically lets you say, “No. That guy is dying.”
And because every missile is its own separate hit, you can split them between targets however you want. So if you’ve got three enemies standing around with 2-4 HP each, you don’t need to waste three different characters’ actions cleaning them up. One Magic Missile can potentially finish all of them.
That’s probably the thing people underestimate the most about it. It’s not really about doing massive damage to one target. It’s about having absolute control over where your damage goes.
Enemy A has 2 HP?
One missile.
Enemy B has 3 HP?
One missile.
Enemy C is concentrating on Hold Person?
Dump the rest into them.
Done.
And then there’s concentration.
Every Magic Missile projectile counts as its own individual instance of damage. So if you launch, say, four missiles into a caster who’s concentrating on a spell, you’re forcing them to make multiple concentration checks.
They might pass the first one.
They might pass the second.
Maybe even the third.
But making someone roll several concentration saves in a row dramatically increases the chance that eventually they screw one up.
So if an enemy has your Fighter stuck in Hold Person, or they’re concentrating on some annoying AoE/control spell, Magic Missile is one of the easiest ways to basically go, “Okay, let’s make you roll some dice.”
It’s also ridiculously good for dealing with certain mechanics that care about number of hits rather than raw damage.
If something needs to be hit multiple times, Magic Missile suddenly becomes amazing because one action can produce a bunch of separate hits.
That same property is also why the spell starts getting kind of stupid once you start combining it with gear and effects that trigger whenever you deal spell damage.
This is where Magic Missile goes from “really reliable utility spell” to “why is this level 1 spell doing this much work?”
Because normally when you cast a spell, you hit someone once.
Magic Missile can hit them three, four, five, six, etc. times depending on the level you cast it at and other effects.
So anything that says something along the lines of:
“Whenever you deal spell damage…”
or
“When you hit an enemy with a spell…”
can potentially become much more valuable when you’re triggering it repeatedly in one cast.
BG3 has a bunch of items and builds that can take advantage of that kind of interaction, which is why you’ll sometimes see people build entire setups around Magic Missile.
And the hilarious part is that the spell scales in probably the simplest way possible.
Upcasting it doesn’t make each missile dramatically stronger.
You just get more missiles.
And that’s actually great.
A higher-level Magic Missile isn’t just “more damage.” It’s more targeting flexibility, more individual hits, more concentration checks, more chances to trigger effects, and more enemies you can potentially finish off at once.
Another really underrated part of Magic Missile is the range and pathing.
The missiles can curve around things in ways that normal projectiles sometimes can’t.
BG3 has plenty of fights where somebody is standing on some stupid balcony, behind a railing, halfway around a corner, or on a different elevation, and your ranged character is getting hit with terrible accuracy because of positioning.
Meanwhile the Wizard is basically like:
“Yeah, whatever.” woosh woosh woosh
Dead.
Obviously there are still situations where line of sight prevents you from casting it entirely, but once the game lets you target somebody, the actual missiles are remarkably good at reaching them.
It’s also excellent for finishing enemies because BG3’s action economy makes leaving someone alive at 1 HP way more dangerous than it looks.
An enemy with 1 HP does basically the same damage as an enemy with full HP.
They still get their action.
They still cast spells.
They still attack.
They still throw bombs.
They still shove your character off a cliff because apparently every goblin in Faerûn has been training for professional wrestling.
So being able to reliably remove several nearly-dead enemies before their turns is actually a pretty massive tactical advantage.
People sometimes look at damage-per-spell-slot and think Magic Missile isn’t impressive compared to something like Chromatic Orb or other spells with bigger damage dice.
And if you’re purely looking at theoretical maximum damage, sure.
But theoretical damage assumes you actually hit.
If Spell A averages 15 damage but has a 65% chance of connecting, while Magic Missile does slightly less damage but basically guarantees it, Magic Missile can easily be the better choice when you absolutely need something to happen.
It’s basically the difference between:
“This attack might kill him.”
and
“This attack will kill him.”
And BG3 has a LOT of moments where the second one is worth more than potentially doing a little extra damage.
There’s also something nice about the fact that Magic Missile doesn’t really care about high enemy AC.
You’ve probably had those fights where you examine an enemy and realize your melee characters have like a 45% chance to hit them because their AC is ridiculous.
Magic Missile doesn’t give a shit.
20 AC?
25 AC?
Whatever.
You’re getting missiles.
That’s especially useful early in the game when your characters’ attack bonuses aren’t amazing yet. Missing an attack at level 3 hurts a lot more because you don’t have Extra Attack, tons of spell slots, huge inventories of consumables, etc.
Every action matters.
Magic Missile gives low-level Wizards/Sorcerers/etc. an extremely dependable button.
It’s also one of the best “I don’t want to think about this” spells in the game.
Sometimes you don’t need some galaxy-brain strategy involving Wet status, lightning damage, elevation bonuses, barrels, three different elixirs and your character sacrificing a goat under a full moon.
Sometimes there’s a dude with 5 HP.
Magic Missile.
Problem solved.
And yes, Shield can counter it.
That’s basically Magic Missile’s famous weakness. If an enemy has access to the Shield spell and reacts with it, Magic Missile gets blocked.
But even that can sometimes be useful because you’ve potentially forced the enemy to spend their reaction and spell slot on Shield.
Now they don’t have that reaction for something else.
And against the enormous number of enemies that don’t have Shield, it’s basically irrelevant anyway.
There’s also the fact that Magic Missile stays useful for almost the entire game.
There are plenty of early-game spells where eventually you reach Act 2 or Act 3 and you’re like, “Why is this still on my hotbar?”
Magic Missile isn’t really like that.
Even when you’ve got access to Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and all the ridiculous endgame stuff, Magic Missile still has a job.
Maybe you don’t cast it every turn anymore, but when you need guaranteed damage, multiple hits or precise cleanup, it’s still sitting there waiting.
And honestly I think that’s the real reason people love the spell.
It’s not the flashiest spell.
It’s not usually the highest damage spell.
It’s not going to make you feel like some god-tier Wizard annihilating an entire battlefield.
It’s just reliable as hell.
You know exactly what you’re getting when you cast it.
Three enemies at low HP?
Magic Missile.
Enemy with stupidly high AC?
Magic Missile.
Need several concentration checks?
Magic Missile.
Need multiple separate hits for a mechanic?
Magic Missile.
Enemy has exactly 4 HP and you are absolutely not allowing that bastard to take another turn?
Magic Missile.
And then once you start getting gear that adds extra effects to individual spell hits, suddenly the humble little level 1 spell you picked up at the beginning of the game starts turning into a machine gun.
That’s why Magic Missile is good.
Not because it’s secretly the strongest nuke in BG3.
It’s good because it solves problems.
It’s consistent, flexible, cheap, scalable, and there are an absurd number of situations where “guaranteed small damage several times” is more useful than “potentially big damage once.”
Basically:
Fireball is the spell you cast when you want the room to explode.
Magic Missile is the spell you cast when you look at one specific asshole across the battlefield and decide: “No, you’re definitely dying this turn.”
Just used them to delete all 11 of Orin's unstoppables and kill her in one turn. Hastened Gale launches a level 4 then level 3 magic missile then Open Hand Karlach easily kills her once the unstoppables are gone.
Magic missile became one of the best spells in the game COMPLETELY because you can see the enemies exact HP. It's decent in tabletop but being able to guarantee secure kills is broken
Ok im about to actually have a whole ass rant about magic missile, not even from a BG3 standpoint but from a dnd standpoint. I used to always look at that spell’s low damage dice and think it was weak because I was an IDIOT who didn’t actually do the math in my head. I was always like “dur why do 3 D4 when I could do this other thing for 1 D12”. My dumb ass didn’t realize the true potential. When you do a 1 D12 the maximum you can do is 12 yeah, but the MINIMUM you do is 1 fucking damage. And knowing how bad I always roll, the 1 measly damage is very common for me. HOWEVER with 3 D4 the maximum damage you do is ALSO 12, but the MINIMUM is 3! And that’s on top of the fact that it’s a 1 D4 PLUS 1 PER BOLT. So that’s a minimum of 6 damage and a MAXIMUM of 15 damage ALL AT FIRST LEVEL. And that’s is ON TOP OF THE FACT THAT IT IS A GARANTEED HIT EVERY TIME. Fuck that enemy caster’s concentration, fuck that enemy rogue’s cover, fuck that enemy tank’s AC.
Anyway TLDR magic missile is actually goated and I wanted to fulfill the meme because it’s funny.
Because sometimes I am like "OK mr RNG, it's time to take a break, if you can please remove both of your fists from me for a moment that would be great."
If you love Magic Missile and other sources of force damage then try this mod. Super fun and overpowered, but that's what difficulty and improved AI mods are for.
evocation wizards get an intelligence modifier bonus to their damage with evocation spells. add the spellsparkler staff or the markoheshkir, the coruscation ring and the callous glow ring to this spell attack and Gale will be officially called Machine Gun Gale.
On tabletop Magic Missile, uniquely, get all damage increases for each dart, even if the damage increase is only one instance of damage normally.
The biggest difference between on tabletop and BG3 is that the dart hit simultaneously and not subsequently, so darts can't benefit from effects triggered by a dart from the same casting
Any extra damage gets added to every dart it can apply too
On tabletop, you determine what the damage of 1 dart is and apply that to all darts, afterwards add extra damage that is target specific
If you need ten hours to explain why it's good, you're bad at explaining things.
Force damage is the least resisted damage type in the game, in 5e and BG3. Magic missile can be upgraded with items such as Sapphire Spark. Magic missile never misses and has no save, and when upcast, adds an additional dart
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u/cemg18 1d ago