Magic Missiles adding 5 ability goes off the charts

[Marcloure]

Similar to other no miss spells, Magic Missiles scales with the caster's spellcasting ability. The sheet considers the caster has 3.5 of said ability, and that is fine for other spells, but, since that ability is multiplied by the number of missiles, the spell deals way too much damage if you actually have a 5 in the ability instead.

It deals 1.5 more damage per missile, or 3 more damage per mana. Considering the spell can't miss, I believe that is equivalent of ~5 extra damage per mana. At 3 mana, that is close to a save spell dealing 15 more damage. I think that is way too much, so Magic missile shouldn't add the ability for each missile, but I'm unsure how to fix this.

[mlenser]

All spells adjust above/below the guidelines based on spellcasting ability.

Dampen Pain goes from to

Magic missiles goes from to

This is the nature of adding spellcasting ability.

[Marcloure]

I know, but other spells gain a constant ~2.5 if you max your spellcasting ability, which is still within boundaries. As you can see on your table, Magic Missiles explodes way beyond that (from +2.5 up to +17). At 3 mana it deals 20% more damage than expected if you have a 5 in your ability.

[mlenser]

"Explodes" is a bit dramatic as other spells can also go beyond the guidelines like this.

But I see the issue. I'm just not sure it is solvable or how to solve it.

One idea: "one missile deals 1d6+ spellcasting ability damage and the other deals 1d6". Kinda messy.

[Marcloure]

I'm not sure what is the best way to solve this too. Maybe you shouldn't be able to target more than half your missiles at a single creature? Don't know how much that would bring the DPR down

[mlenser]

That wouldn't solve anything - the spellcasting ability is added to each missile still.

Plus I don't think we should limit Magic Missiles to not work against 1 creature.

[Marcloure]

So, maybe you create a number of missiles equal to your spellcasting ability, +X missiles per augment? This would make the bonus damage from higher ability constant

[mlenser]

That would be very unbalanced.

2d6:

3.5d6:

5d6:

[shemetz]

I think the best option for keeping it similar is to deal extra damage to one target:

As an action, you create four glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature that you can touch or see within 20 meters. A dart deals 1d4 force damage to its target. The darts all strike simultaneously. The creature that you hit with the most darts (choose if there are multiple) takes additional damage equal to your spellcasting ability.

Another alternative would be to limit its versatility:

As an action, you create five glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature that you can touch or see within 20 meters. A dart deals 1d4 force damage to its target. The number of creature targeted cannot exceed your spellcasting ability.

or, the spell could be changed to equally divide damage:

As an action, you create a number of glowing darts of magical force, which deal a total amount of force damage equal to 4d4 + your spellcasting ability to a number of creatures that you can touch or see within 20 meters. The darts all strike simultaneously. The damage is evenly divided between all creatures (rounded down). For example, if you roll a total of 10 and target three creatures, each takes 3 force damage.

[mlenser]

Magic Missiles adjusted to evenly divide a pool of damage.