Ambiguous Name: Magic Missile

Ranged Touch Attack is the term used for such a spell in Neverwinter Nights, so I'd expect it's fairly well known in the gaming community. I think it's also used for projectiles such as arrows, but the description could easily disambiguate it by just saying it's for spell-created projectiles only.

Absent-minded professor and Neverwinter Nights DM

Never heard of it.

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It's a D&D term, ranged because you need to roll to-hit like a ranged attack, and touch because the projectile only needs to "touch" the target to hit (as in it ignores armor). I really don't think it's widely enough known to be helpful here. Not entirely accurate either, since some spells might be blocked by armor.

edited 12th Jun '13 2:07:44 AM by Clarste

It's also an oxymoron :)

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

I think the best name so far is Projectile Spell, and suggest we hold an alternative titles crowner about this.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

I agree on crownering this. Have we enough consensus for skipping a rename crowner.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Yes. I've not seen a single objection to a rename, and above ten people suggesting names or are explicitly in favour.

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Crowner's hooked.

I think we jumped the gun on the crowner because we don't really have a consensus on what the definition is.

I personally do not think that the descriptions mentioned in @20 are different enough for a split (the examples even less so), so I do not think that that's a problem, really.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

In that case, before I vote on anything: are we going to limit this to magic bolts that travel in a straight line, or will homing ones also be allowed?

The trope description doesn't really allow for homing missiles, I think.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Hmm, then maybe the description needs some tweaking. It seems to me that the important part is that the spell (usually presented as a beam or ball of light) needs to travel through the air and strike its target in order to have effect. Whether it moves in a straight line or can twist and turn to home in on its target seems like too minor a detail to be worth a seperate trope.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

Homing shots are very much not a part of this trope, as the page distinctly describes the possibility of it being dodged and missing the target, and even hitting something else.

Unless you mean they try to seek their target but aren't guaranteed to hit.

I guess the point is that flight trajectory doesn't matter.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

I don't think the exact flight path (linear, ballistic arc, homing) matters so much as the fact that the spell is a projectile that takes effect on the first thing it hits, target or otherwise.

edited 15th Jun '13 6:29:27 PM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Yeah, homing doesn't mean "completely inescapable". I would think homing spells count as long as they don't cheat and always hit no matter what.

On the question about whether the current Trope Namer is an example - is a D&D Magic Missile a projectile that flies through the air and takes effect on whatever it actually strikes? If yes, then yes; if no, no. Its ignorance of the usual accuracy/evasion checks is a different trope anyway.

edited 15th Jun '13 8:40:53 PM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

It always hits, even if the target is in cover or near someone else (ie: it's impossible for someone else to jump in front of the missile or to block it in any way). It does say "A missile of magical energy darts forth from your fingertip and strikes its target" though. So there's some sort of visible magical energy flying through the air, and it hurts what it strikes. Which is always the target.

edited 15th Jun '13 10:07:40 PM by Clarste

The current definition doesn't allow that, but it would take very little modification to change that. And, as I said, the exactly how the spell moves through the air isn't really the heart of the trope; it's the fact that the spell is something that has to move through the air to hit its target in the first place.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

Then it is an example of "spell as a moving projectile of magical energy", with a side (but otherwise irrelevant) bonus of being always accurate / No Saving Throw.

Now after reading the wikipage for D&D Magic Missile it also clearly has penetrating properties — it will never detonate against something other than the target (unlike, say, Fireball). That is a concern, meaning in addition to being undodgeable it is also unblockable. However, as far as its execution (visual description/depiction thereof) goes, a bolt of magical energy "darts forth" and "strikes" the target — that is the essence of the trope.

edited 15th Jun '13 10:09:55 PM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Aren't there shield spells that block it?

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That's literally the only way to block it, actually. There's a couple lower level abjuration spells (Shield Other being of of them; I forget the other) that specifically mention making the subject invulnerable to Magic Missile.

Voted on several options.

edited 16th Jun '13 6:33:55 AM by StarSword

I went and edited the phrasing of the D&D example to note how the trope-naming Magic Missile works and what makes it different from typical examples. I also removed the claim that it is "not an example"; sure it's not a straight example if it always hits, but the fact remains it is a projectile of energy that actually travels to its target before they feel the effects of it, which fits the trope.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Bumping. Right now Projectile Spell is the only one in green with 16-2.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

One additional vote in favour of the leader. Shall we wait a bit more?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman