A missile of magical energy darts forth from your fingertip and strikes its target, dealing 1d4+1 points of force damage. The missile strikes unerringly, even if the target is in melee combat or has less than total cover or total concealment. Specific parts of a creature can't be singled out. Inanimate objects are not damaged by the spell. With the official (but largely considered stupid) ruling on how Magic Missile works, any damage boosts you give to it apply separately to each lil missile you shoot. So, find a way to get Magic Missile while being a Twilight Druid and you just slap on a whole bunch of auto damage when you use Harvest Scythe.
D&d 5e Magic Missile Damage Roll
D&d 5e Magic Missile Damage
It seems weird that there are two methods in 5th edition to identify magic items, when one is clearly superior.
The first, obviously inspired by 4th edition, is that after 'concentrating' on an item during a Short Rest, you figure out its properties.
The second, much like earlier editions of AD&D, is the Identify spell, which although can be cast quickly requires the material components of an owl feather and a pearl worth 100 gp. (Admittedly, a spellcasting focus can eliminate the need for the owl feather, but that's not germane to my point.)
I can't imagine anyone . . . EVER . . . taking the Identify spell under these rules.
Even if an adventure contains a magical whoziwhatzis that has to be identified RIGHT NOW or the world blows up, what are the odds on a spellcaster who has taken the Identify spell also having a spare hundred-gold-piece pearl? The answer would be 'ludicrously few to zero.' Beyond that, I can't imagine a spellcaster wasting a spell pick on Identify in the first place.
Note that I'm not advocating for either method specifically as being a better choice for a D&D game world in and of itself; I'm just unable to figure out why there's two ways to do the exact same thing in the game rules, when one is clearly superior (available to everyone, no cost) and one is inferior (restricted to spellcasters, costs money). Was one of them left in the game accidentally, some kind of artifact from a previous version of the 5th edition rules?
The first, obviously inspired by 4th edition, is that after 'concentrating' on an item during a Short Rest, you figure out its properties.
The second, much like earlier editions of AD&D, is the Identify spell, which although can be cast quickly requires the material components of an owl feather and a pearl worth 100 gp. (Admittedly, a spellcasting focus can eliminate the need for the owl feather, but that's not germane to my point.)
I can't imagine anyone . . . EVER . . . taking the Identify spell under these rules.
Even if an adventure contains a magical whoziwhatzis that has to be identified RIGHT NOW or the world blows up, what are the odds on a spellcaster who has taken the Identify spell also having a spare hundred-gold-piece pearl? The answer would be 'ludicrously few to zero.' Beyond that, I can't imagine a spellcaster wasting a spell pick on Identify in the first place.
Note that I'm not advocating for either method specifically as being a better choice for a D&D game world in and of itself; I'm just unable to figure out why there's two ways to do the exact same thing in the game rules, when one is clearly superior (available to everyone, no cost) and one is inferior (restricted to spellcasters, costs money). Was one of them left in the game accidentally, some kind of artifact from a previous version of the 5th edition rules?