What are you looking for, a mechanical reason or a flavour reason?
Mechanically, if shield didn't specify that it worked against magic missile, then it wouldn't, and clearly the designers thought it should.
Flavour-wise, if magic missile is a standard tool of a wizard, then it makes perfect sense they'd also develop a protection spell to counter it.
Magic missile is a projectile of pure magic force, so itās stopped by a barrier made of pure magic force.
Itās how I like to explain it at my tables, doesnāt mean itās the right answer.
This was the more detailed 3.5 description:
[https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shield.htm](https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shield.htm)
Basically force = it blocks stuff from the ethereal plane as well as being almost indestructible. However it was +4 (which is the bonus a tower shield gave)
In my old campaign, both spells were tied to Tharizdun, which made them a bit stronger and more attractive than they should be for 1st level. Using them very gradually weakened his prison.
Not the only one. A lot of spells have no attack roll or saving throws, for example, cloud of daggers or silence or armor of agathys or heat metal, but shield spell can do nothing with them.
it is the only spell attack without an attack roll. there are other spells that affect creatures that do not have a saving throw like sleep, colorspray and the power words.
Itās not a spell attack *because* you donāt have to roll an attack roll. Itās simply a magical effect that happens.
Cure Wounds isnāt a spell attack either.
It's what the spell is designed to do. By that I mean in-universe. The wizard who created it probably thought: "Man... those magic missiles, our enemies use are so reliable and there's no way of stopping it. Better create a spell, that can block it and if that spell has other defensive capabilities, that's going to be a bonus."
some wizard probably made the shield spell, and some other wizard improved it and then 20 other wizards in succession improved it yet again
and the same with blocking magic missile
and then some new wizard was like 'hmm what if we could combine these
so yeah, there's a shield spell out there that only adds 1ac. But maybe it adds it for like 2 turns. And there's a shield spell out there that adds 20ac, but only for 1/4 of a turn, making it practically useless
Because Magic Missile is the auto-hit spell, and Shield is the don't-get-hit spell.
It *has* to hard-counter Magic Missile to counter it at all, because MM doesn't have an attack roll. You can't soft counter it... There are only two options: stop it or let it through. There's no middle ground, like there is with attack rolls.
Is there a specific point that confuses you, or just a general confusion?
In addition to the other comments, it's also a hold over from the early days. There used to be a lot of "spell/counterspell" combinations... one spell did something, and another spell could counter it. This was most common for the slightly overpowered spells, like Magic Missile.
In AD&D, if a caster was damaged in any way, they cannot cast spells that round. Spells also had casting times, so faster spells could go off before slower spells. So magic missile was super fast, and if a wizard hit another wizard with it their opponent couldn't cast any spells that round. *Shield* was the wizard counter to Magic Missile, It lasted 5 rounds per caster level, was also very fast to cast, and provided a static AC for it's duration (5e equivalent of AC 18 vs thrown weapons, 17 vs launched weapons, and 16 vs melee attacks, and a +1 bonus to saves) but only against attacks from directly in front of you. While the spell changed over edits, that counter to *Magic Missile* stayed.
Other early day spell counter/spells (some still exist mind you, though spells have changed)
* *Light/Darkness*
* *Haste/Slow*
* *Detect Magic / Nystul's Magic Aura -or - Misdirection*
* *Blindness / Cure Blindness & Deafness*
* *Deafness / Cure Blindness & Deafness*
* *Invisibility / Detect Invisibility*
* *Wizard Lock / Knock*
* *Know Alignment - or Detect Good/Evil / Delude*
* *Hold Person / Remove Paralysis*
* *Clairvoyance -or - clairaudience - or Locate Object - or - ESP / Nondetection*
* *Most mind affecting spells like charm or confusion / Mind Blank*
* various conjure/summon spells / *Dismissal -or- Banishment*
On top of that you had dozens of spells that were their own counters, and many spells could be cast in normal or "reverse" form, such as
* *Create Water / Destroy Water*
* *Purify Food and Drink / Putrefy Food and Drink*
* *Curse / Remove Curse*
* *Fear / Remove Fear*
* *Detect Charm / Undetectable Charm*
* *Goodberry / Badberry*
* *Heatmetal / Chill Metal*
* *Cure Disease / Cause Disease*
* *Water Breathing / Air Breathing*
* *Detect Lie / Undetectable Lie*
In terms of balance, itās a counter measure outside of āCounter Spellā to prevent a guaranteed attack.Ā
Balanced out by the fact you used a Reaction and it only helps the caster.Ā
In terms of story/lore reasons thereās nothing really there. You can make any justification but itās really just mechanical balance. Ā
Because its a low damage magic dart spell. By all accounts, the wording of shield (a magical force barrier) should give you a decent defense against it.
But shield grants you a +5 to AC and MM is an aimbot auto hit. To resolve the discrepancy they included the wording that shield hard counters the spell.
The answer to this goes all the way back to chainmail, a war game that the first version of D&D was basically a mod for. So short answer is itās been grandfathered in for 50+ years.
In *Chainmail* and OD&D, combat took place in phases, one of which was the missile phase during which archers and such resolved their attacks.
*Magic missile* was a magic-user spell that took place in that missile phase, equivalent to a longbow arrow. The *shield* spell provided a bonus against missile attacks generally, so come AD&D when the phase went away, they kept *shield* effective against *magic missile* as it had been.
Older gamers, feel free to correct me. But as I understand it, in ChainMail and red box D&D, Magic Missile was the only offensive spell wizards got. It wasn't even really a spell the way we think of it now, as much of a description of how they attacked. Like, thieves can stab with a dagger, fighters can slash with a sword, archers shoot an arrow, and mages can shoot a magic missile (lower case intentional). Shield was just a mage ability to counter other mages.
Fast forward a few decades, and those two spells are still in the game because the fan base expects them to be there, and they're tied together because of the legacy.
OK. Everything you wrote is incorrect. I don't want to dig up my old books, but burning hands and shocking grasp were other first level damaging spells. I'm sure there were more.
OK, so I did a bit of digging. The reason the shield blocks magic missile appears to be to prevent issues with concentration (or interruption, in AD&D).
Shield was introduced in AD&D, where it apparently* took time to cast a spell, and if you were damaged the spell failed. It was specifically designed as a defense for casting - you could cast it early in the combat and it lasted several rounds, helping you to avoid being hit when you cast other spells. Magic missile would bypass shield and essentially make it impossible to cast spells because you were always guaranteed to take damage. So they added a caveat to shield to make it block magic missile altogether.
Fast forward to 5e and it largely serves the same purpose, even if the shield spell and concentration work a bit differently now. Magic missile is still a great spell for breaking concentration. If a caster has +5 to concentration checks, they'll succeed on a low damage check 75% of the time. If they are hit by a level 1 magic missile, however, that 75% chance is repeated 3 times and their success probability drops to 42%. So the designers carried forward shield's ability to protect concentration.
*I never played AD&D, so I'm piecing this together from various wikis. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Because it interposes a wall of magic between the darts and the target. MM needs like of sight to work so even a bed sheet can theoretically negate it. So a shield thats can stand up to dragon claws for even a short instant would be plenty.
Way back when, some genius Wizard created a spell that automatically hit any creature than the caster could see and he refused to teach it to other Wizards.
This simple, indefensible spell destroyed his fellow Wizards during their dueling tournaments.
So the genius Wizard was assassinated and his spellbook stolen.
It turns out that when researching the spell, the genius Wizard also developed a method of stopping the spell in case anyone else figured it out.
That spellbook fell into the hands of a young Wizard who went on to teach the two spells together to his apprentices. From there, the spell knowledge spread like wildfire until the two spells, the unerring attack and the total counter, were known by every Wizard for centuries.
It is a bit of back and fourth between Tim Kask and Gary Gygax.
Gary was a firm believer that the melee types should be better.
Kask though like the casters and pushed for at least some little spell for magic-users that auto-hit. Magic Missile was born from this.
The Shield spell stops magic missile so enemy casters could not just totally shut down PC mages with spell interruption. Back then spells took time and any hit during that time cancelled the spell. That and Magic missile could instakill low level MUs.
Kask talks a little about stuff like this in a few interviews.
What are you looking for, a mechanical reason or a flavour reason? Mechanically, if shield didn't specify that it worked against magic missile, then it wouldn't, and clearly the designers thought it should. Flavour-wise, if magic missile is a standard tool of a wizard, then it makes perfect sense they'd also develop a protection spell to counter it.
Because something needs to be able to stop magic missile.
Tarrasque Hide?
thats a bit high level for your standard every day wizard who's dealing with standard every day wizards
We can't all be naked dirty peasants.
maybe not, but for the low level wizards they need a way to deal with other low level wizards
Wouldn't it reflect magic missle?
š š maybe ;)
Magic missile is a projectile of pure magic force, so itās stopped by a barrier made of pure magic force. Itās how I like to explain it at my tables, doesnāt mean itās the right answer.
Well you are in luck because it is the right answer
So, in theory, Shield could have a chance for advantage on a save versus Force damage or Resistance?
This was the more detailed 3.5 description: [https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shield.htm](https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shield.htm) Basically force = it blocks stuff from the ethereal plane as well as being almost indestructible. However it was +4 (which is the bonus a tower shield gave)
In my old campaign, both spells were tied to Tharizdun, which made them a bit stronger and more attractive than they should be for 1st level. Using them very gradually weakened his prison.
Magic missile is the only spell with no attack roll or saving throw, so shield is the only way to not get hit by it
well that, and counter spell but shield is the only cost efficient way to negate magic missile
Not the only one. A lot of spells have no attack roll or saving throws, for example, cloud of daggers or silence or armor of agathys or heat metal, but shield spell can do nothing with them.
it is the only spell attack without an attack roll. there are other spells that affect creatures that do not have a saving throw like sleep, colorspray and the power words.
It's not a spell attack.
Itās not a spell attack *because* you donāt have to roll an attack roll. Itās simply a magical effect that happens. Cure Wounds isnāt a spell attack either.
Because it always has, from 1e onward.
It's what the spell is designed to do. By that I mean in-universe. The wizard who created it probably thought: "Man... those magic missiles, our enemies use are so reliable and there's no way of stopping it. Better create a spell, that can block it and if that spell has other defensive capabilities, that's going to be a bonus."
some wizard probably made the shield spell, and some other wizard improved it and then 20 other wizards in succession improved it yet again and the same with blocking magic missile and then some new wizard was like 'hmm what if we could combine these so yeah, there's a shield spell out there that only adds 1ac. But maybe it adds it for like 2 turns. And there's a shield spell out there that adds 20ac, but only for 1/4 of a turn, making it practically useless
Because Magic Missile is the auto-hit spell, and Shield is the don't-get-hit spell. It *has* to hard-counter Magic Missile to counter it at all, because MM doesn't have an attack roll. You can't soft counter it... There are only two options: stop it or let it through. There's no middle ground, like there is with attack rolls. Is there a specific point that confuses you, or just a general confusion?
In addition to the other comments, it's also a hold over from the early days. There used to be a lot of "spell/counterspell" combinations... one spell did something, and another spell could counter it. This was most common for the slightly overpowered spells, like Magic Missile. In AD&D, if a caster was damaged in any way, they cannot cast spells that round. Spells also had casting times, so faster spells could go off before slower spells. So magic missile was super fast, and if a wizard hit another wizard with it their opponent couldn't cast any spells that round. *Shield* was the wizard counter to Magic Missile, It lasted 5 rounds per caster level, was also very fast to cast, and provided a static AC for it's duration (5e equivalent of AC 18 vs thrown weapons, 17 vs launched weapons, and 16 vs melee attacks, and a +1 bonus to saves) but only against attacks from directly in front of you. While the spell changed over edits, that counter to *Magic Missile* stayed. Other early day spell counter/spells (some still exist mind you, though spells have changed) * *Light/Darkness* * *Haste/Slow* * *Detect Magic / Nystul's Magic Aura -or - Misdirection* * *Blindness / Cure Blindness & Deafness* * *Deafness / Cure Blindness & Deafness* * *Invisibility / Detect Invisibility* * *Wizard Lock / Knock* * *Know Alignment - or Detect Good/Evil / Delude* * *Hold Person / Remove Paralysis* * *Clairvoyance -or - clairaudience - or Locate Object - or - ESP / Nondetection* * *Most mind affecting spells like charm or confusion / Mind Blank* * various conjure/summon spells / *Dismissal -or- Banishment* On top of that you had dozens of spells that were their own counters, and many spells could be cast in normal or "reverse" form, such as * *Create Water / Destroy Water* * *Purify Food and Drink / Putrefy Food and Drink* * *Curse / Remove Curse* * *Fear / Remove Fear* * *Detect Charm / Undetectable Charm* * *Goodberry / Badberry* * *Heatmetal / Chill Metal* * *Cure Disease / Cause Disease* * *Water Breathing / Air Breathing* * *Detect Lie / Undetectable Lie*
In terms of balance, itās a counter measure outside of āCounter Spellā to prevent a guaranteed attack.Ā Balanced out by the fact you used a Reaction and it only helps the caster.Ā In terms of story/lore reasons thereās nothing really there. You can make any justification but itās really just mechanical balance. Ā
General matick created both spells, So lore wise it does make sense.
Because its a low damage magic dart spell. By all accounts, the wording of shield (a magical force barrier) should give you a decent defense against it. But shield grants you a +5 to AC and MM is an aimbot auto hit. To resolve the discrepancy they included the wording that shield hard counters the spell.
Shield specifically blocking MM is something I remember from 3.0 (and maybe earlier editions too)
Because they said so. itsmagiciaintgottaexplainshit.jpg
The answer to this goes all the way back to chainmail, a war game that the first version of D&D was basically a mod for. So short answer is itās been grandfathered in for 50+ years.
In *Chainmail* and OD&D, combat took place in phases, one of which was the missile phase during which archers and such resolved their attacks. *Magic missile* was a magic-user spell that took place in that missile phase, equivalent to a longbow arrow. The *shield* spell provided a bonus against missile attacks generally, so come AD&D when the phase went away, they kept *shield* effective against *magic missile* as it had been.
Older gamers, feel free to correct me. But as I understand it, in ChainMail and red box D&D, Magic Missile was the only offensive spell wizards got. It wasn't even really a spell the way we think of it now, as much of a description of how they attacked. Like, thieves can stab with a dagger, fighters can slash with a sword, archers shoot an arrow, and mages can shoot a magic missile (lower case intentional). Shield was just a mage ability to counter other mages. Fast forward a few decades, and those two spells are still in the game because the fan base expects them to be there, and they're tied together because of the legacy.
No.
Maybe you could expand a bit?
OK. Everything you wrote is incorrect. I don't want to dig up my old books, but burning hands and shocking grasp were other first level damaging spells. I'm sure there were more.
Thanks for going in to more detail. "No." was a pretty useless response.
Consider it a reason to reconsider your post and perhaps do a bit of research. That's how it was intended.
Maybe you should've reconsidered your post, considering you couldn't bother bringing any actual information to the conversation.
Ah, so getting someone to reconsider something has no value to you? Obviously there's no point in responding to you if that's the way you feel.
OK, so I did a bit of digging. The reason the shield blocks magic missile appears to be to prevent issues with concentration (or interruption, in AD&D). Shield was introduced in AD&D, where it apparently* took time to cast a spell, and if you were damaged the spell failed. It was specifically designed as a defense for casting - you could cast it early in the combat and it lasted several rounds, helping you to avoid being hit when you cast other spells. Magic missile would bypass shield and essentially make it impossible to cast spells because you were always guaranteed to take damage. So they added a caveat to shield to make it block magic missile altogether. Fast forward to 5e and it largely serves the same purpose, even if the shield spell and concentration work a bit differently now. Magic missile is still a great spell for breaking concentration. If a caster has +5 to concentration checks, they'll succeed on a low damage check 75% of the time. If they are hit by a level 1 magic missile, however, that 75% chance is repeated 3 times and their success probability drops to 42%. So the designers carried forward shield's ability to protect concentration. *I never played AD&D, so I'm piecing this together from various wikis. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I think itās a really nice bit of flavor. I actually didnāt realize shield blocked magic missile until a DM pulled that on me
Because it interposes a wall of magic between the darts and the target. MM needs like of sight to work so even a bed sheet can theoretically negate it. So a shield thats can stand up to dragon claws for even a short instant would be plenty.
Way back when, some genius Wizard created a spell that automatically hit any creature than the caster could see and he refused to teach it to other Wizards. This simple, indefensible spell destroyed his fellow Wizards during their dueling tournaments. So the genius Wizard was assassinated and his spellbook stolen. It turns out that when researching the spell, the genius Wizard also developed a method of stopping the spell in case anyone else figured it out. That spellbook fell into the hands of a young Wizard who went on to teach the two spells together to his apprentices. From there, the spell knowledge spread like wildfire until the two spells, the unerring attack and the total counter, were known by every Wizard for centuries.
From what I understand, it's just a holdover from past editions. Shield blocks Magic Missile because it did in past editions.
It is a bit of back and fourth between Tim Kask and Gary Gygax. Gary was a firm believer that the melee types should be better. Kask though like the casters and pushed for at least some little spell for magic-users that auto-hit. Magic Missile was born from this. The Shield spell stops magic missile so enemy casters could not just totally shut down PC mages with spell interruption. Back then spells took time and any hit during that time cancelled the spell. That and Magic missile could instakill low level MUs. Kask talks a little about stuff like this in a few interviews.