So I was mucking about building spells today and thinking of building a higher level magic missile. I noticed the one target per level in 30’ option and that made me think of Earth’s Teeth.
Technically it and Magic Missile are built with similar targeting modifiers though mm explicitly allows you to target a single creature with all shots. Using that as a guideline does that mean you could do the same with earth’s teeth only needing your too hit roll for each tooth? That seems crazy powerful so I am sure that wasn’t the intention but maybe I am wrong?
If it is wrong, how would you build a MM like spell that does more damage/missiles?
The original Moldvay text is:
“Magic Missile
Range: 150’
Duration: 1 turn
A magic missile is a glowing arrow, created and shot by magic, which does 2-7 (1d6 + 1) points of damage to any creature it strikes. It will automatically hit any visible target. For every 5 levels the caster has gained, he or she may shoot two more missile when casting the spell. EXAMPLE: a 6th level magic-user may cast three missiles. These may be shot at one target, or the caster may choose to cast the missiles at different targets.”
I think you may have misunderstood me; when I said ‘alteration’ I was referring to the spell not being createable using the Player’s Companion spell design rules as written.
As you point out, the reason this is the case is because it’s how Magic Missile has always worked.