Spell Fizzling

[Glim]

Ahh, this counts toward other spells that throw out multiple bolts as well (I think)...

During the course of my wizard charries playing, I commonly get something like this...

You begin to chant.
Your armor hinders your attempt.
You watch with pride as your magic missile hits an elf!
You watch with pride as your magic missile hits an elf!
an elf distracts you causing your spell to fizzle.

Now, my question is...isnt the whole thing just one spell? So if your distracted, and your spell fizzles, shouldnt the whole spell fizzle, and not just one of the missles?

(I know im gonna have the other wizzies form lynch mobs and hang me over this, but It doesnt really make sense)

[Mikhail]

I would see it more akin to first and second attack succeeding and third, fourth, or fifth attack failing.

[Tazmin]

In third ed each missile is considered a seperate attack. Because you can target each missile on a diffrent target. You point at a guy, zap him. Pause a moment do the same zap him again. All five missiles do not appear all at once in a cloud, at least I assume so. I think the multiple fire arrows or whatever it is called works the same way.

[Nysan]

My personal opinion of multiple missile spells and fizzling/distracting. You get one of BUT you are distracted from completing the spell to get the others off. Single bolt spells would only fizzle the one and only bolt. It makes sense to me to get half-way through a multiple bolt spell and getting distracted, causing only a certain number, if any depending on how far along in the casting you were. Just my own little thoughts on the matter.

N.R.

[Rhelian]

You speak the tail of the spell (the majority is cast during memorisation) and the spell takes effect.

In multiple-hit spells, each missile is a seperate attack, and therefore each must have a seperate die roll to resist. Resisting the first missile doesn't mean the last four won't slam into you, and considering they all hit at roughly the same time...

Multiple missile spells aren't reliant on the previous missile hitting successfully. For the entire spell to fizzle and concentration to be lost, no missiles would fire as the casting of the tail end was disrupted. If the missiles appear, the spell is finished, so loosing concentration wouldn't change a thing.

[Rhelian]

Looking back on things, perhaps it's the echo that's throwing things off.

Perhaps "Your magic missile hits an elf with no ill effects!" or "Your magic missile disapates upon contact with an elf!" are alternative explanations to what's going on.