wait, CAN a Lightsaber deflect magic missiles?

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Originally Posted by DeviousToast

If you're defining the damage as "magic" then why give it a subtype at all? [Force] just seems, for the most part, kind of a cop-out damage type that indicates the magic will follow certain rules, but not really.

It's not really 'Magic' damage, the point is, though, it only works through the application of magic.

If I may make myself the biggest fucking nerd in the thread:

Originally Posted by Complete Arcane

Of all the energies summoned or shaped by magic, force is perhaps the most pure. No analog for this power exists in the physical world; it comes into being only through the medium of spells[...]

Which is to say, that [Force] really describes what it's doing. Spells that utilize [Force] create only the force of the thing, only the effect, without the physical source. A push with no pushing device, a wall with no wall, a punch with no fist. Effect without energy. That's really the point of the thing.

This is further indicated by if you are Ethereal, you exist on a coterminous plane -- same place, same form, just outside the bounds of the physical universe. The force applied by [Force] effects are also coterminous, even though no physical form can be. Which is to say, the effects cross the bounds of things that physical objects cannot, effectively illustrating that they're not the product of any physical source.

Though, I suppose it is the magic most like 'force of will', changing the universe in some way based on what you want, without any real outside intercession. So, maybe it is a 'cop-out' damage type, as you say, but it's magic, it doesn't really have to agree with physics. I don't know, though, I didn't design it, I'm just showing you the rules as they are.

[Mirai Gen]

Moral of the story: A wizard did it.

To elaborate: Honestly, Magic and the Force might as well be one in the same. The Force is a religious power that people can tap in to and blamed/used whenever things go wrong/right. Magic is more or less the same.

I'm completely positive the two systems can work together. Lightsaber or no, a magic missile can be deflected by a jedi. Force Push seems like a perfectly acceptable alternative to Shield.

[Dragonsbane]

Except that Force Push is instant, not a buff, and works more slowly than would probably be necessary to halt the missiles. The only Jedi I can recall ever doing anything like that would be Darth Vader blocking blasterfire with his palm.

[Rhino Man]

My understanding of the magic missile spell is that it (or they as it may end up being) are keyed to the target so as to never miss unless absorbed. In this case, YES a jedi could conceviably deflect a magic missile with his/her lightsaber but by the same token, this does not neccisarily remove the threat. This deflection may well only cause the missile itself to change direction temporarily.

if my understanding of magic missile is correct, the only way for a jedi to remove the threat of magic missile would be for him/her to use force drain or a similar power on the missile itself, draining or depleting the missile's "force".

EDIT: in fact, it occurs to me that the spell description explains that you fire missiles of FORCE at your target. if you take this how I currently am, then force drain or something similar WOULD work on it.

[Tydeus]

Originally Posted by Rhino_Man

EDIT: in fact, it occurs to me that the spell description explains that you fire missiles of FORCE at your target. if you take this how I currently am, then force drain or something similar WOULD work on it.

Interesting theory -- no one's yet mentioned power-absorption. In this case, it seems Sith would be predisposed to have the advantage over Jedi; i.e., Jedi, being inherently weaksauce, and terrified of the Dark Side would be untrained in the ability to Force Drain, and thus unable to absorb the Magic Missile's meta-energy. So, no, a Jedi can't block a Magic Missile, but a Sith can. This of course assumes we accept that [Force] is different from the Force, and therefore a Force Push/lightsaber's Force component (when wielded by a Jedi) would fail to block Magic Missile.

However, I am unconvinced of Kneumatic's assertions on this point. Ex: Episode IV, in which Obi-Wan senses a "disturbance in the force" when Alderaan is destroyed. Seemingly, he senses this simultaneous with the event, thus Force is FTL, and thus not strictly energy as defined by the limits of the physical universe as currently understood. Also consider Obi-Wan, Yoda, Anakin speaking to Luke after their deaths, in their hologram-looking spirit forms. Arguably, then, the Force is also interdimensional, similar to [Force] and then also applicable to anything in the Ethereal plane, and similarly able to deflect as an equal and opposite [Force] any Magic Missile.

Also, Bao-Dur FTW. Anyone who tried to use magic against him would have to contend with the fact that he would disprove the existence of their powers before they've even finished thinking about casting a spell. Then, ripped from what was, in retrospect, little more than a drug-induced fantasy in which they thought they had magic powers (Bao-Dur's force of reason essentially retconning the universe), Bao-Dur's opponent (read: victim) is defenseless before his ability to make people implode.

[Gascmark de Leone]

There's something wrong with this picture. Maybe it's the strange, Star Wars-D&D cross over. Maybe it's not.

[Mirai Gen]

Maybe it's the fact that you necromanced a 3-week old thread?

[Lord_Badger]

well since it never misses, couldnt it just....you know, swing back around and come at the jedi again if he deflected it?

[Krylo]

Then we come back to the problem of things like the shield spell blocking it completely. Why wouldn't it bounce off that and swing back around as well?

[Azisien]

And doesn't Spell Resistance block it? I thought it used to, not sure about 3.5.