Projectile Spell

No defense except dodging!

One of the many ways Functional Magic varies between settings is what range spells can be cast from, or how exactly they find a target. In some stories, the Wicked Witch may simply be able invoke a spell's name (or point her finger) and — poof! — somebody's been turned into a frog. (There may be other rules involved — maybe she needs direct eye contact, or to be within easy speaking distance for it to work. But that's not what this trope is about.)

This trope is when magical spells are treated a lot like modern bullets or projectiles ("magic missiles", if you will): A physical manifestation of magical energy is launched through the air and flies towards its target, and only by physically hitting someone (or something) does its effect take hold on them. As a direct result, it may be possible to evade the spell by simply leaping out of harm's way (or, alternately, if the mage's aim was a bit off) while the magical energy continues onwards and strikes something less fortunate. Many other tropes associated with physical projectiles also start to apply, too: The would-be victim can dive for cover behind an obstruction, block it with a Bulletproof Human Shield (or a bystander takes the spell in their place), and so on.

Of course, the most popular side effect of this is that a person may be able to deflect the spell itself (often with a simple mirror) and/or send it right back to the caster — like a magical analogue of the Misguided Missile.

If a spellcaster knows that their spell can be potentially dodged, they may opt to launch a whole flurry of them at once to compensate — creating a Magic Missile Storm.

MOBA games term these abilities "skillshots". Most are linear, but some have unorthodox movement patterns. Most can travel through walls.

See also Ki Manipulation, which are less explicitly magical (and popular among martial artists). May overlap with Painfully Slow Projectile. Contrast Invisible Means Undodgeable and Hitscan.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Fate/stay night Rin has her "Gandr" spell. It was originally a curse to give someone the flu, but Rin powered it up so it's more like a gun being fired. It makes gunshot holes in the walls. It even sounds like a gun. Rin's rival Luvia show's off a variant in the spin-off Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, firing multi-coloured bursts of projectiles that is more akin to a machine gun.
• Lyrical Nanoha: The majority of offensive spells are like this, even status dealing spells like Hayate's Misteltein, which has a Petrify effect delivered through lances of magical energy.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi There is also the Exarmatio type spells, a magical attack for disarming and disrobing a target that, as shown by Yue during the contest in the Ariadne Wizarding School, can be deflected or focused into a tight, piercing beam.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Dark Magician's "Dark Magic Attack" evolved into this.
• Zatch Bell!: Plenty of demons/mamodo use spells of this sort, but Dalmos is the only one whose spells all seem to be missiles of some sort.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Magic works on somewhat similar principles. Most of the time. Keepers can sense everything within their domain, effectively 'seeing' it. Outside their dungeon, they have to scry to 'see' the target. Except in the case of dark temples/light temples, which require actual line-of-sight from either a keeper or one of their minions. Most spells can be dodged.

Films — Animation

• Shrek 2: The fairy godmother's spell, which King Harold reflects with his metal armor at the godmother herself.
• Sleeping Beauty: The wands of the three Good Fairies. The best example is when Merryweather is trying to stop Maleficent's raven from warning her of Prince Phillip's escape. She flies after him shooting magical blasts, with the raven dodging all except the last, which petrifies him. On YouTube starting at 7:20.

Films — Live-Action

• Li'l Abner: Evil Eye Fleagle attempts to put a whammy on Lil' Abner, but Earthquake McGoon reflects it with a silver platter, and it strikes Gen. Bullmoose, forcing him to confess his evil plot.

Literature

• Cradle Series: Striker techniques shoot madra at a target from a distance. They are one of the most common types of techniques; Lindon's Empty Palm is technically a Striker technique, though it only has a range of about a foot. In fact, it's implied that the reason behind the Fantasy Gun Control is because no one has any need for guns when they can shoot a more powerful attack from their own hand at any time.
• The Dresden Files: Nearly every wizard has some version of this, but variations in how these are implemented often depend on a given wizard's inventiveness, preferred forms of magic and talent. Harry, for example, casts big fireballs and beams, which shows both his significant strength in magic and his lack of fine control. Luccio, commander of the Wardens, uses a needle-thin beam of fire like a laser cutter, showing both power and control. Warden Ramirez uses small bolts of water and earth magic in his duels, showing control and smarts that make his shallower well of power go further, etc. When a squad of Wardens led by senior White Council members go to town, there are so many variations of these that it apparently looks like a shot from Star Wars.
• Harry Potter: Most spells work like this. Even Avada Kedavra, the most feared spell in the Wizarding World, a Killing Curse that cannot be resisted and bypasses all magical defenses, is still useless if the victim takes cover in time or uses telekinesis to get a solid object into the way.
• Xanth: At least some offensive abilities function in this manner. Trent in particular encounters problems relating to aim, exacerbated by the fact that in the first book he fights a character whose Anti-Magic forces him to miss, to the point of accidentally polymorphing bacteria in the air into other things.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Some spells work like this, while others can be done from across the world. In an early episode Amy's witch mother shot a glowing pink blast at her. True to the trope, Buffy deflected it back with a mirror, and she disappeared. The end of the episode revealed the spell was designed to trap someone inside her own old cheerleading trophy. Magic tends to be nearly instantaneous (or involve manipulation of nearby objects), but this is used again in the season 6 finale. When Dark!Willow is fighting Giles, she creates a fireball that will seek out her earlier targets and "bury them". Buffy is able to follow the rather slow projectile and save them, but that was entirely the point: she wanted to get rid of Buffy, and didn't actually care if they lived or died by that point.

Tabletop Games

• Deadlands: The Huckster has Soul Blast as the go-to attack. Its damage is determined by how strong a poker hand you draw; draw a Dead Man's Hand and the target dies instantly.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In the magic missile spell, a magical force of energy darts out from the user and strikes the target. Note that prior to 4th edition, magic missiles don't do that much damage compared to other attack spells, but they are guaranteed to hit the target with no exceptions, even if the magic missile has to pass through solid obstructions to actually reach its destination. While it can't be dodged, there are still special circumstances (like a shield spell, or Spell Resistance) that can negate its effect after it hits. 4th edition magic missiles were handled more like regular ranged attacks, with a chance to simply miss the target. (Note that if the target successfully dodges it, the spell will not continue to fly onwards and strike something else). They eventually errata'd it back more toward its original incarnation. And 5th edition made them almost identical to the 3E version.
  • Any spell that follows a "ray" or "line of effect" will fly out and hit the first thing it comes into contact with (target or otherwise). Characters from the Forgotten Realms setting frequently call wizards "spellhurlers" for a reason. While ray spells (and other "ranged touch attacks", as called in 3rd edition) can miss (although armors are useless against them), unlike "targeted" spells they have the advantage that you don't necessarily need to see the target — you can fire them in darkness, through smoke, or at an invisible target, as long as you have an idea where the opponent is, and still have a chance to hit. They also can be aimed at a precise body part, meaning precision damage (like sneak attacks) can be used in conjunction.
  • The Warlock class's Eldritch Blast ability is similar to a ray effect spell. Except that it can be used at will.
• Eon: Subverted. With the way Mundana's Functional Magic works, all of reality is actaully made up of a mesh of magical fields and filaments, and a mage is someone who has, through studying the science behind this mesh, learned how to weave its filaments to suit the mage's purposes. What this means in practice is that though that thing hurling towards you may look like a fireball, it's actually the mesh of reality between the spell caster and you being woven into pyrotropic filaments. Ergo, it's not a fireball at all, it's a fuse counting down the moments until the part of reality's mesh that you occupy turns into fire. Though there are methods of defending oneself against magic, any attempts at simply dodging, ducking behind covers or trying to block a "fireball" with a regular shield are explicitly not going to work.
• Exalted: The Dragonbloods have Elemental Bolt Attack. It's fairly basic, but when used in a group, it gets proportionally more effective.
• GURPS:
  • 3rd Edition ranged curses work like this (the caster specifically needs the Curse Missile spell to make them ranged).
  • GURPS has "projectile spells" as their own little subcategory that operate differently from "normal" ones — regular spells don't need a projectile effect but run up range penalties to the casting roll quickly enough to make success rather dicey over even fairly modest distances beyond touch, while a projectile spell needs to be first cast and then thrown but the magical projectile then has a better effective range. Curse Missile is specifically such a spell that can be "loaded" with one of several "regular" curse spells, but others (like the obvious fireballs) exist.
• Mage: The Awakening: By default, spells affect the target's Pattern, which means that as long as the target is within range (which could be anything from "touch" to "anywhere in the world"), it's going to be affected. However, mages always have the option of turning harmful spells into semi-physical projectiles. This can ignore the target's magic resistance, but obviously gives it a chance to avoid the spell if it's quick enough or has cover.
• Mutants & Masterminds: While it's not exclusively magic, the power system distinguishes between three ranges (four really, but the fourth is not germane to the topic). Touch is melee range, must be within adjacent squares, possibly further for a longer reach. Ranged has a maximum range and range increment penalties. Perception hits anything you can see. The first two require attack rolls, while the last auto-hits. Most attacks are done as Ranged because it's cheaper, it fits in with comic book conventions where you can dodge just about anything, and mechanically it can have higher damage.
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay classifies some spells as "magic missiles", like Fire Ball and Lightning Bolt. These require line of sight to their target and, depending on the edition and the particular spell, might need to be aimed like missile fire and/or strike a random part of the target's body like a physical attack.

Video Games

• BowMaster: Spells are triggered at the arrow's point of impact, which can be extremely annoying if a flying enemy happens to get in the way, resulting in a masive meteor or comet hitting the ground ahead of the enemy mob.

• Zig-zagged in Divinity: Original Sin II. Magic Wands and Magic Staves fire projectiles of elemental energy, while spells like Fireball and Electric Discharge are also classed as projectiles. In both cases, they need a clear path to their target (either arcing or straight-line) and are subject to effects that deflect projectiles. Other spells require the target to be visible to the caster, but take effect regardless of what's between the two.
• Dragon's Dogma plays with this. The basic attack for a magic-user's stave or archstaff fires small magic missiles that auto-target enemies, but can be evaded or deflected. The Ingle family of spells launch fireballs that, like the basic attack, auto-target enemies, but can still be evaded. Magick Archers use enchanted bows that operate not dissimilar to Striders' and Rangers' bows, requiring the user aim their magic bolts while possessing varying degrees of homing capabilities depending on the ability used. In addition, Mystic Knights can cast a Magick Cannon that allows them to fire magic bolts that are more powerful than a stave's basic attack, but also auto-targets enemies and can still be evaded or deflected.
• The Elder Scrolls series has these throughout. Any spell which doesn't target the caster ("On Self") acts in this way. The primary exception are the "On Touch" spells in Morrowind, but even these count as a variation since they won't work if you aren't close enough and aren't facing the right direction.
• Eternal Champions: Xavier's spells are projectiles that can be dodged.
• Final Fantasy: If the Reflect spell is anything to go by, all single-target spells in most titles actually take the form of magic missiles, even if they aren't graphically represented as such. However, they are in large part shown as classic, very dodgeable magic missiles in Dissidia Final Fantasy. There are some spells that spawn directly over the target, like Bind, but even they can be dodged with sufficient reflexes.
  • Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels show basic black magic spells as projectiles (including the Fire, Blizzard, and Aero families. The Thunder spells are difficult to say.)
  • Final Fantasy Type-0 takes the idea of "Magic Missiles" literally in how offensive magic functions, both in gameplay and lore. Outside of character-unique abilities that are also magical in nature, attack spells are divided not only into different elements of Fire, Ice, Lightning, but also the manner in which they are cast: RF spells fire a single projectile like a rifle, SHG fires over a wide range like a shotgun, ROK fires a powerful explosive projectile like a rocket launcher, MIS fires a guided projectile akin to a homing missile, and BOM creates an explosion around the caster like a bomb.
• Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 requires line of sight for projectile spells to cause damage. The latter allows you to dodge out of the way to avoid it.
• League of Legends: "Targeted" spells can also fire a projectile. While the player simply has to click on their target, the Player Character will fire a magical bolt/throw a spear which will fly towards the target and never miss. There's an important distinction here: skillshots can be dodged, targeted abilities will always home on you even if you use Flash or a dash ability to escape. Of course, abilities like Zhonya's Hourglass or an Invulnerable Attack can prevent targeted projectiles from having an effect.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Magical Rod in the first game allows Link to shoot projectile beams ahead of himself. The elemental rods in the later games tend to work in the same way, shooting Fireballs, icy spheres, ball lightning and the like.
  • The Wizzrobe enemies traditionally attack by shooting magic beams at Link.
  • Agahnim, the Evil Sorcerer of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, has a couple varieties of projectiles: a primary one which Link must use the Master Sword to reflect back at him, and a smaller blue variety which splits into six more balls when struck.
• Might and Magic VI - VIII: the grand majority of spells works this way, with few exceptions such as Paralyze, Mass Distortion or Implosion. While they track current position of the target, they don't track them further, meaning they can easily miss if one is using real-time mode. The spells offer wide variety of projectiles (standard, explode upon impact, stay around for a certain time or until something hits them ...) and their trajectories (linear, parabolic, spread in cone in front of party ...).
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Magikoopas tend to throw around magical geometric figures at Mario. In Super Mario World, if they miss you, they might hit a block instead, turning it into an enemy or a coin. In fact, getting these shots to hit blocks is integral to your progress in some places.
  • The wands used by the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros. 3 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii work very similarly to the Magikoopas'.
• Touhou Project:
  • The danmaku in Gensokyo is largely composed of "nonlethal" magic missiles (nonlethal in the sense that they weren't originally designed to kill people). A few exceptions exist, like Reimu's yin-yang orbs, ofuda, and talismans, as well as Sakuya's and Yumeko's knives (although Yumeko's are said to be SWORDS.)
  • You can play with Marisa Kirisame in Perfect Cherry Blossom with two sets of signs; her A mode unfocused danmaku is aptly named Magic Missile.
• Warcraft III: Single-target missile spells such as Death Coil and Storm Bolt will move towards the target and always hit.

Webcomics

• Apple Valley: One of the few spells main character Arthur can successfully perform is called "Tragic Missile". It functions much in the same way the traditional Magic Missile does, except it doesn't fly in a straight course — it arcs around and targets whatever it would be the most traumatic and drama-inducing for it to strike. Despite it being his only quasi-effective offensive spell, it doesn't get used often (for obvious reasons).
• Drowtales: This is the easiest and most common attack for a fae to use. Can be dodged. Seen in action here◊, together with mana shields and ordinary crossbows.
• The Order of the Stick: Magic tends to work like this beyond even the degree to which they do in base Dungeons & Dragons; besides spells like magic missile that canonically fire magic projectiles at a target, almost all ranged magic takes the form of a beam projected from caster to target and causing varying effects at destination.
• Sluggy Freelance spoofed Harry Potter's use of this trope during the fourth "Torg Potter" storyline. Gwynn is more of a "demons and dolls" type of witch though.
• Unsounded: Spells cast using a momentum aspect can be flung as a projectile, however most spells require the caster to actually give coordinates for the location they are meant to affect.

Web Original

• Phaeton: Most base magic is either bullet-like, bomb-like or wave-like. Of course there are still anywhere and smart magics.
• SCP Foundation: SCP-219 was taught rudimentary (read:fake) spellcasting to mentally limit her Reality Warper abilities. Unfortunately, this also makes her believe she's the strongest witch ever. Then she casts magic missile. The blast could be seen from a helicopter.

Western Animation

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: This applies to at least some unicorn magic, with the projectile shot from their horns. An especially notable example is in "Too Many Pinkie Pies", where Twilight Sparkle is trying to turn an apple into an orange and, when she's interrupted by Pinkie Pie, the magic blast hits a different target and affects it instead.

Real Life

• It's possible to achieve this visual effect with a Roman candle. At least one nerd has made this connection, and invoked this trope by name.

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