What am I misunderstanding about Magic Stone? I hate it!
Good morning,
I'll be honest, Magic Stone is a cantrip that confuses me so much. It seems, in my opinion, to be possibly the single weakest and most useless cantrip in the game - yet it comes with a massive list of restrictions that implies, at least to me, that it is actually somehow broken and amazing.
The first thing that comes to mind is that I do not understand why it doesn't add damage when used with a Sling. If I were to choose to cast True Strike, Booming Blade, or Green-Flame Blade, (by level 5) they would all add damage to the attack, not replace the attacks damage.
Slings deal 1d4 damage. Even at level 1, (1d4 + Dex) + (1d6 + Spellcasting) is hardly an earth-shattering combo. A Human Paladin and the right background with a Greatsword could potentially deal (2d6 + Str) + (2d8) + (1d6) from Booming Blade, Greatsword, and Divine Smite.
Worse, Magic Stone is a two turn set up without Metamagic. You can't use it, and attack with it, on the same turn.
This whole confused rant started with me thinking about a musket/true strike/magic stone combo for an Artificer. Which I now know won't work, but I just can't help but wonder:
What broken combo led to these restrictions on this spell!?