[RPG] How far does a Lore Wizard/Tempest Cleric’s lightning-damage Magic Missiles push the target back

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Per the Tempest cleric's Thunderbolt Strike ability (PHB, page 62), lightning damage can push some targets back:

At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller
creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you.

So, let's say there is a 20th level character, which is 2 levels Lore Wizard (UA) and 18 levels Tempest Cleric. This character casts Magic Missile with a 9th-level spell slot (creating eleven darts). They use Spell Secrets to change the damage type to lightning. They then have all the darts target the same creature.

Would the creature be pushed back 110 feet, one for each dart?

Or would the creature be pushed back 10 feet, one for the spell as a whole?

Best Answer

110 feet

Jeremy Crawford confirmed that each magic missile dart is a separate instance of damage, at least in the context of concentration:

@JeremyECrawford Do you roll concentration for every instance of damage taken? id est every Magic Missile hit?

Concentration: "You make a separate saving throw for each source of damage" (PH, 203). Roll for each missile. #DnD

Barring anything that explicitly says that concentration is a special case that treats magic missile differently than other things (or that thunderbolt strike is such a special case), the only possible consistent interpretation is that each dart from magic missile is a separate source of damage. When you make it lightning damage, then you deal a separate instance of lightning damage for each one. Which means that, for each one, “when you deal lightning damage” is triggered.

The fact that magic missile darts deal their damage “simultaneously” is absolutely irrelevant: thunderbolt strike makes no reference to time in its wording. It only says “when you deal lightning damage.” So you roll the first dart’s lightning damage, and that point in the resolution of your turn is a point “when you [did] lightning damage,” so you push the target back 10 feet—and then you move on to resolve the next dart.

There is absolutely no basis in the rules or in developer commentary, that I have seen, that justifies treating them as a single instance of lightning damage for the purposes of thunderbolt strike, despite them being separate sources of damage for concentration. That is an inconsistent interpretation that would require special exceptions to the rules to justify, and no such special exceptions are written anywhere (to my knowledge).

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