One of the things I never liked about the magic spells in ADamp&D is that they "automatically" work if the caster is able to get it off. This leaves nothing in the area of "what if his finger twitched left instead of right?" and caused the spell to screw up. I've always insisted that a spell must be rolled "to hit" similar to an attack roll. The roll is much simpler but allows the chance for a foul up. I usually use a base roll of 6 or greater for the spell to work and as the character uses the spell "for real" more often, the roll gets easier. Until he/she is able to successfully cast it on anything other than a 1 or 2.
Healing spells, however, I feel take on a different light. Here we deal with the whims of the deity (or the underling that grants the power for the spell). There is more room for "favor" and "disfavor". The table below alters the normal results of the spell and its' effectiveness as shown. I offer my players the option of rolling against this table or a "normal" spell roll for "typical" results. But the lure of getting a few extra points of healing usually entices the players in to using the roll table listed below.
| Spell Roll | Healing Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | spell fails |
| 2 | reroll (1-5 fails, 6-20 -3 to healing roll)*1 |
| 3 | -2 to healing roll*1 |
| 4-5 | -1 to healing roll |
| 6-16 | normal spell effectiveness |
| 17-18 | +1 to healing roll |
| 19 | +2 to healing roll |
| 20 | +3 to healing roll |
| *1 - a negative result causes damage to the SPELL CASTER equal to the roll total. | |
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Bob Senkewicz / Howell, New Jersey / senk@optonline.net