Burning Hands (Alteration)

Range: 0
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: Spellcaster
Saving Throw: Halves (see below)

When the wizard casts this spell, a jet of searing flame shoots from his fingertips. His hands must be held so as to send forth a fanlike sheet of flames: the wizard’s thumbs must touch each other and fingers must be spread. This gesture requires a degree of physical aiming.

Modification: the caster’s Dexterity modifier is applied as a penalty to the saving throws of all targets within the area of effect.

The burning hands send out flame jets of five-foot length in a horizontal arc of about 120 degrees in front of the wizard. Any creature in the area of the flames suffers 1d3 hit points of damage, plus 2 points for each level of the spellcaster, to a maximum of 1d3 + 20 points of fire damage. Those successfully saving vs. spell receive half damage.

Flammable materials touched by the fire will burn. This effect is potent enough to ignite common adventuring gear, including:

• Fabric: Clothing, cloaks, backpacks*, sacks, quivers, and rope.
• Paper: Spellbooks, scrolls, and maps.
• Thin Wood: Weapon handles (axes, maces, spears), shields, bows, crossbows, and arrow/bolt shafts.

*about backpacks: if a backpack is destroyed by the fire all objects contained in it should be considered safe, unless flammable items like oil, torches or the like, ignite. A backpack made of leather or a reinforced backpack, can resist the fire of the burning hand spell.

A character may extinguish their burning equipment. This requires a choice of action in the subsequent round: a character can extinguish one burning item by forgoing their attack, or up to two items if they forgo both their attack and their movement for the round.

If you are interested in knowing more about equipment in AD&D 2nd edition (or equipment in general) have a look at the DMGR3 Arms and Equipment Guide (2e).

Tactical Summary: The primary purpose of Burning Hands is to serve as a defensive, close-quarters countermeasure. It provides a spellcaster with a final option to neutralize an attacker who has closed to melee range. Its ability to ignite equipment is key to its design, intended to destroy or disable the very weapons, shields, or spellbooks threatening the caster, thus creating an opportunity to escape or turn the tide of a desperate situation.

SPELL RESEARCH

Here we present some ideas for the spellcaster to improve the Burning Hands spell for higher levels of power.

• Burning Hands (Level 2): The spellcaster may research a 2nd-level Burning Hands, where the arc encompasses a 360-degree arc so that any target surrounding the spellcaster is affected by the fire.
• Burning Hands (Level 3): A 3rd-level Burning Hands could deal more damage and should include the advantage of a 360-degree area of effect. The suggested damage can be increased to 1d6 damage + 2 damage per spellcaster level, with the maximum cap of +20 damage removed.

If you want to know more about Spell Research in AD&D 2nd edition, have a look at the PHBR4 The Complete Wizard’s Handbook (2e).