Dice Magic in the 5th Age As a note about converting SAGA to AD&D, I recently came up with this quickie conversion:

Wizards can Choose 3 Schools, Bards 1
Priests may choose 3 schools, Paladins get Healing, Bards get 1, and Rangers get Animism

Spell points equal half intelligence squared for sorcerers, half wisdom squared for mystics, and the average of Wisdom and Intelligence squared for bards.

Use the magic system in the SAGA rulebook for determining how hard a spell is to cast, and then make the PC spend that number of spell points. Roll 1d10 and add it to half their attribute (wisdom or intelligence, depending on the kind of magic). Roll 1d8 as well.

Each time the d8 comes up 8, roll another d10 and another d8... add the d10 to the total until you reach the difficulty of the spell. If the d8 comes up something other than 8, stop (but still add the d10). If the d8 ever comes up 1, stop as well. The spell has had something go wrong. If the total is equal to above what is needed, it still goes off, but no matter what the total, the DM should come up with some nasty consequence of botching the spell.

The odds aren't quite the same, since there is no d9 in a standard set, but the lack of 9 suits is off-balanced by the ability to get a 10 and still keep on rolling. I'm thinking of using this even for normal AD&D games, maybe letting the mages and priests add 1d10 spell points each level, with Bards adding 1d8, and the two warrior-types adding 1d6.

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