Spiritual hammer spell home brew

[Ewhit]

Hi. In 1st-3rd edition I home brewed spiritual hammer to give more rp/ auto hit damage. This is what it was in 1-3. 2nd Lvl 1d8+level auto hit like magic missle. MR applies. Cleric casts the spell which has the shape of the gods symbol and color of alignment and strike target once.
In 5th spiritual hammer is pretty good so what would be a comparison of my home brew into 5ed. 2 level auto hit but what damage.? 1d10 or 2d8?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Doesn't Spiritual Weapon already cover this? If you're dead set on a level 2 auto-hit spell, it has to do more than 4d4+4 (14, from Magic Missile II) but less than 6d6 (21, from Scorching Rays) total damage. 2d12+2 (15) or 3d8+3 (16.5) against a single target might be good.

[Ewhit]

Thanks for the info on possible damage. maybe it's obsolete in 5th. I created it back in ad&d 1st., when cleric didn't have much for combat and no one wanted to play the cleric.
What I gave was an auto hit with Special effects. I also in game made players have to call their gods name and the cleric spell giving no bonus to a bonus for how good they spoke. But the best part was when someone slip of the tongue the wrong Gods name and Ooopps what Happened next

[eastmabl]

Generally in 5e, dice rolls matter. There's only one instance of an auto-hit (magic missile), and that's more from slavish devotion to old editions.

[Talamare]

Hammer Missile
You create three glowing hammers of smashing. Each hammer hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range. A hammer deals 1d4 + 1 bludgeoning damage to its target. The hammers all strike simultaneously and you can direct them to hit one creature or several. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the spell creates one more hammer for each slot above 1st.

Something like this?

[CaptAl]

Just my opinion, but auto hit spells, while efficient, are boring.

Clerics, in this edition, are quite capable of putting out some respectable damage. Between guiding bolt, spiritual weapon, and spirit guardians (all in the first 3 spell levels) plus decent at will damage (melee/cantrips), not to mention some potent channel divinity abilities, there's really no need for another direct damage combat spell.

If you want to brew it up for nostalgia's sake, have at it. Just remember that it's really easy to super charge something like this. Start low with the damage/rider and buff it if need be. Don't hand out a shiny new toy, then take it away BC it's too strong.