Quick Question on d6s

[Gale]

I'm kind of new to D&D and I was looking around for dice when I noticed various sets of d6s being sold. This may sound like a stupid question but why would someone need an entire set of d6?

[Story]

Sneak attacks. Or they're playing World of Darkness.

[Subaru Kujo]

I'm kind of new to D&D and I was looking around for dice when I noticed various sets of d6s being sold. This may sound like a stupid question but why would someone need an entire set of d6?

Lots of sneak attack damage. 10d6 on a nearly fully leveled rogue for each weapon, two times each or more depending on how you play it.

Simply put: I pick up a brick of d6s and roll to kill.

[KillianHawkeye]

Fireball? :smallwink:

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Well, D&D isn't the only game out there. Several systems run off a d6 mechanic. There are also war games like Warhammer which require plenty of D6s to do pretty much anything. And then, there are casters that use the damage spells. They aren't rerolling that 10d6 one die at a time.

[Slipperychicken]

I'm kind of new to D&D and I was looking around for dice when I noticed various sets of d6s being sold. This may sound like a stupid question but why would someone need an entire set of d6?

The Shadowrun roleplaying game will, at times, require upwards of 30 d6's rolled simultaneously.

As I recall, the Warhammer tabletop wargames require excessive numbers of d6's too.

EDIT: Ninja'd... by a guy whose name starts with "ninja".

[Doc_Maynot]

Also the Bell Curve Roll Variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/bellCurveRolls.htm). Use 3d6 instead of 1d20.

[Slipperychicken]

Also the Bell Curve Roll Variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/bellCurveRolls.htm). Use 3d6 instead of 1d20.

That's an advantage of diepool systems: They generate distributions which look like bell curves and are thus more realistic (i.e. there's no such thing as "automatic success" or "automatic failure" -there is always a chance to fail or succeed any roll without absurdity). Also, rolling fistfuls of dice makes you feel more powerful than always rolling the same old d20.

This stands in stark contrast to the d20, which is swingy as hell (flat distribution) and simply doesn't produce believable results. It is, however, easier to roll a d20 and read the result than to use a diepool.

[Dusk Eclipse]

The Shadowrun roleplaying game will, at times, require upwards of 30 d6's rolled simultaneously.

As I recall, the Warhammer tabletop wargames require excessive numbers of d6's too.

EDIT: Ninja'd... by a guy whose name starts with "ninja".

What? whitetextofposting+1

[Ninjaxenomorph]

That'd be me. I get that every once in a while. Need to find a good avatar of a Xenomorph from Alien wearing ninja robes...

[Dusk Eclipse]

You could ask in the Arts & Crafts forum, there is (mostly) always an avatarist willing to give a chance to even the weirdest, but no less awesome, avatar request.

[theIrkin]

Dusk Eclipse: that's why Shadowrun is so easy to break. You roll 40d6 with a moderately optimized starter character. Assuming the GM doesn't let you buy hits at a cost of 4 die each (and if he does, you've already killed your target without having to roll) and you still will kill an average early game enemy every shot... it's gross and un-fun with the wrong group.

[Fax Celestis]

Sneak attacks. Or they're playing World of Darkness.

You're thinking of Star Wars d6. WoD is d10s.

[bekeleven]

What? whitetextofposting+1

One friend of mine had somewhere upwards of 70 hacking dice out the gate... Of course his character was explicitly useless in all other capacities, but still.

[Forrestfire]

On the note of ridiculous dice, I have, at one point in a Warhammer 40k game, needed to roll something like 135d6, with rerolls on anything below a 4 on the first roll.

I rolled it in lots of 36, because that's how many dice were in by dice block :smalltongue:

[Devronq]

Awesome no ones said this yet; hey techmoogle go read vengeful gaze of god in the Epic players handbook it deals 305d6 damage :) There is also Egg of Abominable Cold which deals 100d10 damage.

[Andezzar]

You're thinking of Star Wars d6. WoD is d10s.Or Shadowrun. The dice pools can get quite large there too.

[Maginomicon]

It makes me happy to hear about people speaking well of the Bell Curve Rolls Variant. Even some of my own players were iffy on replacing the sacrosanct d20.

As for large dice pools, it's possible those games expect you to use a computerized dice roller by the time you're rolling 100d6.

[TuggyNE]

There is also Egg of Abominable Cold which deals 100d10 damage.

Where's that from?

[Deophaun]

Awesome no ones said this yet; hey techmoogle go read vengeful gaze of god in the Epic players handbook it deals 305d6 damage :) There is also Egg of Abominable Cold which deals 100d10 damage.
There comes a point where it just makes sense to forgo the rolls and just give the average value. DFI bards get their damage converted to flat values after a while in the group I'm in (with the option to roll when against creatures with resistance).

[Krazzman]

My first ever Shadowrun character was a sniper with a 42 dicepool on his rifle and around 30 on his pistol.

Our Troll-Engineer had 56 dice to soak damage and maximum strength. Our Troll Rocketscientist had 50 to soak damage, near maximum strength and carried a rocketlauncher for ~30 dice.

Jeah we were balanced.... not :smalltongue:

[IronFist]

Sneak attacks. Or they're playing World of Darkness.

World of Darkness uses d10s.

[Psyren]

I have a group that plays Dragon Age, a 3d6 system, and we like it a lot. It definitely puts you in the average much more often making things consistent. And Stunts (any two dice come up the same) are generally easier to roll than Crits.

(Obviously, 3d6 per person means you need a ton of them, and some attacks do 4 or even 5d6 damage...)

[FullStop]

Disintegrate at higher caster levels, the aforementioned sneak attack dice and damage evocations, and uh...large falling objects. The group I play in dropped an adamantine tower on an avatar of Ra one time that apparently did in the realm of 200d6. That was a good session.

[Keneth]

Doesn't everyone buy dice by kilogram?

How can you possibly play the game without a chest full of dice? :smallconfused:

[Ortesk]

Once i had 5 DFI bards purely minmaxed, given woc in the best way, adding 15D6 each energy to my SA rogue, who could do i believe 14D6, at 8 attacks around. When all was said and done i looked around going guys i need 712D6

[Keneth]

When all was said and done i looked around going guys i need 712D6

This is the point where rolling all the dice becomes moot because even slightly flawed dice average out on a bell curve. You're looking at something like 2500 +/- 20d6, which is much more doable.

[Ortesk]

This is the point where rolling all the dice becomes moot because even slightly flawed dice average out on a bell curve. You're looking at something like 2500 +/- 20d6, which is much more doable.

Past levl 5 i dont bother with dice, usually i either can roll so many that it bogs combat, or my damage is my modifier and dice is just a formality. My charger was doing 6d6 a hit, +2308. I for one did not care about 6-36 damage and just averaged at 20

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Mythender (http://mythenderrpg.com/) and Hollowpoint (http://www.vsca.ca/Hollowpoint/) are also lesser-known examples of games that require large amounts of d6s. (I find them to be immensely fun, too. Mythender is ridiculous in all the good ways.)

[Talderas]

What? whitetextofposting+1

Depends on the edition I think. With 4th edition, dice pools exceeding 20 dice aren't common outside of combat. 30 dice damage soak pools are extremely reasonable. Certain builds, such as the pornomancer, can roll 40+ dice on a single skill check. This is a game where a 5 or 6 constitutes a hit and on unopposed skill checks 4 successes is usually all you need with more doing nothing (except damage related tests). Though social skills are always opposed skill checks in which case the pornomancer is rolling 40+ against someone with a dice pool of 12. Anyone throwing out numbers than 40 I would suspect is talking about a different version than 4th or is not applying the rules properly.

It's difficult to get much past 20 dice with a starting character (in 4th edition) for attack tests, with 30 being around the top end and hyper focused, but those necessitate higher attack pools. Using a dodge action directly reduces the number of hits you gain which reduces your damage.

[Andezzar]

It is not that difficult (depending on the skill), but for nearly everything more than 20 is overkill anyways so people don't invest that much into it. There are also other ways of being effective. Divce pool penalties (for poor lighting, damage taken etc.) are common so you can also invest in stuff that reduces or removes those penalties.

[Allanimal]

My first ever Shadowrun character was a sniper with a 42 dicepool on his rifle and around 30 on his pistol.

That just makes my sniper with a pool of 14 dice seem pathetic...
And here I thought he was good.

Disclaimers: I am a shadowrun noob and we play 3rd edition.

[Andezzar]

That just makes my sniper with a pool of 14 dice seem pathetic...
And here I thought he was good.

Disclaimers: I am a shadowrun noob and we play 3rd edition.Is that with or without combat pool? 14 without is pretty impressive IIRC. It has been quite some time since I played 3rd. 42 sounds even a bit much for 4th, especially on a muggle mundane.

[Fax Celestis]

Doesn't everyone buy dice by kilogram?

How can you possibly play the game without a chest full of dice? :smallconfused:

I get a pound of dice in my stocking every Christmas.

[johnbragg]

I'm kind of new to D&D and I was looking around for dice when I noticed various sets of d6s being sold. This may sound like a stupid question but why would someone need an entire set of d6?

The thread kind of drifted away from you into other games, but a short list of why you might want to have access to at least 10d6

1. Rogue Sneak Attack damage
2. Lots-of-dice damage spells like Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Shocking Grasp, Flame STrike, Cone of Cold, etc.
3. Character creation (ex. Roll 4d6 take 3 dice, roll 7 times take 6, arrange to taste)
4. And yeah, other games.

If you're not playing a caster, you can get by without lots of dice for a while.

:smallbiggrin:But the dice are so shiny and colorful and, I probably should go get a new set.

[Andezzar]

I get a pound of dice in my stocking every Christmas.Aww Santa does not use the metric system for you Americans. You should get a kilo. ;)

[Agent 451]

Where's that from?

ELH, page 275.

[Talderas]

Is that with or without combat pool? 14 without is pretty impressive IIRC. It has been quite some time since I played 3rd. 42 sounds even a bit much for 4th, especially on a muggle mundane.

Troll Tank (damage soak pool)
Ultimate Mundane Climber (44 dice)
Pornomancer (52 dice minimum)
Vehicle Combat

Those are four things off the top of my head that I think can reach 40+ dice with a starting character.

[Andezzar]

Those are four things off the top of my head that I think can reach 40+ dice with a starting character.I know those four things and their approximate dice pools, but Krazzman claimed a dice pool of 42 on Long Arms and no mention of being awakened. That sounds a bit much to me.

[Talderas]

I know those four things and their approximate dice pools, but Krazzman claimed a dice pool of 42 on Long Arms and no mention of being awakened. That sounds a bit much to me.

42 on longarms seems impossible with being awakened.

Using a human, so a higher max agility character will adjust the values appropriately.

12 Agility (8 natural max + 4 augmented [Exceptional Agility & the Metagenetics to increase agility)
10 Skill (7 natural max + 3 augmented [Aptitude (Longarms)]
2 Specialization
2 Smart Gun
3 TacNet
1 Synch
3 Take Aim bonus
1 Laser Sight (which is questionable on whether it stacks with smart gun)

That nets you 34 dice while being awakened and 32 as mundane as anything higher than a 7+1 for longarms is impossible since you can only augment a skill by 1 without being awakened. There's other circumstance bonuses that may increase this as well. You can get another three dice by going pixie and there may be a die or two that you can nab from SURGE.

The more fun part about my sniper (beyond having a consistent 20+ dice pool on longarms) is having a 17 perception with 22 visual and 20 auditory. He can usually see better in the dark with his natural vision than most characters with cybereyes that are using ultrasound.

[Lappy9001]

I have a group that plays Dragon Age, a 3d6 system, and we like it a lot. It definitely puts you in the average much more often making things consistent. And Stunts (any two dice come up the same) are generally easier to roll than Crits.

(Obviously, 3d6 per person means you need a ton of them, and some attacks do 4 or even 5d6 damage...)I'll second this. We've only played two games, but everyone really enjoyed it. The stunt system is awesome, and we thought about importing them into our usual 3.5 game.

d6's are also easiest to scrounge from board games around the house that haven't been played in years (it's great to show up with a legit set of casino dice or Oogie Boogie's dice from Nightmare Before Christmas Yahztee)

[Andezzar]

@Talderas: Yup, that's about what I thought would be the maximum for long arms.

[TuggyNE]

ELH, page 275.

That's strange. It's not in the SRD. :smallconfused:

[Psyren]

That's strange. It's not in the SRD. :smallconfused:

It's part of the Epic Adventures section, i.e. the story/setting stuff, which isn't OGL.

[elonin]

The older version of starwars uses d6 dice pools. For world of darkness my dm used d6's to indicate health pools for npc's. In 2nd edition dnd damage of spells wasn't capped so fireballs could be 20d6 or higher.

[Chronos]

I think "dice pools" should be explained, here, because I don't think it's the D&D standard of "add up all the die to get a single number". From what I'm gathering, it's something about counting up all the dice that rolled above some threshold?

[bekeleven]

I think "dice pools" should be explained, here, because I don't think it's the D&D standard of "add up all the die to get a single number". From what I'm gathering, it's something about counting up all the dice that rolled above some threshold?Yep. Each Die that rolls above X (usually 4 or 5) is a "hit", and you need certain number of hits to succeed at a task.

Often times there are penalties for rolling 1s, and bonuses for rolling a 6. An example of a bonus for rolling a 6 is getting an extra die - this is what's known as "exploding dice". An example of a penalty for rolling a 1 is, in shadowrun, if half of your dice are 1s you get a glitch, and something especially bad happens. Sometimes you need 5 hits, roll 11 dice, and get 5 hits and 6 1s, resulting in a success (you passed the threshold) but a glitch at the same time, resulting in you succeeding at your task but something bad happening. Most often, glitches are a penalty for attempting tasks you shouldn't attempt in the first place (if you have only 1 die in something you glitch 1/6th of the time... paradoxically you glitch more often with 2 dice, but I don't want to get into glitches vs. critical glitches right now).

[elonin]

The way it worked in VtM (old version) is you stated an action and the dm would tell you which attribute and skill to roll. Rolling 1's would remove successes (difficulty comes from type of action). If you have more 1's than success you botch. It sounds very similar to shadowrun. I personally prefer that system to the d20 system.

[IronFist]

The way it worked in VtM (old version) is you stated an action and the dm would tell you which attribute and skill to roll. Rolling 1's would remove successes (difficulty comes from type of action). If you have more 1's than success you botch. It sounds very similar to shadowrun. I personally prefer that system to the d20 system.

It's funny you should mention it, because oWoD had a completely borked system. Being more skilled at something meant botching was more likely.
They changed that in revised, by changing how botches work (only if you roll NO successes + a 1) and improved it in nWoD, by using fixed target numbers.
But oWoD as you mentioned has a horrible, horrible core mechanic.