Cursed Character and what to do about it

[ProsecutorGodot]

Not cursed mechanically, but in a very real sense that is making me believe that luck is a real thing and I've pulled the short end of it with what might be my favorite character I've created in Dungeons and Dragons. We've had 4 sessions, each between 4-7 hours in length and in that time I've rolled under 10 (after modifiers) for a majority of the rolls.

Relevant information:
The campaign is Waterdeep Dragon Heist, Spring.
Brakan Enturin, Warforged Envoy (Thieves Tools), Inquisitive Rogue 4 (Lucky at 4th level)
STR - 12
DEX - 16
CON - 14
INT - 16
WIS - 16
CHA - 14
Background - City Watch, although the core of why I really enjoyed this character is that he's more of a never sleeping goody two shoes than a real member of the city watch.

Roll 20 affords me the opportunity to retroactively check what rolls I've made, in a total of 52 d20 rolls these are the results. Remember these results are including relevant ability modifiers.
Rolled under 10 - 27
Rolled above 10 - 25
Natural 1 - 6 (3 of which are attack rolls)
Natural 20 - 2 (Both of which were skill checks, where I failed the following check to make good use of the advantage)
Attack Rolls hit - 4 out of 13 (2 of which were made during the encounter in the yawning portal, 2 minutes into starting this campaign)

So what's my point in sharing this?

First I'd be interested to know if anyone else has ever had disproportionately bad luck while playing a character. Second I'd like to know if there's anything I can do mechanically to influence my rolls to improve. I'd had no plans to take Lucky at 4th level, as improving my primary stat to 18 is a high priority for most characters I've built. The issue is that with a majority of my rolls being below the threshold of this +1 being at all useful I felt absolutely compelled to take it so that I have the opportunity to finally contribute, if I'm lucky.

I really like this character, I've had the concept waiting in the wings for a campaign like Dragon Heist ever since the Inquisitive Rogue showed up in Xanathars. This continuous string of bad luck had left me wanting to roll a new character at the end of yesterday's session because I'd once again sat around failing for 4 hours straight.

[DMThac0]

Ever hear of Will Wheaton? On an episode of Critical Role he showed the disproportionate number of times a person could roll a natural 1 in 4 hours.

I believe there's a way to check your dice to see if they're truly random by checking their resting state in a glass of salt water. Never tried it but I hear it works and has shown people that their favorite dice are weighted in such a way that they'll roll low more often than not. Clear dice are almost always properly balanced from what I understand.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Ever hear of Will Wheaton? On an episode of Critical Role he showed the disproportionate number of times a person could roll a natural 1 in 4 hours.

I believe there's a way to check your dice to see if they're truly random by checking their resting state in a glass of salt water. Never tried it but I hear it works and has shown people that their favorite dice are weighted in such a way that they'll roll low more often than not. Clear dice are almost always properly balanced from what I understand.

I am aware of the Wil Wheaton issue, I watched the episode live.

I don't think I can replace the dice used on Roll20, seeing as they're virtual, but I have tried to use the 3D dice setting. Normally we don't use it because the time it takes for the 3D dice to roll delays the chat window but it didn't improve my results.

Rolling actual dice isn't really feasible since my DM lives in another state, but I do have a well balanced set of translucent dice and a set of metal dice that I'm assuming are well balanced.

[DMThac0]

I am aware of the Wil Wheaton issue, I watched the episode live.
.

If you mean you were on set, I'm jealous..I'd love to sit in.
If you mean you caught it on Twitch, I caught it there as well.



I don't think I can replace the dice used on Roll20, seeing as they're virtual, but I have tried to use the 3D dice setting. Normally we don't use it because the time it takes for the 3D dice to roll delays the chat window but it didn't improve my results.

Rolling actual dice isn't really feasible since my DM lives in another state, but I do have a well balanced set of translucent dice and a set of metal dice that I'm assuming are well balanced.

I apologize...I don't know where my head was at..I read your entire post and my brain just omitted the whole Roll20 bit...*walk of shame*

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Just keep at it.

Track your rolls in excel for fun.

see if there are any rumors of D20 being unbalanced based on stats or sumptin.

There is a trick to leaving yourself exposed to the whim of rolls when it doesn't matter more often than in critical situations. In war games if something REALLY matters I try to take in overwhelming odds. If the luck gods go against me and I roll bad let it be in the peripheral battles.

[Lunali]

Ever hear of Will Wheaton? On an episode of Critical Role he showed the disproportionate number of times a person could roll a natural 1 in 4 hours.

I believe there's a way to check your dice to see if they're truly random by checking their resting state in a glass of salt water. Never tried it but I hear it works and has shown people that their favorite dice are weighted in such a way that they'll roll low more often than not. Clear dice are almost always properly balanced from what I understand.

If you're using properly numbered d20s, they shouldn't roll low or high overall depending on weighting. They might have a higher proportion of 1s or 20s, but the high and low numbers should be fairly evenly distributed around them.

[ProsecutorGodot]

If you're using properly numbered d20s, they shouldn't roll low or high overall depending on weighting. They might have a higher proportion of 1s or 20s, but the high and low numbers should be fairly evenly distributed around them.

Well, from personal experience I have a few solid colored dice that have weighting issues, 2 examples being a d10 that rolls mostly 8 and a d12 that rolls mostly 3.

Unless you've gone through the trouble yourself to make or purchase a weighted die, it could prefer any number. The most likely reason that solid colored dice have this issue is manufacturer laziness, not an intent to create cheating dice.

But weighting isn't the issue in this case, it's a borderline supernatural string of bad luck. Keeping in mind that I'm playing a Rogue with many skill proficiencies (Thieves Tools, Insight and Investigation with expertise) and none of my modifiers are below +2, I've actually rolled a majority of them under 7.

Quite ironically, the skill I've most often rolled well with is Insight, which Inquisitive gives me a minimum roll of 15 for while detecting lies. Since I got that feature I've never had to use it.

[Callak_Remier]

Check to see if your dice are imbalanced

Fill a cup full of water with ebsolm salt until the die is buoyant and spin the die if it settles on one number continously it's poorly balanced. Clear plastic is your best bet for truly random dice. Solid colors usually are imperfect.

I threw out 3 of my dice recently weighted and 1 7 and 18