How do you use Percentage Die?

[Alyosha]

The percentage die always puzzled me a little. You use it to figure out if your arcane spells fail if you wear armor (but no arcane spellcaster I've ever seen wears armor).

You also use it to try and stabilize if you reach negative hit points. You have a 10% chance of stabilizing.

How do you guys make use of these rules? And how do you choose to read the die when they fall? When rolling to see if a PC stabilizes, do they roll higher than a 10 or lower or a 90 or higher?

Do you throw these rules out and replace them with your own? If you do, what do you do instead?

And since we're talking about percentage die and related percentage checks, about how much Arcane spell failure chance can a person get away with before it totally ruins the character's ability to cast spells? Like I said, I've never seen an arcane caster wear armor when they can get magic items to boost AC. I just was curious about whether or not it could be done.

[MCerberus]

Well if % >= what you rolled then stuff happens. Therefore 1-10 is stabilization, if arcane spell failure is 25%, then 1-25 is a spell failure. 15% chance per hour of encounter? 1-15.


For things other than random items and the like, the % are usually divisible by 5, so you can also use a d20 instead of the more confusing 2 ten sided die.

[Chronos]

For things other than random items and the like, the % are usually divisible by 5, so you can also use a d20 instead of the more confusing 2 ten sided die.And a fair number of things are 25% or 50%. I'm baffled why anyone would roll two rolls of the most awkward-shaped die to check for total concealment miss chance, rather than just "Flip a coin. Tails, you miss.".

[reorith]

i don't. not much call for them. i have yet to roll for a miss due to concealment or for an %based table. :(

[Matthew]

Since everything just works on 5% increments, you can just use a D20.

[MrNexx]

Skills tests.

[Lord_Kimboat]

I had a DM recently at a con who INSISTED that you use two ten sided dice with one being clearly marked 10,20,30, ect and wouldn't move things on until those two dice were used. Personally, I've always been in favor of rolling a d20 with each number being a 5% chance. 20% arcane spell failure = rolling 1-4 on a d20.

Incidentally, the only time I generally don't roll off is for tied initiatives. At that point I usually play rock, paper, scissors, with the person on the roll just for fun :smalltongue: .

[Hawriel]

% dice = two D10. one of for the tens spot one is for the ones spot. you just roll dice with two different colors. then say the blue one is tens the white is ones. roll the dice. blue rolls a 5, white rolls a 7. thats 57. OR you can find a D10 that has the numbers in tens that is 10, 20, 30, ect. so one die would roll 40 the second a 4 you have 44. Very simple. Or you can just do the math. if you have a 10% chance for somthing roll a D10 if you get a 1 then you hit that persentage chance.

[SoD]

The d% is generally a DMs tool more than a players. Sure, players need to stabalise, but DMs use it for: random encounters, treasure, weather, NPC quirks, and an assortment of other miscelaneous things.

[AslanCross]

The more pressing question for me is this: What is a roll for a "1" and a "100?"
Is it "00" on the tens die and "1" on the ones die for 1? Is it "0" on the ones die and "90" on the tens die for 100? :smallconfused:

[Dhavaer]

The more pressing question for me is this: What is a roll for a "1" and a "100?"
Is it "00" on the tens die and "1" on the ones die for 1? Is it "0" on the ones die and "90" on the tens die for 100? :smallconfused:

00 + 0 = 100
00 + 1 = 1

[AslanCross]

Ah, thanks. Never really came up, but it's good to know in any case.

[Rigon]

i hate D10s.
in my early days playing an old game called M.A.G.U.S. players would just roll the damn pair of D10s and "after the roll" they would say which is which. let me tell you arguing about dices is a pain in the blessed buttocks.

i vote D20. 5% steps are more than accurate enough for a GAME. and there is no debate about which roll is which. i hate that really. i don't remember anything which would use values like "3% chance to blah-blah".
oh and it doesn't matter how you determine what D20 value means which percentage as long as you implicitly state before every roll.

actually even normal attacks are % rolls. it's just simplified to D20. HURRAY FOR D20!

[Winterwind]

i hate D10s.
in my early days playing an old game called M.A.G.U.S. players would just roll the damn pair of D10s and "after the roll" they would say which is which. let me tell you arguing about dices is a pain in the blessed buttocks.That's what ten sided dice with 10, 20, 30,... instead of 1, 2, 3,... printed on are for. There, no argument possible anymore.
Although if players go as far as to argue about that, I suspect the actual problem might be the maturity of the players, rather than the dice...

[Skjaldbakka]

My biggest use of percentile dice:

Generating Treasure Hordes.

well, that and miss chance.

[Quietus]

When I roll a % die, it's pretty straightforward : the bad result is the low result. Thus, if you're rolling for 10% arcane spell failure, 1-10 is bad. If you're rolling for stabilization, we roll a d20, but 19-20 is stabilized, because it's good. That rule of thumb covers all things.

I only really use the % die when rolling miss chances, and the rare treasure generation, though I tend to use an online tool for that since when I generate treasures, I only do it for large piles like a dragon's hoard, which is a pain to do by hand.

[Skjaldbakka]

I only really use the % die when rolling miss chances, and the rare treasure generation, though I tend to use an online tool for that since when I generate treasures, I only do it for large piles like a dragon's hoard, which is a pain to do by hand.

Really? Link please?

[Bender]

In our group only the DM ever rolls d% and always behind the screen. It makes sense that the PC's don't know how hard an ally is dying (although we usually say so anyway) or that a PC doesn't know whether he missed the invisible creature or that it just isn't in that location (or in the case of a spell, whether it was affected or not).

another advantage of hiding it is the possibility to build up tension (it's more thrilling to actually miss a shadow once than constantly hitting when the dice don't co-operate) or avoiding unnecessary deaths (someone that hits -1 in a random encounter shouldn't die because he has the bad luck of not stabilising and the other players are occupied because the monsters where trickier to kill for some reason)

I also use it to decide events not described by the rules. I put a number on it and roll. You could as well do it with a d20 of course, but I kinda like the d%

[Keld Denar]

I see percentages come up most often as miss chances. Incorporial undead are the most common offenders, but displacer beast and fiendish advanced flying greater blinking rust monsters do as well. It came up so often in one game, that my character purchased a greater truedeath crystal just so those slinky undead (hand-and-a-half sword)s would get whats comin to em.

Invisibility, however, should be rolled by the DM. Cause you don't ever really know what square they are in, unless they just hit you, and didn't move...or you made your listen check...or you have scent, tremorsense, or blindsight....

Also, in keeping with true 3.X form, rolling high is a good thing. Therefore, you have to roll over the % number. This is not a rule, but a good rule of thumb, so players don't declare after the roll "but I wanted to roll low, I wanted 1-50 on my 50% miss chance" cause I have seen it happen.

[Alyosha]

I been thinking about the d% vs d20 thing. It is simpler, but I'm curious about what it means in terms of probabilities.

Are you just as likely to hit your percentage roll on a d20 as you are on a d%?

This is due more to curiosity than actual gameplay. I certainly don't have the math skills for it, but I was curious to see if anyone actually did the math.

[Attilargh]

Yes. As you have one tenth of a chance to hit any given result on the "tens" die and one tenth of a chance to hit any given result on the "ones" die, you have a one in a hundred chance of hitting any given result of the d100. As the desirable results are always in steps of 5%, it makes no difference whether you roll a d100 or a d20.

[Shishnarfne]

It's relatively simple:

If you are looking for a percentage that is divisible by five (e.g. 35%), you divide the percentage by 5, and if you roll that number or less (7 in this case) on a d20, it is a miss (or whatever the result of that percentage is).
This is exactly the same percentage chance as percentile dice. Notice that this only works for numbers divisible by five.

I've used these ideas several times. For instance, for stabilization rolls (10% chance), I tell players to pick a lucky number, and if they roll that number, they stabilize. For 50% miss chances, I tell my players to roll a die and tell me if the result is even or odd. I roll a die at the same time, and if both come up the same (both even or both odd), it's a hit.

I only actually use the full d% rolls for treasure.

(P.S. Are you a fellow Dostoevsky reader? I'm judging based on the handle.)

[Leadfeathermcc]

When I am a DM I use it quite a bit when handing out treasure or to find out a NPC personality quirk it keeps me from getting in a rut. When I am a player I let the percentile dice hang out with the d12 because otherwise the d12 is very lonely.

[Curmudgeon]

They're necessary for some spells, like Reincarnate; how else are you going to figure out that the target comes back as a Dwarf on rolled % of 02-13?

[Skjaldbakka]

Also, in keeping with true 3.X form, rolling high is a good thing. Therefore, you have to roll over the % number. This is not a rule, but a good rule of thumb, so players don't declare after the roll "but I wanted to roll low, I wanted 1-50 on my 50% miss chance" cause I have seen it happen.


Or you could try and be consistent, which is even more useful. A 20% chance of X means that X happens if you roll a 20 or lower. Of course it doesn't matter if you use 80 or higher for a 20% miss chance, but what IS important is consistency. This issue really shouldn't be complicated. Dice rolling conventions should be established at the beginning of any game anyway.

[martyboy74]

They're necessary for some spells, like Reincarnate; how else are you going to figure out that the target comes back as a Dwarf on rolled % of 02-13?

How often do player actually use Reincarnate? The DM can just make it whatever they want for NPCs.

[Quietus]

Really? Link please?

http://www.aarg.net/~minam/treasure2.cgi

Be warned, it can come up with some silly results - I've seen intelligent magic items ("weak" ones, admittedly, but still) come up in level 2 treasure piles, and CR 8 things come up with hordes of 356,000 copper peices. So, a reroll is usually in order - but it's still more convenient than going through the DMG charts. The only major issue is that it sometimes produces things that I've never heard of - one of my characters is carrying a yet-unidentified 6,000 GP wondrous item called the "dragon bone horn". Of course, that's when, as a DM, I get to make things up.

[Saph]

How often do player actually use Reincarnate? The DM can just make it whatever they want for NPCs.

I had a campaign where the only possible means of resurrection was the 7th-level Druid PC. Reincarnate, or stay dead, no other choice.

Watching that percentage roll really got the players interested.

- Saph

[Ruzak]

My (minor) objection to the whole d10 thing is that it is the only common die that is not a regular polyhedron.
Of course I have the internal struggle that the d10 has always been one of the "core" dice.

Dice. So much emotion.

[The John]

00 + 0 = 100
00 + 1 = 1

As 0 is always 10, and 00 is always 0. 00 + 0 would be 10 and 00 + 1 is as you say 1. to get a hundred you would nedd to get 90 + 0 = 100.

[Attilargh]

To me, 0 is zero when rolling percentiles. The other die takes care of the tens already. Otherwise you need to roll 70 + 0 to get an eighty, which is kinda counterintuitive when the same result could be interpreted as a seventy instead.

[Niknokitueu]

Exactly how you roll percentage dice depends on what numbers lie on the dice.

If your dice bear the numbers 0-9, then you have (0-9) tens and (0-9) units. Here, the answer is self-explanatory apart from double-zero, which is 100%.

(Note that there are some game systems that ask for a 0-99 percentage roll - here 00 is zero.)

If your dice bear the numbers 1-10, then normally you treat the tens as zeros and continue as above (here, rolling a 10 on the tens dice is a zero, rolling a 10 on the units dice is a zero, and if you roll both tens, you get the elusive 100%).

Have Fun!
Niknokitueu
ps. You could always purchase some actual percentage dice, one reads '00', '10', '20' (etc), the other reads 0-9. Rolling dice then becomes obvious (see above for the double-zero roll).

[Winterwind]

As 0 is always 10, and 00 is always 0. 00 + 0 would be 10 and 00 + 1 is as you say 1. to get a hundred you would nedd to get 90 + 0 = 100.Nevertheless, in all RPGs I know (of which a fair bunch uses d100s), it's explained exactly the way Dhavaer demonstrated. While the way you propose would be more consistent, I haven't heard of any system or any player using d100s that way.