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In my last 4e gaming session, while sitting there watching and waiting on a fellow player to roll his single d8 multiple times, a thought popped into my mind. What would be the optimal number of dice to bring that would cover a variety of classes in relatively normal situations and avoid lots of rerolling? I can think of some extraordinary situations where I'd roll 12d12 for damage ( critting with a +6 vorpal execution axe and using the daily on a war ring without having reached a milestone for example ). But those situations are not too common, and I don't feel the need to have a dozen or more d12s in my dice bag. I'd like the bag to fit in my pocket.
How many d20s do most of you roll when they're attacking multiple monsters? If my blast 3 catches nine enemies, then I'll roll three sets of 3d20. Actually, I rarely ever roll more than 3d20. I start losing track of which color goes with which monster pretty quick.
I know this sounds a bit OCD, I'd guess most people just dump a variety of dice in their bag and don't think twice about it - or carry one block of chessex dice and have us sit patiently while rolling that single die over and over and over. But I'm curious on how you guys decide how many dice are enough?
We play at my house so it's not an issue. I have all my dice available all the time. Actually, most of the others also keep their stuff at my house so same thing. If I really had to travel a lot, however, I would take 2-3 dice of each kind, depending on the level of the game. Low levels, 2 is fine. When you start need 3[W], then you usually need 3 and rerolling 1 more is tedious. When [W] is two dice, I'd be happy enough rerolling 3 dice because it's not often. FWIW.
I've got a sorcerer in low paragon and I find that my two sets of dice, with extra d6s, is plenty. That very well may change as I get more and more higher level powers, but right now the most I roll is 3d8+1d6. Rerolling that extra d8 is not a problem, only once an encounter if I hit, and with that power it is rare.
I'm also DMing a high paragon group and yes, waiting for the guy with one set of dice to roll his 4W brutal attack is, frankly, brutal. He also happens to be the slowest, or second slowest player in the group (depending on the session).
So in other words, keep at least two sets of dice with you. Another point is to have them organized so you can find them when you need them. That is also the problem with having too many dice.
I roll as many attacks that I'm going to get for that round at once with different colored dice. If its more, then I try to roll half then half again.
But if I know I'm going to roll multiples of dice many times in the same round, I'll (pending the DM is OK) make a pre-rolled random chart. Trust me in 3.5 when you are doing 7d6 x5 in a round with a rogue, it gets tiresome adding it up, rolling, then adding again.
But I don't have a problem who only do single rolls because most of them time that is the comfort level they are at. If you try to hurry that person, they get flustered, miss something and could become upset. You can always hurry up somebody to make a decision, but once they roll give them time to count.
Interesting timing, I was *just* putting together a Chessex order. I DM a 4e campaign, and I play in a star wars campaign. It may be a little overboard, but here's the set of dice I'm thinking about getting to cover most situations:
I've gotta go back through the MM1/2, but I believe that most double/secondary attacks are d6 or d8 and require 3 or fewer dice, so they can be made simultaneously with the purple dice.
By getting ROYGBV colors, I can do any area attack by always assigning them to creatures in the area, ordered top-to-bottom, left-to-right from my perspective. Since I have 6 players, I figure I won't be hitting >6 creatures too often. And since area attacks are multiple attack rolls (single attack roll in star wars), one damage roll, I should be able to do the whole thing in one roll.
Most of my players have dice to cover their common rolls, and I'm convincing the ones who don't to jump in on this order with me.
At the table I have 2-3 of each dice except the d20, of which I have one.
I could use more sure, and in some cases roll 3 and then 3 again (or borrow from someone next to me) but that's all I bring to the table and don't care to have more than that.
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Dark Water Campaign run in the Last Lands
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I'll confess I have way too many dice. Mainly I've worked on getting a large enough number that I can color-coordinate stuff (e.g., my Dragonborn primarily rolls red, my Elf green, whatever)... I know, weird, but that's just me.
Of those dice, the number I select simply depends on the maximum I will need. Before each session begins, I go through my dice and determine the maximum number I will need of any given type. Do I use d12s? No, keep those in the bag. D10s? Yes, but only to track HP, so they go over here... D8s? Yes, I roll a max of 3d8 on some dailies. D6s? Yes, one of my attacks can do a max of 6d6, so let's set those aside. D4s? No. And I have 5d20s, so let's just keep them out and pluck them when needed for my Enlarged Dragonbreath.
It works well so far, and I may start keeping the dice I actually use from session to session in smaller plastic bags within my larger dice bag.
When I'm feeling unusually anal, I build myself a little 'character pack' for my PCs, with:
- two sets of dice (d20, 3{W}, plus any bonus dice like sneak attacks, crit dice, etc). One set is for unbloodied and the other for bloodied. This works fine for my rogue but I might add more d20s and Ws for a character with more multiple-target attacks.
- character sheet
- power cards
- condition markers if needed
- mini
The only 4th ed Character I've played is an archer ranger so the most attacks I make in 1 action is 3
I have pairs of d20s and d12s in yellow, red and green and determine which of them is attacking which target before I roll (on the rare occasions when I attack more than 1 target)
I need to check how many d10s I've got, I think I might need to get another couple to deal with crits (having the Bloodiron bow iirc - the one with d10 crit and does the crit damage twice)
playing a wizard I'd probably ensure that I had 5 or 6 d20s of different colours and enough dice that I can roll the damage for each spell as needed.
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