Bad Dice Rolls, Dead Serious post

[Dagger75]

I have been having bad luck rolling my dice. They come up low numbers ALL the time. I have tried that voodo mumbo jumbo, roll them all till there high and what not, bought new dice but in all honesty they are hunks of plastic.

In the Epic game I am running, the PC's have AC near 40, fine, my bad guys have 35+ to hit and multiple attacks. Well I usually hit on the first attack most of the time I roll the minimum to hit, the other attacks, I never hit. I am not kidding, this has been going on for while and its actually ruining the game for me. Damage when I do hit is minimal. Crits, I have critted 5 times in the last 6 months.

The same goes for skill checks and saving throws. At epic levels more than a fair share of save or die spells are thrown around on both sides, guess who fails there saves. I even pimped a character out, with massive save to help me. the only roll I would fail on is a 1. Well I failed on the save. Next spell, on a different character, failed save this time needed to roll a 5 or better.

Spells, Haa. I miss on touch attacks with harm. My hasted drow cleric of lolth missed THREE times in a row on her touch attack. My nice 19D8 Fireseed actually missed by 1 but I told the plaers hit hit and when I rolled damage about 50. Whoopy.

But as I said earlier this is actually ruining the game for me. I like making the NPC's, like planning the adventures, and all the evil scheming that goes into the game, I actually dread combat because none of my creations can do anything. Next combat I should give them Exp and hand them the magic items.

I aint looking for answers so much as wondering if I am the only person this happens to.


My group is more hack-n-slash than role playing. They don't mind roleplaying but get bored with it pretty quick.

Thanks for listening

 

[barsoomcore]

Fear not, you are far from alone.

What you have to realise that while the players get hundreds of chance to make attack rolls, saving rolls and skill checks, most of their opponents will only get a couple. If they miss a few, they're utterly and totally dead.

It's terribly discouraging, I know.

First of all -- steer clear of the "all or nothing" attacks. Start in on the "House of a Thousand Fiendish, Walking Corpses That Thirst For Human Blood" approach. Hit 'em with LOTS of bad guys. Hordes of them. Wipe out the dice problem with numbers -- if you're making more rolls, you'll average out better. So have the party face weaker opponents -- just more of them.

Second of all -- cheat. I know, I know, some DMs don't do this. I do. I cheat like an accountant at tax time. Sometimes it's just not right. Sometimes your drow cleric is just going to HIT with that ranged touch attack, goshdarnit. There's nothing wrong with that. Again, the players are making tons of rolls so for them the averages work out. Your monsters don't get enough chances for averages to come into play, really -- they're much more affected by weird die karma.

Finally -- don't take it too seriously. Everybody gets into these ruts and you think it's been going on forever and what's the point and yada yada yada. Are your players having fun? Well, at least you can take some pleasure in that.

And hey, at least you haven't been decapitated by Swedish Vampire LARPers.

 

[Ravellion]

Spells, Haa. I miss on touch attacks with harm. My hasted drow cleric of lolth missed THREE times in a row on her touch attack. My nice 19D8 Fireseed actually missed by 1 but I told the plaers hit hit and when I rolled damage about 50. Whoopy.

As long as your players thinking you are having bad luck instead of intentionally giving them an easy time, your luck will eventually return. If they think you are giving them an easy time. Fudge. Your crappy roll is handled as thus:

"36"
"Hah, my character has AC 39!"
"Well, then it's just a normal hit then, isn't it? You take 24 damage."
"You mean it was a threat?"
"Yes"

Rav

 

[Kyramus]

this is one reason that you might want to roll behind a screen, if so you could fudge a little to give them a challenge.

 

[Kaji]

How long has this been going on? Maybe you should try an electronic die roller, there are plenty of them out there that kind people have made.

I have the opposite problem with one of my players. In the game I run, one player in particular ALWAYS has the big hits, the crits, makes the saves and so on. Apparently, this has been going on for years. People have made him use different dice, closely watched all of his rolls, all that and he still just rolls high. I think I finally paralyzed him a couple of months ago and I was giddy like a schoolgirl. I doubt this make you feel better. Maybe try a game where ther is very little or no die rolling?

 

[Rashak Mani]

Dont fudge like these posts above are saying.. thats cheating ! That is boring anyways.

My DM when he plays a PC prefers spellcasters... ( He says that as a player he is unlucky with dice. ) Mages have to roll dice less than other classes. Fireball doesnt miss... it can do bad damage... but it always hits. Saves depend on the players not you.

Use spells that dont require to hits as well...

Maybe you arent using good enough CR for your players ? Most hack and slashers have very efficient and min maxed PCs... even if they dont intend to do so. Check if you arent sending "too weak" NPCs against them.

 

[Numion]

First you gotta warm up the d20. Hold it in your hands, or even put it on a radiator. (Not too hot a radiator, to prevent melting. You don't want to overheat the dice.) Now the dice will give good results.

Second, use the warm dice exclusively, as not to let it get cold again.

There ya go.

 

[jdavis]

A little sandpaper can solve all your problems.

Up the CR of the monsters to compensate for the dice, if they are that good then they can beat more powerful creatures and the dice will be less important. Be careful with fudging rolls, if the players ever catch on there could be problems, but sometimes you just got to fudge a little bit.

 

[ichabod]

I have been having bad luck rolling my dice. They come up low numbers ALL the time. I have tried that voodo mumbo jumbo, roll them all till there high and what not, bought new dice but in all honesty they are hunks of plastic.

I have a player who rolls like that. Bad luck, all the time. Can't make a save or an attack roll to save his life, sometimes literally. I was so amazed at his bad luck, that I started tracking his die rolls. And what do you know, he doesn't have bad luck. He just can't stand rolling low, goes ballistic when he does, and that's all he remembers. He doesn't remember all of the high rolls he makes. I bet if you tracked all of your rolls for a sufficiently long period of time, you'd find they weren't that bad.

 

[Sanackranib]

die rolls

my dice tend to roll hot or cold and my pc's know this. they dred my white D20 because they have seen me roll 4 20's in a row on it. what they havn't seen is me roll 3 ones in a row as well. if the save is critical or the attack needs to hit for the story line then it succedes. invoke rule 0. the dice dont drive the game the DM does
and remember the dice will rollin sets high, med and low. you just have to make it through the drought. (just don't cheat the dice too often, sometimes that big bad guy DOES miss, same as the players only they don't roll behind a screen.) just remember to keep it balanced and fun, if you do this then the players need never know.