D&D 5E How cognizant are you of the rules of the game?

[GMforPowergamers]

Your d8 rolls are below what would be expected by chance, though not impossibly so, but it looks as if you are rolling a '2' on your d8 much more often than would be expected and that's pulling the total down.

You rolled a '2' ten times in thirty rolls, which is a Z score of 3.2 and that very rarely happens at random.

Are you using a single die, rolled repeatedly, or a whole bunch of dice rolled at once?

1 single d8, and I am very worried, I took a lined sheet of paper and rolled another 120 times... I got 2 more often then any other number
15 8’s, 9 7’s, 11 6’s, 20 5’s, 12 4’s, 16 3’s 23 2’s, and 14 1’s
is my blue d8 weighted it should have come out as 15 each number...

 

[GainVanquish]

1 single d8, and I am very worried, I took a lined sheet of paper and rolled another 120 times... I got 2 more often then any other number
15 8’s, 9 7’s, 11 6’s, 20 5’s, 12 4’s, 16 3’s 23 2’s, and 14 1’s
is my blue d8 weighted it should have come out as 15 each number...

Sounds like the excuse I use when I roll bad all session lol

 

[Bawylie]

I've observed that knives have killed way more people that war hammers ever did. Ergo, knives are the deadliest weapon of all.

And people are rarely ever killed by "Power Word Kill." But they are often killed in bad falls. Ergo "Grease" > "Power Word Kill."

Observable phenomena.

 

[BoldItalic]

1 single d8, and I am very worried, I took a lined sheet of paper and rolled another 120 times... I got 2 more often then any other number
15 8’s, 9 7’s, 11 6’s, 20 5’s, 12 4’s, 16 3’s 23 2’s, and 14 1’s
is my blue d8 weighted it should have come out as 15 each number...

It's even more likely, now, that your d8 is bad.

If you have been rolling damage with it, you have been penalizing yourself unwittingly, though not by a huge amount. About equivalent to taking -1 damage about one time in four hits. Like having a very minor curse.

If I were you, I'd buy a new set of dice.

 

[Phantarch]

1 single d8, and I am very worried, I took a lined sheet of paper and rolled another 120 times... I got 2 more often then any other number
15 8’s, 9 7’s, 11 6’s, 20 5’s, 12 4’s, 16 3’s 23 2’s, and 14 1’s
is my blue d8 weighted it should have come out as 15 each number...

And it's YOUR fault we TPK'd! I knew objectively in character that your longsword was poorly weighted and caused less damage than it should have. Jerk!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I suppose we have diametrically opposed views concerning what constitutes a jerk move. Telling another player how to run their character ranks pretty high.

One oddball who picks an inferior weapon is telling everyone else in the party that they don't care if they all live or die. That's algebraically worse than every other player just telling the one player to not make a stupid character.

A higher damage die weapon is not always the smartest choice. Fred the fighter always uses a longsword because d8. Bob the fighter uses several different weapons because battle is fluid.

Fred and Bob fight. Fred has his long sword and Bob has a dagger. They fight in a phone booth- Fred dies.

As I've stated repeatedly, there are plenty of good reasons to use a mace instead of a warhammer. proficiency and availability are at the top of the list. Aesthetic and tradition are not on that last. If the character is proficient in both, and both are equally available, then there is no situation where the mace is preferable to the warhammer. If your character can't see that, then your character is profoundly incompetent.

The best reason to use a dagger or short sword instead of a longsword is that your character has higher Dex than Strength, but a dagger and a longsword are so far from each other as to be practically incomparable.

 

[pemerton]

From my character's view, if we're going underground where there are often very narrow areas, I'm going to probably leave you behind. My life is at stake here and I don't want to risk it on someone who is going to be useless in a fight because there's no room to swing a large weapon.

A higher damage die weapon is not always the smartest choice. Fred the fighter always uses a longsword because d8. Bob the fighter uses several different weapons because battle is fluid.

Fred and Bob fight. Fred has his long sword and Bob has a dagger. They fight in a phone booth- Fred dies.

<snip>

My STR 12 DEX 20 wood elf fighter used a scimitar instead of a long sword. Are you seriously saying that a d8+1 would be objectively superior to a d6+5? You should check your math.

You can't rebut [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION]'s claim that optimising is important by pointing out that sometimes the optimal solution isn't the weapon with the highest damage die. I think Saelorn obviously is aware of, and agrees with, that. For instance, Saelorn is going to agree that in ranged combat a d6 ranged weapon is superior to a d10 melee weapon.

Likewise, Saelorn will agree that for a low-DEX, high-STR character a heavy thrown weapon may be superior to a missile weapon even if the former has a lower damage die.

On the issue of fighting in confined spaces, that doesn't rebut the optimisation thesis either. It's just setting up new parameters that constrain the optimal solution! One complexity is that D&D's rules for fighting in confined spaces are not very well developed. (I don't think 3E or 4e have any such rules at all, do they?)

 

[KahlessNestor]

I picked the first option because I don't believe that I need to pick subpar options in order to roleplay my character or vice versa and refluffing exists for a reason. If I want to say I use a mighty waraxe but want the mechanical effects of a greatsword, I'm totally within my rights to refluff it as long as I don't change anything mechanical. I think some of the people posting in this thread are forgetting these facts. There's nothing wrong with knowing how to build mechanically the best character for what you want to achieve, nothing about doing that stops you from also roleplaying however you want or whatever else.

My 2 copper.

Isn't that a bit...cheating? Greatsword and great axe have mechanical difference in damage dice (with the sword being a bit better.). By your logic I will just refluff ny dagger so it hits like a greatsword.

If the axe option wasn't there you would have firmer ground to stand on, but if I were your DM I would call shenanigans.

 

[The Lich]

If your character can't see that, then your character is profoundly incompetent.

How could a character not see that? I mean, it says it right there on the price tag when he buys his weapon: "This mace does 1d6 damage"

 

[3SpdDragster]

How could a character not see that? I mean, it says it right there on the price tag when he buys his weapon: "This mace does 1d6 damage"

haha!