D&D 4E No d100 in 4e?

[Obscure]

My favorite D&D die has long been the percentile die -- the d10 labeled 00-90 -- ever since I played a 1e Fighter-Thief who had a wand of wonder (fond memories of conjuring grass beneath my enemies' feet).

So I am growing a bit concerned that my favorite die might not even be used in 4e.

• We know that stabilization rolls under the new death and dying rules use a d20.
• Miss chances granted by concealment seem to be governed now by modifiers to the d20 attack roll.
• Spell failure chance seems to have been axed.
• Early indications from the minis stat cards are that incorporeality effects have been simplified to something that only occurs during movement (“phasing”) or makes the subject take half damage from all attacks except criticals (“insubstantial”).

So what’s left for the percentile? Rolling on random tables in the DMG?

Allaying my fear somewhat is that the "official" D&D premium dice being released by WotC in June are said to contain:

a dice bag and a complete set of dice for use in the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game: one 4-sided die, four 6-sided dice, one 8-sided die, one 10-sided die, one percentile die, one 12-sided die, and one 20-sided die.

So the d100 hasn’t gone extinct…unless this is a ploy by WotC to sell unneeded dice? (“You can use them for 3e….”)

Did the 4e designers forget about percentile dice as the 3e designers purportedly almost forgot to include the d12 in 3e? Or is the d100 another deliberate casualty of “simplifying” the game?

 

[Kaodi]

Hey, long time no see on the forums, Obscure.

I would think that perhaps the d100 is indeed a casualty of simplifying the game, though I am not sure I would describe the its injuries as " deliberately inflicted " .

I would not be surprised if it is limited to those random tables, because otherwise it presents a level of granularity that is generally uneeded in the game. After all, what is the point of using it to determine rolls that have a factor of 5 or 10 in the first place?

 

[Transit]

I'm not sure how much use the D12 is going to see either, even though they're including one of those in the premium dice set as well.

 

[OgreBane99]

My group uses it for treasure rolls, so it won't be "extinct" with us!

 

[Destil]

It's been gone for players since 3E. Every percentage you speak of only has increments of 5, and thus was just as easy to roll on a d20.

DMG random tables are your only real hope.

 

[Umbran]

The d100 is only necessary when you need one roll to produce more than 20 possible outcomes. There aren't too many times when you need that kind of granularity.

 

[Kaodi]

The number of desired outcomes does not really have much to do with it, Umbran. The degree of likelihood of those outcomes is important though. I mean, I might decide that out of 100 possible rolls, 94 will produce one average result, 5 will produce a great result and 1 will produce a truly apocalyptic result. However, that is only three possible outcomes, and it cannot be modelled on a d20 roll.

 

[Ark Evensong]

Actually, you can get pretty close to that example with a d20.
Roll a d20.
1-19 : average-ish.
20 : Great stuff, also, roll a a d6. On a 6, prepare for the apocalypse.

-Ark Evensong, ('course, you could use a d20 again, say, 18+ or so.)

 

[Obscure]

I'm not sure how much use the D12 is going to see either, even though they're including one of those in the premium dice set as well.

The d12 seems like it will see more use in 4e than 3e. I'm under the impression it will be used quite a bit for weapon damage rolls, especially weapons that do extra damage on a crit -- this extra damage seems to be in the form of +d12's.

Which makes the d100 look even more like the forgotten child. :\

 

[Obscure]

The granularity arguments are perfectly valid, of course, but I liked the 3e philosophy with regard to using the d100: when a roll never uses a modifier and the probabilities of the outcomes are always the same, use the percentile. That way you know you shouldn't be adding (or subtracting) anything, just making a straight roll. Sure, it's a bit of a conceit, and maybe a little more confusing for raw newbies, but it gets those d100s rollin'.