All You Need To Know About D&D Dice

Posted By Alex Melen on July 2021

To play Dungeons & Dragons you will need at least one set of DnD dice.If you are not familiar with tabletop roleplaying games (also called TTRPGs or just RPGs), you may be a little confused when you see the dice for the first time. Many RPGs, including D&D, utilize 7 dice set. Dungeons & Dragons, actually set the standard for all of today’s modern TTRPGs…it is “the world’s most popular roleplaying game”, afterall!

Here we will take a look, individually, at each die in a DnD dice set.

But first things first – the types of dice you will find when you play a game of Dungeons & Dragons are as follows:

D4 dice which is are four-sided
D6s which are six-sided dice (this is the most traditional type of die)
D8s which are eight-sided
D10s which are ten-sided and also known as percentile dice
D12s which are twelve-sided
And D20 dice which you guessed it are 20-sided dice

These multisided dice are also known as polyhedral dice.

D20

When playing Dungeons & Dragons, you will want to keep this die close at hand. More than any other one in the set, you'll use this the most often. D20 dice determine if your attacks hit or miss, and even if you are able to spot a trap investigating your surroundings.Worry not! You don’t need to remember all of these details. Your Dungeon Master will tell your attack hits or if you rolled high enough to spot that cleverly hidden put trap!

D12

In D&D, the humble, yet powerful D12, is typically the least used in a dice set. It is most often used to roll for damage dealt by powerful melee weapons (like great weapons) and for some spells.It can also be used by the DM to determine time and other measurements.

D10

Also referred to as the Percentile Dice in the game,these dice have more than one use. In case your character is wielding a heavy, large weapon like a halberd or a pike, it can be used to determine damage. It can be used to execute a percentile roll when paired with another d10. If your character has a certain percent chance of task completion, percentile rolls are called for.

To determine damage given by some melee weapons (think the Longsword and Morningstar) and light crossbows, this die is used. Additionally, when cast, sometimes spells create d8 damage.

6-sided dice look like your typical dice from games like Yahtzee or Risk (one of our all-time favorites!). Depending on the weapon your character is wielding, it can be used for melee attack rolls. It is also used during character creation to determine your character's base attributes. You may need to use multiple 6-sided dice for some spells. For example, the spell “Meteor Swarm” deals 20d6 fire damage and 20d6 bludgeoning damage. In this case, you may want to have a few extras or you will be rolling for a while!

D4 dice look a lot like a pyramid. In Dungeons & Dragons, it's used in many spells. When your character wields smaller weapons (daggers and clubs), it's used to roll damag. Of all the dice to leave lying around on the floor, you don't want it to be this one! Alternatively, you can throw out several D4 dice on the floor to make a hasty trap for intruders!

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