Help me understand

[Caxen]

Ive been playing baldurs gate a couple of times but I still dont understand the rolls. For example: What does 4D6 mean? How does the attributes roll work in character creation? Does not say anything about this in the manual.
I whant to maximize my attributes so I need to know what the maximum roll is? Please help.

[SP101]

4d6 means you have to throw 4 dices with 6 faces each (so 4 "normal" dices), and then add the results to each others.

4d6 = total results from 4 to 24 (4 x 6)
When the stats are rolling, the computer "roll" 4d6 but remove the lowest result.. so it's basically a "higher" 3d6 roll than normal.

2d4 (Bastard's Swords damages) is 2 triangular dices of 4 faces.

1d20 (Thac0 rolls) is a (big) dice with 20 (small) faces numbered from 1 to 20.

1d100 (Fighter's exceptional Strengh, ex : 18/87) is basically a d10 numbered from 0 to 100 (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100) added to a normal d10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).
When you roll 100 and 10, you have 100.
When you roll 100 and 0, you have 000.
When you roll 100 and 5, you have 005.
etc.

There's also the "d8" and the "d12", an 8-faced dice. These are all the dices I can think of used in 2nd edition.

[JackOfClubs]

The maximum roll is 18 for any attribute. Some races get bonuses and penalties so, for instance, an Elf that has +1 DEX and -1 CON will have a max of 19 and 17 in those attributes respectively.

[stramoski]

D2

I've seen references to a D2 before...

Just flip a coin!

[SP101]

Or just throw a d4.

If it's 1 or 2, then it's 1.
If it's 3 or 4, then it's 2.

[Thrifalas]

Or a regular d6... or any other dice that's not a d3. I don't think I've ever heard about odd dices other than that.