Hit Dice etc. - please explain

[Mohag]

ok i really dont understand how the dice work in this game, especially the weopon rolls, for example 1d4 etc.

for example is 2d4 or 1d6 better? i am just trying to understand which weopons do more damage etc.

any explainations?

[AvatarOfLight]

This question has been asked before in threads such as http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldu ... 63092.html

[QuenGalad]

A dice is simply a representation of limits you can get.

Every dice has a number of sides. And every side has a number written on it. Now, the smallest existing dice that I know of is a four-side one, triangle-shaped. That's D4. It has four sides, so, it contains numbers from 1 to 4. Ergo, when you toss it, you will always get a number from 1 to 4. A D6 gives numbers from 1 to 6, D8 1-8 and so on. Since this is a computer game, you will also encounter things like D2 od D5, if i'm not mistaken. They do not exist, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that they represent a pool of numbers: 1-2, 1-8, 1-5 or whatever.

Throwing 2D4 means you throw two four-sided dice. This extends your possibilities: you can get 1 on the first dice and 4 on the other, so 5 in general, and so on. More importantly, when you throw two dice, the minimum score is 2, and not 1 as in a single-dice throw, because even when you get the minimum 1 from each dice, there's two of them, so you get 2 . So, 2D4 and 1D8 have the same maximum (8) , but 2D4 has bigger minimum (2). 2D4 is better than 1D8, and much better than 1D6, which gives you 1-6.

There. I hope it's not as chaotic as it looks

Hey, Avatar! That's not nice, sneaking up on people like that!

[AvatarOfLight]

Hey, Avatar! That's not nice, sneaking up on people like that!

*attempts to hide his hands in his pockets, only to find fullplate mail HAS no pockets*

*fails miserably at smiling innocently*

As for abilities Mohag. Each time you roll dice for an ability, you roll 3D6. So your minimum on each stat is 3. Your maximum is 18. This excludes racial modifiers, such as +1 dex and -1 con for elves. Also note that in Baldur's Gate a lot of classes have a minimum for some abilities. A paladin, for instance, will always get 17 cha on his 3d6 roll unless he rolls 18.

If you have a human character you can (in theory) get 18 on all stats during character creation. It just takes A LOT of patience. An elf could get 18 to all, except 19 to dex and 17 to con, etc.

[Mohag]

ok thanks guys, i got it now

[Naffnuff]

A dice is simply a representation of limits you can get.

Every dice has a number of sides. And every side has a number written on it. Now, the smallest existing dice that I know of is a four-side one, triangle-shaped. That's D4. It has four sides, so, it contains numbers from 1 to 4. Ergo, when you toss it, you will always get a number from 1 to 4. A D6 gives numbers from 1 to 6, D8 1-8 and so on. Since this is a computer game, you will also encounter things like D2 od D5, if i'm not mistaken. They do not exist, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that they represent a pool of numbers: 1-2, 1-8, 1-5 or whatever.

Throwing 2D4 means you throw two four-sided dice. This extends your possibilities: you can get 1 on the first dice and 4 on the other, so 5 in general, and so on. More importantly, when you throw two dice, the minimum score is 2, and not 1 as in a single-dice throw, because even when you get the minimum 1 from each dice, there's two of them, so you get 2 . So, 2D4 and 1D8 have the same maximum (8) , but 2D4 has bigger minimum (2). 2D4 is better than 1D8, and much better than 1D6, which gives you 1-6.

There. I hope it's not as chaotic as it looks

Hey, Avatar! That's not nice, sneaking up on people like that!

One might add that the more dice you have, the more the result tends towards the average. For example, when you roll a D8, there is an equal chance to all the outcomes; but when you roll 2 D4, the chance of a sum of 5 is four times greater than that of an 8. At character generation, you have 3 dice: in this case, the chance of rolling a full 18 is 1 to 216. I wonder sometimes if the developers haven't muffled the statistics a bit here, because it seems to me that you get it a bit too often.

[Grombag]

I remember reading somewhere that it isn't 3D6, but 4D6 of which the lowest gets discarded. That makes it a little bit more complicated.

[kmonster]

It also seems that score is rerolled until it meets the requirements, like at least 17 cha for paladins.

[Crucis]

It also seems that score is rerolled until it meets the requirements, like at least 17 cha for paladins.

More likely, any result less than the minimum gets set to the minimum. Why waste time rerolling virtual dice, merely to get a score above a minimum?

[kmonster]

If you role the dice for some time at character creation you'll soon realize that this isn't the case. A paladin gets 18 on his cha roll far more often than on his int roll for example. This shouldn't be the case if cha was just set to 17 when a lower value was rolled.

[Naffnuff]

I remember reading somewhere that it isn't 3D6, but 4D6 of which the lowest gets discarded. That makes it a little bit more complicated.

Well, that would explain it then. Thanks for telling me, I've always wondered about it.

[sultanselim]

The question was not only about the Dices, but about the HD's also I guess...

Like, summons 1 8HD Elemental.

Now, I don't remember this part too well,
but 1HD means, 1 hit dice -> You roll a Dice for your character, add your con bonus on top.
This Hit Dice is 1d4 for mages, 1d10 for warriors, 1d12 for barbarians etc. So a 2HD barbarian is 2d12 hitpoints(2-24 so average 13), and a 2HD mage is 2d4(2-6 so average 4) hitpoints. (plus constitution bonuses)

I don't remember what was the HD for monsters tho. Was it d8?

About the stat rolls: In old AD&D 2.5 Rules (BG2 uses them mostly), we did roll 4d6s, discard the lowest roll, and take the 3 best dices. So you mostly got better than 63(which is the average of 6x3d6) in total stats.
PS: Also some DMs allowed for 7 stat rolls, and discarded the lowest roll, thus giving us better stats.

[CFM]

This Hit Dice is 1d4 for mages, 1d10 for warriors, 1d12 for barbarians etc. So a 2HD barbarian is 2d12 hitpoints(2-24 so average 13), and a 2HD mage is 2d4(2-6 so average 4) hitpoints. (plus constitution bonuses)

I don't remember what was the HD for monsters tho. Was it d8?

About the stat rolls: In old AD&D 2.5 Rules (BG2 uses them mostly), we did roll 4d6s, discard the lowest roll, and take the 3 best dices. So you mostly got better than 63(which is the average of 6x3d6) in total stats.
PS: Also some DMs allowed for 7 stat rolls, and discarded the lowest roll, thus giving us better stats.

Kee-rect, the HD for monsters was d8. If a monster was listed as 3+1HD, you'd roll 3d8, and add 1 to the total.

And those stat rolls were some of several options available for generating ability scores in AD&D 2nd Edition. Whatever would help keep the one yahoo that's inevitably in every p&p group from "roleplaying" a dude with 18 18 18 3 3 3 scores.

[Tovam]

Sometimes hit dice are used as an equivalent of levels; player characters get levels, monsters get hit dice.
So an 8HD elemental is about as strong as an eight level character

I believe this is done because some monsters have innate abilities that are far stronger then those of a player character, so a 'level one' troll could have a hit dice of four.