I am fairly new to the D&D but I have been through two longer campaigns. One was a modified version of the Curse of Strahd and the first one was the Lost mines of Phandelver.
Now when me and my crew first started with the Lost mines of Phandelver we got some nice beginner dice in the pack with it.
But as we went on with playing people started buying their own dice and I liked some of those. Then I went and searched online and saw just how many different varieties there are.. from metal to wood and even stone.
A friend from the group recommends the chessex dice but their website looks really old. I don't know if its okay to get them right off of there or amazon? I saw that they sell there too..
But I also had another friend send me this D&D dice buying guide and I loved the paladin roleplaying dice displayed there. Also liked the breakdown of the important characteristics of the dice sets.
But I am still not convinced. I know little about these companies paladin roleplaying and chessex. I am by no means rich and I know that most people would just order the dice and see what happens but I would much rather ask here on the forum.
Did you have any experience with these two and even better question do you have any other brand that you can recommend?
I would like to buy one plastic and one metal set. But I would like them to last me a long time if possible and not to chip, break or something like that. Because those 50-60$ I have to earn in a period of an entire week.
Thank you in advance and sorry if I sound dramatic. I have to save up and get by :)
I have several sets of chessex fice that I've bought from game stores. I think I've paid something like $6.99-$9.99 US for them depending on when I've bought them, where I've bought them, and how involved the set is pattern wise. They seem to work just fine. The only problems that I've seen with them has come from friends who have children and have moved several times. They bought a set for both of them and each set has had a die lost. In addition to that, the cases are only made of plastic and aren't meant to be stored roughly. The bottom of one of their cases was either lost or broken. They've adapted by seating each set to the bottom that remains, one on each side.
My suggestion would be to either buy a bag to keep your dice in, buy a dice tray to roll into to prevent chipping of dice or furniture (and help prevent loss through errant throws), or both. You don't have to buy them all at once.
Yes the dice bag is a must and a dice tray. The plastic ones aren't as expensive and I will probably first acquire those first and then some awesome metal set like something thats silver color and shiny.
I don't have children so no one to lose my dice. Will do in future but for now the dice are safe :D
I've got a child and my sets have remained safe. You just have to have an idea about where you can keep them that they'll remain safe, which is a good idea generally.
I like to get my dice from Die Hard Dice great company, you get a hand written note with each order you place and a small gift of dice on top of your order as well.
While certainly not cheap I love the blue aluminum set I got at Level Up. They also have materials like bone and semiprecious stone dice as well as folding leather dice trays.
I am going to throw in with the 'Amazon' bunch. Unless you are looking for a ultra-cool custom look to your bones, there's nothing like having spent about $40-45 dollars and have over 500 dice for your players to choose from should they (gulp) forget to bring their own to table.
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Thank you. ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
My personal set for the last year is a metal set from Norse Foundry(nightmare set if i remember right but they have lot of options), haven't chipped or scratched at all. I've got a couple of the cheaper chessex sets as well i bring along for when people forget dice or i need to roll alot that work great. It mostly boils down to personal preference and affordability imo
I gave my son three sets of 7-polyhedral dice and a set of 54 (I think) d6 with pips. The d6 were to be used for monster tokens when his group was going to fight a band of knolls or goblins or skeletons or something. You get a ton of them in some encounters and you can just shift the die face to indicate remaining HP. The sets of polyhedral dice started as one for him and one for me. Then I bought him an extra set and later decided to give him mine. If you're not a DM it is helpful to have two sets of polyhedral dice but many more than that quickly becomes an exercise in diminishing returns. DMs can use several more sets. I think if I were going to DM though, I would just get a dice rolling app for when I needed to roll big numbers of dice. Collecting dice can be a lot of fun. In that vein, now that my son has my set, I am thinking of getting a set with different shapes that are sort of long and "thin". They look like something a Dwarf would use in my view. Good luck and have fun.
I have a full set of 6, red/gold plastic, that I think I got from Chessex. Then, I got a few metal d20s - you should always have 2 - advantage, multiple attacks, disadvantage... I end up with crappy rolls, and I shunt that die back to the bag, and chose another. I also have multiple d6, d8, and d10. When smiting, I want to throw as many d8 and d6 as I can at once... it just feels right. I think I may have had to go to (gasp) Walmart.com to find a set of those that wasn't outrageous, or out of stock. That Dice of Rolling setup that rwwbk mentioned looks good. I have yet to need a d100 or a d12 at the table.
Storage - dice bags - I have one for the full set, one for the multiples, and another for the metal. I use a Vaultz pencil case for storage (dice, pen, cards, figures, etc.) and as a dice rolling tray. It hinges right down the middle, so you can use one side for storage, one side for rolling. There's cooler stuff, like dice towers, but I wanted something simple. A couple guys I know have rolling trays that fold flat, with snaps in the corners. Those work prettty good...
Pencil cases work well as dice storage. Zips are less likely to come apart in your bag than drawstrings.
I like the Koplow dice sets because they come with 10 dice, not the 7 that Chessex and others sell. Rolling advantage/disadvantage is a lot easier when you actually have two d20s.
Different colours are useful for different damage types. For my forge cleric, I roll a grey d8 for weapon damage and a red d8 for the smite fire damage.
Interesting dice are also a conversation starter at a table with new people. "Hey, those dice are really cool, where did you get them?"
I would like to buy one plastic and one metal set. But I would like them to last me a long time if possible and not to chip, break or something like that. Because those 50-60$ I have to earn in a period of an entire week.
I've gone through a lot of dice, but:
My favorites are easily readable (i.e. no decorations), high-contrast (especially black on white or white on black) plastic ones
I've never had any modern plastic dice chip. I've only seen that with dice from the 70's & 80's.
Metal dice seemed cool, but they can leave marks on the table (and other things)
Decorated dice seem cool, but they are a pain to read (slowing the game terribly for others).
Expensive dice seem cool, but instead having a ton of cheap dice available (and not being too concerned which ones you use) makes the game run much more quickly and smoothly
Dice are game mechanic tool rather than an RPG immersion tool, so focusing on dice tends to be focusing more on the Game aspect than the RPG aspect (which is fine, but spending extra on fancy game mechanic tools that instead diminish mechanical resolution seems antithetical to me).
Echoing what MattV said make sure their easily readable. so no tiny dice that you can't read without picking up. and make sure the colors contrast well and are again readable. I've got some gray dice with silver numbers. they look good but not to readable.
PS. Every body needs a set of mammoth Ivory dice... From Artisan dice
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Hi everyone,
I am fairly new to the D&D but I have been through two longer campaigns. One was a modified version of the Curse of Strahd and the first one was the Lost mines of Phandelver.
Now when me and my crew first started with the Lost mines of Phandelver we got some nice beginner dice in the pack with it.
But as we went on with playing people started buying their own dice and I liked some of those. Then I went and searched online and saw just how many different varieties there are.. from metal to wood and even stone.
A friend from the group recommends the chessex dice but their website looks really old. I don't know if its okay to get them right off of there or amazon? I saw that they sell there too..
But I also had another friend send me this D&D dice buying guide and I loved the paladin roleplaying dice displayed there. Also liked the breakdown of the important characteristics of the dice sets.
But I am still not convinced. I know little about these companies paladin roleplaying and chessex. I am by no means rich and I know that most people would just order the dice and see what happens but I would much rather ask here on the forum.
Did you have any experience with these two and even better question do you have any other brand that you can recommend?
I would like to buy one plastic and one metal set. But I would like them to last me a long time if possible and not to chip, break or something like that. Because those 50-60$ I have to earn in a period of an entire week.
Thank you in advance and sorry if I sound dramatic. I have to save up and get by :)
I have several sets of chessex fice that I've bought from game stores. I think I've paid something like $6.99-$9.99 US for them depending on when I've bought them, where I've bought them, and how involved the set is pattern wise. They seem to work just fine. The only problems that I've seen with them has come from friends who have children and have moved several times. They bought a set for both of them and each set has had a die lost. In addition to that, the cases are only made of plastic and aren't meant to be stored roughly. The bottom of one of their cases was either lost or broken. They've adapted by seating each set to the bottom that remains, one on each side.
My suggestion would be to either buy a bag to keep your dice in, buy a dice tray to roll into to prevent chipping of dice or furniture (and help prevent loss through errant throws), or both. You don't have to buy them all at once.
Thank yoi Jhfffan for your response :)
Yes the dice bag is a must and a dice tray. The plastic ones aren't as expensive and I will probably first acquire those first and then some awesome metal set like something thats silver color and shiny.
I don't have children so no one to lose my dice. Will do in future but for now the dice are safe :D
Thank you once more for feedback and suggestions
I've got a child and my sets have remained safe. You just have to have an idea about where you can keep them that they'll remain safe, which is a good idea generally.
@Jhfffan I have a special drawer where I keep these little beautiful trinkets of mine and dice will be safe there :)
No one but me knows how to access it :)
I have a star-pact warlock that uses these for some of his spells.
@metamoongoose Whoa! They are black and sparkling! Very beautiful combination for dice! :D
Do you happen to know the manufacturer or something like that?
They were part of a kickstarter, but it seems you can still buy dice from them.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/giolasar/constellation-dice-voyager-anniversary-edition
Oh wow didn't know there were kickstarter dice :o
Thanks for the link!
I got a huge batch of cheap dice off Amazon, along with a nice dice bag to keep them in.
If I were buying now, I would go with Dice of Rolling, which is a cool set distilled down to be easy to roll. https://diceofrolling.com/
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
I like to get my dice from Die Hard Dice great company, you get a hand written note with each order you place and a small gift of dice on top of your order as well.
While certainly not cheap I love the blue aluminum set I got at Level Up. They also have materials like bone and semiprecious stone dice as well as folding leather dice trays.
I find the comment about chessex funny. The company has probably been making dice for longer than you have been alive.
You can easily get a BUNCH of Chinese dice for cheap on Amazon, but I've seen more oddities with those cheap sets than with chessex.
Go with what you like, but you get what you pay for.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I am going to throw in with the 'Amazon' bunch. Unless you are looking for a ultra-cool custom look to your bones, there's nothing like having spent about $40-45 dollars and have over 500 dice for your players to choose from should they (gulp) forget to bring their own to table.
Thank you.
ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
My personal set for the last year is a metal set from Norse Foundry(nightmare set if i remember right but they have lot of options), haven't chipped or scratched at all. I've got a couple of the cheaper chessex sets as well i bring along for when people forget dice or i need to roll alot that work great. It mostly boils down to personal preference and affordability imo
I gave my son three sets of 7-polyhedral dice and a set of 54 (I think) d6 with pips. The d6 were to be used for monster tokens when his group was going to fight a band of knolls or goblins or skeletons or something. You get a ton of them in some encounters and you can just shift the die face to indicate remaining HP. The sets of polyhedral dice started as one for him and one for me. Then I bought him an extra set and later decided to give him mine. If you're not a DM it is helpful to have two sets of polyhedral dice but many more than that quickly becomes an exercise in diminishing returns. DMs can use several more sets. I think if I were going to DM though, I would just get a dice rolling app for when I needed to roll big numbers of dice. Collecting dice can be a lot of fun. In that vein, now that my son has my set, I am thinking of getting a set with different shapes that are sort of long and "thin". They look like something a Dwarf would use in my view. Good luck and have fun.
I have a full set of 6, red/gold plastic, that I think I got from Chessex.
Then, I got a few metal d20s - you should always have 2 - advantage, multiple attacks, disadvantage... I end up with crappy rolls, and I shunt that die back to the bag, and chose another.
I also have multiple d6, d8, and d10. When smiting, I want to throw as many d8 and d6 as I can at once... it just feels right. I think I may have had to go to (gasp) Walmart.com to find a set of those that wasn't outrageous, or out of stock. That Dice of Rolling setup that rwwbk mentioned looks good.
I have yet to need a d100 or a d12 at the table.
Storage - dice bags - I have one for the full set, one for the multiples, and another for the metal. I use a Vaultz pencil case for storage (dice, pen, cards, figures, etc.) and as a dice rolling tray. It hinges right down the middle, so you can use one side for storage, one side for rolling. There's cooler stuff, like dice towers, but I wanted something simple.
A couple guys I know have rolling trays that fold flat, with snaps in the corners. Those work prettty good...
Pencil cases work well as dice storage. Zips are less likely to come apart in your bag than drawstrings.
I like the Koplow dice sets because they come with 10 dice, not the 7 that Chessex and others sell. Rolling advantage/disadvantage is a lot easier when you actually have two d20s.
Different colours are useful for different damage types. For my forge cleric, I roll a grey d8 for weapon damage and a red d8 for the smite fire damage.
Interesting dice are also a conversation starter at a table with new people. "Hey, those dice are really cool, where did you get them?"
I've gone through a lot of dice, but:
Echoing what MattV said make sure their easily readable. so no tiny dice that you can't read without picking up. and make sure the colors contrast well and are again readable. I've got some gray dice with silver numbers. they look good but not to readable.
PS. Every body needs a set of mammoth Ivory dice... From Artisan dice