The d12 is a sad dice. It's uses are:
Barbarian hit dice
Dragon hit dice
Defender and Dragon Disciple hit dice
Greataxe damage
These are the only uses I can find for such a fine dice. It's got a nice round shape else only found on a d20 and my belly (getting a d12 tattoo soon!) but all it gets from the game is hate.
I sure hope Paizo will give it some more love in their upcoming releases. Some d12 weapons, spells that deals d12's of damage and so on. Come on guys, give the round guy some love!
You may call them fine dice, but my d12 is the most sporadic die. I roll them and they love rolling off the table. All my dice d4-d10 and even my d20's are better behaved with that d12.
I use them for katana damage!
Yeah, I did that too, but 3d12 was to low so we had to switch up to 3d20.
wow, how many ninja/samurai/ronin are in your games?
Man, d20s get way too much exposure...
Down with d20 tyranny! LONG LIVE 5d4!!!
d12 are the most chaotic die and that is way it is my favorite die. they are use is a bunch of spell is the 3.5 spell compendium.
Man, d20s get way too much exposure...Down with d20 tyranny! LONG LIVE 5d4!!!
Well that only gives you 5 - 20
What you have to do is roll a d10 and d12 and subtract 2
or roll 4d6-4 or 6d4-6 which should also give you 1-20
EDIT: >< my head math is wrong, those would give you 0-20
Use d12+d8 random encounter tables.
Mark L. Chance | Spes Magna Games
Man, d20s get way too much exposure...Down with d20 tyranny! LONG LIVE 5d4!!!Well that only gives you 5 - 20
What you have to do is roll a d10 and d12 and subtract 2
or roll 4d6-4 or 6d4-6 which should also give you 1-20
I've actually played 3d6 D&D games under the grim'n'gritty ruleset (which makes basically makes everything more deadly - for example, add (attack roll - target AC) to damage. It's fun, and puts more weight on bonuses, but doesn't allow for the occacional "astounding luck roll" that you get with 1d20.
Anyway, I'm thinking of stuff that could get the d12. Cure spells for one; they're weak right now and their bonus damage isn't in dice so it won't be THAT big of a change to make cure moderate into 2d12+level.
What you have to do is roll a d10 and d12 and subtract 2 or roll 4d6-4 or 6d4-6 which should also give you 1-20
... all three can result in a roll of 0, so it would be 0-20. It's hard to haven a bell shaped probability of results from 1 to 20 directly with dice.
What you could do would be roll a d100
01-03 equals 1 on d20
04-07 equals 2 on d20
...
However, as the d100 is reserved for Katana damage in my games this would be to much of a hassle.
Come on guys, give the round guy some love!
But it's so... quintangular.
Man, d20s get way too much exposure...Down with d20 tyranny! LONG LIVE 5d4!!!Well that only gives you 5 - 20
What you have to do is roll a d10 and d12 and subtract 2
or roll 4d6-4 or 6d4-6 which should also give you 1-20EDIT: >< my head math is wrong, those would give you 0-20
I'm ok with never rolling below 5. >_> <_<
Ok, I wasn't being serious. 3d6 is generally what I've seen to give more of a bell curve to d20 games, but it requires some reworking of the math. But theoretically I guess you could do 6d4-5 or something, it'd just be...weird...
On the upside, I'd get way more 20s (d4s loooooove me).
Just to remind you, only because two rolling methods give you the same average, doesn't mean they'll get you the same statistics.
a d20 has a chanche of 1/20 to get 20, 4d6-4 (reaches from 0 to 20 by the way) wll get you a chance to get 20 of 1:6^4 ...
In short, the more dice you throw, the closer to the average you get in general.
Man, d20s get way too much exposure...Down with d20 tyranny! LONG LIVE 5d4!!!Well that only gives you 5 - 20
What you have to do is roll a d10 and d12 and subtract 2
or roll 4d6-4 or 6d4-6 which should also give you 1-20EDIT: >< my head math is wrong, those would give you 0-20
I'm ok with never rolling below 5. >_> <_<
Ok, I wasn't being serious. 3d6 is generally what I've seen to give more of a bell curve to d20 games, but it requires some reworking of the math. But theoretically I guess you could do 6d4-5 or something, it'd just be...weird...
On the upside, I'd get way more 20s (d4s loooooove me).
However, as the d100 is reserved for Katana damage in my games this would be to much of a hassle.You've missed a zero there surely?
Nah...he just left out how many d100s. ^_-
Just to remind you, only because two rolling methods give you the same average, doesn't mean they'll get you the same statistics.
a d20 has a chanche of 1/20 to get 20, 4d6-4 (reaches from 0 to 20 by the way) wll get you a chance to get 20 of 1:6^4 ...
In short, the more dice you throw, the closer to the average you get in general.
That's the general idea of doing that sort of thing. It reduces the chances of the extremes, thereby reducing the factor that luck plays in the game.
x| it's like everybody and their mother caught my mistake within the 5 seconds between when I posted it and when I caught my own error.
I think it might be because d12s are the most unpredictable damage die. Compared to a 2d6 they suck a whole lot more often. On the other hand, they also roll max damage about three times as often... which is kind of awesome now that I think about it.
Also, if you are GM, nothing stops you from homebrewing in monsters with d12 natural attacks, d12 traps, and d12 campaign specific spells, or anything else d12 related you want!
As for alternate d20 rolling, would 2d10 really be that bad? I mean sure, you can never roll a one, but you only have about a 1% chance to roll a 2 anyway, so its much fairer as a critical fail than people who play with critical fails on a 1d20 roll (5% critical fail rate).
d12s should be used for determining initiative
d12s should be used for determining initiative
That's a bad idea IMHO. The drawbacks are that dexterity, which is already a very good ability, becomes even stronger, and that imp.init. which is already a great feat, becomes even greater. It also increases the chance of several people at the same initiative.
d12s should be used for determining initiativeWhat? So that more people can go on the same initiative? I see enough ties in groups of 5 with one bad guy.
:< our group worked fine with a group using a d10
:< our group worked fine with a group using a d10d12s should be used for determining initiativeWhat? So that more people can go on the same initiative? I see enough ties in groups of 5 with one bad guy.
was that 2nd ed?
was that 2nd ed?
No, it was pathfinder.
The drawbacks are that dexterity, which is already a very good ability, becomes even stronger, and that imp.init. which is already a great feat, becomes even greater.
Actually, I've seen players with the highest dex go last so many times that it really doesn't seem game breaking at all.
Anyway, back to d12s
I'm changing a few spells to d12s in my games now, empowering some really weak spells in the process.
Cure & Inflict line of spells: Xd8+level -> Xd12+level
Calm animals: 2d4 hd -> d12 hd
Goodberry: 2d4 berries -> 2d12 berries
Fire Trap: 1d4+level -> 1d12+level
Call Lightning: 3d6 -> 2d12
Shocking Grasp: 1d6/level -> 1d12 + 1d12/2 levels
That should be enough to bring the d12 back to the table at least a bit.
However, as the d100 is reserved for Katana damage in my games this would be too much of a hassle.You've missed a zero there surely?
Yes, sorry, Katanas are acutally d1000.
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Yes, sorry, Katanas are acutally d1000.However, as the d100 is reserved for Katana damage in my games this would be too much of a hassle.You've missed a zero there surely?
Finally, a use for my chiliahedron die...
Seriously, though, I generally replace d10s for d12s in everything except percentile rolls. It just bothers me, because of all the commonly used dice, d10s are the only ones that aren't actually evenly-sided polyhedra.
My d12s were never as happy as when we played D20 modern and Star wars saga games. Then they got to be the heavy weapon dice (but you know actually used)
I've been seriously thinking of getting a modified d12 to roll my d4 and d3 dice rolls.
They roll so much better than a d4 (which tend to only roll so far as my hand and then PLOP), and no head-math like using a d6 for a d3.
While a special-made d6 can work for a d3 as well, since 3x4 is 12, it can easily work as a double use die... getting used in 3 types of weapon damage, even if they are somewhat edge cases.
Think about it. The next time you play a character with a spiked chain, scythe or one of the various spears... wouldn't it feel better to be rolling two "chunkier" d12s over two d4s?
And quite frankly... the Orc having weapon familiarity with Falchion, and typically stated up as a Barbarian, just brings this full circle (d12 hitdie while rolling two d12s for damage.. even if they only result in 2d4).
Maybe you should consider bringing back the longswords damage vs. large 1-12
Probably the most beloved use of the D12 pre-3.0
I don't know about that rule. Is it as simple as it sounds?
I've been seriously thinking of getting a modified d12 to roll my d4 and d3 dice rolls.
They roll so much better than a d4 (which tend to only roll so far as my hand and then PLOP), and no head-math like using a d6 for a d3.
While a special-made d6 can work for a d3 as well, since 3x4 is 12, it can easily work as a double use die... getting used in 3 types of weapon damage, even if they are somewhat edge cases.
Now this is an excellent idea. I hate rolling d4s for things like magic missle or small sized weapons. Having a couple (maybe even up to 5!) such d4s would be awesome. I'd have to colour code them though if I was also going to make d3s because they would be very easy to get confused.
I don't know about that rule. Is it as simple as it sounds?Maybe you should consider bringing back the longswords damage vs. large 1-12
Probably the most beloved use of the D12 pre-3.0
He's referring to the fact that weapons in 1E and 2E did different amounts of damage to creatures of differing sizes. Longswords were 1d8 vs. S-M, but 1d12 vs. L creatures. Made them even more awesome. Don't ask what we rolled for katanas though; no one I know could count that high, and I can make it to a googol;)
I've been seriously thinking of getting a modified d12 to roll my d4 and d3 dice rolls.
They roll so much better than a d4 (which tend to only roll so far as my hand and then PLOP), and no head-math like using a d6 for a d3.
While a special-made d6 can work for a d3 as well, since 3x4 is 12, it can easily work as a double use die... getting used in 3 types of weapon damage, even if they are somewhat edge cases.Think about it. The next time you play a character with a spiked chain, scythe or one of the various spears... wouldn't it feel better to be rolling two "chunkier" d12s over two d4s?
And quite frankly... the Orc having weapon familiarity with Falchion, and typically stated up as a Barbarian, just brings this full circle (d12 hitdie while rolling two d12s for damage.. even if they only result in 2d4).
We have those! Take a look here and scroll down the to the 'Roman d4's. They're numbered in roman numerals, but they are 12-sided dice numbered 1-4 three times. I own a couple, and I think they're great, because you don't need a dice cup to get the silly things to actually roll.
We have those! Take a look here and scroll down the to the 'Roman d4's. They're numbered in roman numerals, but they are 12-sided dice numbered 1-4 three times. I own a couple, and I think they're great, because you don't need a dice cup to get the silly things to actually roll.I've been seriously thinking of getting a modified d12 to roll my d4 and d3 dice rolls.
They roll so much better than a d4 (which tend to only roll so far as my hand and then PLOP), and no head-math like using a d6 for a d3.
While a special-made d6 can work for a d3 as well, since 3x4 is 12, it can easily work as a double use die... getting used in 3 types of weapon damage, even if they are somewhat edge cases.Think about it. The next time you play a character with a spiked chain, scythe or one of the various spears... wouldn't it feel better to be rolling two "chunkier" d12s over two d4s?
And quite frankly... the Orc having weapon familiarity with Falchion, and typically stated up as a Barbarian, just brings this full circle (d12 hitdie while rolling two d12s for damage.. even if they only result in 2d4).
Plus i guess they've got to be easier to stack into a big tower than those pointy d4s
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I don't know about that rule. Is it as simple as it sounds?Maybe you should consider bringing back the longswords damage vs. large 1-12
Probably the most beloved use of the D12 pre-3.0
Well, pre-3.0 and the advent of small and large PC options, weapon damage had two ranges. S-M, which was for small and medium creatures -in this case the damage for the longsword was 1d8 and vs. large creatures it was 1d12. Some weapons were really effective against human sized targets but did less damage vs. big beasties, was actually a pretty good system IMO.
They used the damage vs. size in 1st/2nd ed + speed factors, weight, and bonus/neg to hit vs. different types of AC as a way to balance out weapons against each other.
I use d12s in place of minis on my battlemaps. Instead of squinting and trying to remember which mini is which PC, the d12 matches the dice they're rolling. I use mine for monsters and turn the numbers up sequentially so I can always remember who's attacking orc #4 and how much damage has been done to him, no matter how much they move around on the map.
Creative Director
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I periodically try to give monsters damage ranges that use d12s. Jason often says I can't, but I still try to sneak them in now and then.
I use d12s all the time, actually, to randomly determine direction. Just roll a d12, and then treat the result as if you rolled an hour on a clock. The direction something goes is in the direction of the hour.
I take advantage the fact that they are so rarely used as numerical dice to use it as a recognizable platform for "special" dice for non-numerical values (cardinal direction, scatter, time of day, month of year, hit location etc).
Now that I've seen those bags of blank D12, I'm going to buy a bunch. I intend to make a D3 version, will be less confusing than on a D6 platform.
Tables are always good too. I had to buy a d16 because of my random gem table (the DMG just happened to list 16 types of gems).
I can't get d16 in my country :(
I've finally found a store with d30 though.
I actualy enjoy the "more random" results of the d12 and I home-ruled that Large size damage would be d20 (ex.: Enlarged or Frost giant Greataxe weilder)rather than 3d6 (same as a 2d6). That keeps that "randomness" with the same average.