3d2? 1d9? what's better?

[mussij]

I dont really understand the two values and which one to look out for

[Milunay]

I guess it's the same like in old RPG (like Baldur's Gate) and real games on tables with many dies (some 1 to 6, other with 1 to 20 etc.). So 3d2 is for a number between 3 to 6 and 1d9 is 1 to 9.
But I'am not sure. ^^

[Shambles Inc]

The first number refers to the number of 'dice', the second to the amount of sides the dice has.

[Shambles Inc]

Originally posted by Milunay:

So 3d2 is for a number between 3 to 6 and 1d9 is 1 to 9.
But I'am not sure. ^^

You got it right.

[agris]

To answer the OP, it depends.

NdX is the general way to view these values. N is the number of dice, X is the number of faces on the die. The number of faces are equal to the maximum roll of the die.

For example:

1d6 would be rolling one six-sided die. All dice start at 1 and move up by 1 per face, so that's rolling one die that can any value between 1 and 6.

1d10 is the roll of a single die that can have a value from 1 to 10.

0d5000 is 0 because you're rolling 0 die, 10d1 is 10 because you're rolling 10 die with a single face (1), and 57d0 is 0 because you're rolling 57 zero-faced die (abstract, but SitS uses this convention occasionally).

So 3d2 is saying roll 3 dice, each of which can be either 1 or 2 (2 faces, more like a quarter-toss). That means your range is 3 to 6, with an average of 4.5 ((3+6)/2 = 4.5). 1d9 is rolling one die with 9 faces (1 to 9), so your range is 1 to 9. The average of which is 5 ((9+1)/2 = 5)).

This makes it seem like 1d9 is better because of the higher average damage, but you should consider the variance also. Variance is how far away from this average you can expect to get, and that's the downside of 1d9. You could do 1 damage as easily as you could do 9 damage. The advantage of 3d2 is that your minimum damage is 3, because you're rolling 3 dice. 3d2 is more dependable damage output, vs the higher potential damage output of 1d9.

So that's it in a (large) nutshell!

[agris]

You can see the effect of variance (called standard deviation in the following site) here: http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php

[mussij]

ahhh ok thanks very much :)