Help with dice related stats (4D8 vs 5D6)

[CulturedCaveman]

Can someone explain the 'X' sided dice damage and which is best? I've never played a table top game and I find it a bit confusing to know what is a better weapon to use, etc.

[cANe]

5D6 would give you 5-30
4D8 would give you 4-32

Both are fairly equal but I guess 4D8 is slightly better

[willsama974]

That's what it is:
4D8 is just 4 dice with 8 sides, does between 4 and 32 damages.
5D6 is just 5 dice with 6 sides, does between 5 and 30 damages.
EDIT:Ninja'ed by cANe

[CulturedCaveman]

DOH! It's simpler to compare weapons, etc. than I thought. Geez, I hate math : ) Thanks for the tip.

[cANe]

I can understand it's difficult to understand without having played any PnP RPG's, I remember when I was a kid I thought 2D6 simply meant 2-6 damage

[Tanist]

It is a matter of odds. You are more likely to get a higher roll on average with 5d6 than with 4d8, but with 4d8, you have the chance to get a max of 32 as opposed to 30 with 5d6.

[Thaxlsyssilyaan]

Originally posted by Tanist:

It is a matter of odds. You are more likely to get a higher roll on average with 5d6 than with 4d8, but with 4d8, you have the chance to get a max of 32 as opposed to 30 with 5d6.

In fact, that the opposite, it is easier to max roll with a small amount of dice, than with a high amount of dice.

You will have easier time scoring a 20 with 1d20 than with 5d4.

[Tanist]

Originally posted by cANe:

I can understand it's difficult to understand without having played any PnP RPG's, I remember when I was a kid I thought 2D6 simply meant 2-6 damage

The D means a dice, the number means the sides of the dice. There are many dice in D&D.

Well all know the standard 6 sided dice. A physical cube with 6 sides.

We have the following generally:

4 Sided.
6 Sided.
8 Sided.
10 sided.
12 sided.
20 sided.


Cutting out my explanation due to being wrong, don't want to confuse people.

[Tanist]

Nevermind, I looked it up.

Maybe this will help people:

http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php

With 5d6 you are more likely to get an overall mid range roll across the board. That is, the bell curve for the midrange of 5d6 (18) is higher (10%) than that of the 4d8 (8%), but... the chances of getting a 28 is higher .9% as opposed to 5d6 with .2% and this is appropriately shown within the rolls.

So, if your goal is a for a higher average, your chances are better with the 4d8, but.. if you want a consistent result that has lesser lower rolls, 5d6 seems the better choice.

[Thaxlsyssilyaan]

Well, with a 1d20, you have 1/20 chance to roll the *20*
With 5d4, you have 1/4 chance that the first dice is a 4, then if that the case, you need to get a 4 on the second dice 1/4 again (1/16 so far), then, if that the case, you need the third dice to be a 4 too (in order, remember, to score the *20* in the end), so, 1/4 chance again (we have a total of 1/64 so far to score three *4* with your dice), then, if that the.... well, you see the math now.

[i_nive]

Also, given the (almost the) same mean (5D6: 17.5, 4D8: 18), more dices mean less dispersion (less likely to have extreme values when rolling). So it's also about how lucky you want to feel (extreme cases are: no game of chance: always rolled is (min + max)/2 (so min&max effectively don't matter!) versus rolling min..max with the same probability)

[Tanist]

Originally posted by FRThaxlsyssilyaan:

Well, with a 1d20, you have 1/20 chance to roll the *20*
With 5d4, you have 1/4 chance that the first dice is a 4, then if that the case, you need to get a 4 on the second dice 1/4 again (1/16 so far), then, if that the case, you need the third dice to be a 4 too (in order, remember, to score the *20* in the end), so, 1/4 chance again (we have a total of 1/64 so far to score three *4* with your dice), then, if that the.... well, you see the math now.

yeah, thanks, I appreciate the explantion. My mind started churning when I finished asking you, so I looked up some generators.

[Tanist]

You guys are awsome, thanks for the explantions!

[Thaxlsyssilyaan]

Originally posted by Tanist:

So, if your goal is a for a higher average, your chances are better with the 4d8, but.. if you want a consistent result that has lesser lower rolls, 5d6 seems the better choice.

You summed it up.
If i played a real tabletop game, and thus, could not re-throw the dice, i would opt for 5d4, so i would get more average stats. But when you have the right to reroll, then the less dice is better for min-maxing.

[o0o]

i_nive said it best.

4D8 has a higher average (mean) score of 18.0.

5D6 has a slightly lower average (mean) of 17.5.

However, the advantage of choosing 5D6 is less extreme rolls (both low and high).

Personally I'd go with the 4D8 for a higher average, unless low stats are especially punishing in the game...

Which we won't know until we get the manual.

[ope84]

So if i understand well:
Use the 4d8 if you don't mind rolling the bonus dice indefinitely.
Use the 5d6 if you are in hurry