User:Guybrush42/DamageExamples: Difference between revisions

Weapons and spells that roll multiple dice for damage do not just have a higher minimum damage. A single die is equally likely to produce any result, since there is exactly one change of getting each one. When adding dice together, there are multiple dice rolls that add up to the same total, meaning that some results - esepcially those in the middle of the damage range - are much more likely. For example, a {{weapon|Greataxe}} does {{DamageText|1d12|Slashing}}, and is equally likely to roll a 1 or a 12 or anything in between. A {{weapon|Greatsword}} does {{DamageText|2d6|Slashing}}, and cannot roll lower than 2 damage - but it is statistically much more likely to roll 7 damage than either 2 or 12.

|+ Possible results of a 2d6 roll, highlighing results of 7

! rowspan="2" | First roll

The 7 appears as the result in 6 out of 36 possible rolls, while the 12 appears only once. This means a 2d6 roll has a 16.6666% (1 in 6) chance of resulting in 7 points of damage, but only a 2.7777% (1 in 36) chance of resulting in 8 points of damage. Meanwhile, the 1d12 roll actually has a higher chance of resulting in the maximum damage value of 8, since 1 out of 12 possibilities (8.3333%) result in an 8. This is also true of the lowest damage, though, and the lowest value is lower for 1d12. So a greataxe and other single die weapons are "swingier" - more likely to deliver very high or very low damage damage - while a greatsword and other multiple dice weapons are more consistent - more likely to produce a result in the middle of their damage range.