Resin D&D Dice Sets

If you are new to tabletop RPGs you might find yourself thinking, “What’s with all of these dice?” I remember seeing a D20 for the first time. Someone told me it was a die, and I thought they had to be lying. What weird and wonderful world had I fallen into where dice can be something other than a cube? It can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.

The standard for modern D&D is the 7 piece dice set. This should include a 20-sided die (D20), a 12-sided die (D12), two 10-sided dice (D1 & D00—also called D% or percentile die), an 8-sided die (D8), a 6-sided die (D6), and a 4-sided die (D4). You might wonder why you need all of these different dice. And the fact is that you won’t use all your dice every game, but they all have their uses!

D20. DND uses the D20 system of gameplay, and the D20 is the workhorse of your dice collection. Anytime you make an attack, check an ability, or attempt to do something in the game that requires a check you will roll that D20. Roll higher than your enemy’s Armor Class (AC) or the problem’s Difficulty Class (DC) and you succeed!

D12. The D12 may be the least used of the standard 7-piece dice set. At least it is at my table. As with most of the other dice here, it is mostly used to decide damage after an attack has landed or “hit.” So in normal tabletop game play, you would roll your D20 to attack, then depending on your weapon (think big-hitter weapons) you might roll a D12 to calculate the damage your attack delivers. Certain character classes (again think big-hitters like barbarian) use the D12 to calculate Hit Points (HP or health).

D10 & D00. These are both 10-sided dice. The D10 is used to calculate damage on either an attack that hits or certain spell effects. It is also a Hit Die for certain character classes (think martial classes like fighter, paladin, or ranger), so it is used to calculate Hit Points too. The D00, also called the D% or percentile die, is mainly used in combination with the D10 when you need a percentile check. This is used to determine results on certain tables in the game or for determining a spell effect. You would roll both the D10 and the D00, then combine those 2 results to get a number between 1 and 100. Technically this could be done (and in fact used to be done) by rolling a D1 twice, but I personally think it’s more fun this way. And, y’know, more dice!

D8. The D8 is also used to calculate damage and spell effects. It is the Hit Die for bards, clerics, druids, monks, rogues, and warlocks.

D6. The D6 is another work horse. It is the damage die for a wide variety of weapons and spell effects. It is the Hit Die for your physically weaker classes like sorcerer or wizard. It is also the die you use if you are rolling for your character’s Ability Scores. You will use multiple rolls of these to determine your character’s Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. If you love playing a sneaky rogue, you’ll use a D6 (or several) to calculate sneak attack damage. And there are few things as fun as rolling a nice handful of 8D6 to calculate damage from a fireball spell.

D4. Affectionately known as the caltrop for its pyramidal shape and its ability to nearly puncture a bare foot if unseen on the floor. The D4 is also used to calculate damage and spell effects. If you’ve never used one, you’ll quickly find they don’t roll especially well. The move is more of a flipping toss to get a random number. Some people don’t love the D4, and there are some new designs that attempt to make it more “roller” friendly. Here at Libris Arcana, we stick to the classic design.

All of them. You really need all of the sets of dice.

In all seriousness, you only need one 7-piece set of dice to play DND. Now it may be annoying if you need to roll multiples of the same die over and over to generate your ability score or for damage or spell effects, but it will totally get the job done.

If you’re like most, however, you’ll find you want more than one set. And if you’re like some of us, you will want all of the sets!

In which case you might consider a dice subscription! It gets you early access to our unique, limited-edition resin dice sets, and it’s super simple to pause or cancel any time. We announce each set with pictures and a description prior to shipping on Dice Day, so you could even turn it on or off each month depending on if you like the set that’s coming out.

To create dice, acrylic is melted then poured into a dice-shaped mold to cool. Resin is liquid that is poured into a mold then hardens via a chemical reaction, releasing heat as it does so. Resin is significantly more expensive, however aesthetically it is more pleasing, especially for any clear or translucent dice designs. It polishes up better and can sustain more hard use. They each have a slightly different density but probably not enough that you’d notice in your hand, and they sound slightly different when rolling on a gaming table. If you want more of a deep dive on the difference between resin and acrylic dice, you should check out an excellent blog entry John wrote up.