Rolling Dice, Telling Stories, Creating Legends
Some rolls are bookkeeping. Others make the whole table stand up. This guide is about the second kind: five rolls players live for, five rolls DMs can use to surprise themselves, and the real odds behind each one, so you know exactly how unlikely your legend was.
Rules come from the 2024 rules in the free System Reference Document 5.2.1 (SRD 5.2) unless marked otherwise [1]. Odds come from a short Python script and assume fair dice.
For Players: Five Fun Roll Scenarios
1. Massive Damage Spells (The "Boom!" Factor)
Few things beat scooping up a fistful of dice. Fireball is the classic: every creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere makes a Dexterity save and takes 8d6 fire damage on a fail, half on a success [1].
| Spell / feature | Dice | Average | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireball (3rd-level slot) | 8d6 | 28 | SRD 5.2, Fireball |
| Rogue Sneak Attack (level 9–10) | 5d6 extra | 17.5 | SRD 5.2, Rogue |
| Divine Smite (3rd-level slot) | 4d8 radiant | 18 (+1d8 vs Fiends and Undead) | SRD 5.2, Divine Smite |
What 8d6 actually does:
| Fireball result | Chance |
|---|---|
| 24 to 32 (the middle) | 64.2% |
| 40 or more | 0.74% |
| 16 or less | 0.74% |
| All sixes: 48 | 1 in 1,679,616 |
So the "big number" is usually 28-ish, and a 40 is a once-a-campaign story. One more thing players forget: Fireball can't crit. It uses a saving throw, not an attack roll, and only attack rolls score Critical Hits [1].
2. Critical Hits (The Natural 20 Celebration)
A natural 20 on an attack roll always hits and is a Critical Hit: roll the attack's damage dice twice, then add your modifier once. A dagger crit is 2d4 + modifier instead of 1d4 + modifier, and Sneak Attack dice double too [1, "Critical Hits"]. A level 10 rogue critting with a dagger rolls 2d4 + 10d6. That is where rogue legends come from.
| How you roll | Chance of a nat 20 |
|---|---|
| Normal | 5.0% |
| Advantage | 9.8% |
| Disadvantage | 0.3% |
Advantage nearly doubles your crit chance, which is why rogues and paladins beg for it. Try both on the 3D table.
Pro tip: don't stop at numbers. A crit is a licence to describe: "the blade slices clean through the ogre's helmet."
3. Wild Magic Surges & Random Tables
Wild Magic is not in the SRD; it comes from the 2014 Player's Handbook [2]. After a Wild Magic sorcerer casts a spell of 1st level or higher, the DM can have them roll a d20. On a 1, they roll a d100 on the Wild Magic Surge table [2]. That is a 5% chance per spell, so a sorcerer who casts three levelled spells a fight surges about once every seven fights, if the DM asks every time.
Entries on that table include [2]:
- You turn into a potted plant until the start of your next turn.
- You cast Polymorph on yourself; fail the save and you are a sheep.
- A unicorn controlled by the DM appears beside you.
- Your hair falls out but grows back within 24 hours.
- You cast Fireball centred on yourself.
Randomness keeps roleplay fresh because players adapt to outcomes they never would have chosen. The bald sorcerer with a grudge against the universe is a better character than the one who planned everything.
4. Death Saving Throws (The Edge of Oblivion)
At 0 Hit Points, the dice decide. Start each turn with a flat d20, no modifiers [1, "Death Saving Throws"]:
- 10 or higher: a success. Below 10: a failure.
- Three successes: you are Stable. Three failures: you die.
- Natural 1: two failures. Natural 20: you regain 1 Hit Point and get up.
- Taking damage at 0 HP: one failure (two if it is a crit).
Left alone, with no healing and no hits, here is how it ends:
| Outcome | Chance |
|---|---|
| Natural 20: back on your feet with 1 HP | 18.1% |
| Three successes: Stable, still unconscious | 41.4% |
| Three failures: dead | 40.5% |
That is roughly a 60/40 coin in your favour, and it takes 3.6 rolls on average. Plenty of time for the cleric to panic.
5. Ability Score Generation (The Dice as Character Builder)
The SRD 5.2 offers three methods: the Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), 27-point Point Buy, and Random Generation: roll four d6, keep the highest three, six times [1, "Generate Your Scores"]. Many tables add harsher variants for fun:
| Method | How it works | Average score | Chance of an 18 | Chance of 8 or less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4d6 drop lowest (SRD) | Six sets, assign freely | 12.24 | 1.6% | 10.5% |
| 4d6 drop lowest, in order | Assign as rolled | 12.24 | 1.6% | 10.5% |
| 3d6 in order | No choosing, no dropping | 10.5 | 0.46% | 25.9% |
The Standard Array totals 72. Six 4d6-drop-lowest scores beat that 56% of the time, so rolling is a slight bet in your favour with a real chance of a worse character. 3d6 in order is the brave one: a quarter of your scores land at 8 or below.
Story payoff: odd stat lines make backstories. A fighter with 8 Strength and 17 Charisma is a scrawny noble who wins duels by talking the other person out of them. The 4d6 drop-lowest button on the 3D table does the arithmetic for you.
For Dungeon Masters: Five Fun Roll Scenarios
1. Random Encounter Generation
A roll on an encounter table spices up travel. A wandering merchant, a sudden storm or a travelling circus can appear out of nowhere, and the best results are the ones the DM didn't plan either. A "merchant" roll can snowball into a long-term ally, or a villain with excellent prices. Need a monster fast? Every SRD creature has a page with its dice ready to roll in the Monsters list.
2. Treasure & Loot Tables (Rolling for Rewards)
After a battle, let the dice decide what the party finds. Coins and gems, usually; sometimes a map to a lost tomb. Players know the DM didn't hand-pick the reward, so it feels like fate, and fate is how side quests start.
3. NPC Personality & Reactions
A secret d6 stops minor characters feeling flat:
| d6 | Mood | How to play it |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Grumpy | Slams mugs down, short answers |
| 3–4 | Neutral | Professional, but cautious |
| 5–6 | Friendly | Chatty, eager to gossip |
Add one quirk by roll (an accent, a nervous tic, a soft spot for puppies) and the guard captain becomes someone the players remember.
4. Wild Magic & Chaos Events
Seed the world with magic that misbehaves. A cursed staff with a 10% chance each day of doing something odd: roll a d10 each morning, and on a 1, roll on your own "weird effects" table. Illusory butterflies, reversed gravity, every ration turned to cheese. Over a ten-day journey that is a 65% chance of at least one incident, so it will almost certainly come up.
5. Reaction Rolls for Player Actions
Players will propose marriage to a princess, bribe a dragon or teach goblins chess. When nothing you prepared covers it, set a DC and let them roll. A Charisma (Persuasion) check against DC 15 is a 30% shot on a flat roll, better with a good bonus [1].
- It keeps the DM's own preferences out of the result.
- It rewards bold ideas with a real chance.
- It makes the outcome feel earned rather than scripted.
The Bigger Picture: Why Dice Matter
Dice level the table: the wizard's player and the barbarian's player both hold the same d20. They turn plans into cliffhangers, and failures into stories the table retells for years. Our Book of Dice puts it in one line: "Dice inject uncertainty. Uncertainty creates stakes."
Quick Reference: Awesome D&D Rolls
| Roll | Who | Dice | The odds that matter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireball | Players | 8d6, Dex save for half | Average 28; 40+ is 0.74% |
| Critical hit | Players | Nat 20, damage dice doubled | 5%, or 9.8% with advantage |
| Wild Magic Surge (2014) | Wild Magic sorcerers | d20, then d100 on a 1 | 5% per levelled spell |
| Death saves | Players at 0 HP | Flat d20, 10+ succeeds | 59.5% survive untreated |
| Ability scores | Players | 4d6 drop lowest ×6 | Beats the Standard Array total 56% of the time |
| Random encounters | DMs | Your table | As often as you roll |
| Treasure | DMs | Your table | Fate decides |
| NPC mood | DMs | d6 | One-third each mood |
| Chaos events | DMs | d10 daily, 1 triggers | 65% over ten days |
| Reaction rolls | DMs | d20 + modifier vs DC | DC 15 flat: 30% |
New to the words? D&D dice terms, explained covers advantage, saves and the rest.
Table Talk
James: Best roll in this post: Fireball, all sixes. One in 1,679,616.
Tia: Worst odds in the post, and you picked it first. Why?
James: Because it's never happening, so I get to dream about it forever.
Tia: That's the pattern. We remember the rare roll and forget all the 28s.
James: I remember my nat 1s. I laugh at every single one.
Tia: Then you'd love 3d6 in order. A quarter of your scores land at 8 or below.
James: A scrawny noble with 17 Charisma? Sign me up.
Tia: My tip: death saves. Left alone, 40.5% of you die.
James: So the healer is the real legend.
Tia: Get your friend off the floor first. Then go chasing your 40-point Fireball.
References
- Wizards of the Coast. (2025). System Reference Document 5.2.1. CC-BY-4.0. Sections: "Critical Hits", "Death Saving Throws", "Generate Your Scores", "D20 Tests"; entries Fireball, Rogue (Sneak Attack table), Divine Smite. https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd
- Wizards of the Coast. (2014). Player's Handbook (5th edition). Sorcerer, Sorcerous Origin: Wild Magic, and the Wild Magic Surge table.
