Players and Dungeon Masters roll the same dice for different reasons. A player rolls to find out whether the plan worked. The DM rolls to find out what the world does about it.
Below: the rolls each side makes in the first hour of a game, the ten rolls that make a table lean in, and the four rolls of character creation, with the odds worked out. Rules are from the System Reference Document 5.2, the free version of the 2024 rules [1], unless we say SRD 5.1 [2]. Monsters link to our monster pages, which carry the full stat blocks.
Key Dice Rolls at the Start of a D&D Game
For Players: The Five Rolls You Make First
- Ability scores. Roll four d6, drop the lowest, total the rest; do it six times [1]. Roll 6, 5, 3, 2: drop the 2, score 14. The average is 12.24 and an 18 turns up 1.6% of the time (computed over all 1,296 ways four d6 land). The Standard Array and 27-point buy are the other two ways in [1].
- Initiative. When a fight starts, everyone makes a Dexterity check, and the totals set the turn order [1]. Roll 15 with +2 Dex and you act on 17. Caught by surprise, you roll it with Disadvantage [1].
- Attack roll. d20 + ability modifier + Proficiency Bonus against the target's Armor Class. Equal or higher hits [1]. With +5, a 13 makes 18 and hits a goblin warrior (AC 15).
- Damage roll. Roll the weapon's dice and add the modifier you attacked with [1]. A longsword is 1d8; two-handed, 1d10. A Fireball is 8d6, average 28, from 8 to 48.
- Saving throw. Something is happening to you and you try to resist it: a Dexterity save to dive clear of the Fireball, a Wisdom save against Hold Person [1]. d20 + ability modifier + Proficiency Bonus if proficient, against the DC. Fail a Constitution save against a DC 14 poison with a total of 12 and you're poisoned; 14 shakes it off.
Ability checks cover the rest: a Strength (Athletics) check to climb, Charisma (Persuasion) to talk the guard round. The DM picks the DC; the SRD's scale runs Very easy 5, Easy 10, Medium 15, Hard 20, Very hard 25, Nearly impossible 30 [1].
For Dungeon Masters: Six Important Starting Rolls
- Monster initiative. Monsters roll a Dexterity check like everyone else, or the DM skips the roll and uses their Initiative score, 10 + Dex modifier [1]. A skeleton has Dex 16, so +3 or a flat 13. For a pack of identical goblins the rule is one roll for the lot, so they all act together [1]. Eight goblins on one turn is its own kind of terrifying.
- Monster attacks and damage. The stat block gives both. The skeleton's shortsword is +5 to hit, 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing on a hit [1]. Take the 6 when the table is fast; roll the dice when the table is tense.
- Monster saving throws. The wizard casts Hold Person on a bandit: roll the bandit's Wisdom save, +0 from Wisdom 10, against the wizard's spell save DC [1]. Against a DC 13, the bandit makes it 40% of the time.
- Random encounters. Not a rule, a habit. Roll a d20 each hour of travel; 17 or higher, something turns up. Then roll on your own table. Know what that habit costs:
| Hours on the road | 20% per check (d20, 17+) | 10% per check (d20, 19+) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20% | 10% |
| 4 | 59% | 34% |
| 8 | 83% | 57% |
| 12 | 93% | 72% |
Eight hours at 17+ nearly guarantees a fight. If you want the road to feel quiet, use 19+.
- Treasure. Roll on a loot table after the fight. Write your own d6 or d20 table for the region before the session, so the rolls land on things you are happy to give away.
- Secret rolls. Roll the lurking monster's Stealth behind the screen and compare it to the party's Passive Perception, which is 10 + each character's Wisdom (Perception) modifier [1]. Nobody asks what you rolled, and nobody should.
Creative and Interesting Dice Rolls
For Players: Five Fun Roll Scenarios
- The Fireball. Eight d6 in one handful. The odds from the full distribution: 9% of Fireballs deal 35 or more, 6% deal 20 or less. The rogue's Sneak Attack does the same thing in smaller, more smug handfuls.
- The critical hit. A natural 20 on an attack hits whatever the AC, and you roll all of the attack's damage dice twice, then add modifiers once [1]. The longsword goes from 1d8 + 3 to 2d8 + 3. One attack in 20 crits; with Advantage, nearly one in 10.
- The death save. At 0 hit points you roll a bare d20 at the start of each turn: 10 or higher succeeds, three successes and you're stable, three failures and you die. A natural 1 is two failures; a natural 20 puts you back up with 1 hit point [1]. Left alone, with no healing and no more damage, a dying character stabilises 41% of the time, pops back up on a natural 20 18% of the time, and dies 40% of the time (computed exactly over every sequence of rolls). Roughly a coin flip, which is why the cleric runs.
- 3d6 in order. No dropped die, no rearranging: the first roll is Strength, the second Dexterity, and so on. The average falls to 10.5 and an 18 comes up once in 216 rolls. It is not in the SRD. It is how you end up with a wizard of Intelligence 7 and Strength 16, and a backstory that explains it.
- Heroic Inspiration. The DM can hand it out for playing well, and a Human starts each day with it. Spend it to reroll any die, and you must keep the new roll [1]. Rerolling a failed death save is the most dramatic use of it in the game.
For Dungeon Masters: Five Fun Roll Scenarios
- The encounter that writes itself. The dice say "wandering merchant". Now decide what the merchant is running from. Random results earn their keep when you treat them as questions.
- The chest nobody expected them to open. The party breaks into the cupboard you never stocked. "Hang on, let me roll." A d20 on your regional loot table beats making up a +1 sword on the spot and regretting it for ten levels.
- The mood of the barkeep. Secret d6: 1–2 grumpy, 3–4 indifferent, 5–6 friendly. In the 2024 rules attitude has teeth: players have Advantage on checks to influence a Friendly creature and Disadvantage against a Hostile one, and a creature is Indifferent by default [1].
- The cursed trinket. Give an artefact a 1 on a d10 each morning to do something odd: illusory butterflies, rations turned to cheese. At 10% a day it fires about once a week (52% chance within seven days). Rare enough to surprise, common enough to become a running joke.
- The wild plan. A player proposes marriage to a princess to seal an alliance. The 2024 rules have an answer: the Influence action. The DM decides whether the princess is willing, unwilling, or hesitant. Only hesitant needs a roll: a Charisma check, default DC 15 or her Intelligence score, whichever is higher. Fail and the player waits 24 hours to ask again [1]. That wait makes a better story than anything the dice could have said.
Rolling Up a Character: The Four Rolls
Character creation is where new players meet the most dice at once. Four things get rolled, and one of them no longer does.
1. Ability scores. Four d6, drop the lowest, six times: 24 dice and a lot of mental arithmetic. The 3D roller has a Drop Lowest button, so one tap rolls 4d6 and throws the smallest away. What to expect from each score:
| Score | 3–8 | 9–11 | 12–13 | 14–15 | 16–17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chance | 10.5% | 27.9% | 26.2% | 22.5% | 11.4% | 1.6% |
2. Hit points above level 1. Level 1 is fixed: the top of your Hit Die plus Constitution. Each later level you roll the Hit Die or take the fixed value [1]. The fixed value is half a point above the die's average for every class: a Fighter's d10 averages 5.5 against a fixed 6. Rolling is for people who like to gamble with their own life.
| Class | Hit Die | Average roll | Fixed value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | d12 | 6.5 | 7 |
| Fighter, Paladin, Ranger | d10 | 5.5 | 6 |
| Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Rogue, Warlock | d8 | 4.5 | 5 |
| Sorcerer, Wizard | d6 | 3.5 | 4 |
3. Starting gold: not a roll any more. In the 2024 rules each class offers a choice, a kit or a sum of gold. A Barbarian takes a greataxe, four handaxes, an Explorer's Pack and 15 GP, or just 75 GP [1]. If an old guide tells you to roll for gold, it's from the 2014 books.
4. The flavour tables. Roll 1d100 on the Trinkets table for "a Tiny trinket, a simple item lightly touched by mystery" [1]. Roll 01 and you own a mummified goblin hand; 36 gets you a vest with one hundred tiny pockets. The 2014 SRD's Acolyte background adds a d8 personality trait and a d6 each for ideal, bond and flaw [2]. Roll a 3 on the trait and your acolyte sees omens in every event and action.
Roll all four, keep what makes you laugh, and write it down before you forget which pocket the goblin hand is in.
Table Talk
Tia: A death save is a bare d20, no modifier. Why does the whole table lean in?
Rohan: Because it's close to a coin flip. Stable 41%, up on a natural 20 18%, dead 40%.
Tia: Close enough that the cleric runs.
Rohan: Cleric should run. Tip: keep Heroic Inspiration for it. Reroll, and you keep the new roll.
Tia: Your turn. A d20 every hour of travel, 17 or higher. Why?
Rohan: Eight hours, 83% chance of a fight.
Tia: So the road isn't a road. It's a fight with scenery.
Rohan: Want it quiet, use 19+. Still 57%.
Tia: Or roll "wandering merchant" and ask what the merchant is running from.
Rohan: The other 83%.
References
- Wizards of the Coast. System Reference Document 5.2 ("Playing the Game": D20 Tests, Typical Difficulty Classes, Critical Hits, Death Saving Throws, Heroic Inspiration, Combat: Initiative and Surprise; "Character Creation": Generate Your Scores, Level 1 Hit Points by Class, Fixed Hit Points by Class, Passive Perception, Trinkets; "Classes": Barbarian starting equipment; "Rules Glossary": Friendly, Hostile, Indifferent, Influence, Initiative; "Spells": Fireball, Hold Person; "Monsters": Bandit, Goblin Warrior, Skeleton). 2025. CC-BY-4.0. https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd
- Wizards of the Coast. System Reference Document 5.1 ("Backgrounds": Acolyte). 2023. CC-BY-4.0. https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/dnd/SRD_CC_v5.1.pdf
