Five dice, added
Five dice make 7,776 combinations, and the totals bunch around 17 and 18. More than half of all rolls (55.7%) land between 15 and 20.
| Total | Exactly | This or more |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1.6% | 98.4% |
| 12 | 3.9% | 94.1% |
| 14 | 6.9% | 84.8% |
| 16 | 9.5% | 69.5% |
| 18 | 10.0% | 50.0% |
| 20 | 8.4% | 30.5% |
| 23 | 3.9% | 9.8% |
| 25 | 1.6% | 3.2% |
| 30 | 0.01% | 0.01% |
The curve is mirrored around 17.5: a 15 is as likely as a 20, and a 5 as rare as a 30.
Yahtzee
Five of a kind on the first throw happens once in 1,296 rolls. With the full three rolls, keeping whatever number you have most of and rerolling the rest, it comes up about 4.6% of the time, roughly one turn in 22.
This roller throws all five at once. To reroll only some, set the count to the number of dice you are picking up and roll those.
Poker dice odds
Poker dice score five dice like a poker hand. On a single throw of five d6:
| Hand | Chance | About |
|---|---|---|
| Five of a kind | 0.08% | 1 in 1,296 |
| Four of a kind | 1.9% | 1 in 52 |
| Full house | 3.9% | 1 in 26 |
| Straight | 3.1% | 1 in 32 |
| Three of a kind | 15.4% | 1 in 6.5 |
| Two pairs | 23.1% | 1 in 4.3 |
| One pair | 46.3% | 1 in 2.2 |
| Nothing | 6.2% | 1 in 16 |
A straight here means five in a row, 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6. Each throw counts once, as its best hand.
Liar's Dice
Every player hides five dice under a cup and bids on how many of a face are on the whole table. Any one face turns up on average once in every six dice, so with four players (20 dice) the honest guess for "how many fours" is three or four. Every bid is quietly measured against that.
5d6 damage in D&D
- Sneak Attack. A rogue's extra damage reaches 5d6 at 9th level, 17.5 on average.
- Wall of Ice. Walking through the frigid air where a section was broken deals 5d6 cold.
- Killer whale. Its bite hits for 5d6 + 4 piercing.
For 5d6 plus a modifier, or mixed rolls, use the dice calculator. One die at a time lives on the d6 page; four dice on the 4d6 roller, six on the 6d6 roller.
Questions
What does 5d6 mean?
Five six-sided dice, added together. The first number is how many dice, the second how many sides, so 5d6 totals anywhere from 5 to 30. The Dice Notation Guide covers the rest.
What is the average of 5d6?
Seventeen and a half. Each d6 averages 3.5, and five of them make 17.5. The two most likely totals, 17 and 18, come up 10.0% of the time each.
What are the odds of rolling a Yahtzee?
One in 1,296 on a single throw of five dice, about 0.08%. Over a full turn of three rolls, keeping your largest set each time, it rises to about 4.6%.
What are the odds of at least one 6 on five dice?
About 59.8%. The chance of no 6 on any of the five is (5/6) to the fifth power, 40.2%.
What are the odds of a full house with five dice?
About 3.9% on one throw, 1 in 26: 300 of the 7,776 combinations are three of one face and two of another.
Is this 5d6 roller fair?
Yes. Each die comes from your browser's cryptographic random number generator with no bias towards any face, and every die is shown before it is added.