This is the first set of lava dice I’ve seen. They’re kind of nice
Name: Resin Engraved Dice Set Mysterious Realm – Glowing Death Volcano
Description: This set of sharp-edge resin dice made from black and clear resin with the shape of volcano inside each die. There is also some bright orange resin made to look like Lava coming out of the volcano as well as some white simulated smoke.The font for this set is a thin Times New Roman look-alike inked in gold (never my favorite color for dice). The font uses underbars to indicate orientation of the 6 and 9 faces. As with nearly all sharp-edge resin dice sets, all edges and vertices are sharp. The d10s have edged waists. The set came with an extra cats eye d20 in white (which I’ve never seen before) that has a similar font but with some odd swirly ends on the 2, 3 and 5 digits. The dice also came with a USB black light thing.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 20.6 mm (Point->Point) 25.6 mm
Where did they come from: URWizards
How much did they cost: $63 (after a 10% discount)
Material / color: Black and clear resin with bright orange inclusions and gray smoke that are meant to look like a volcano with lava pouring out of it
Quality: Very good. Clean, no scratches/scuffs/mold marks, etc…
Readability:
Value: so-so. They looked better online than they were in person (which is happening more often lately). They’re nice but are they $60+ nice? not quite.
Overall Rating: 8/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20:
Lava d20: 3 rolls
White cats Eye d20: 13 rolls
Ten d20 rolls:
Lava d20: 1, 18, 16, 9, 10, 17, 18, 14, 19, 2 (11.4 avg)
White cats Eye d20: 13, 1, 7, 10, 14, 5, 3, 4, 20, 7 (8.4 avg)
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 12, 12, 10, 11, 11, 14 (70 total) A short-tempered Gnome Sorcerer from the Fey Wilds who is haunted by the ghosts of their forefathers
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
Casting Mental Prison at 5th level:
You attempt to bind a creature within an illusory cell that only it perceives. One creature you can see within range must make an Intelligence saving throw. The target succeeds automatically if it is immune to being charmed. On a successful save, the target takes 5d10 psychic damage, and the spell ends. On a failed save, the target takes 5d10 psychic damage, and you make the area immediately around the target’s space appear dangerous to it in some way. You might cause the target to perceive itself as being surrounded by fire, floating razors, or hideous maws filled with dripping teeth. Whatever form the illusion takes, the target can’t see or hear anything beyond it and is restrained for the spell’s duration. If the target is moved out of the illusion, makes a melee attack through it, or reaches any part of its body through it, the target takes 10d10 psychic damage, and the spell ends.
The Target takes 30 psychic damage on a successful save. On a failed save, the target takes 30 psychic damage and another 43 psychic damage if it leaves the illusion in any way.
(This is another excuse for using random tables and rolling dice)
Random Tables rolls:
Rare Zombie-infested D&D Locations: 60 – An Abandoned Wizard’s Tower – The once grand and powerful tower is now overrun by hordes of undead creatures. With its magical defenses long since broken, the only way to conquer this forsaken place is with sheer force and a steady hand.
Royal Family Drama: 14 – A fierce debate over who owns the kittens of the family cat has erupted shortly before one family member is due to move away forever.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I had higher hopes for this set. I bought the gorgeous faceted glass dice from URWizards recently and as an impulse buy I ordered two more sets of URWizards dice. I got this set and a geode set that I’ll review a few weeks from now.
Of course the website photos looked really good and I was a little disappointed with the way they looked when I opened the package. I like the lava effect but it doesn’t jump out and say “I’m a volcano!” when you first look at them. I thought that these dice would be a little bit easier to read as well. I do quite enjoy the size and the overall look of the set. They feel good to roll and they stop on the proverbial dime when you roll them. They’re just a tad over-priced, especially for a mail-order set of dice. I’d expect these to go for about $55 in a local game store and $45-$50 online. They’re nice but not “wow! look at that volcano with the lava coming out!” nice.
One nice consolation to this order was that URWizards threw in a free white cats Eye (stone) d20 with the order. It’s nearly identical to the d20s in the other sets of cats eye dice that I reviewed in post 27 “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”. only this d20 is white and has a thin TNR-ish font for the numbers instead of that unsightly “dragon” font that I don’t care for. The font on this d20 it a bit too swirly on the 2, 3, and 5 digits for my tastes but the white d20 is gorgeous. I didn’t know that white cats eye dice existed. The shimmer at certain angles looks like white satin. It’s just lovely. I’d trade both of the colored cats Eye sets in post 27 for one set of these white cats Eye dice.
Merry Xmas / Happy Holidays (and a jolly Festivus for the rest of us!). See you in 2025.
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