Yet more pretty dice from one of my favorite dice makers. Keep them coming!
Name: Forge Glow 7 piece Dice Set and additional 3d6 Alpine Lavender add-on set
Description: This is a set of sharp-edge resin polyhedral dice made of medium-dark red translucent resin with green/gold holofoil inclusions. The dice use a simple sans-serif font that looks very close to Brandon Text and are inked in black which hurts readability in all but bright light. The high face on all dice has a reverse-colorored hexagon with the number cut out of it. All edges and vertices are sharp of course. The d10s are noticeably wider at their edged waists. The d4 is a new shape that Flying HorseDuck came up with that they call the “Hex” shape which is a long rectangular prism with the four numbered faces shaped like long hexagons. Underbars are thankfully used for the 6 and 9 faces to indicate orientation. These dice are available in 9 different resin colors as well as 3 gemstone types. I chose to upgrade the d20 that came with the 7 piece set to a chonk for a small upcharge.
The set of 3d6 are in the “Alpine Lavender” colorway which is Magenta translucent resin with green/gold holofoil inclusions and the same font as above but inked in white (which is what the red set should have used in my expert opinion).
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 31.1 mm (Point->Point) 38.3 mm
d6: (Face->Face) 19.2 mm (Point->Point) 32.5 mm
Where did they come from: FlyingHorseDuck (I pledged to their Kickstarter)
How much did they cost: $ 59 ($49 and a $10 upcharge for the chonk d20) and $27 for the 3d6 add-on set.
Material / color: Full set: Ruby red transparent resin with rainbow holofoil inclusions and black numbers. 3d6 set: magenta pink transparent resin with green/gold holofoil inclusions and white numbers.
Quality: Excellent as everything I’ve bought from Flying Horseduck has been.
Readability: Forge Glow set: Poor. Black numbers on medium-dark red resin doesn’t read well in anything but bright light. Alpine Lavender set: great as expected, easily readable on the run 8 feet away
Value:
Full Set: Great value! These would sell for a good bit more in game stores. Now that the Kickstarter has ended, the price for the full set went up to $65 with the standard d20 and $79 with the upgrade to a chonk d20.
3d6 set: Not a great value. $9 for a single d6? That’s a bit rich and that’s just the Kickstarter price. The 3d6 set is now $35 in their online store.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 55 rolls (Balance issues?)
Ten d20 rolls: 15, 6, 9, 18, 18, 20, 1, 8, 20, 18 (12.3 avg)
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 12, 13, 15, 11, 7, 13 (71 total) A Soulless Human Sorcerer from a haunted forest who likes to settle arguments with head butting contests.
That 7 Wisdom though. Yikes!
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
Casting Blade of Disaster at 9th level:
You create a blade-shaped planar rift about 3 feet long in an unoccupied space you can see within range. The blade lasts for the duration. When you cast this spell, you can make up to two melee spell attacks with the blade, each one against a creature, loose object, or structure within 5 feet of the blade. On a hit, the target takes 4d12 force damage. This attack scores a critical hit if the number on the d20 is 18 or higher. On a critical hit, the blade deals an extra 8d12 force damage (for a total of 12d12 force damage).
As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the blade up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see and then make up to two melee spell attacks with it again.
The blade can harmlessly pass through any barrier, including a Wall of Force.
A creature takes 54 force damage if both attacks hit and 158 force damage if somehow both attacks are critical hits. (that’s a lot of d12 rolling)
(This is another excuse for using random tables and rolling dice)
Random Tables rolls:
Uncommon Magic Item: – 28: Deck of Miscellany.
Rare Forgotten Realm Spells: – 91: Astral Barrier: This arcane spell creates a wall of force that blocks all astral travel and teleportation within its area of effect, trapping creatures and objects on the material plane while allowing physical movement through it. It is incredibly difficult to dispel this barrier, requiring powerful magic or an incredible amount of time..
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I pledged on this Kickstarter campaign in late March of 2024 (7 months ago) so I was very happy to finally see these dice show up. I bought the dice that I’m reviewing here and also 3 more chonk d20s that I’ll review at a later date. I think this is the second Kickstarter of theirs that I’ve backed and there’s another one coming soon that I’ll be backing again (Aluminum and Titanium dice sets) which could tick one of the items off of my “white whale” dice list that’s spelled out in the first post on this site. Flying Horseduck’s dice have always been of the highest quality but they’re not sold at boutique prices. His Kickstarter campaigns go very well for him, I’d recommend getting on the Flying HorseDuck train.
Anyway back to the dice. They’re sharp edge resin dice, which is my bread and butter and they’re not only great looking and well made, they’re slightly larger than a standard set. Couple this with the option of upgrading the d20 that comes with a 7-piece set to a 31mm chonk d20 and there is nothing more to ask for.
The dice are clean, the font is very nice and the color schemes they offer are beautiful. One thing that they do that I really appreciated is that they offered a few non-standard optional dice configurations, namely:
– Single standard size d20 (fairly common)
– Single chonk d20 (not uncommon)
– Set of any 7 Chonk d20s in resin or gemstone
– Set of just d4s from all 9 different resin color ways
– Set of 3d6 of any one color way / gemstone
– Set of 3d4 of any one color way / gemstone
I love it when dice makers give this kind of purchasing flexibility. I love having a full set of 11 dice (a normal set plus an additional d20 and 3d6) but it’s hard to find sets that offer that configuration. I don’t love the hex d4 enough (or have use for that many d4s) to buy a full set of them. I love the chonk d20 option as I’m all about the chonks, which this dice review blog shows quite plainly.
Another selling point for these dice was that the person behind Flying Horseduck made it a point to change the numerical layout on these dice. He did many hours of nerdy math and statistical computer modeling / testing to come up with what he says are better balanced numbers. Instead of opposite sides of the d20 (for example) adding up to 21 (20 is opposite from 1, 19 is opposite from 2, etc…) the dice use “half sums” and “vertex sums” to better distribute the numbers across the surface of the die to avoid areas with concentrations of high or low numbers. He goes into a lot of detail of what he did on his Kickstarter page that I suggest you read if you’re interested in that sort of thing like I am. All of the dice are laid out this way, so even on the d6, 1 and 6 aren’t on opposite sides of the cube. It’s strange and I only just got these in the mail so I don’t know how I feel about the new layout yet.
Flying Horseduck are fantastic dice makers/sellers and I’ll continue to buy from them. I love their dice designs and colors. They’re high end dice without being high-price dice. They provide quality at a price point that’s not unreachable. Grab some of these up if you like what you see and get into their next Kickstarter campaign if you like Aluminum or Titanium dice. Don’t sleep on Flying Horseduck.
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