I dare you to find a nicer set of stone dice for this price!
Name: Spectrum Mysterious (Nebula) Purple Agate Dice
Description: This is a standard-size set of near-sharp stone dice. This is an extended set of dice which includes an extra 3d6 and an extra d20 in addition to the standard 7 dice. They are made in the standard shapes except for the d4 which is in the rectangular prism shape with the pyramid ends. The dice are a gorgeous deep purple color with very light purple stripes / striations / natural patterns in them The font is a very close to both Excelsior and Century Schoolbook. The font is inked in gold. There are once-again some serifs and some and little balls on the ends of the 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9s. The 6 and 9 faces use dots to indicate their orientation and the d10 and d% have edged waists. These stone dice are also available in a few other varieties / colors of Agate: (green, blue, black, red).
Size:
d20 (swirly): (Face->Face) 20.44 mm (Point->Point) 24.32 mm
d20 (subtle): (Face->Face) 20.53 mm (Point->Point) 24.76 mm
Where did they come from: A Kickstarter campaign run by the people behind DiceNest
How much did they cost: $65
Material / color: Agate stone / purple with striations
Quality: Excellent, top-tier.
Readability: Variable ranging from very good to very poor. Gold numbers with a white / light purple striated background are nigh impossible to read from more than a few inches away and dark purple backgrounds are very easy to read the gold numbers.
Value: These would be a great value for a standard set of most stone dice but these are gorgeous dice and are an extended set of 11 dice.
Overall Rating: 10/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20:
Swirly d20: 10 rolls
Subtle d20: 2 rolls
Fifty d20 rolls:
Swirly d20: 15, 12, 16, 6, 13, 1, 7, 6, 1, 8, 18, 18, 1, 4, 9, 10, 10, 18, 4, 16, 8, 20, 10, 9, 5, 18, 3, 19, 15, 4, 8, 1, 6, 20, 18, 10, 19, 7, 12, 1, 7, 3, 18, 3, 8, 11, 2, 6, 5, 8
Mean: 9.54
Median: 8
Mode: 18
Subtle d20: 7, 5, 15, 16, 15, 1, 20, 11, 6, 5, 4, 14, 3, 4, 14, 4, 12, 1, 18, 18, 16, 10, 14, 10, 17, 8, 11, 9, 12, 5, 12, 14, 15, 18, 10, 5, 16, 4, 16, 12, 7, 18, 15, 3, 15, 18, 15, 14, 12, 12
Mean: 11.12
Median: 12
Mode: 12, 15
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 12, 15, 13, 18, 6, 16 (80 total) A Sensitive Elf Warlock from a super-religious upbringing who believes Plate armor is just a sign of being posh and over-privileged
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
Casting Crown of Stars at 9th level: Seven star-like motes of light appear and orbit your head until the spell ends. You can use a bonus action to send one of the motes streaking toward one creature or object within 120 feet of you. When you do so, make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 4d12 radiant damage. Whether you hit or miss, the mote is expended. The spell ends early if you expend the last mote. If you have four or more motes remaining, they shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. If you have one to three motes remaining, they shed dim light in a 30-foot radius.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 8th level or higher, the number of motes created increases by two for each slot level above 7th
11 Star attacks against a Dragon Turtle (CR 17) as a 20th level Warlock with a 20 Charisma… who had Foresight cast upon her (all attacks are at advantage):
1) 9 + 11 = 20 HIT. 4d12 = 34 damage
2) 16 + 11 = 27 HIT. 4d12 = 32 damage
3) 6 + 11 = 17 MISS!
4) 13 + 11 = 24 HIT. 4d12 = 23 damage
5) 17 + 11 = 28 HIT. 4d12 = 25 damage
6) 6 + 11 = 17 MISS.
7) 20 + 11 = 31 CRIT!! 4d12 x 2 = 68 damage
8) 20 + 11 = 31 CRIT!! 4d12 x 2 = 62 damage
9) 17 + 11 = 28 HIT. 4d12 = 30 damage
10) 14 + 11 = 25 HIT. 4d12 = 30 damage
11) 11 + 11 = 22 HIT. 4d12 = 26 damage
Total: 330 damage and the Dragon Turtle is nearly dead with 11 HP remaining… This is assuming that the warlock was able to keep more than 60 feet away from the Dragon Turtle for 11 rounds of combat and doesn’t just get demolished with the monster’s 3 attacks per round. Maybe flying / levitating 100′ above the Dragon Turtle could work?
(This is another very far-fetched excuse for rolling dice)
Random Tables rolls:
Horses: 78 – Hammerhead: A normal-seeming horse gifted with an abnormally hard head. Instead of stamping on enemies, it bludgeons them with its head.
Small Familiars: 6 – A clockwork badger. Dig speed 30 feet, will straight up ruin the day of anything it doesn’t like.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I saw a Kickstarter campaign for these dice shortly after the Wyrmwood Diceapalooza Kickstarter closed and I thought about it for a few days. It was from a dice seller that I hadn’t heard of before who I believe is in Hong Kong (the payment was shown in HKD anyway). I thought I had about a 50/50 chance of this being a one-off scam. The dice in the kickstarter images were lovely looking so I eventually gave in and ordered a set of purple Agate dice. It turned out that the campaign was completely legitimate and the dice showed up on-time and even better looking than I’d hoped. As much as I was disappointed in the Wyrmwood dice, I was equally surprised with the quality and punctuality of these dice.
at 20.5mm, they are slightly larger than “standard” size, so that’s nice. The deep purple color is very lovely and the variation of the striping (striations) on almost all of the dice is awesome. The stripes are all light purple and almost white. Most of the dice have thin stripes. I love it that one of the d20s has very minimal striping and the other d20 has huge white stripes. There are only two dice that have minimal stripe patterns, the d12 and one of the d20s. The variation in the striping across the full set of dice is fantastic.
The font that they used isn’t great, it’s thin and basic with little ball ends. Using gold for the font is an unfortunate necessity for dice makers I guess. I’d love a thicker less frilly font in white, light blue, or even yellow. Maybe one of the other gorgeous colorways would look better with a gold font, but overall I almost never want gold or silver fonts.
It’s awesome that this set came with an extra 3d6 and an extra d20. I’d say that this is the perfect configuration of dice to sell in a set. I love rolling 4d6 all at once to generate character stats in D&D. It’s the best way to do it. The clacky sound of these dice is nice as well. I know that stone dice can be fairly fragile and just as I was typing this paragraph, one of the d6s chipped two little pieces off when I rolled 4d6 together. There goes the perfect opinion I had of this set. Actually I didn’t know that the set would include the extra 3d6 and extra d20 so maybe I should look at them as spares.
The dice came in a nice leather box that holds the standard set of 7 and then it also included a strange leather pouch with a snap and cord closure. Given how fragile stone dice can be, I couldn’t imagine keeping dice loose in a pouch like that to rattle around and rub against each other. It’s bad enough keeping them in a plastic divided box that barely ever moves. The pouch would be for most other dice but I’d never put stone/glass dice in there. We’ll see if I ever use it.
Overall, absolutely love these dice. They’re gorgeous, arrived on-time, come in other great colors and they weren’t expensive at all. I worry a little bit about how fragile they are now that one just chipped. If they don’t crumble apart with gentle use, they’re a top tier set in my book. I’ll update this review with any changes in the health of this set and lower the rating appropriately.
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