What would you do if a dragon looked back at you after each roll?
Name: Metal Dice Set Epic Dragon, Silver and Red
Description: This is a set of above-average size metal sharp edged dice. Tthe edges are silver and textured and the faces are carved out to have dragon eyes and the number on the larger faces and a very tiny version of a dragon eye which is obscured by the number on the d20 face. The faces are mostly colored red with the color rubbed off on the highest points of the face so that some of the detail and the numbers stand out better. The numbers are made by carving out the material around them so that they stand up and out of the design in a 3-dimensional way. The faces of the numbers are the same silver color as the edges of the dice as they’ve had the red color rubbed off of them. The font is something very gothic with similarities to Alpengeist but my font-finder doesn’t isn’t coming up with much else that has a one with a foot, a kinked two, three, and five, a seven with a curved stem, and a zero with straight sides. The d10s have smoothed beveled waists. The 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate their orientation.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 22.45 mm (Point->Point) 28.42 mm
Where did they come from: Dark Elf Dice
How much did they cost: $25
Material / color: Metal (Zinc) Silver and red
Quality: Excellent
Readability: Passable. I can’t read them from more than 2-3 feet away
Value: Fantastic. They are (probably permanently) marked down from $40 to $25. Almost a steal.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 13
Fifty d20 rolls: 12, 7, 15, 17, 12, 6, 20, 14, 1, 5, 6, 15, 4, 8, 4, 1, 3, 4, 14, 5, 8, 19, 4, 15, 5, 20, 1, 19, 1, 9, 13, 8, 15, 3, 5, 11, 13, 20, 4, 14, 9, 2, 7, 6, 20, 1, 9, 17, 15, 19
Mean: 9.7
Median: 5.8
Mode: 1, 4, 15
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 10, 9, 14, 11, 13, 4 (61 total) A Respectful Tiefling Cleric from a forgotten Elven monastery who was written out of their family will.
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
A 20th level Death domain Cleric with maxed WIS and Belt of Storm Giant Strength and the GWM feat fighting against a CR 20 ancient white dragon:
Channel Divinity: Touch of Death Starting at 2nd level, you can use Channel Divinity to destroy another creature’s life force by touch. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can use Channel Divinity to deal extra necrotic damage to the target. The damage equals 5 + twice your cleric level.
Divine Strike: At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with necrotic energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 necrotic damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
The cleric approaches the dragon and casts Blade Barrier in a ring around the dragon. The Cleric attacks first with it’s war hammer:
Cleric: 11 + 15 – 5 = 21 HIT! 1d10 + 9 + 10 + 2d8 + 1d8 + 45 = 91 damage
Dragon saving throw for: Blade Barrier: Legendary Resistance: success
Dragon only takes 20 damage
Cleric is now behind 3/4 cover, AC = 17 + 5 = 22
Dragon Tail: 19 + 14 = 33 HIT! 17 bludgeoning = 17 damage
Dragon Bite: 14 + 14 = 28 HIT! 19 piercing + 9 cold = 28 damage
Dragon Claw: 19 + 14 = 33 HIT! 13 slashing = 13 damage
Dragon Claw: 4 + 14 = 18 MISS!
Cleric: 19 + 15 – 5 = 29 HIT! 1d10 + 9 + 10 + 2d8 + 1d8 + 45 = 92 damage
Dragon saving throw for: Blade Barrier: Legendary Resistance: success
Dragon only takes 20 damage
Dragon Wing: Cleric fails saving throw. 15 Bludgeoning = 15 damage
Dragon Bite: 19 + 14 = 33 HIT! 19 piercing + 9 cold = 28 damage
Dragon Claw: 1 + 14 = 15 MISS!
Dragon Claw: 4 + 11 = 18 MISS!
Cleric: 12 + 15 – 5 = 22 HIT! 1d10 + 9 + 10 + 2d8 + 1d8 + 45 = 82 damage
Dragon is out of the blade barrier, Cleric AC = 17
Dragon Tail: 8 + 14 = 22 HIT! 17 bludgeoning = 17 damage
Dragon Bite: 2 + 14 = 16 MISS!
Dragon Claw: 17 + 14 = 31 HIT! 13 slashing = 13 damage
Dragon Claw: 1 + 14 = 15 MISS!
Cleric: 14 + 15 – 5 = 24 HIT! 1d10 + 9 + 10 + 2d8 + 1d8 = 38 damage
Total: 343 damage and the dragon is felled.
Again, this is unrealistic and not how Keith Ammann would suggest you play a dragon (The Monsters Know What They’re Doing) but it’s fun to do all of the rolling. The Cleric ran out of Channel Divinity after the 3rd round so no more extra 45 damage each hit. Rolling a crit would have been around 120 – 130 damage for the Cleric. Wouldn’t that be nice to pull off in-game.
Random Tables rolls:
Legendary Eberron items: 95 – Sword of the Silver Flame: A longsword forged by a group of paladins and clerics to fight against evil in all its forms. The blade is made of silver and has a series of runes etched into it that glow with holy power when activated. It grants the wielder an increased ability to resist magical effects, and its swings are capable of banishing evil creatures from this plane of existence.
The Chaos Bauble: 72 – A cat appears in your arms. The cat is hostile.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I’ve had these dice for a while and I forgot how nice they are. I rarely ever take them out because they’re not easy to read. I really should bring them to the game more often though. They clomp around when they roll because they’re nice and heavy, which I enjoy. They make the great <thonk!> sound in the dice tray (dents in the wood sides be damned!). The carved out sides are very pretty and the filigree on the vertices with the scalloped edges really make them catch your eye.
I really should get these in other colors. I just looked on Dark Elf’s website and they come in a few other colors, none of which are really setting my FOMO brain on fire though, and they’re still on sale for $25. That’s a great deal for this level of detail on a set of nice metal dice. These would easily sell for $50 in my Local Game Store (LGS).
The only downsides that I can see with these dice are: 1) They are hard to see from further than right in front of you in decent light, and 2) the rolls felt a little bit too clumped around the 1, 4, and 15 faces. I probably make between 5 – 20 d20 rolls per session and I spread that out over the dozen or so d20s that I have at the table, so do my dice need to be perfectly balanced? Probably not. Do I get in the habit of asking myself questions and then answering them? Yes I do. Should you (the reader) go out and buy a set of these dice? I feel like the answer to that is a resounding “yes, you should”. Just think about how well your Death domain Cleric could do against an ancient dragon with these dice.
Leave a Reply