Wooden dice sets are hard to find. These are a pretty good starting point
Name: Layered Multicolor Wood Dice Set
Description: This is a set of 7 sharp-edge wooden dice made from various colors of wood layered and pressed together. The numbers are inked in white. The font is Arial. The boring Temu/Alibaba Helvetica knock off that is Arial. At least it’s not Papyrus. The 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate their orientation. The d10s have beveled waists and the vertices on the d6 have been rounded off a little bit.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 20.43mm (Point->Point) 24.83mm
Where did they come from: Viridian Dice
How much did they cost: $35 (on sale)
Material / color: Wood, brown, black, green, red, yellow, blue
Quality: Pretty good
Readability: Very good
Value: Good
Overall Rating: 8/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 13Fifty One Hundred d20 rolls: 11, 2, 18, 13, 19, 2, 11, 10, 1, 12, 20, 20, 1, 18, 6, 15, 18, 13, 6, 20, 17, 2, 11, 7, 19, 12, 9, 17, 14, 6, 20, 1, 10, 3, 6, 19, 10, 1, 3, 6, 15, 17, 11, 10, 19, 4, 12, 1, 8, 2, 19, 18, 17, 12, 3, 19, 6, 2, 19, 8, 2, 7, 8, 14, 17, 3, 19, 10, 11, 15, 6, 18, 10, 17, 16, 4, 5, 8, 2, 11, 3, 14, 4, 13, 17, 16, 3, 5, 1, 15, 1, 6, 1, 13, 11, 1, 1, 4, 18, 3
Mean: 10.04
Median: 10
Mode: 1
Chi-square: 22.80 **
Result: Balanced
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 13, 11, 18, 13, 13, 13 (81 total!) A Resourceful Half-Orc Druid from an underground city who is convinced they’re always being left out
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
Casting Erupting Earth at 9th level:
Erupting Earth: Choose a point you can see on the ground within range. A fountain of churned earth and stone erupts in a 20-foot cube centered on that point. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d12 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Additionally, the ground in that area becomes difficult terrain until cleared away. Each 5-foot-square portion of the area requires at least 1 minute to clear by hand.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d12 for each slot level above 3rd.
9d12 damage = 8, 2, 6, 12, 4, 3, 10, 7, 11, 11, 11, 10 = 95 bludgeoning damage on a failed DEX save or 47 on success (unless you have Evasion, you filthy Monks and Rogues!)
That’s not too bad for a 9th level spell if you can get a good group of enemies in a 20-foot cube.
Random Tables rolls:
Rare Forgotten Realms spells: – 16 Prismatic Shield: This spell creates a shimmering, rainbow-colored barrier of magical energy around the caster, protecting them from all forms of physical and magical attacks. The shield can last for up to an hour or until it is dispelled by the caster or another powerful force.
Fascinating Stores and shops: – 42 Ninth Level: Hell themed. Run by a demon or devil. Opportunity to buy existing contracts or forge a new one.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I’ve been half-heartedly looking for a wood set of dice for a while now. I’ve seen other sets that are made from relatively plain wood that look bland. The bland wood and knowing how light they’re going to be usually dissuades me from buying them. I like the color of this set with the different pressed woods. It reminds me of the wood that they used to (maybe still do?) make skateboard decks out of that I used to ride every day. The boards weren’t this colorful and usually had a lighter color wood for most of the layers but there’s still a touch of nostalgia when I see these dice. I have a chonk d20 that’s made from a very similar wood composition (see post #060 “Would I Lie To You?”). I like the color and feel of that d20, mostly because it’s a chonk and chonk d20s are the 2nd best dice ever. (The best shape is the Rhombic d12). The chonk d20s in that review are my “cheater” dice because I suspect that they are off-balance and lean toward rolling 20s. I can’t prove it but I had some odd rolls white writing that review and also while using them since then.
Getting back on track…. I like the color and feel of the wood but these dice are unfortunately on the smaller side. If they were 50% larger, they’d be on a whole other level. One of my friends who is in my D&D group / plays at the table with me has a gorgeous set of jumbo wooden dice. I tried to find them online but the company doesn’t make them any more as far as I could tell. Her wooden dice set are big, very clean and come in their own custom wooden case. Another player in our group has lamented on occasion about not being able to find a good set of wooden dice. I’ll be curious to see what he thinks of these dice when I bring them to the table <checks calendar> tonight! (Update: He liked them but not enough that he wanted to get a set for himself)
This set has good readability. They can easily be read from 8′ away on the rug. They all have fairly sharp edges / corners except for the vertices on the d6 which have been rounded off. I’m not sure why they went that way with the d6 but I’m not mad about it. I guess it rolls a little better with the rounded corners. The dice are very light overall as you’d expect from a set of wooden dice. Some of the faces on the d6 and d12 have minor alignment issues with the numbers unforunately. They’re a tad slanted or off-center in the face. This is not uncommon for dice that have printed numbers instead of cast or milled numbers.
Overall I like this set but I’m not sure how much use they’ll get or if I’ll get another set of non-jumbo wooden dice. These are light and small enough that I could just leave them in my D&D bag and forget about them. I could just take them out when I need them or when I remember that they’re in the bag. We’ll see what happens. It’s probably dependent on how they roll the next time I’m at the table. At least they were a pretty good deal at $35 (on sale).
** I’ve added a new value to the reviews called “Chi-square” which is a calculation of the difference between of the number of times each value was rolled in the d20 roll test compared to the number of times each value would be rolled in a perfectly equal roll test. (perfectly equal means every value comes up the same number of times, or [total number of rolls / number of sides on the die]) Chi-square gives a sense of how far away from the statistical average the results of the d20 roll test were. It’s not a perfect measure of a die’s balance and fairness but it’s a good step in that direction. More information about die fairness / balance roll testing can be found here: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/70802/how-can-i-test-whether-a-die-is-fair
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