I really should have looked much closer at these dice before I bought them
Name: Ironworks Witches Heart Alloy Metal Polyhedral 7 dice set
Description: This is a set of sharp-edge metal dice from Norse Foundry. They are made of black painted metal with captive faces and mint green inked numbers. The font is very similar to the Century font family only bolder, without thin necks on the 2, and 5 and without the extreme narrowing on the 6/8/9. The d10s have edged waists and the 6 and 9 faces use dots to indicate their orientation. The dice came in a cheap cardboard box with a plastic film window and a piece of black foam inside to hold the dice. The box did not photograph well.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 19.75 mm (Point->Point) 24.40 mm
Where did they come from: Norse Foundry (bought at Guardian Games in Portland)
How much did they cost: $35
Material / color: Metal (Zinc) painted black with mint green ink
Quality: Fair
Readability: Decent
Value: Poor
Overall Rating: 6/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 3Fifty One Hundred d20 rolls: 10, 12, 16, 11, 4, 9, 2, 3, 8, 17, 10, 17, 5, 12, 20, 10, 5, 2, 12, 13, 19, 14, 12, 20, 19, 19, 5, 14, 5, 5, 15, 9, 6, 2, 2, 3, 20, 13, 15, 12, 4, 17, 19, 4, 1, 2, 17, 16, 17, 9, 1, 17, 16, 5, 3, 2, 19, 5, 17, 5, 9, 12, 4, 20, 2, 2, 19, 20, 4, 5, 2, 2, 5, 4, 4, 15, 11, 10, 19, 19, 15, 16, 19, 17, 16, 12, 6, 3, 1, 1, 6, 10, 20, 4, 16, 14. 17, 16, 15, 1
Mean: 10.36
Median: 10.5
Mode: 2, 5
Chi-square: 52.50 **
Result: Unbalanced!
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 17, 18, 14, 11, 12, 10 (82 total) An apathetic Elf fighter from teh Valley Of The Giants who was, until recently, employed to run a dungeon
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
A 20th level Arcane Archer Fighter with: maxed DEX, the Lucky, Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert, Elven Accuracy, and Magic Initiate feats. The fighter wields a +1 Heavy Crossbow while riding a warhorse. She is fighting against a Pit Fiend
The Fighter begins her attacks from 90′ away (starting out stupid already)…
Fighter: Bonus Action: Casts Hex on the Pit Fiend
Fighter Attack #1: 18 + 14 – 5 = 27 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 4d6 + 1d6 = 42 Damage**
Fighter Attack #2: 14 + 14 – 5 = 23 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 23 Damage
Fighter Attack #3: 17* + 14 – 5 = 26 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 27 Damage
Fighter Attack #4: 14 + 14 – 5 = 23 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 24 Damage
Action Surge!
Fighter Attack #5: 9* + 14 – 5 = 18 MISS!
Fighter Attack #6: 19 + 14 – 5 = 27 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 19 Damage
Fighter Attack #7: 13 + 14 – 5 = 22 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 26 Damage
Fighter Attack #8: 12 + 14 – 5 = 21 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 26 Damage
Pit Fiend: casts Fireball: Fighter: 9 + 5 = 14 fails the saving throw: 31 Damage
Pit Fiend: moves 30′ closer to the Fighter.
Fighter Attack #1: 18 + 14 – 5 = 26 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 30 Damage
Fighter Attack #2: 19 + 14 – 5 = 27 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 27 Damage
Fighter Attack #3: 15* + 14 – 5 = 24 HIT! 1d10 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 1d6 = 23 Damage
Fighter Attack #4: 20 + 14 – 5 = 29 CRIT! (1d10 + 4d6 + 1 + 1d6) * 2 + 5 + 10 = 60 damage**
* = Used 1 luck point
** = Used an Arcane Bursting arrow
Total: 328 damage and the Pit Fiend is destroyed
This was one of my more unrealistic scenarios. Somehow the Pit Fiend with 120′ of Truesight and a moderate passive perception didn’t notice the fighter sneaking up on it riding an ARMORED HORSE until the crossbow bolts began to fly. The bonus action Hex at the start of combat ended up adding a total of 11d6 damage to the attacks. I used her first Arcane Bursting arrow early and then held off on the second one to wait for a crit. She burned up two of her three luck points and one Action Surge in two rounds to absolutely unleash a world of shit on the Pit Fiend before it could close the distance on her to get it’s four heavy hitting attacks per round. Elven Accuracy while on a mount is just silly (technically the Pit Fiend has to be smaller than the warhorse for her to get advantage while mounted). Also, getting SIX! ASI/feat opportunities as fighter by 20th level is hilarious.
Random Tables rolls:
Wild Magic Table: – 02 Your Skin turns a random color determined by your DM. A remove curse ends the effect.
Spell Corruption Table: – 17 Your Magic Veins are bleeding. Any spell you cast from now to a Short/Long Rest will cause you to take 1d12 damage X the level of the spell you cast.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I was driving through Portland, OR again and stopped at my favorite game store: Guardian Games. They sell all of the big TTRPG systems, Warhammer, Minis, paint, board games that normal people play, etc… They also have a very nice dice selection. Most game stores don’t stock much in the way of dice. Every time I go into Guardian Games they have a fresh selection of dice and they stock dice from places that I normally don’t shop so it’s often dice that I haven’t seen online before. I usually walk out of there with a few sets of dice. They are also not shy about carrying standard size and chonk d20s. I’m saying all of this because it makes me happy. Also to remind you that if you’re reading this and are ever traveling through Portland, OR, pop in to Guardian Games and see what they have in stock.
So this set of dice was in the glass counter. They were packaged in a paper box with foam inserts inside. They looked pretty good through the plastic window in the box and I didn’t look any closer than that. I really like the color combination of black and mint-green. It reminds me of the black/green theme that was used in the first Matrix movie. Being a nerd (surprise!) this has always been a favorite of mine. I didn’t notice that the dice were in rough shape, or rather… poorly made. I don’t fault Guardian Games for it. If they noticed, they were probably annoyed by it and just hoping that someone would buy them without catching it so that they didn’t have to take the loss.
I don’t love captive face dice in general (the numbers on the d20 get so tiny) but with the colors and the vaguely sci-fi look of these dice, I was willing to take a chance. The mint green contrasts so well on the black faces of the dice that they should be pretty readable even for captive face dice.
I’m disappointed in all of the flaws that I found on these dice, it’s rare that you buy dice with such obvious issues. I ran into creased mold lines recently with a set of dice from UR Wizards (see post: #098 “The Perfect Kiss”) and while the company was initially receptive to the problem and said that they’d replace my flawed dice, I have yet to see any action from them.
I’m not going to complain to Norse Foundry about this set of dice. It’s not worth the hassle. I think I’d have to try to return them to Guardian Games, which I don’t want to do. If I look at them from a distance, they look good enough and the flaws are difficult to see. They look very clean until you get a close view of them.
These are probably in the worst condition of any new dice that I’ve ever purchased. I could have taken a dozen more photos to showcase several more flaws in the dice. The only die without any substantial flaws was the d8 oddly. I’ll still put these in the rotation and probably pull them out if the mood catches me or if I’m picking dice to suit a specific feel for the character or game I’m playing. I could see using them with my Stars of Auriga set for a sci-fi themed TTRPG or something.
They roll fine and they feel good in your hands. With all of the chips on the edges though I worry that they’re more fragile than most other zinc dice are, so I’ll have to keep that in mind.
I can’t recommend these dice with all of their flaws and being unbalanced but I strongly recommend Guardian Games and many of their other dice offerings.
** 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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