What would you use a d4 and d12 for?

[ferratus]

The most unloved dice in the game are the d4 and the d12. What would you use them for so that they can see more action in the game if you were designing your own old school D&D clone?

 

[amysrevenge]

Depends on your version. In 4E I use d12s all the time.

 

[Rykion]

The d4 makes a perfect caltrop. The d12 works well as a random hour generator.

 

[caudor]

The d4 makes a perfect caltrop. The d12 works well as a random hour generator.

Once again, someone beat me to the punch

I have stepped on a d4 with bare feet. And it hurts like hell. d4s really are better weapons than they are dice.

 

[Vorput]

The d4 makes a perfect caltrop.

The initiation ceremony to join our group always began with The Walk of a Thousand d4s.

 

[Celebrim]

The most unloved dice in the game are the d4 and the d12. What would you use them for so that they can see more action in the game if you were designing your own old school D&D clone?

I would use d4's where I wanted low variation in the mechanic and an average result of 2.5 per die. I would use d12's where I wanted high variation and an average result of 6.5 of per die.

So, for example, if I was starting from scratch, a spell that produced a cloud of fire would probably have d4 denominated damage, representing everything being roughly evenly cooked. A spell that on the other hand flung shards of metal about would probably have d12 denominated damage, representing random variation in the size and density of the shards that hit you. We could keep these spells roughly balanced in terms of damage output.

For example, the firecloud spell of a certain wizard might do 12d4 damage, for an average of 30. The schrapnel blast spell of the same wizard might do 4d12 damage, for an average of 26 or perhaps 6d12 damage for an average of 39 (with the choice being based on how relatively easy it was to protect against fire and physical damage).

In 1e where dice often lived in isolation (no modifiers), I often used different combinations of dice purely to get a slowly advancing increment of improvement, as in:

1d10 < 1d6+1d4 < 1d12 < 2d6 < 3d4 < 2d6+1

to represent increasingly dangerous claw attacks (for example).

And sometimes were the modifiers are fixed, you just use increasing die size to represent increasing magnitude. 3e does this with HD and weapons, for example.

 

[noffham]

I combined them. One of the dice dealers at Gen Con has a d12 with the digits 1-4 repeated three times; a less dangerous d4 that actually rolls!

 

[Oni]

I thought about changing Hit die to 1d4, 1d4+1, 1d4+2, 1d4+3, et c. to par down the results of extreme rolls, while still maintaining some variability. It also feeds into a multi-classing system that I've been trying to make workable the d4's are based highest level as the HD for non-combatants, and then the bonus can be added by taking levels in a semi combatant or combatant class like thief or fighter.

I got nothin' for the d12, sorry.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

actually i fear one d4 more than 1000 ....

 

[Celebrim]

I combined them. One of the dice dealers at Gen Con has a d12 with the digits 1-4 repeated three times; a less dangerous d4 that actually rolls!

Nice. I want one of those.