Dice glossary

Roll two d20s and keep the higher result. It raises your average roll from 10.5 to 13.83.

An attack that rolls the maximum on its die, usually a natural 20, and deals extra damage by rolling the damage dice twice.

Shorthand for a percentile roll, meaning the same thing as d100.

A four-sided die, shaped as a tetrahedron. It has no top face, so you read the number at the bottom edge.

A six-sided die, the cube found in every board game. Opposite faces always add to seven.

A twenty-sided die, shaped as an icosahedron. The centre of most tabletop roleplaying systems.

The written form of a roll, such as 2d6 or 4d6kh3. The number before the d is how many dice, the number after it is how many sides.

A roll where many dice are thrown at once and successes are counted rather than the dice being added together.

Roll two d20s and keep the lower result. It drops your average roll from 10.5 to 7.18.

Discard the smallest die in a roll before totalling. Written dl, as in 4d6dl1, and identical in effect to keeping the highest three.

A die that rolls again every time it lands on its highest face, adding each new roll to the total. Written with an exclamation mark.

Roll several dice and total only the largest ones. Written kh, as in 4d6kh3.

Roll several dice and total only the smallest ones. Written kl, as in 2d20kl1.

A flat number added to or subtracted from the total once, not once per die. The +7 in 1d20+7 is a modifier.

A d20 showing 1 before any modifier. As likely as a natural 20, and considerably less welcome.

A d20 showing 20 before any modifier is added. It happens 5% of the time, or 9.75% with advantage.

A roll from 1 to 100, made either with one d100 or with two d10s read as tens and units. Double zero reads as 100.

The seven dice used in tabletop roleplaying: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and a percentile d10.

The set of dice thrown together in a single roll, before any keep or drop rule is applied.

Throwing a die again and using the new result, usually because a rule or ability permits it.

The result you need to meet or beat for a roll to succeed. On a d20 each point of target number is worth exactly 5%.