Dice Problems

[basejump77]

Will someone please explain to me the meaning of 2d4 on your weaponry? I mean which is better 2D4 sword or a 1d8 sword? Please help.

[pritchke]

I believe 2d4 is better the max you can hit is 8 for both but with 2d4 the lowest you can hit is 2 with one 1d8 you can roll 1's all the time. I think the first number is number of die rolled and the 2nd number is the sides.

[Dundee Slaytern]

pritchke is correct.

1d8 means one eight-sided dice.

2d4 means two four-sided dice.

[Legolas]

The D8 die will occasionally do only 1 damage, but has a better chance of rolling the maximum of 8 as well.
With the 2D4 dice there's a far greater chance of rolling an average of 5.

Statistically, you'll roll a 2 or an 8 half as often as you would with a single D8, you'd roll the 3's and 7's just as much as you would on a D8. The five's rolled twice as often as it would be on a regular eight-sided die.

Also statistically, the average damage a D8 will do per roll is 4.5, the 2D4 will do an average of 5 damage. So the 2D4 damage is better, although that's not because you can't roll any 1s on it.

[SirWillow]

yeah, what Legolas said! hehe. Great analysis there.

The biggest difference is the average damage you're going to do. You're much more likely to roll a middle range of damage with the 2d4 weapon than you are with a 1d8. You're also more likely to roll the max and min damage with a 1d8 weapon than you are the 2d4.

For what's it's worth, if I've got the choice of damage, I tend to go with the 1d8 more often just because I like the higher odds of getting the max damage from the weapons. But they're both going to do a pretty similar amount over the long run.

[pritchke]

To be more precise in terms of higest and lowest you have 1/16 of a chance to get a 1 or a 8 on 2D4 but it is only 1/8 of a chance on a 1d8. The reson your odds go up for the middle numbers in a 2d4 is because of the different possible combinations of numbers you can roll with the two dice. For example to roll a 5 you have 4 possible out comes to get this number of all possible 16 outcomes which is 1/4 chance.

I believe the odds are:
4,6 = 3/16
7,3 = 1/8
2,8 = 1/16
5 = 1/4

Anyway with the 1d8 the odds are always 1/8 and if your unlucky you will come up on the short end I would rather take my chances with the 2D4.

[ 11-25-2002, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Seraph]

You can ignore this post if you like, the issue has been corrected.

"4,5,6 = 1/4
2,7,3 = 1/8
1,8 = 1/16"

1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/16 = 1 + 1/4
Also, cant get a '1' on a 2D4.

Its
2(1,1) = 1/16
3(2,1;1,2) = 2/16
4(3,1;2,2;1,3) = 3/16
5(4,1;3,2;2,3;1,4) = 4/16
6(4,2;3,3;2,4) = 3/16
7(4,3;3,4) = 2/16
4,4) = 1/16

[ 11-25-2002, 06:29 PM: Message edited by: Seraph ]

[pritchke]

You are right I edited my previous post. Note to self: Don't try to do all possible combinations in your head while at work or you will leave yourself prone to errors.

[Seraph]

Note to self: Don't try to do all possible combinations in your head while at work or you will leave yourself prone to errors.

I would have thought you would be better off noteing that if your doing probability like that, and they add up to something other then 100%, then your doing something bad.

To each his own I guess.

[Dundee Slaytern]

More mathematical fun.

For a 1d8, it is a 1/8 chance for all the possible values from 1-8.

So... the true average damage is as follows,

( 1 * 1/8 ) + ( 2 * 1/8 ) + ( 3 * 1/8 ) + ( 4 * 1/8 ) + ( 5 * 1/8 ) + ( 6 * 1/8 ) + ( 7 * 1/8 ) + ( 8 * 1/8 ) = 4.5

For a 2d4, it is a bit trickier, the true average damage is as follows,

( 2 * 1/16 ) + ( 3 * 1/8 ) + ( 4 * 3/16 ) + ( 5 * 1/4 ) + ( 6 * 3/16 ) + ( 7 * 1/8 ) + ( 8 * 1/16 ) =

0 + 1/8 + 3/8 + 3/4 + 5/4 + 9/8 + 7/8 + 1/2 = 5

[ 11-26-2002, 05:59 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]