If you find yourself in a situation in Dungeons and Dragons where you have to roll a d100, then you might be scratching your head wondering just how you can do that. 100-sided dice are rare and you’re not likely to have one at hand. So how exactly can you roll a d-100?
If you find yourself wondering about this, then you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’re going to be giving you the lowdown on how to roll a d100.
We’ll take you through some of the easiest ways to calculate this roll, and how some of the most common mistakes players make! We’ve also included a short Frequently Asked Questions section to cover some of the most common questions around this issue.
When Will I Need To Roll A D100?
If you’re new to D&D you probably haven’t come across a D100 before. They are used for many different reasons but generally, you’ll find them used when attempting to calculate percentages within a battle.
Percentages typically come about when determining either saving throws or large damage numbers.
Uses
A lot of the main uses for a D100 are for a DM, rather than for a player. DMs can use d100’s to work out some of the more complicated aspects of the game. Below are a list of some of the most common.
Potion Mixing: when mixing potions there is often a random element. This can determine the kind of potion that comes out the other end.
D100s can be used to determine these random elements through percentage. This is often something your DM will do behind their game board and isn’t something you’ll need to worry about as a player.
It is, however, possible that your DM has some additional rules to help you get involved, particularly if you are playing as an alchemist.
Random Movement: Random movement can occur from a few different sources. The most common is teleportation, in which your character might travel a random distance.
A D100 can be used to help you work this out. Random movement can also occur from potions or enemy spells, or other abilities such as gnomish bolts.
Random Item Abilities: Similar to random movement, some items have random effects that you might need to calculate through percentage. This can be done with a D100 die.
Rolling A Physical 100-Sided Die
There isn’t much to explain about this first method. To put it bluntly, if you are in possession of a physical 100-sided die then you won’t have to worry too much about calculating anything.
You can simply use the die as you would any other, although it is likely to be a lot bulkier and feature a lot more numbers.
What Do I Do If I Don’t Have A Physical 100-Sided Die?
Online Tools: This is probably the most simple way of finding a way to make use of a 100 sided die. All you have to do is find an online 10 sided die and allow it to generate the roll for you.
Simple enough, and could be a quick fix to your issue if you have a phone with internet access available. Websites such as Rolladie.net give you the chance to do this without any difficulty!
Calculating: This is probably why you’ve clicked on this article. How do you calculate this yourself without use of an online tool or a physical 100-sided die?
Well, it gets a little bit more complicated when you have to do this. Players generally solve this by separating your rolls into decimal places.
For example, you can use 2d10 and assign one of them as the tens decimal place, and the other to be the single-digit number. So let’s say you roll 2d10 and get a 3 and a 5. The 3 would become thirty and the 5 simply stay as five, meaning you rolled 35!
It’s super simple and all you need to do! Just make sure you properly assign each dice roll and that everyone in the game knows, as this will help stop any arguments!
Final Thoughts
So there you have it! Rolling a D100 is not likely to be something you’ll come across in a common game of D&D, but it is something that you’ll need to consider once every now and then.
Players generally don’t need to worry about it, but if you’re in a campaign that has never had to consider it before, and the issue arises, then you have the opportunity to save the day with your new knowledge!
We hope that this article has given you some insight into larger dice rolls and that you now feel a lot more confident about the whole thing.
Generally, you’re going to have a way to roll a dice number no matter how high! Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and hope that the roll favors your character!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rolling A 20 Good In D&D?
Rolling a 20 is what we call a natural 20. This means that your character has performed the ability check perfectly, or much above their own ability. If you roll a natural 20 it generally means that you automatically check the pass that you’re attempting.
However, it is worth noting that a natural 20 doesn’t make you a god! For example, if you ask your DM if your character can fly up into the air, pick everyone in your party up and lift them all to safety – it’s very unlikely that this will be allowed.
Your DM might ask you to roll, but no matter what you roll this won’t be possible as it’s too unlikely within the story.
But as with all things in the game, the open-ended nature of D&D makes it worth a try, right?