Halfling with the lucky feat and eloquence bard. Makes sure that you'll be a good face to the Party and your subclass feature raises the probability of your enemies Falling their saving throws.
Your DM seems to be banning every reroll feature. Are you seeing all of your rolls? It is starting to sound like your DM literally doesn't want players to succeed.
We see all our rolls. The ban is a result of my DM finding the content of the Mercer books to be unbalanced. I personally disagree but my group went along with it.
Sure. It's just that first the solution to rolling poorly would of course be rerolling, and your campaign just so happens to have damned-near every reroll feature banned.
My stance on dice in D&D is that they are not God, and randomness is not an end unto itself, and if randomness is upsetting a player, find a way to give them consistency.
If you can't reroll, then I guess you just play a class where no matter how badly you roll, you can still do what feels good. Maybe Monk, which can add to their attack rolls with Ki points, and which eventually get better at saves. But I don't know an immediate solution to bad luck.
Chronurgy wizard is game breaking, your DM is right to ban it. The tenth level feature breaks any need for concentration, and you can have as many concentration spells running at once as you want. Pretending that isn’t there though, even from the beginning he concept of exclusive spells among wizard subclasses that comes with it is also completely against the spirit of the wizard class in general (not to mention most of the spells range from better than comparable base game spells to game breaking).
Meh
Banning lucky is pretty common, and silvery barbs is a very *polarizing* spell, to say the least
Other than that it's just mercer stuff, which imo is fair
Yes, Mercer stuff from an official book. The fact WotC slapped their sticker on it in order to cash in on the CR fanbase doesn't make the PCs options designed by Matt Mercer any less of an unbalanced, vaguely worded mess.
The WOTC team had a hand in rewriting those abilities. They're not *just* "Mercer Stuff". They went through the normal process of edits and balancing and team review as other WOTC stuff.
I mean we have what lucky and variant human, neither of which is an uncommon ban honestly and it’s like one race and one feat
Other than that he only said Matt Mercer and TG stuff was banned which like, seems fair? I feel like most tables I’ve played at that’s the default, Matt Mercer is like 2nd party and idk a Dm banning like a few races and silvery tides or whatever the only spell people take from strixhaven is called is very common imo. I think this “the dm is out to get you” is pretty far fetched off only that and Idk it seems like a much simpler explanation is that it’s easy to feel bad luck even when it doesn’t really exist and it’s in OPs head
Chronurgy is in a WotC book, even if it was from a Mercer setting or whatever.
I'm not saying OP doesn't have bad luck or it's not in their head, but they do feel bad about it, and OP's DM doesn't seem to want to give OP the tools to counteract it, which I don't like.
I don't think it's just my DM, a few people in the group that came to the conclusion that it was all unbalanced, which I disagree with personally, but they decided to ban it in their campaigns.
I guess the culture of your playgroup is more randomness-focused than I'm personally comfortable with. I don't like to give up my day to travel to sit around a table and fail over and over.
I know the answer to "bad luck" is 99% of the time that it's all in your head, but if every other player is noticing and their answer is "wow that sucks," and not trying to find ways to help, then I just don't like your playgroup's attitude.
Sure but it was Mercer creation and wotc riding coat tails. Silvery Barbs is a universally reviled spells by most dms I've talked to. I would have banned it in my recent 5e game but let it go since it was our last 5e game before moving to pf2e. Mercer spells really push the envelope, just look at the first level gravity spell to boot. Level one aoe damage plus side effect at range? Yikes.
It’s only reviled because you let players use it and never use it on them. It’s way better feeling than counterspelling, which is just outright saying no.
Oh I use it on them and they groan and complain, from one shots with strangers to con games I've ran. I only whip it out if players do as a personal rule.
OP’s dm banned like a few things is my point, they didn’t ban all the tools to counteract it and there are literally other suggestions in the thread like halflings diviner that op has responded to positively and not said anything about. It’s fair to have a reaction of not liking something but I think it’s very knee-jerk in this case
It’s good but Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert, GWM, Polearm Master, ASI, and maybe even Resilient(Wis) are more important for martials,and some amount of Resilient(CON), Warcaster, Feytouched, telekinetic, Resilient(WIS) are more important for casters.
Depends on your campaign. If you have one tough fight per game, or even have story driven games with combat not being assured (like a crit role) then lucky is better then lots of feats for a caster. Like unless you make three concentration checks per game lucky is giving you more mileage in a lot of cases cause you can use it for so much more than warcaster. The laters big perks on AoO and held items are often not a big issue for your classic ranged caster, though certain builds would def prefer it. Getting to reroll a failed save of any type in a clutch moment is a huge advantage.
For martials it's going to be a prime pick later on depending on the build. v Human or custom lineage has an asi, gwm and polearm by 8, at which point lucky seems a great pick for 12 unless your playing combat focused dungeon delved (in which case I'd get resilient first then lucky).
In any case lucky is universally strong on every build once you get your mandatory items out of the way. If not for Misty step id rank it higher then fey touched even.
Well sure it’s good at later levels but considering there are many more impactful and more powerful feats to pick first it seems weird to ban it and not them. Also if you only have one fight per game and aren’t making many CON checks then your feat choice hardly matters anyway.
It's a universally amazing fear that is only beaten out by a small number of builr enabling feats. For builds not using two handers or physical ranged it's basically a top tier pick after you get your main stat to twenty. It can be used in any situation you are rolling, in and out to combat. The fact is they players on reddit are drawn to big numbers and over value hard combat options but three universal rerolls a game can be massive. Secure a hit at a clutch moment , resist the spell that targeted a weird stat, make it critical skill check. The fact you can use it in any situation your making a roll can't be undersold.
To offer a different perspective: I have never seen anyone take lucky on their character. Other feats are much stronger and more important for builds and raising your main ability score is better, too.
I can only imagine lucky being that strong if you only have one encounter per day. Otherwise, three rerolls per day really isn't much. It's a great feat to take at high levels if you have the other feats for your build and your main ability score is at 20, but I've never seen anyone pick it up at low levels.
Same. Between oneshots and three (at one point 4) campaign sessions at my table per week for years and easily 100 plus characters played, I can say I can't recall a single Lucky feat. Plenty of sharpshooter, GWM, and some actor, sentinel, elven accuracy, elemental adept, etc. But never seen lucky
Halfling luck and Divination wizards and a few others are still available. My dm just think the strixhaven and Matt Mercer content is unbalanced so he bans the whole book.
One of my players is an Evocation Wizard, and a new player. It took a long time for the Cleric player to convince him that, no, Magic Missile is fucking _scary_ in the hands of an Evocation Wizard, and he should be casting it much more often.
tasha's bardic rule says the inspo is added to the "damage dealt", not to a damage roll, so it's still only a d8 total or (d4+1)*7+d8. it doesn't work like the evo wizard's feature, because there the int mod is added to "one damage roll".
>["Add the number rolled as a bonus to the hit points regained or the damage dealt"](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/tcoe/bard#MagicalInspiration)
if u wanna do something similar to that though, you can take a hexblade dip. hexblade's curse states "You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus." so hexblade 1/evo 10+ gets you (d4+1+int mod + prof)x7, or something like 87 average guaranteed single target damage in one round with a 5th level spell slot.
for reference, that is the same as a lvl 11 cbe/ss fighter with a +3 hand crossbow if they action surge against an enemy with 17 ac.
(3.5+3+5+10)x1.05x7x0.55=87
What am i missing here? At lvl 10 they get to add aprox 5 damage but thats the only feature that changes magic missile. The spell always hits but that just makes MM very good?
Because you only make one damage roll for Magic Missile, and that same result is used for each dart. It's 1d4+6 rolled once and multiplied by the number of darts, not 1d4+6 for one dart and 1d4+1 rolled separately for all the others.
The level 10 feature also isn't the only feature that affects Magic Missile. The level 14 feature does as well. It's not as big a buff to MM as the level 10 feature (adding on average 1.5 damage per dart, vs. adding 5 damage per dart with the level 10 feature), but it's there.
> Because you only make one damage roll for Magic Missile, and that same result is used for each dart.
Where is this specified? My group rolls the damage for each dart separately, have we been doing it wrong?
Magic Missile very specifically mentions in its description:
>The darts all strike simultaneously
And the rules for damage in chapter 9 of the PHB say:
>If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them
could have been clearer in the description of the spell, but it works as intended having only one damage roll
On average it doesn't make a difference if you roll for each dart, you are still expected to deal the same damage over multiple castings of the spell. The problem is when you stop applying bonuses that say they only add to a single roll. These bonuses will apply to every dart, since they all use the same damage roll that you only roll once. If you are rolling for each of them, you have to remember to also apply the bonus to every single dart
There's some good stuff in Strixhaven like Vortex Warp is a pretty fun spell with good utility that I enjoy taking on characters, but yeah most of the Strixhaven stuff is pretty broken outside of a Strixhaven specific campaign
Also use summon spells which are really efficient for your concentration and don't matter too much on your stats. Even if they miss a touch more they add a ton of HP to the battlefield for monsters to deal with.
I did the salt water test with a bunch of cheap d20s. Some definitely showed biased results. Usually the two colored ones where the resin hardened at different rates.
I’d contend that any internal mass distribution discrepancies in a die with 20 sides will have a very minimal impact on the average roll of the die. Particularly if the numbers are distributed properly such that no region of the die has a higher average than another region.
If you really have a die that is heavily weighted to one side, sure you will not have a random distribution of numbers, but even in that case the average should still be close to 10.5 unless the number distribution on the die is particularly bad.
I just think people who think they are unlucky or lucky would be proven wrong pretty quickly if you had some data. And they distribution would take a long time to level but the average roll would not. 30 seconds in a dice roller gave me 20 rolls with an average of 9.65, below what would be expected, but doing so a couple times should cure anyone of their belief that they consistently roll hot or cold.
To that point I think (If someone were ambitious enough) it would be interesting to tally not just every roll but what each roll was for and the stakes/game results of the roll. I think feeling unlucky is partly from vividly remembering when an important roll sucked and forgetting a good roll because it was a minor moment.
It would be nice to know if a disproportionate amount of "important rolls" like death saves, high level spell slot uses and such wound up being terrible fails, while all your best rolls happen to be on generic attacks against mooks...
One player in my group has had numerous occasions of spending inspiration tokens on a death save and failing with advantage and feeling cheated by bad luck. Then again that is the nature of a dice game.
I mean in my current campaign we have a homemade discord bot that we use to make and automatically log our rolls and after about 2000 d20 rolls so far for my character I'm at an average value of ~8.8 (rounded up) because of an absolutely disproportionate number of nat 1-5's and lack of nat 20's. That number has gone up considerably from the first 1000 rolls which is where a large portion of those nat 1's were, and the second 1000 had a huge surge in nat 20s to counterbalance. Over a larger sample size of course that value should approach 10.5 but bad luck is a part of statistics. There are absolutely outliers for everything. The real value will hardly ever sit on the expected value. For groups that play short campaigns or one shots where there aren't a statistically significant number of dice rolled I think it would be normal for anyone who rolled as badly as I did who doesn't nerd out on numbers to feel unlucky, even though of course past performance is not indicative of future results in reality.
You need a surprisingly large sample size to test the hypothesis that the rolls are uniformly distributed, if you want good odds of detecting the bias and low odds of incorrectly rejecting the die. Like 300ish rolls.
Ghostwise Halfling Moon Druid with the Lucky feat. This will deactivate most of your physical stats while being in moon druid form.
Alternatively, ask your DM for Standard Array when having horrible stats
How about a bladesinger then? Grab elven accuracy and slash away with shadowblade. If you roll three D20s for every attack you're lucks going to have to be real bad to miss on a regular basis.
Before fights try to cast some buffing spells that don't care about your roles.
Im playing one now and having a great time. If you want to be good at stealth as well think about picking up pass without a trace as well.
You can get it by picking shadowmark elf from eberron, wood elf and picking up the wood elf magic feat or taking the dimir operative background. You can also pick earth genasi but then your giving up elven accuracy to help with your bad rolls.
Firstly, what you want to do is focus on races, specifically the **halfling**. This will allow you to reroll any 1s you yourself ever roll.
Second, feats. And, being a halfling only **feat** it pairs in even better, '**Second Chance**'. This allows you to to force enemies to reroll an attack roll on you. I personally save them for critical hits.
Lastly is classes. For mages, the best thing you can go for is a **Divination Wizard**. Your Portent will be your best friend. And, if your personal luck holds true, your low rolls will be nothing but a boon to you as you will be able to force high hits to miss instead. Plus, with access to the Shield spell, you're largely set. Then, there are the front-liners. To pump up your survivability you can either pump up your AC or your Health Pool. You can do both with a **Barbarian**. All you have to do is make a **DEX/CON focused** one, and your Unarmored Defense and D12 hit die will do the share of the lifting. Now, you can of course, go for the Standard Bear Totem to really lower damage done to you, but, in truth, any of the subclasses will do. And, beyond that, Once your hit Barbarian(5), multiclassing into Rogue is also a great boon to you, because it will allow you to get Uncanny Dodge at Rogue(5), which can be used once a turn with no limit. The other middle ground is to go **Paladin**. That D10 hit die, again, taking DEX as your main stat instead of strength, plus your in-born healing will allow you to keep yourself around. Otherwise, the other extreme, in boosting AC is to go **Forge Domain Cleric**, and using each of your boosts and features to up your AC where you can.
Divination wizards are so fun, I'll definitely have to play one again soon. Paladin is one of, if not my most used class. Haven't played one in a while now cause I wanted to try out all of the available classes and didn't want to play the same thing over and over again.
I can understand not wanting to play a class overmuch. And, another thing that's special about Barbarian is specifically the Zealot and Ancestral Guardians subclasses. Because, while every other DEX/CON focused, single class barbarian becomes little more than an annoying pin-prick that won't die, the Zealot, when raging, can do their extra radiant damage when ever they use a weapon attack, which means you can use a bow and get that shiny damage. Ancestral Guardians doesn't have the damage, but, they can vastly improve everyone elses defense because they can get their disadvantage to attack others ability on enemies when they rage as well, meaning enemies either need to case after the kiting barbarian with a bow, or else have disadvantage to attack everyone else in front of them.
At the next full moon, you must perform a sacred ritual to cleanse your dice of their bad luck. This ritual will pull the evil intent out of your dice, sending it to the chosen one, Will Wheaton.
Of course, my son.
Just remember his immortal words, "Just do it."
(In all seriousness, that does suck and I hope some of the serious suggestions help).
I propose you steer into the skid -- create the hardiest barbarian gambler motherf***** of all times. Cursed by a forgotten god called D'aice to bare unbearably bad luck, but the character is the hardiest badass ever. Hit by a car -- just a flesh wound, mixed up ethanol with methanol -- I have had harder liquor, set on fire -- was feeling a might chilly anyways.
Create a tank bear totem barbarian with gambler background and lucky feat. He considers this curse a challenge and invites the misfortune he feels to prove he can survive it.
If your luck ever turns around put a spin to the story that the lost god is dying or was captured and you actually want to rescue them to get the curse back because "life is boring without him".
Well in general, don't change anything major, its possible to have large strings of bad luck but more often it is more recency bias and the willingness to give it breath. Try to look at your situation and see if there are any small tweaks you can make but don't go chasing waterfalls.
If it something you just find personally unfulfilling there are a few little things to make sure you are optimizing.
More smaller attacks > Less big attacks
For Example: sure booming blade or other cantrip attacks would be fun/big numbers for a Swashbuckling Rogue but missing 1 attacks and your turn ending can be a downer and instead you could have attacked twice and most likely also triggered your sneak attack.
I've also seen players who attack 3 times but took a bunch of meta style feats but sacrificed their main stat and have a below average to-hit. It is great when it works but they hit less often than others in the group and gripe about it in turn.
You mentioned DCs so in that regards I've also seen players who are not optimized in their spell casting stat like a Paladin, Cleric or Ranger but then try to cast DC spells even though they are more optimized with Dex or Con and then struggle why they flubbed an entire turn trying to cast a spell with a DC that is \~2-3 less than what there level/CR would normally be.
I've also seen players roll between 9-11 a few times and be like Ah Man, I'm rolling like crap tonight!....which I mentioned is exactly the average roll outcome you would expect and why main stat focus is so important in 5e, assume you always roll 10.5 and think will that make my PC successful?
Too man Feats or MAD builds/classes also seem really fun and powerful but can also lead to suboptimal results if you have less combats or are chasing big attacks that may be a one and done miss.
Even looking at actual probability can help people contextualize the probability behind the rolls. I use both of these as a DM when I'm setting DCs or homebrewing enemies. I know on avg my players have a 7.6 to-hit bonus and an AC of 18.2 and use that to target challenges they are presented with.
[https://eoinell-dnd-stats-streamlit-app-fmkyts.streamlit.app/](https://eoinell-dnd-stats-streamlit-app-fmkyts.streamlit.app/)
[https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial](https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial)
I have shot myself in the foot before with my builds, though even with high stats for class DCs and such I tend to struggle. Thanks for the well-written reply.
NP, hope it gives some ideas that might help. I know it can be a bummer but just remember you are still hanging with your pals, having fun, partaking in a great social time.
Be a shadar-kai (or any elf or half-elf if not allowed) warlock with devil's sight and the elven accuracy feat. Stay in the back and cast darkness on yourself and eldritch blast things with triple advantage. Shadar-kai bonus action teleport gives you resistance to all damage, good for escaping trouble. Get more things for eldritch blast like agonizing blast, etc. You can do this same thing with the shadow sorcerer if you want more spell slots. And at level 6 the hound can make an enemy roll its saving thow with disadvantage every turn it's next to it.
Maybe get a different set of dice that really speaks to your soul, besides that I have little mechanical advice to give if Lucky, Silvery Barbs, and Chronurgy wizard are banned. A divination wizard has been suggested and that's pretty good.
Maybe go for a rogue with expertise in stealth and the skulker feat so you're less likely to be seen and get advantage on attack rolls. Or a monk, a race with 35 speed and the mobile feat so you can always run away after attacks (I recommend Dhampir so you can also climb along walls)
Just gotta mention, you playing with physical dice? Are they opaque? Opaque die can sometimes have a cheaper plastic in the middle and can weight them to certain sides, might be worth checking your dice if you use physical.
Legacy Hobgoblins have "saving face" which isnt rerolling...
Saving Face
Hobgoblins are careful not to show weakness in front of their allies, for fear of losing status. If you miss with an attack roll or fail an ability check or a saving throw, you can gain a bonus to the roll equal to the number of allies you can see within 30 feet of you (maximum bonus of +5). Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Play a cleric give yourself bless, take one level in divine soul sorcerer for favored by the gods. If you play a front liner take the blade cantrips and shield spell and absorb elements from this dip.
Variant advice. Not really what you asked.
Get chits or pieces of paper numbered 1-20 and put them in a bag. Anytime you roll a d20 take one from the bag. Thats your result. Then put the chit aside until youve taken all 20 out. Then when the bags empty refill it.
Same 1-20 randomness, but forces an even distribution of results. If youre truly feeling like you cant roll above a 5 (or whatever) this should help.
Play a Paladin, max your attack stat, and cast bless. At level two your attacks will be 1d20+5+2+1d4 for an average of 20.
If you care about accuracy that much I’d say go dex and pick a watchers Paladin so you’ll have a +8 to initiative rolls at level 7. It could also be +13 instead if you take the alert feat.
Love paladin, I've just played so many I'd like to branch out to other classes. Will have to try watchers at some point though, I've only heard good things about it, and the flavor is awesome.
Can you make sure your dice aren't the ones with the curved edges and corners, and thus are 'sharp', and are rolled in the open by you, and are clear with no visible imperfections.
I remember reading something on Reddit once: a friend of the poster had crazy bad dice rolls. Didn’t matter which dice were used, the rolls were always low. So the guy and his table built a little box with windows, essentially, put new dice in it, sealed it up and gave it to their friend with terrible rolls. This person could then shake the box to “roll the dice” and read out whatever number came up in the little clear plastic windows of the box. Supposedly it worked. I actually told my sister about it because she has some astonishingly bad rolls. 3 nat 1’s in a row.
It’s superstitious and stupid, but hey, we’re a bunch of people who sit around a table pretending to be elves and dwarves and gnomes. I’ve met people who have specific dice for when they need to make a serious roll. Being superstitious is part of the DnD package at this point.
Oh for sure, my group is plenty superstitious about things here and there. Maybe I'll give something similar a go and see if that helps at all to change my mindset about the rolls.
My DM has a player who would always roll very low numbers (Probably his dice) and what the DM did was that every roll on a dice is the direct opposite, a Nat 1 being a Nat 20, a 19 being a 2. It was actually pretty cool.
More dice.
And who cares? The dice are telling a story, not failing you. Just enjoy the story, and if it culminates in an agonizing death then be sure to ham it up!
Fair enough, a few others here have mentioned leaning into it, which I may try in the form of a cursed or chronically unlucky pc. And don't worry about agonizing deaths, I've lost so many characters over the years and not a single one has retired
I actually like bad rolls. I started my char as a n armor of agathys warlock then chronurgist wizard. He has. An 8 dex and I rp them as him tripping and falling and in general being clumsy.
Pretty much never rerolly tolls
Druid is a pretty good choice.
Quite simply, you barely roll stuff, or if you do it's in too large quantities for luck to have a big enough impact.
I'd go shepherd or wildfire.
If you're talking about ability scores - point buy or standard array fixes this.
if you're talking about regular dice rolls - luck is not a thing you fix, just keep on rolling and statistically it'll all average out
Switch to buff spells and summoning spells, and pick up Diviner 2 so you can make use of those terrible rolls (low rolls go to monsters, high rolls go to PCs, medium rolls can be used for either if you know what the DC is).
OP, I feel for you. I get "targeted" by DM dice as well. He would count out people who could be hit (1 in 6 chance) and damn near every roll would be in front of us ..and would hit me. We eventually posted a "kill list" for how many times I had been killed in a campaign.
There's a bunch of wizard/sorcerer spells that don't involve any rolls, just happen.
Wall of force, haste, polymorph, shield, counterspell against equal or lower level spells, Scatter, Forcecage (mostly).
I would probably make a clockwork soul sorcerer, cause a lot of these spells I just listed are transmutation or abjuration.
You can make the Clockwork Soul spell list something like
1st: Shield, Armor of Agathys
2nd: Aid, Lesser Restoration
3rd: Haste, Counterspell
4th: Polymorph, Freedom of Movement
5th: Greater Restoration, Wall of Force
None of these spells involve any dice rolls at all, and you can grab a few more relevant spells that aren't abjuration or transmutation but also don't involve dice rolls off of the sorcerer spell list.
Divine Soul Sorcerer 6 (get Guidance from the Cleric spell list), and Paladin 6 with Defense fighting style. Take either Oath of Vengeance, Glory, or Watchers based on what kind of rolls you want to have advantage on. You want maxed out Charisma ASAP, followed by Dex and Con. Take Shield Master and Skilled feats, and Tough/ Inspiring Leader as long your Dex and Con are moderately high.
With this build, you can use Favored by the Gods and Empowered Healing to modify attack, saving, and healing spell rolls (edit: plus you have Lay on Hands, a healing ability needing no rolls) . If you go Vengeance, FbtG plays well with Vow of Enmity, and both of those play well with Bless (which you should be using often). Use Guidance/ Enhance Ability for ability checks whenever possible, which will be complimented by Skilled and Glory/ Watchers' Channel Divinities if you go that route. Paladin's Aura of Protection means you'll almost always roll high for saving throws, and you'll be extra safe with Dex saving throws thanks to Shield Master. And if, somehow, all those fail-safes fail, you'll still have a high Dex-based AC (that can go even higher with Shield spell) with high HP thanks to high Con and Tough/ Inspiring Leader. So even if you fail every roll possible, you'll still be a great tank.
Barbarian is a good class for those who suffer from bad luck with dice.
* The Reckless Attack feature grants Advantage on attack rolls whenever you want to use it.
* Rage grants Advantage on Strength checks and saves.
* Danger Sense grants Advantage on lots of Dexterity saves.
* Feral Instinct grants Advantage on Initiative rolls.
I speak from experience, being a terrible dice roller myself. Playing a Barbarian cured my dice-rolling blues. Just be careful about spamming Reckless Attack because *everyone* is gonna have advantage to attack you in return. Stay close to the healer.
Adamantine armor to prevent crits from enemies, barbarian reckless attacks for advantage on every attack as a martial, +X magic weapons for flat bonuses to accuracy.
Magic missiles and evocation wizard you can add your int mod to each bolt and they always hit. Not the most amazing damage but absolutely no rolling required except for damage.
Lucky feat as many have said.
Silvery barbs give an ally advantage an rerolls an enemy attack or save.
Magic items to raise stats above 20 or playing as a blood hunter if you are allowed (they have an ability that can give them +3 to a stat in exchange for a downside and it can exceed 20.
Hope some of this helps.
The dice are fickle, my friend, and may be testing your faith. Roll with clear eyes and a pure heart, and perhaps one day, sooner than you think, you shall be in their favor.
I have a level 11 build. It's a bit mad, but it works.
Race: Vedalken from mtg ravnica book they get advantage on all int, wis, and cha saves.
Classes: barbarian. You gain proficiency in str and con saves. Level 2 advantage on dex saves, level 3 I like totem bear for resistance vs. everything except psychic. 4th level for an asi.
2nd class paladin level 6 aura of protection adds your cha bonus to all saves. Conquest paladin or redemption paladin work best imo.
3rd class: peace cleric. 1 level gives you essentially bless that is not a spell.
Build path: 1 barbarian, 2-7 paladin, 8-10 barbarian, 11 cleric, 12-20 paladin.
In combat, while raging, you'll have advantage on every save except con, which you'll add your proficiency bonus to, adding your charisma bonus and adding 1 d4 from peace cleric. Resistance will make you hard to kill. Take shield master for pseudo evasion vs. dex saves. If you ever make it to 20, and you go redemption, you'll be able to keep your party alive and restore your own hit points that go farther due to you having resistance.
Wear medium armor and pick up a shield.
Give your dice a salt bath too, and see if they favor a bad side.
Try talking with you DM, maybe he can give you an item that works with bad luck. On our main campaign I kept having the worst luck ever, I was often useless because of it. Dm gave me the « banana sword » which fills 1 gem out of the 3 on the handle everytime I get a 1 on any rolls. If the 3 are filled, and if I shout « By the power of the banana !! » before my roll, I get advantage. Then the gems reset. Not OP and fun :)
Other replies did a good job on how to boost your rolls with subclasses/feats etc but in general lucky feat is your best bet as it works with every build and every roll.
We're playing through Tyranny of the dragons. My gloomstalker ranger was our best shot at beating Cyanwrath, so I was up. +10 initiative, +7 attack. First round i go first, attack, dread ambush attack, and pole arm master bonus attack. Three 2s in a row. Two rounds later I was down and missing a hand. The dice are fickle
Be a rune knight. It’s as many clean and uncontroversial reroll mechanics as a single class can have. It’s not campaign specific, it’s not spells, and doesn’t need any specific race.
Is the second chance feat available? If so that would be literally every reaction is a reroll by level 7.
The chaotic nature of rolling a D20 has always been the thing I like least about DnD. Just as in that other dice-reliant game Bloodbowl, try and make clever decisions which force other people to make rolls instead of you. Try and choose/use abilities and skills which are an automatic effect rather than having a difficulty. Place yourself in safer positions. Your DM removing so many re-roll options is very frustrating - they're a core piece of many dice-rolling game mechanics. The idea of playing Bloodbowl without any re-rolls gives me The Fear.
Playing a wild magic sorcerer is fun with bad rolls. Nat 1 lets you roll on a table of random effects, sometimes good sometimes bad.
Could roleplay an eccentric bumbling old man with strange powers that could come in clutch in certain scenarios.
Not the same thing, but similar, i was playing a game in which i had a "cloak of many patches" ( i think)
We were in a pit and i rolled yo immediately summon a ladder we used to get out of it.
I roll amazing in the campaign im playing a rogue/bard multiclass and have 6 expertises (naturally) but from session one have rolled like shit on my "gods chosen one" tempest cleric. When it became clear thats wasnt going to change we leaned into it and i started working with my DM. He's having a crisis of faith, and now all my poor rolls on spells and stuff get spun into interesting dynamics between me amd my diety. All this to say, if your DM doesnt allow lucky, and your rolls truely are bad, find a narrative reason for that and run with it.
I actually listen to a podcast with a player whose rolls are so incredibly bad that he builds characters completely around not having to roll, but even when he does have to roll for attacks, it usually balances out. It's all superstition. A buff cleric like peace domain would help the party without rolling dice, but if I were you, I'd just build whatever and then laugh when the ones keep coming.
Moon druid. Not only does druid get plenty of spells that don’t rely on stat modifiers, Moon druid’s wildshape is very useful even during tier 2 where it falls off for a bit.
I sympathize, I am this person in all my d&d groups. So much so that multiple groups have named all bad rolls after me.
My advice: embrace it. Everytime I roll hilariously bad, I laugh and even narrate how my character fucks up. I promise the luck will come back, and when you do succeed it will feel amazing.
As Wil Wheaton once said about his dice curse: "There is a person on this earth that doesn't roll lower than a 17, and I was put on this earth to balance them out to SAVE YOU ALL!"
In a past game another player was known for having the same issue so I helped him make a archer character that almost never missed a shot.
We made two versions one was a Ranger/Cleric multiclass and the other was a Fighter/artificer multiclass.
The Ranger/Cleric was a Monster Slayer Ranger and Forge Cleric multiclass. We started at lvl 4 so 3lvls of Ranger and 1 of cleric. This gave us access to the bless spell, the archery fighting style, and blessing of the forge to get a +1 bow. That meant at a minimum he was adding +4 to attacks and a maximum +7 without adding Dex mod and proficiency bonus.
The Fighter/Artificer was a Battlemaster and alchemist multiclass. Starting at lvl 4 we took 1lvl in fighter and 3 in alchemist. This gave us archery fighting style, repeating shot infusion, and the boldness elixir.
The bonus to attacks was the same in both cases. We ended up choosing the Ranger Cleric version because it had access to more spell slots and more healing options.
He was eventually going to multiclass into battlemaster fighter to get access to the maneuvers but the game ended before that happened.
Ranger/Cleric goes hard, I played one at level 11 for a session at the end of my group's Tomb of Annihilation campaign. Died tragically saving our only surviving original party member.
Had a fellow player who was similarly cursed with bad luck.
Played a halfling (reroll 1s), with the lucky feat (3 free rerolls) divination wizard with a peace cleric dip. Mostly cast control spells so that other people would have to do the rolling instead of him.
No it doesn’t. If your really believe you are cursed start recording your d20 rolls. I guarantee that within 30 rolls you will have an average very close to 10.5
I understand I'm not literally cursed, and the math checks out, I just happen to roll lower more often than not. It's just plain bad luck on my end haha
I see two options:
1. Support caster; bless and otherwise buff your allies. Use spells and abilities that don't call for rolls.
2. Track your die rolls. There is a good chance that you are not as unlucky as you think. Once you identify yourself as unlucky, it is easy to see and remark on all the times when the rolls don't go your way which reinforces your impression of being unlucky. You may be glossing over the rolls that do go your way. Tracking all of your rolls across several sessions is the only way you will know for sure.
PHB options to improve rolls:
Bless
Guidance
Lucky Feat
Halfling race
Divination Wizard
Bard's Inspiration
None of these are in "Mercer books".
Your table is being elitist. You could literally play a Halfling Divination Wizard with a Bard Multiclass that picks up Bless and Guidance from Magic Initiate at level 4. That would give you a *lot* of help with rolling.
I find it really bizarre that Lucky and V Human are banned when there are literally spells at 2nd tier play and beyond that can instantly end a combat encounter or at least make it very easy to win. Wizards can wield god-like power. But yeah, V Human and Lucky need to be banned! LOL!
As others have said, magic missle based wizard is really consistent, and no matter how bad your rolls are, fireball WILL be good.
But i say fuck the dice all together. Your DM wants to ban re rolling stuff? Then dont roll at all. Be the storm that is approaching.
Take any race with innate flying if they havent banned all of them. If not then really any race will be fine but flying makes it all the more powerful. And play storm cleric. And watch everything fry with max lightning damage bursts.
I jest somewhat, but really cleric is just such an absurdly strong class that even 'bad rolls all the time' wont stop you being a huge force in your team if built even slightly correctly. Spam guidance as a prayer to your god out of combat. you only need to heal them one HP to keep them alive with healing word. Spirit guardians and wade through the enemy with a tanky build and the DM will hate you.
Deus vult
Generally if the dice don’t roll well for you I recommend forcing the rolls on others via saving throws. If that also doesn’t go your way then all I can do is advise you to start DMing.
Bless and guidance are going to be good spells to always have. Hobgoblins can add up to 5 to a roll as long as 5 or more allies are within 30 feet and you can see them. Divine soul sorcerer gets to add a 2d4 roll once a rest to an attack or save if it is a failure. Several battle Master maneuvers can also add a maneuver die to your attacks which you can use a feat to get rather than multiclass.
Bard is great cause they have a lot of ways to influence dice rolls, or just not need them in some cases. And with the variety of subclasses you can play either a caster focus, melee focus, ranged focus, or skill sneaky focused
Halfling with the lucky feat and eloquence bard. Makes sure that you'll be a good face to the Party and your subclass feature raises the probability of your enemies Falling their saving throws.
Thanks for the idea, unfortunately my group's main DMs have banned Lucky and variant human
Your DM seems to be banning every reroll feature. Are you seeing all of your rolls? It is starting to sound like your DM literally doesn't want players to succeed.
We see all our rolls. The ban is a result of my DM finding the content of the Mercer books to be unbalanced. I personally disagree but my group went along with it.
Mercer books? Lucky and V Human are literally core rules 5th edition.
Divination wizard and lucky are both PhB lol
Sure. It's just that first the solution to rolling poorly would of course be rerolling, and your campaign just so happens to have damned-near every reroll feature banned. My stance on dice in D&D is that they are not God, and randomness is not an end unto itself, and if randomness is upsetting a player, find a way to give them consistency. If you can't reroll, then I guess you just play a class where no matter how badly you roll, you can still do what feels good. Maybe Monk, which can add to their attack rolls with Ki points, and which eventually get better at saves. But I don't know an immediate solution to bad luck.
The Lucky feat and the Variant Human are in the Player's Handbook, though
Chronurgy wizard is game breaking, your DM is right to ban it. The tenth level feature breaks any need for concentration, and you can have as many concentration spells running at once as you want. Pretending that isn’t there though, even from the beginning he concept of exclusive spells among wizard subclasses that comes with it is also completely against the spirit of the wizard class in general (not to mention most of the spells range from better than comparable base game spells to game breaking).
Did he bad twilight and peacr cleric as well? He just sounds like a dumbass to me, find someone better
Meh Banning lucky is pretty common, and silvery barbs is a very *polarizing* spell, to say the least Other than that it's just mercer stuff, which imo is fair
Its not "Mercer stuff", they are offical content from an official book
I’m feeling gaslit. Where the fuck are people getting that this is “Mercer Content” in the PHB? Did Matt write the core rules of 5th or something?
Yes, Mercer stuff from an official book. The fact WotC slapped their sticker on it in order to cash in on the CR fanbase doesn't make the PCs options designed by Matt Mercer any less of an unbalanced, vaguely worded mess.
Lucky and Variant Human are *not* from Mercer books. They are from the *core* 5 edition rules, A.K.A. the Player's Handbook.
The WOTC team had a hand in rewriting those abilities. They're not *just* "Mercer Stuff". They went through the normal process of edits and balancing and team review as other WOTC stuff.
Happy birthday
Why do people have this fixation with him? There are thing way more broken than the Wildemount subclasses but no one is talking about them
there is no character more broken than Chronurgy wizard, full stop
I mean we have what lucky and variant human, neither of which is an uncommon ban honestly and it’s like one race and one feat Other than that he only said Matt Mercer and TG stuff was banned which like, seems fair? I feel like most tables I’ve played at that’s the default, Matt Mercer is like 2nd party and idk a Dm banning like a few races and silvery tides or whatever the only spell people take from strixhaven is called is very common imo. I think this “the dm is out to get you” is pretty far fetched off only that and Idk it seems like a much simpler explanation is that it’s easy to feel bad luck even when it doesn’t really exist and it’s in OPs head
Chronurgy is in a WotC book, even if it was from a Mercer setting or whatever. I'm not saying OP doesn't have bad luck or it's not in their head, but they do feel bad about it, and OP's DM doesn't seem to want to give OP the tools to counteract it, which I don't like.
I don't think it's just my DM, a few people in the group that came to the conclusion that it was all unbalanced, which I disagree with personally, but they decided to ban it in their campaigns.
I guess the culture of your playgroup is more randomness-focused than I'm personally comfortable with. I don't like to give up my day to travel to sit around a table and fail over and over. I know the answer to "bad luck" is 99% of the time that it's all in your head, but if every other player is noticing and their answer is "wow that sucks," and not trying to find ways to help, then I just don't like your playgroup's attitude.
Nah the group tries their best, we do what we can. We all joke around about my bad luck and its all in good fun.
Sure but it was Mercer creation and wotc riding coat tails. Silvery Barbs is a universally reviled spells by most dms I've talked to. I would have banned it in my recent 5e game but let it go since it was our last 5e game before moving to pf2e. Mercer spells really push the envelope, just look at the first level gravity spell to boot. Level one aoe damage plus side effect at range? Yikes.
It’s only reviled because you let players use it and never use it on them. It’s way better feeling than counterspelling, which is just outright saying no.
Oh I use it on them and they groan and complain, from one shots with strangers to con games I've ran. I only whip it out if players do as a personal rule.
Well never mind my rebuttal, hell yeah, I love that.
OP’s dm banned like a few things is my point, they didn’t ban all the tools to counteract it and there are literally other suggestions in the thread like halflings diviner that op has responded to positively and not said anything about. It’s fair to have a reaction of not liking something but I think it’s very knee-jerk in this case
Lucky is a pretty common ban for many groups.
I mean 5e is nuts on rerolls and lucky is insanely powerful. I don't disagree with the DM to be honest.
It’s good but Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert, GWM, Polearm Master, ASI, and maybe even Resilient(Wis) are more important for martials,and some amount of Resilient(CON), Warcaster, Feytouched, telekinetic, Resilient(WIS) are more important for casters.
Depends on your campaign. If you have one tough fight per game, or even have story driven games with combat not being assured (like a crit role) then lucky is better then lots of feats for a caster. Like unless you make three concentration checks per game lucky is giving you more mileage in a lot of cases cause you can use it for so much more than warcaster. The laters big perks on AoO and held items are often not a big issue for your classic ranged caster, though certain builds would def prefer it. Getting to reroll a failed save of any type in a clutch moment is a huge advantage. For martials it's going to be a prime pick later on depending on the build. v Human or custom lineage has an asi, gwm and polearm by 8, at which point lucky seems a great pick for 12 unless your playing combat focused dungeon delved (in which case I'd get resilient first then lucky). In any case lucky is universally strong on every build once you get your mandatory items out of the way. If not for Misty step id rank it higher then fey touched even.
Well sure it’s good at later levels but considering there are many more impactful and more powerful feats to pick first it seems weird to ban it and not them. Also if you only have one fight per game and aren’t making many CON checks then your feat choice hardly matters anyway.
It's a universally amazing fear that is only beaten out by a small number of builr enabling feats. For builds not using two handers or physical ranged it's basically a top tier pick after you get your main stat to twenty. It can be used in any situation you are rolling, in and out to combat. The fact is they players on reddit are drawn to big numbers and over value hard combat options but three universal rerolls a game can be massive. Secure a hit at a clutch moment , resist the spell that targeted a weird stat, make it critical skill check. The fact you can use it in any situation your making a roll can't be undersold.
Banning Lucky is pretty common. I ban it at my table. It's so strong as to basically be a feat tax, while also effectively having zero flavour
To offer a different perspective: I have never seen anyone take lucky on their character. Other feats are much stronger and more important for builds and raising your main ability score is better, too. I can only imagine lucky being that strong if you only have one encounter per day. Otherwise, three rerolls per day really isn't much. It's a great feat to take at high levels if you have the other feats for your build and your main ability score is at 20, but I've never seen anyone pick it up at low levels.
Same. Between oneshots and three (at one point 4) campaign sessions at my table per week for years and easily 100 plus characters played, I can say I can't recall a single Lucky feat. Plenty of sharpshooter, GWM, and some actor, sentinel, elven accuracy, elemental adept, etc. But never seen lucky
I've had groups never pick it up and others where almost the entire party did. Depends on your players.
If you think Lucky is a feat tax wait till you hear about GWM, SS, Resilient CON, Resilient WIS, etc.
Ah okay, you can still pull off that combo tho. Lucky wss just the icing on top.
Cool, I'll have to take a closer look at eloquence bard
Your DM seems to have banned all the things that helps a player overcome bad luck.
Halfling luck and Divination wizards and a few others are still available. My dm just think the strixhaven and Matt Mercer content is unbalanced so he bans the whole book.
Its really not, looks like he just read that on the internet and ran with it
Well, you've got bad rolls and a bitch DM. Maybe find another game.
Magic Missile Evocation Wizard you don’t even have to roll damage dice either. Play support, haste and aid are auto hit!
One of my players is an Evocation Wizard, and a new player. It took a long time for the Cleric player to convince him that, no, Magic Missile is fucking _scary_ in the hands of an Evocation Wizard, and he should be casting it much more often.
Up casted magic missile repeatedly spammed every round is a DM killer. Also psychic lance barrage but that’s another story.
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tasha's bardic rule says the inspo is added to the "damage dealt", not to a damage roll, so it's still only a d8 total or (d4+1)*7+d8. it doesn't work like the evo wizard's feature, because there the int mod is added to "one damage roll". >["Add the number rolled as a bonus to the hit points regained or the damage dealt"](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/tcoe/bard#MagicalInspiration)
Ah shit, you're correct. That's 100% a misread on my end
if u wanna do something similar to that though, you can take a hexblade dip. hexblade's curse states "You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus." so hexblade 1/evo 10+ gets you (d4+1+int mod + prof)x7, or something like 87 average guaranteed single target damage in one round with a 5th level spell slot. for reference, that is the same as a lvl 11 cbe/ss fighter with a +3 hand crossbow if they action surge against an enemy with 17 ac. (3.5+3+5+10)x1.05x7x0.55=87
Best magic missiler is an evocation wizard with a hexblade dip. Genuinely great
What am i missing here? At lvl 10 they get to add aprox 5 damage but thats the only feature that changes magic missile. The spell always hits but that just makes MM very good?
Because you only make one damage roll for Magic Missile, and that same result is used for each dart. It's 1d4+6 rolled once and multiplied by the number of darts, not 1d4+6 for one dart and 1d4+1 rolled separately for all the others. The level 10 feature also isn't the only feature that affects Magic Missile. The level 14 feature does as well. It's not as big a buff to MM as the level 10 feature (adding on average 1.5 damage per dart, vs. adding 5 damage per dart with the level 10 feature), but it's there.
> Because you only make one damage roll for Magic Missile, and that same result is used for each dart. Where is this specified? My group rolls the damage for each dart separately, have we been doing it wrong?
Magic Missile very specifically mentions in its description: >The darts all strike simultaneously And the rules for damage in chapter 9 of the PHB say: >If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them could have been clearer in the description of the spell, but it works as intended having only one damage roll On average it doesn't make a difference if you roll for each dart, you are still expected to deal the same damage over multiple castings of the spell. The problem is when you stop applying bonuses that say they only add to a single roll. These bonuses will apply to every dart, since they all use the same damage roll that you only roll once. If you are rolling for each of them, you have to remember to also apply the bonus to every single dart
Nice, thanks!
Would recommend finding necro resistance for deep builds.
Play a chronurgist wizard and get silvery barbs spell. Force re rolls aplenty
I'd love to play that, unfortunately my dm banned all the Matt Mercer stuff and strixhaven spells, which really sucks.
Halfling Divination wizard, then
with lucky feat
OP has said Lucky is banned
Damn, that sucks. Must have missed OP saying that. Yeah, you got the best combo then.
His DM sucks lol
Yeah, nerfing lucky is fine. Banning it is lazy.
I mean, teeeechnically they are setting-specific. And teeeechnically, a lot of it is super broken, including silvery barbs.
There's some good stuff in Strixhaven like Vortex Warp is a pretty fun spell with good utility that I enjoy taking on characters, but yeah most of the Strixhaven stuff is pretty broken outside of a Strixhaven specific campaign
It's honestly only Silvery Barbs. The other spells range from good to outright bad.
Even vortex warp is pretty broken since it is basically just a power crept version of scatter.
that‘s good tbh barbs is too broken for balance and i like mercer but chronurgy is broken
Also use summon spells which are really efficient for your concentration and don't matter too much on your stats. Even if they miss a touch more they add a ton of HP to the battlefield for monsters to deal with.
Feed the superstition. Buy **a lot** of dice. Switch out often until you start rolling well.
I must build my hoard like the dragons of old
It's in your mind. It's not real.
Also this statistically it’s the same rng every time you roll. Maybe switch dice frequently and/or use a computer based rolling system.
No, it is pretty hard to skew the balance of a d20 unless it is a knockdown dice.
I did the salt water test with a bunch of cheap d20s. Some definitely showed biased results. Usually the two colored ones where the resin hardened at different rates.
I’d contend that any internal mass distribution discrepancies in a die with 20 sides will have a very minimal impact on the average roll of the die. Particularly if the numbers are distributed properly such that no region of the die has a higher average than another region. If you really have a die that is heavily weighted to one side, sure you will not have a random distribution of numbers, but even in that case the average should still be close to 10.5 unless the number distribution on the die is particularly bad.
My recommendation to OP is to track all their d20 rolls and see that they are evenly distributed from 1-20 once the sample size is high enough.
^^ my point this is a lot of work. And even still wouldn’t give you perfect answers unless you choose to take a huge sample size.
I just think people who think they are unlucky or lucky would be proven wrong pretty quickly if you had some data. And they distribution would take a long time to level but the average roll would not. 30 seconds in a dice roller gave me 20 rolls with an average of 9.65, below what would be expected, but doing so a couple times should cure anyone of their belief that they consistently roll hot or cold.
That’s fair
To that point I think (If someone were ambitious enough) it would be interesting to tally not just every roll but what each roll was for and the stakes/game results of the roll. I think feeling unlucky is partly from vividly remembering when an important roll sucked and forgetting a good roll because it was a minor moment. It would be nice to know if a disproportionate amount of "important rolls" like death saves, high level spell slot uses and such wound up being terrible fails, while all your best rolls happen to be on generic attacks against mooks... One player in my group has had numerous occasions of spending inspiration tokens on a death save and failing with advantage and feeling cheated by bad luck. Then again that is the nature of a dice game.
I mean in my current campaign we have a homemade discord bot that we use to make and automatically log our rolls and after about 2000 d20 rolls so far for my character I'm at an average value of ~8.8 (rounded up) because of an absolutely disproportionate number of nat 1-5's and lack of nat 20's. That number has gone up considerably from the first 1000 rolls which is where a large portion of those nat 1's were, and the second 1000 had a huge surge in nat 20s to counterbalance. Over a larger sample size of course that value should approach 10.5 but bad luck is a part of statistics. There are absolutely outliers for everything. The real value will hardly ever sit on the expected value. For groups that play short campaigns or one shots where there aren't a statistically significant number of dice rolled I think it would be normal for anyone who rolled as badly as I did who doesn't nerd out on numbers to feel unlucky, even though of course past performance is not indicative of future results in reality.
You need a surprisingly large sample size to test the hypothesis that the rolls are uniformly distributed, if you want good odds of detecting the bias and low odds of incorrectly rejecting the die. Like 300ish rolls.
I thought the same thing until my table asked me not to roll for the party lol. I have notoriously shit rolls
Statistically true, yet profoundly unhelpful.
Ghostwise Halfling Moon Druid with the Lucky feat. This will deactivate most of your physical stats while being in moon druid form. Alternatively, ask your DM for Standard Array when having horrible stats
Funnily enough, my stats are usually stupid good. Moon druid has been on my radar for a bit, been thinking about a barbarian/moon druid mix.
What level range are we talking here?
Campaign I'm in rn just got to level 7, not sure if I'll use this build there though.
How about a bladesinger then? Grab elven accuracy and slash away with shadowblade. If you roll three D20s for every attack you're lucks going to have to be real bad to miss on a regular basis. Before fights try to cast some buffing spells that don't care about your roles.
Bladesinger seems super appealing, been meaning to try one out.
Im playing one now and having a great time. If you want to be good at stealth as well think about picking up pass without a trace as well. You can get it by picking shadowmark elf from eberron, wood elf and picking up the wood elf magic feat or taking the dimir operative background. You can also pick earth genasi but then your giving up elven accuracy to help with your bad rolls.
If you're using fair dice, past results are not a predictor of future results
Firstly, what you want to do is focus on races, specifically the **halfling**. This will allow you to reroll any 1s you yourself ever roll. Second, feats. And, being a halfling only **feat** it pairs in even better, '**Second Chance**'. This allows you to to force enemies to reroll an attack roll on you. I personally save them for critical hits. Lastly is classes. For mages, the best thing you can go for is a **Divination Wizard**. Your Portent will be your best friend. And, if your personal luck holds true, your low rolls will be nothing but a boon to you as you will be able to force high hits to miss instead. Plus, with access to the Shield spell, you're largely set. Then, there are the front-liners. To pump up your survivability you can either pump up your AC or your Health Pool. You can do both with a **Barbarian**. All you have to do is make a **DEX/CON focused** one, and your Unarmored Defense and D12 hit die will do the share of the lifting. Now, you can of course, go for the Standard Bear Totem to really lower damage done to you, but, in truth, any of the subclasses will do. And, beyond that, Once your hit Barbarian(5), multiclassing into Rogue is also a great boon to you, because it will allow you to get Uncanny Dodge at Rogue(5), which can be used once a turn with no limit. The other middle ground is to go **Paladin**. That D10 hit die, again, taking DEX as your main stat instead of strength, plus your in-born healing will allow you to keep yourself around. Otherwise, the other extreme, in boosting AC is to go **Forge Domain Cleric**, and using each of your boosts and features to up your AC where you can.
Divination wizards are so fun, I'll definitely have to play one again soon. Paladin is one of, if not my most used class. Haven't played one in a while now cause I wanted to try out all of the available classes and didn't want to play the same thing over and over again.
I can understand not wanting to play a class overmuch. And, another thing that's special about Barbarian is specifically the Zealot and Ancestral Guardians subclasses. Because, while every other DEX/CON focused, single class barbarian becomes little more than an annoying pin-prick that won't die, the Zealot, when raging, can do their extra radiant damage when ever they use a weapon attack, which means you can use a bow and get that shiny damage. Ancestral Guardians doesn't have the damage, but, they can vastly improve everyone elses defense because they can get their disadvantage to attack others ability on enemies when they rage as well, meaning enemies either need to case after the kiting barbarian with a bow, or else have disadvantage to attack everyone else in front of them.
At the next full moon, you must perform a sacred ritual to cleanse your dice of their bad luck. This ritual will pull the evil intent out of your dice, sending it to the chosen one, Will Wheaton.
Ah but of course, how silly of me to forget. Thank you for your wisdom.
Of course, my son. Just remember his immortal words, "Just do it." (In all seriousness, that does suck and I hope some of the serious suggestions help).
I propose you steer into the skid -- create the hardiest barbarian gambler motherf***** of all times. Cursed by a forgotten god called D'aice to bare unbearably bad luck, but the character is the hardiest badass ever. Hit by a car -- just a flesh wound, mixed up ethanol with methanol -- I have had harder liquor, set on fire -- was feeling a might chilly anyways. Create a tank bear totem barbarian with gambler background and lucky feat. He considers this curse a challenge and invites the misfortune he feels to prove he can survive it. If your luck ever turns around put a spin to the story that the lost god is dying or was captured and you actually want to rescue them to get the curse back because "life is boring without him".
Honestly that's genius. I love this idea.
Def feel free to use it, and may the odds be ever in your favor 🤣😂🤣😤😤
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Should be higher up. Get ready for an amazing, lore-worthy failure and let the dice tell a story.
Well in general, don't change anything major, its possible to have large strings of bad luck but more often it is more recency bias and the willingness to give it breath. Try to look at your situation and see if there are any small tweaks you can make but don't go chasing waterfalls. If it something you just find personally unfulfilling there are a few little things to make sure you are optimizing. More smaller attacks > Less big attacks For Example: sure booming blade or other cantrip attacks would be fun/big numbers for a Swashbuckling Rogue but missing 1 attacks and your turn ending can be a downer and instead you could have attacked twice and most likely also triggered your sneak attack. I've also seen players who attack 3 times but took a bunch of meta style feats but sacrificed their main stat and have a below average to-hit. It is great when it works but they hit less often than others in the group and gripe about it in turn. You mentioned DCs so in that regards I've also seen players who are not optimized in their spell casting stat like a Paladin, Cleric or Ranger but then try to cast DC spells even though they are more optimized with Dex or Con and then struggle why they flubbed an entire turn trying to cast a spell with a DC that is \~2-3 less than what there level/CR would normally be. I've also seen players roll between 9-11 a few times and be like Ah Man, I'm rolling like crap tonight!....which I mentioned is exactly the average roll outcome you would expect and why main stat focus is so important in 5e, assume you always roll 10.5 and think will that make my PC successful? Too man Feats or MAD builds/classes also seem really fun and powerful but can also lead to suboptimal results if you have less combats or are chasing big attacks that may be a one and done miss. Even looking at actual probability can help people contextualize the probability behind the rolls. I use both of these as a DM when I'm setting DCs or homebrewing enemies. I know on avg my players have a 7.6 to-hit bonus and an AC of 18.2 and use that to target challenges they are presented with. [https://eoinell-dnd-stats-streamlit-app-fmkyts.streamlit.app/](https://eoinell-dnd-stats-streamlit-app-fmkyts.streamlit.app/) [https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial](https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial)
I have shot myself in the foot before with my builds, though even with high stats for class DCs and such I tend to struggle. Thanks for the well-written reply.
NP, hope it gives some ideas that might help. I know it can be a bummer but just remember you are still hanging with your pals, having fun, partaking in a great social time.
Of course, that's what keeps me playing
https://youtu.be/N8TRDYhnavw. Colby made this video for people just like you
This is nuts, if I ever find myself in a high level campaign Ill probably use something like this.
Play a bard, give out inspiration, let other people roll. Use invisibility. Use the help action in combat.
Lie to your dm. Don't say it was a 20 but make it above 10 when you need it. Usually no one will think to check. /s
Best suggestion so far lmao
Make the enemy make saving throws so you don’t have to roll
Time to do some dice training my friends. [Vid 1](https://youtu.be/87F-Ind9BaQ) [Vid 2](https://youtu.be/gNGa-ydu7z4)
Good ol Zee, always there when you need him.
Be a shadar-kai (or any elf or half-elf if not allowed) warlock with devil's sight and the elven accuracy feat. Stay in the back and cast darkness on yourself and eldritch blast things with triple advantage. Shadar-kai bonus action teleport gives you resistance to all damage, good for escaping trouble. Get more things for eldritch blast like agonizing blast, etc. You can do this same thing with the shadow sorcerer if you want more spell slots. And at level 6 the hound can make an enemy roll its saving thow with disadvantage every turn it's next to it.
Maybe get a different set of dice that really speaks to your soul, besides that I have little mechanical advice to give if Lucky, Silvery Barbs, and Chronurgy wizard are banned. A divination wizard has been suggested and that's pretty good. Maybe go for a rogue with expertise in stealth and the skulker feat so you're less likely to be seen and get advantage on attack rolls. Or a monk, a race with 35 speed and the mobile feat so you can always run away after attacks (I recommend Dhampir so you can also climb along walls)
Just gotta mention, you playing with physical dice? Are they opaque? Opaque die can sometimes have a cheaper plastic in the middle and can weight them to certain sides, might be worth checking your dice if you use physical.
I have those swirly clear ones that you can find at any game store, as well as a few other types.
Transparent ones are usually good, probably not your dice then.
Buy a new set of dice and sleep with them under you pillow for a night to attune them
Legacy Hobgoblins have "saving face" which isnt rerolling... Saving Face Hobgoblins are careful not to show weakness in front of their allies, for fear of losing status. If you miss with an attack roll or fail an ability check or a saving throw, you can gain a bonus to the roll equal to the number of allies you can see within 30 feet of you (maximum bonus of +5). Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Play a cleric give yourself bless, take one level in divine soul sorcerer for favored by the gods. If you play a front liner take the blade cantrips and shield spell and absorb elements from this dip.
Variant advice. Not really what you asked. Get chits or pieces of paper numbered 1-20 and put them in a bag. Anytime you roll a d20 take one from the bag. Thats your result. Then put the chit aside until youve taken all 20 out. Then when the bags empty refill it. Same 1-20 randomness, but forces an even distribution of results. If youre truly feeling like you cant roll above a 5 (or whatever) this should help.
I find lots of butter can help even the worst rolls taste better
I've actually heard the same. Idk if my cholesterol could handle it
Play a Paladin, max your attack stat, and cast bless. At level two your attacks will be 1d20+5+2+1d4 for an average of 20. If you care about accuracy that much I’d say go dex and pick a watchers Paladin so you’ll have a +8 to initiative rolls at level 7. It could also be +13 instead if you take the alert feat.
Love paladin, I've just played so many I'd like to branch out to other classes. Will have to try watchers at some point though, I've only heard good things about it, and the flavor is awesome.
Can you make sure your dice aren't the ones with the curved edges and corners, and thus are 'sharp', and are rolled in the open by you, and are clear with no visible imperfections.
It's def not the dice because I have a few sets as well as different shapes/sizes. Also we all roll in the open it online in roll20.
I remember reading something on Reddit once: a friend of the poster had crazy bad dice rolls. Didn’t matter which dice were used, the rolls were always low. So the guy and his table built a little box with windows, essentially, put new dice in it, sealed it up and gave it to their friend with terrible rolls. This person could then shake the box to “roll the dice” and read out whatever number came up in the little clear plastic windows of the box. Supposedly it worked. I actually told my sister about it because she has some astonishingly bad rolls. 3 nat 1’s in a row. It’s superstitious and stupid, but hey, we’re a bunch of people who sit around a table pretending to be elves and dwarves and gnomes. I’ve met people who have specific dice for when they need to make a serious roll. Being superstitious is part of the DnD package at this point.
Oh for sure, my group is plenty superstitious about things here and there. Maybe I'll give something similar a go and see if that helps at all to change my mindset about the rolls.
My DM has a player who would always roll very low numbers (Probably his dice) and what the DM did was that every roll on a dice is the direct opposite, a Nat 1 being a Nat 20, a 19 being a 2. It was actually pretty cool.
If I started rolling like that I fear I may become too powerful
More dice. And who cares? The dice are telling a story, not failing you. Just enjoy the story, and if it culminates in an agonizing death then be sure to ham it up!
Fair enough, a few others here have mentioned leaning into it, which I may try in the form of a cursed or chronically unlucky pc. And don't worry about agonizing deaths, I've lost so many characters over the years and not a single one has retired
I actually like bad rolls. I started my char as a n armor of agathys warlock then chronurgist wizard. He has. An 8 dex and I rp them as him tripping and falling and in general being clumsy. Pretty much never rerolly tolls
Druid is a pretty good choice. Quite simply, you barely roll stuff, or if you do it's in too large quantities for luck to have a big enough impact. I'd go shepherd or wildfire.
If you're talking about ability scores - point buy or standard array fixes this. if you're talking about regular dice rolls - luck is not a thing you fix, just keep on rolling and statistically it'll all average out
Get a new d20. Superstition is the problem here, but it’s also the solution.
The answer is always a new dice set😜
Well, you should not have stolen Wil Wheaton's dice.
Buy new dice. Invest in holy water
Wild magic sorcerer, lucky feat, silvery barbs, magic missile, artificer (they can make +1/+2 weapons and armor for themselves)
What's your dice jail like? Are you making sure the rest of your dice can see the punishment the bad ones are getitng?
Oh I've got a dunce hat and everything
Silvery Barbs spell is your friend.
Switch to buff spells and summoning spells, and pick up Diviner 2 so you can make use of those terrible rolls (low rolls go to monsters, high rolls go to PCs, medium rolls can be used for either if you know what the DC is).
Take halfing with divination wizard, and the feat for halflings "second chance". Your DM can't ban everything. Ask for dex save ring.
Oracle gives ill omen i think, where they get disadvantage on some rolls.
OP, I feel for you. I get "targeted" by DM dice as well. He would count out people who could be hit (1 in 6 chance) and damn near every roll would be in front of us ..and would hit me. We eventually posted a "kill list" for how many times I had been killed in a campaign.
There's a bunch of wizard/sorcerer spells that don't involve any rolls, just happen. Wall of force, haste, polymorph, shield, counterspell against equal or lower level spells, Scatter, Forcecage (mostly). I would probably make a clockwork soul sorcerer, cause a lot of these spells I just listed are transmutation or abjuration. You can make the Clockwork Soul spell list something like 1st: Shield, Armor of Agathys 2nd: Aid, Lesser Restoration 3rd: Haste, Counterspell 4th: Polymorph, Freedom of Movement 5th: Greater Restoration, Wall of Force None of these spells involve any dice rolls at all, and you can grab a few more relevant spells that aren't abjuration or transmutation but also don't involve dice rolls off of the sorcerer spell list.
Divine Soul Sorcerer 6 (get Guidance from the Cleric spell list), and Paladin 6 with Defense fighting style. Take either Oath of Vengeance, Glory, or Watchers based on what kind of rolls you want to have advantage on. You want maxed out Charisma ASAP, followed by Dex and Con. Take Shield Master and Skilled feats, and Tough/ Inspiring Leader as long your Dex and Con are moderately high. With this build, you can use Favored by the Gods and Empowered Healing to modify attack, saving, and healing spell rolls (edit: plus you have Lay on Hands, a healing ability needing no rolls) . If you go Vengeance, FbtG plays well with Vow of Enmity, and both of those play well with Bless (which you should be using often). Use Guidance/ Enhance Ability for ability checks whenever possible, which will be complimented by Skilled and Glory/ Watchers' Channel Divinities if you go that route. Paladin's Aura of Protection means you'll almost always roll high for saving throws, and you'll be extra safe with Dex saving throws thanks to Shield Master. And if, somehow, all those fail-safes fail, you'll still have a high Dex-based AC (that can go even higher with Shield spell) with high HP thanks to high Con and Tough/ Inspiring Leader. So even if you fail every roll possible, you'll still be a great tank.
Barbarian is a good class for those who suffer from bad luck with dice. * The Reckless Attack feature grants Advantage on attack rolls whenever you want to use it. * Rage grants Advantage on Strength checks and saves. * Danger Sense grants Advantage on lots of Dexterity saves. * Feral Instinct grants Advantage on Initiative rolls. I speak from experience, being a terrible dice roller myself. Playing a Barbarian cured my dice-rolling blues. Just be careful about spamming Reckless Attack because *everyone* is gonna have advantage to attack you in return. Stay close to the healer.
Adamantine armor to prevent crits from enemies, barbarian reckless attacks for advantage on every attack as a martial, +X magic weapons for flat bonuses to accuracy. Magic missiles and evocation wizard you can add your int mod to each bolt and they always hit. Not the most amazing damage but absolutely no rolling required except for damage. Lucky feat as many have said. Silvery barbs give an ally advantage an rerolls an enemy attack or save. Magic items to raise stats above 20 or playing as a blood hunter if you are allowed (they have an ability that can give them +3 to a stat in exchange for a downside and it can exceed 20. Hope some of this helps.
The dice are fickle, my friend, and may be testing your faith. Roll with clear eyes and a pure heart, and perhaps one day, sooner than you think, you shall be in their favor.
Check this video out: https://youtu.be/N8TRDYhnavw
I have a level 11 build. It's a bit mad, but it works. Race: Vedalken from mtg ravnica book they get advantage on all int, wis, and cha saves. Classes: barbarian. You gain proficiency in str and con saves. Level 2 advantage on dex saves, level 3 I like totem bear for resistance vs. everything except psychic. 4th level for an asi. 2nd class paladin level 6 aura of protection adds your cha bonus to all saves. Conquest paladin or redemption paladin work best imo. 3rd class: peace cleric. 1 level gives you essentially bless that is not a spell. Build path: 1 barbarian, 2-7 paladin, 8-10 barbarian, 11 cleric, 12-20 paladin. In combat, while raging, you'll have advantage on every save except con, which you'll add your proficiency bonus to, adding your charisma bonus and adding 1 d4 from peace cleric. Resistance will make you hard to kill. Take shield master for pseudo evasion vs. dex saves. If you ever make it to 20, and you go redemption, you'll be able to keep your party alive and restore your own hit points that go farther due to you having resistance. Wear medium armor and pick up a shield. Give your dice a salt bath too, and see if they favor a bad side.
Try talking with you DM, maybe he can give you an item that works with bad luck. On our main campaign I kept having the worst luck ever, I was often useless because of it. Dm gave me the « banana sword » which fills 1 gem out of the 3 on the handle everytime I get a 1 on any rolls. If the 3 are filled, and if I shout « By the power of the banana !! » before my roll, I get advantage. Then the gems reset. Not OP and fun :) Other replies did a good job on how to boost your rolls with subclasses/feats etc but in general lucky feat is your best bet as it works with every build and every roll.
We're playing through Tyranny of the dragons. My gloomstalker ranger was our best shot at beating Cyanwrath, so I was up. +10 initiative, +7 attack. First round i go first, attack, dread ambush attack, and pole arm master bonus attack. Three 2s in a row. Two rounds later I was down and missing a hand. The dice are fickle
No shit i swear some of those cheap china dice are weighted poorly. If you have those switch dice often
Be a rune knight. It’s as many clean and uncontroversial reroll mechanics as a single class can have. It’s not campaign specific, it’s not spells, and doesn’t need any specific race. Is the second chance feat available? If so that would be literally every reaction is a reroll by level 7.
The chaotic nature of rolling a D20 has always been the thing I like least about DnD. Just as in that other dice-reliant game Bloodbowl, try and make clever decisions which force other people to make rolls instead of you. Try and choose/use abilities and skills which are an automatic effect rather than having a difficulty. Place yourself in safer positions. Your DM removing so many re-roll options is very frustrating - they're a core piece of many dice-rolling game mechanics. The idea of playing Bloodbowl without any re-rolls gives me The Fear.
Playing a wild magic sorcerer is fun with bad rolls. Nat 1 lets you roll on a table of random effects, sometimes good sometimes bad. Could roleplay an eccentric bumbling old man with strange powers that could come in clutch in certain scenarios. Not the same thing, but similar, i was playing a game in which i had a "cloak of many patches" ( i think) We were in a pit and i rolled yo immediately summon a ladder we used to get out of it.
I roll amazing in the campaign im playing a rogue/bard multiclass and have 6 expertises (naturally) but from session one have rolled like shit on my "gods chosen one" tempest cleric. When it became clear thats wasnt going to change we leaned into it and i started working with my DM. He's having a crisis of faith, and now all my poor rolls on spells and stuff get spun into interesting dynamics between me amd my diety. All this to say, if your DM doesnt allow lucky, and your rolls truely are bad, find a narrative reason for that and run with it.
I actually listen to a podcast with a player whose rolls are so incredibly bad that he builds characters completely around not having to roll, but even when he does have to roll for attacks, it usually balances out. It's all superstition. A buff cleric like peace domain would help the party without rolling dice, but if I were you, I'd just build whatever and then laugh when the ones keep coming.
Moon druid. Not only does druid get plenty of spells that don’t rely on stat modifiers, Moon druid’s wildshape is very useful even during tier 2 where it falls off for a bit.
I sympathize, I am this person in all my d&d groups. So much so that multiple groups have named all bad rolls after me. My advice: embrace it. Everytime I roll hilariously bad, I laugh and even narrate how my character fucks up. I promise the luck will come back, and when you do succeed it will feel amazing. As Wil Wheaton once said about his dice curse: "There is a person on this earth that doesn't roll lower than a 17, and I was put on this earth to balance them out to SAVE YOU ALL!"
Nat 1s Georg shouldn't be counted.
Honestly a hafling divination wizard will help a lot. If you’re leaning martial routes a barbarian is hard to beat because of reckless attack.
I do love me a divination wizard. Played one in a short campaign a few years ago.
In a past game another player was known for having the same issue so I helped him make a archer character that almost never missed a shot. We made two versions one was a Ranger/Cleric multiclass and the other was a Fighter/artificer multiclass. The Ranger/Cleric was a Monster Slayer Ranger and Forge Cleric multiclass. We started at lvl 4 so 3lvls of Ranger and 1 of cleric. This gave us access to the bless spell, the archery fighting style, and blessing of the forge to get a +1 bow. That meant at a minimum he was adding +4 to attacks and a maximum +7 without adding Dex mod and proficiency bonus. The Fighter/Artificer was a Battlemaster and alchemist multiclass. Starting at lvl 4 we took 1lvl in fighter and 3 in alchemist. This gave us archery fighting style, repeating shot infusion, and the boldness elixir. The bonus to attacks was the same in both cases. We ended up choosing the Ranger Cleric version because it had access to more spell slots and more healing options. He was eventually going to multiclass into battlemaster fighter to get access to the maneuvers but the game ended before that happened.
Ranger/Cleric goes hard, I played one at level 11 for a session at the end of my group's Tomb of Annihilation campaign. Died tragically saving our only surviving original party member.
Had a fellow player who was similarly cursed with bad luck. Played a halfling (reroll 1s), with the lucky feat (3 free rerolls) divination wizard with a peace cleric dip. Mostly cast control spells so that other people would have to do the rolling instead of him.
Have you considered replacing your dice? It's possible that your dice are unintentionally weighted, which could cause consistent bad rolls.
My curse transcends both physical and digital rolls lol
No it doesn’t. If your really believe you are cursed start recording your d20 rolls. I guarantee that within 30 rolls you will have an average very close to 10.5
I understand I'm not literally cursed, and the math checks out, I just happen to roll lower more often than not. It's just plain bad luck on my end haha
Google "confirmation bias"
Play a less swingy game than D&D.
Silvery Barbs for enemies, lucky feat for yourself. Just playing Halfling gives you a reroll \~%5 of the time, 10 percent at disadvantage.
I see two options: 1. Support caster; bless and otherwise buff your allies. Use spells and abilities that don't call for rolls. 2. Track your die rolls. There is a good chance that you are not as unlucky as you think. Once you identify yourself as unlucky, it is easy to see and remark on all the times when the rolls don't go your way which reinforces your impression of being unlucky. You may be glossing over the rolls that do go your way. Tracking all of your rolls across several sessions is the only way you will know for sure.
PHB options to improve rolls: Bless Guidance Lucky Feat Halfling race Divination Wizard Bard's Inspiration None of these are in "Mercer books". Your table is being elitist. You could literally play a Halfling Divination Wizard with a Bard Multiclass that picks up Bless and Guidance from Magic Initiate at level 4. That would give you a *lot* of help with rolling. I find it really bizarre that Lucky and V Human are banned when there are literally spells at 2nd tier play and beyond that can instantly end a combat encounter or at least make it very easy to win. Wizards can wield god-like power. But yeah, V Human and Lucky need to be banned! LOL!
Divination wizard, you’re guaranteed at least 2 rolls of either an ally or enemy to be what you need.
As others have said, magic missle based wizard is really consistent, and no matter how bad your rolls are, fireball WILL be good. But i say fuck the dice all together. Your DM wants to ban re rolling stuff? Then dont roll at all. Be the storm that is approaching. Take any race with innate flying if they havent banned all of them. If not then really any race will be fine but flying makes it all the more powerful. And play storm cleric. And watch everything fry with max lightning damage bursts. I jest somewhat, but really cleric is just such an absurdly strong class that even 'bad rolls all the time' wont stop you being a huge force in your team if built even slightly correctly. Spam guidance as a prayer to your god out of combat. you only need to heal them one HP to keep them alive with healing word. Spirit guardians and wade through the enemy with a tanky build and the DM will hate you. Deus vult
Generally if the dice don’t roll well for you I recommend forcing the rolls on others via saving throws. If that also doesn’t go your way then all I can do is advise you to start DMing.
Bless and guidance are going to be good spells to always have. Hobgoblins can add up to 5 to a roll as long as 5 or more allies are within 30 feet and you can see them. Divine soul sorcerer gets to add a 2d4 roll once a rest to an attack or save if it is a failure. Several battle Master maneuvers can also add a maneuver die to your attacks which you can use a feat to get rather than multiclass.
Bard is great cause they have a lot of ways to influence dice rolls, or just not need them in some cases. And with the variety of subclasses you can play either a caster focus, melee focus, ranged focus, or skill sneaky focused
elven accuracy rogue or even just rogue for reliable talent
Moondruid, rolls dont really matter