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If I would like to be prepared to play any character build and roll any die only once. What is the maximum amount of dice that I would need to get.

The highest I have heard so far would be 144 d6 (meteor swarm, blast fire ball) But whats the maximum of the other dice needed?

Exempt-Medic
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Frezzley
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    What is "Meteor Swarm, Blast Fire ball." Meteor Swarm only requires 40d6. Where are you getting the other 104? – guildsbounty Apr 02 '21 at 17:52
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    Also, in pursuit of clarity...are you looking to only roll a given die once per attack/spell...or only once on each of your turns? Because that changes the answer rather dramatically. – guildsbounty Apr 02 '21 at 17:58
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    If a rule allows rerolling a die, can it be the same die, or does it have to be another one? – enkryptor Apr 02 '21 at 19:12
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    @Punintended Please don't answer, even partially, in comments. We try not to do that here. – NotArch Apr 02 '21 at 19:26
  • Voting to re-open: while this question could certainly nail down any number of parameters, doing so isn’t actually going to change the answer, which means that this question can be answered as-is, which means it should not be closed. – KRyan Apr 02 '21 at 22:42
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    The question in the title doesn't much the question in the body. The question in the body is unclear, and the example hints at yet another question different from the body and title. Please vote to close until we know what the question actually is. – Akixkisu Apr 03 '21 at 12:10
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    @KRyan the question is "what is the maximum amount of dice", so it expects a number as an answer. That number definitely depends on some parameters have to be nailed down (figuring out, what exactly do we count). So why do you say "doing so isn’t actually going to change the answer"? – enkryptor Apr 03 '21 at 12:12
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    I assume you are also asking about each kind of die individually, so do, the 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20 sided dice would each have their own theoretical maximum number? – Exempt-Medic Apr 03 '21 at 12:29
  • @enkryptor See my answer for why it doesn’t matter. – KRyan Apr 03 '21 at 13:00
  • @Medix2 That is a very surprising assumption to me, I see no reason why they would be separated. The question is very unclear, so we’d all have to read between the lines I suppose, but I don’t see any indication that this is the case... – KRyan Apr 03 '21 at 13:01
  • @KRyan Because they ask "But whats the maximum of the other dice needed?" As if they have already calculated the maximum specifically for d6 dice – Exempt-Medic Apr 03 '21 at 13:03
  • @Medix2 Ah, OK, yes, I could see that. Huh, a clarification that actually does affect my answer. Not by, like, a lot, but good call. – KRyan Apr 03 '21 at 13:05

1 Answers1

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There is no maximum. You can always engineer the situation to require additional dice.

For instance, a hunter ranger can use Volley or Whirlwind Attack to attack “any number of creatures within [10 or 5, respectively] feet.” The spell prismatic spray says “For each target, roll a d8.” There are, no doubt, more options that have your roll a dice for every creature in an area, these were just two options off the top of my head. And there is no limit on the number of creatures who can fit in a space if they all get along. So no matter how many dice you have, you can find yourself needing even more dice because there are still more creatures to attack. A reasonable DM will apply a limit on creatures squeezing into a space, but that’s their ruling, not part of the rules, and so that number is going to be different for every DM (and likely vary with any given situation).

Since Volley and Whirlwind Attack have you making attack rolls, that involves a d20 for the attack, and then can involve any size dice in the damage roll. (None of the simple and martial weapons in the Player’s Handbook deal 1d2 or 1d3 damage, but that’s easily handled by also using magic to turn into an animal that uses those dice for damage.) Prismatic spray, of course, uses d8s. So you potentially need infinite dice of every size in order to successfully complete these actions. No weapon uses percentile dice (d100), but since percentile dice are rolled by rolling two d10s, that doesn’t change the answer as we already need infinite d10s for a Whirlwind Attack with a halberd or pike (or a Volley with a heavy crossbow if you have Crossbow Expert).

Also, neither delayed blast fireball nor meteor swarm requires 144d6 dice. If you’re talking about something like, having nine 9th-level delayed blast fireballs going off in the same turn that you cast meteor swarm, then at that point you’re combining multiple actions and effects and there really is no limit. Also, that adds up to 225d6 so I’m not sure what you’re talking about (limiting yourself to the spell slots that someone could actually have, and using two 7ths, an 8th, and a 9th for this, results in a maximum of 104d6).

KRyan
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