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If you're new to Dungeons & Dragons, the full set of polyhedral dice can look intimidating. Why are there so many different shapes? What do you actually use them for? This guide breaks down every die in the standard D&D set — the D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20 — with concrete examples of exactly when each one hits the table.
Quick reference: D20 for attack rolls and skill checks. D4/D6/D8/D10/D12 for damage and hit points. D6 for fireballs and character creation. D12 for Barbarians. When in doubt, it's probably a D20.
20-sided icosahedron · Most frequently used die in the game
The D20 is the engine of Dungeons & Dragons. Nearly every meaningful action in the game — attacking an enemy, picking a lock, persuading a guard, resisting a spell, leaping across a gap — is resolved by rolling a D20 and adding relevant modifiers. If the total meets or beats a target number, you succeed. If not, you fail or something interesting happens instead.
There are three main types of D20 rolls in D&D 5e:
The D20 also produces the game's most dramatic moments. Rolling a natural 20 — the highest possible result without modifiers — is a Critical Hit on an attack roll, meaning you roll damage dice twice. Rolling a natural 1 is a Critical Failure, meaning the attack automatically misses regardless of modifiers. These mechanical extremes create some of the most memorable moments in any campaign.
One of 5th Edition's most elegant mechanics involves rolling two D20s at once. When you have Advantage on a roll — from a favorable position, a helpful spell, or class ability — you roll two D20s and take the higher result. Disadvantage is the opposite: roll two D20s and take the lower. This system replaced the complex modifier stacks of older editions with something simple and dramatic.
6-sided cube · Used for damage, spells, and character creation
The D6 is the most versatile die in D&D. It's used for weapon damage, for many of the game's most iconic spells, and for generating ability scores during character creation. If you only owned one type of die, the D6 would get the most use.
Several common weapons deal D6 damage, making it one of the most frequently rolled dice for melee and ranged combat:
The D6 stars in some of D&D's most spectacular spells. Fireball, arguably the most famous spell in the game, deals 8d6 fire damage — meaning you pick up eight D6 dice and roll them all at once. Other D6 spells include Lightning Bolt (8d6), Thunderwave (2d8), and Cure Wounds at higher levels.
The standard method for generating ability scores involves rolling four D6 dice and dropping the lowest result. You do this six times to get your six ability scores. The D6 is the only die involved in character creation under this method.
Wizards, Sorcerers, and Artificers have a D6 as their hit die, meaning they roll a D6 each time they level up to gain additional hit points — the smallest hit die of any class, reflecting their relative physical fragility.
8-sided octahedron · Longswords, healing spells, and mid-tier classes
The D8 sits in the middle of the damage range and sees consistent use throughout most D&D campaigns, especially for martial characters using one-handed weapons.
Several popular weapons deal D8 damage:
Cure Wounds, the most common healing spell in the game, restores 1d8 + the caster's spellcasting modifier hit points. At higher spell slots it scales up: 2d8, 3d8, and so on. Healing Word works similarly. The D8 is essentially the healing die of D&D.
Clerics, Druids, Monks, Rogues, and Bards all have a D8 hit die, placing them in the middle of the durability range. They're tougher than Wizards but squishier than Fighters and Barbarians.
10-sided die · Heavy weapons, Fighters, and percentile rolls
The D10 represents serious power in D&D — it's the damage die for heavy weapons and the hit die for the game's toughest martial classes.
Two-handed heavy weapons that deal D10 damage include:
Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers all use a D10 as their hit die, giving them solid hit point totals and making them among the most durable classes in the game — second only to Barbarians.
Two D10s rolled together create a percentile roll (often written as D100 or D%). One die represents the tens digit (0–9, where 0 = 10) and the other represents the units digit (0–9, where 0 = 0). Together they produce a number from 1–100. Percentile rolls appear in Wild Magic Surge tables, random loot generation, and various optional rules.
12-sided dodecahedron · Greataxes and Barbarians
The D12 is the rarest die in regular D&D play, but when it comes out, it's usually doing something significant. It's primarily associated with the Barbarian class and the greataxe.
The greataxe is the only standard weapon in D&D 5e that deals D12 damage (1d12 slashing). It requires two hands and has no finesse property, making it almost exclusively used by Strength-based martial characters — particularly Barbarians who benefit most from its raw damage.
The Barbarian has a D12 hit die — the largest of any class. Combined with the Constitution modifier applied twice to hit points at level 1 (due to Unarmored Defense), Barbarians become the most physically durable characters in the game. A Barbarian with 20 Constitution can start with 15 hit points at level 1, compared to 7 for a Wizard.
A handful of spells and class features use the D12: Call Lightning deals 3d10 (not D12), but Thunderous Smite, Cone of Cold, and some Druid wild shape abilities use it occasionally. At higher tiers of play, damage expressions involving D12 become more common.
4-sided tetrahedron · Daggers, small spells, and Wizards
The D4 is the smallest die in the polyhedral set. It represents modest damage — the kind dealt by light, easily concealable weapons and minor magical effects. Despite its small size, it shows up regularly in play.
Light weapons that deal D4 damage include:
One of the most iconic spells in D&D history, Magic Missile automatically hits its target (no attack roll required) for 1d4+1 force damage per missile. At 1st level it fires three missiles; each higher spell slot adds one more. It's the Wizard's reliable damage option when accuracy matters more than raw power.
At early levels (1–4), a Bard's Bardic Inspiration die is a D6, but their College of Valor and other features sometimes reference D4 additions to rolls. The D4 represents the smallest meaningful magical boost in the game.
Wizards have a D6 hit die, not D4 — a common misconception. In older editions of D&D, Wizards did use a D4. Fifth Edition bumped them up slightly to make them less fragile at early levels.
| Situation | Die to Roll |
|---|---|
| Attack roll, skill check, saving throw | D20 |
| Dagger, club, dart damage | D4 |
| Short sword, handaxe, shortbow damage | D6 |
| Longsword, rapier, longbow damage | D8 |
| Halberd, heavy crossbow damage | D10 |
| Greataxe damage | D12 |
| Fireball, Lightning Bolt (8 dice each) | D6 × 8 |
| Cure Wounds healing | D8 + modifier |
| Magic Missile damage (per dart) | D4 + 1 |
| Ability score generation | D6 × 4 (drop lowest) |
| Percentile roll | D10 × 2 |
Ready to roll? Our free dice roller supports all standard D&D dice — D4 through D20.
🎲 Roll Dice FreeThe D20, by far. Almost every meaningful action in the game involves a D20 roll. Depending on your class, damage dice (D6, D8, etc.) get rolled frequently too — especially if you're a martial character who attacks multiple times per round.
The polyhedral shapes are chosen specifically because they produce fair, equal-probability rolls. Each face of a well-made polyhedral die has an equal chance of landing face-up. The shapes used — tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, decahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron — are five of the seven mathematically defined "fair" dice shapes.
Technically yes, though you won't use all of them equally. The D20, D6, and D8 see the most use for most characters. The D12 is almost exclusively a Barbarian die. If you're just getting started, any standard polyhedral dice set includes all seven and costs less than $10.
A D100 (also called percentile dice) is rolled using two D10s — one for the tens digit and one for the units digit. You use it for Wild Magic Surge tables (when a Sorcerer uses magic and triggers random effects), random item generation, and some optional rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide.