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

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

pritchke is correct.

1d8 means one eight-sided dice.

2d4 means two four-sided dice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Its
2(1,1) = 1/16
3(2,1;1,2) = 2/16
4(3,1;2,2;1,3) = 3/16
5(4,1;3,2;2,3;1,4) = 4/16
6(4,2;3,3;2,4) = 3/16
7(4,3;3,4) = 2/16
8(4,4) = 1/16

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

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

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

To each his own I guess.

More mathematical fun. ;)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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