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4d6 drop the lowest

Roll four dice, discard the lowest, add the other three. Here is how often each score comes up.

Every score, 3 to 18

Rolling four six-sided dice and dropping the lowest is the most common way to roll ability scores in tabletop role-playing games. There are 1,296 equally likely rolls of four dice. The average result is 12.24, compared with 10.5 for three plain dice.

ScoreWays to roll itChanceChance of this or higher
310.08%100.0%
440.31%99.9%
5100.77%99.6%
6211.62%98.8%
7382.93%97.2%
8624.78%94.3%
9917.02%89.5%
101229.41%82.5%
1114811.4%73.1%
1216712.9%61.7%
1317213.3%48.8%
1416012.3%35.5%
1513110.1%23.1%
16947.25%13.0%
17544.17%5.79%
18211.62%1.62%

What the chart tells you

  • The most likely score is 13, at 13.3%.
  • An 18 comes up 1.62% of the time, or 1 in 62. With three plain dice it is 1 in 216, so dropping the lowest makes an 18 about 3.5 times as likely.
  • A 16 or better: 13.0%. A 15 or better: 23.1%.
  • A score of 8 or lower: 10.5%.

Rolling a full set of six scores

  • The chance that at least one of your six scores is an 18: 9.34%.
  • The chance that at least one is 16 or better: 56.8%.
  • The chance that none of the six is below 10: 31.5%.
  • The average total of six scores is 73.5.

More dice odds

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Every figure on this page was computed by counting all possible outcomes. Game names mentioned here are trademarks of their owners; this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.