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.
| Score | Ways to roll it | Chance | Chance of this or higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 0.08% | 100.0% |
| 4 | 4 | 0.31% | 99.9% |
| 5 | 10 | 0.77% | 99.6% |
| 6 | 21 | 1.62% | 98.8% |
| 7 | 38 | 2.93% | 97.2% |
| 8 | 62 | 4.78% | 94.3% |
| 9 | 91 | 7.02% | 89.5% |
| 10 | 122 | 9.41% | 82.5% |
| 11 | 148 | 11.4% | 73.1% |
| 12 | 167 | 12.9% | 61.7% |
| 13 | 172 | 13.3% | 48.8% |
| 14 | 160 | 12.3% | 35.5% |
| 15 | 131 | 10.1% | 23.1% |
| 16 | 94 | 7.25% | 13.0% |
| 17 | 54 | 4.17% | 5.79% |
| 18 | 21 | 1.62% | 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
- Dice odds library: every chart in one place
- Two dice (2d6) odds chart
- Three dice (3d6) odds chart
- d20 with advantage and disadvantage
- Five of a kind and other five-dice odds
- Attacker against defender dice odds
- Two twenty-sided dice (2d20) odds chart
- At least one six in 1 to 10 rolls
- Dice calculator: the exact odds for any total with any number of dice, plus a dice roller.
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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.
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