Dice Roller App vs Physical Dice: Which Should You Use?
A dice roller app is faster, adds totals for you and has no physical flaws, so it suits online games and big damage rolls. Physical dice are visible to everyone, need no battery and feel better to many players, so they suit in-person tables. Both are fair enough for play; many groups use both.
Should you use a dice roller app or physical dice?
Both work, and the rules of D&D don't care which you use. The real question is what fits your table. Digital rollers win on speed and convenience, especially for large rolls and online games. Physical dice win on transparency and feel at an in-person table. Many groups mix the two: physical d20s for attacks, and a digital roller such as our dice calculator for a fistful of damage dice.
Below is an honest look at the trade-offs, including where each one falls short.
What are the pros and cons of each?
| Factor | Dice roller app or website | Physical dice |
|---|---|---|
| Speed on big rolls | Instant, even for 8d6 or 10d6, and adds the total | Slower; you count and add by hand |
| Cost | Often free | A basic set is cheap; nicer sets cost more |
| Fairness | No physical flaws; depends on the quality of the code | Close to fair if well made; cheap dice can have small biases |
| Transparency | Others may not see the roll unless you share the screen | Everyone can watch the die land |
| Reliability | Needs a charged device, and sometimes a connection | Always works, but dice get lost or roll off the table |
| Table feel | Less tactile; a phone at the table can distract | The sound and suspense many players love |
| Accessibility | Helpful for players who find throwing small dice difficult | Small numbers can be hard to read for some players |
| Portability | Always in your pocket | One more thing to remember to bring |
Are dice roller apps fair?
A digital roller is only as fair as the random number generator behind it. Most apps and websites use a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), a formula that produces a long sequence of numbers that look random and are spread evenly. It is not random in a physics sense, but for a game it is more than good enough: no player can predict the next roll.
Some rollers go further and use a cryptographic generator, which is designed so the output cannot be predicted even by someone who studies it. Ours uses the browser's crypto.getRandomValues for every roll, and maps the result so each face of each die is equally likely.
The honest caveat is trust. You can't see inside most apps, so you are trusting the developer to have written the code correctly. A badly written roller can introduce a small bias, for example by converting random numbers to die faces carelessly. If you want to check a roller yourself, roll a few thousand times and count the results; our randomness test explains how.
Are physical dice fair?
No physical die is perfectly fair, but most are fair enough that you'll never notice. Small biases come from manufacturing:
- Air bubbles: trapped inside resin or plastic, they shift weight toward one side.
- Uneven faces: if some faces are slightly larger, the die lands on them more often.
- Rounded edges: heavily tumbled dice roll longer, and uneven rounding can favor some faces.
The popular salt water test (floating a plastic die in salty water and spinning it to see whether the same number keeps rising) can catch badly weighted dice. Precision dice with sharp edges are made to tighter tolerances if this matters to you. See our guide to polyhedral dice for more on care and testing.
So which is fairer?
A good digital roller has no physical flaws, so in pure math terms it is easier to make one fair than to make a perfect die. In practice, both a decent physical set and a well-built roller are fair for D&D. The difference you'll actually feel at the table is speed and visibility, not randomness.
When is a dice roller app the better choice?
- Online games: if you play over video or a virtual tabletop, nobody can see your physical dice anyway, so a shared digital roll is more transparent than a die rolled off-camera.
- Big damage rolls: a Fireball (8d6) or a high-level Sneak Attack (up to 10d6) takes seconds digitally. The 8d6 roller is set up for exactly that.
- Learning the game: rollers that add totals and modifiers for you let new players focus on the rules instead of the arithmetic.
- Forgotten dice: a phone or browser is a perfect backup when your bag is at home.
- Accessibility: players with limited hand movement or low vision may find a large on-screen result easier.
When are physical dice the better choice?
- In-person tables: watching a d20 tumble while the whole table holds its breath is part of the fun for many groups.
- Trust and visibility: everyone can see the result, and nobody has to wonder what was on a screen.
- Screen-free games: some groups ban phones at the table to keep attention on the game.
- No power needed: dice don't run out of battery during a long session.
Is it OK to mix both at the same table?
Yes, and it is common. A practical split many groups use:
- Roll the d20 physically for attacks, checks and saves, where the suspense matters most.
- Roll large pools of damage dice digitally to keep combat moving.
- Agree as a group on what counts: for example, a die that falls off the table is rerolled, and a digital roll must be shown to the table.
The one rule that matters is that the whole group, including the DM, is comfortable with the method. Talk about it in your session zero rather than mid-fight.
Is there a DnD Dice Roller app?
Yes. Besides this website, free "DnD Dice Roller" apps are available for Android and iOS, with links in the site footer. You don't need to install anything to roll, though: the website works in any modern browser on your phone, tablet or computer, starting with the d20 roller.
FAQ
Are dice roller apps truly random?
Most use a pseudo-random number generator, which is not truly random in a physics sense but is unpredictable and evenly spread enough for games. Rollers that use a cryptographic generator, like the browser's crypto.getRandomValues, are designed to be very hard to predict.
Is it cheating to use a dice app in D&D?
No, as long as your group agrees and the DM can see or trust the results. Many groups playing online use digital rollers for every roll.
Are physical dice fairer than a dice app?
Not necessarily. A well-made die is close to fair, but cheap dice can have bubbles or uneven faces. A good digital roller has no physical flaws, though you have to trust its code.
Can I use a dice roller app at an in-person game?
Yes. Ask your group first, and show the result on the screen so others can see it, just as they would watch a physical roll.
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Contains content from the System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.