How the Combat Dice Work
HeroQuest's combat dice are six-sided, with three different symbols on them: three skulls, two white shields and one black shield.
- The attacker rolls their attack dice. Every skull is a hit.
- The defender rolls their defend dice. A hero blocks one hit for every white shield; a monster blocks one hit for every black shield.
- Each hit that isn't blocked costs the defender one Body Point. The common monsters (Goblins, Orcs, Skeletons and Zombies) have only one Body Point, so a single unblocked skull kills them.
So a skull comes up half the time, a hero blocks with a third of their dice, and a monster blocks with only a sixth. That gap is why heroes can wade through Goblins and why every die of armour matters to them.
Combat Roller
Attack dice
Defend dice
Choose the dice and roll.
Exact Odds for This Attack
| Body Points lost | Chance | This many or more |
|---|
How Often Does an Attack Wound?
Each cell is the chance that one attack takes at least one Body Point. Rows are attack dice; columns are defend dice.
Against a Monster (black shields)
Against a Hero (white shields)
Compare the same row in both tables: three attack dice wound a monster rolling two defend dice 75.0% of the time, but a hero with two defend dice only 62.5% of the time.
Movement Roller
Heroes roll two red six-sided dice for movement and may move up to the total in squares. Monsters don't roll: each one has a fixed Movement on its card.
Roll to see how far your hero can go.
| Total | Chance | This many or more |
|---|
Try It at the Table
- Before a fight, set the roller to your hero against the monster in front of you and read the "kill within" line. It tells you whether to attack now or wait for a friend.
- Set the defender to Hero and compare one defend die against two. That is what a helmet or a shield is worth to you.
- Movement averages 7. If the door you need is 9 squares away, the table shows you have about a 28% chance of reaching it this turn.