Get A Closer Look At D&D's Expensive Dice Set Friv 0

Friv0 games online free See more

D&D Sapphire Anniversary Dice Set

Back in October, Dungeons and Dragons announced the 45th anniversary dice set, featuring a d20 with a lab-grown sapphire in it. The limited-edition set costs $300, and only 1,974 sets were released.

It's a celebration of 45 years of D&D, which is currently having another Renaissance as it's more popular than ever with millions of people all over the world rolling dice across kitchen tables in order to inspect that pesky treasure chest that may or may not be trapped--it is. So why create a set like this?

"When the D&D team realized the sapphire is the traditional anniversary stone for both five years and forty-five years, and that adding a laboratory-created sapphire to a twenty-sided die wouldn't jeopardize the integrity of a roll, we couldn't pass up the chance to make something really cool to celebrate the milestones," said Nathan Stewart, VP of the D&D franchise at Wizards of the Coast. "The team put together a fun product for our fans that includes art and newly updated stats for sapphire dragons, making these classic dragons ready for play in your next D&D session."

Here is what the set contains:

Two d20s--one of which has a sapphire in it
One d12
Two d10s
One d8
Four d6s
One d4.
Custom dice box and dice tray
Foldout card with game statistics for adult, sapphire dragons
An exclusive sticker set
Collector's card

We got our hands on the new set, which is still available for purchase, and here is what is in the box and our thoughts on it.

Fancy box for fancy dice

Everything is contained in this fancy white box with a velvet interior. There's a tassel there to open the contents.

Everything inside that's not the dice

Before we get to the dice, the box separates from a dice tray below it, which is also velvet. The stickers are very much just run-of-the-mill stickers, but what's really cool is the Sapphire Dragon pull out. There's tons of info on there, in case your party wants to fight a dragon with over 200 hit points who gets two attacks each round and can deal 3d8+6 damage. You should probably do that at level 1, right?

Look, a man-made gem!

Upon first glance, these dice look really good, and they all have their own little spot in the case. The presentation is very nice for this set so far.

The goods

The dice are made of aluminum, so there is a bit of heft to them, which is really nice. The sapphire in the 20 spot is very cool, but I kind don't want to use these because it looks so awesome.

The problem

Sadly, you probably shouldn't use the sapphire d20, as the gem sticks out just a tiny bit, making it harder to roll a 1. Some folks may not have a problem missing out on all those critical fails, but where is the fun in that?

Comparing the d20s

Luckily, there's a second d20 in this set, so you don't have to roll the sapphire d20--which is less-likely to land on a critical fail.

Final thoughts

Obviously, this isn't a set of dice you're going to buy if you want to play a casual game of D&D with your buds. This is a collector's item made to be displayed to let everyone you know that you own a die with a man-made gemstone stuck in it. However, they are really nice to roll, so this set will probably be coming with me to my weekly sessions. While the $300 price tag is very steep to your casual player, those who love D&D and love collecting will be very interested in this set.

Hopefully, D&D can put out some other branded dice in this same aluminum material, as this may be my favorite set I own--gemstones aside. The look, feel, and weight of the dice are unlike anything else I've used, and they're fantastic. Speaking of branded dice, D&D recently announced the Laeral Silverhand Explorer's Kit, a new dice set which contains Forgotten Realms supplementary lore as well.