This may be a common trick, but you never know!  Whether it’s a high-level fireball, a gaggle of dice types in a multi-die system, or fistfuls of d6s (I’m looking at you, Champions, with your 12d6 energy blasts…), here’s a method I’ve been using to speed up counting dice:

First, group the dice into clusters that add up to 10. This is a pretty easy visual task to do.  Once you have the clusters, it’s quick to count the number of clusters to get a 10s value.

Next, group (if any) highest number on the remaining dice.  Multiply the value by the number of dice to get a value.  Then, add any remaining individual dice to that total, starting with the largest die and working down.  By this point, there are usually only a few dice left, so you can even count up by ones/count the pips.

Take that number, and add the 10s value from the cluster.

 

For example:  rolling 12d6:

6, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 4, 6, 5, 3, 4, 4

Getting the 10s together:

(6,4) (5,5) (3, 3, 4) (6,4)

This leaves us with

4, 4, 1

Adding the highest pair

4 x 2  = 8

add the last die

8+1 = 9

then add the 4 clusters of 10

9 +(4×10) = 49

 

Another example, rolling one of each 1d4 to 1d12:

4, 3, 5, 5, 9

Grouping 10s:

(5,5)

There’s no pairs, so add the remainder:

9+4+3 = 16

and add the cluster of 10s

16 + 1×10 = 26

 

And voila!  Hope this proves to be of some use.  Game on…