Help! Simple Dice Allocation Combat

Roll "X"D6s (White) plus "1"D6 (Black)... Diplomacy WORKS if NO "White Die" has the same value as the "Black Die"!

And "Fortune" could be modified to use a "Black Die" too: 2D6s > 5. Plus +1D6 (Black) and is the amount of GOLD "Paid" to resolve the Battle.

And "Might" could also be modified with a "Black Die": 3D6s > 1D6 (Black) + 5.

Could be COOL and easy to implement.

Let me know what you think!

The idea behind the "Diplomacy" is that all VOICES are united. When there is someone who is not in agreement (eg. the "Black" Die) that results in a failure to diplomatic discussions!

Hey! That's a pretty cool game concept. For dice allocation, the easiest decision-making solution is usually just yahtzee (you can reroll any number of dice up to 2 times), but that only works if there's a reason to keep certain die results, like one might give bonus energy/gold/health if you keep it or you can reroll it for an actual Might value to defeat the goblin, or some die result might be worth a lot (like a double strike) but only if you have two dice showing that result. To add more decisionmaking, you can try adding multiple rows of health that need to be defeated across multiple combats, and the heroes could decide if they want to chance the tougher row now, or finish the easier ones, and try the other next combat with this monster. I feel like the game X-men mutant genesis has some mechanics you might like, including several dice manipulation ability ideas on different characters and 3 different dice, that have the same icons, but different distributions of them, because some enemies might require more damage allocated, while others might take more speed or smarts, which different dice have more faces of. If you want it to be a single dice check, that could be pretty volatile, especially in a pvp game, but you could try a gambling mechanic where you could pay some amount of energy upfront to gain that much of a bonus to your next roll.
If you don't mind different die sizes, James Ernest's button men game has a cool die combat mechanic you could steal, where smaller dice are speed and bigger are strength, each enemy could have a certain number and size of dice that gets rolled start of combat and you need to take out all of their dice one by one, using either a:
1) Power attack, where you use one of your dice that shows a bigger number than an enemy die to defeat that die
2) Skill attack, you defeat an opponents die, if any number of your dice add up exactly to the value of that die
Then you reroll all of your dice used in the attack, maybe lose your lowest value dice each turn to add tension, it's a pvp system at its core so pve will take testing.
For multiple approaches, like Valor/Diplomacy or sneaking around the enemy, you could make it more interesting by only giving loot for a monster if they were defeated, but make sneaking around/diplomacy easier.
Cheers!

Well, the things you have to avoid with dice are whiffs (not making any progress with a roll), so that's why I recommended having multiple health rows so the player could always go for completing at least something. Maybe you could make it that only some of the rows are needed to defeat a baddie, like for a goblin you can either do two combat-heavy health row allocations or one combat and one dexterity heavy one

Not having enough choices... Or feeling like the combat was too ONE Level. The way of Yahtzee is not necessarily bad, you could maybe blend the two, no? Like have different PATTERNS to conquer the opponent, KEEP the "Black" die and introduce variations giving that "Die" some control.

So while you have to ROLL a PAIR, the "Black" die is the exception. So the roll would be something like: "Roll a PAIR with a value other than the Black die."

Or roll some "SEQUENCE" like "1, 2, 3" with 3 dice and use the "Black" die as a Wildcard (if it is a 1, 2 or 3 ... you only need to roll the other 2 values given 3 dice.

Anyhow I know you're a good designer. And you'll understand what I mean. I just felt like the "Brawn, Guile and Spirit" added to the decision making process and made it a lot more multi-dimensional in terms of choices.

Cheers!

Well, curious what this leads too.

But just keep in mind that. If you use any threshold on d6.
The need for rolling a 6 is twice as hard as needing to roll a 5+.

With more than 1 die, this becomes more complicated.
And while a die could be changed by decision making, is it really a decision?

If you have decided on a system. You could map out and see how storng a requirement might be.

On a side note, perhaps if the player needs to spend some sort of resource in order to change a die. Now, that calls for real decision making.
The resource can be anything, credits, mana, action points, you name it.

Maybe it is mentioned before. But some way of tracking results can help too.
That way, weaker rolls will still mean something in the long run.