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If one member of your gaming group somehow, impossibly rolled six 18's during character creation (for those who roll that is, please no discussion of point buy) and your DM asked that player to re-roll his character (for sake of balance) how would you react?
If one member of your gaming group somehow, impossibly rolled six 18's during character creation (for those who roll that is, please no discussion of point buy) and your DM asked that player to re-roll his character (for sake of balance) how would you react?
As a player, I wouldnt even want to play a character like that. He has no weak points to roleplay, like a low INT or CHA.
I would ask to keep 1 or maybe 2 and re-roll the rest.
First of all, if anybody rolls six 18s in a row, I'll pay that person a trip to Vegas with a 10 000 dollar credit card and he or she can gamble for me for a living.
Should a player hypothetically roll six 18s in a row in front of me and the other players at the game table, well, so be it. Who am I to argue with destiny?
If the player says he rolled six 18s in a row for his new character when he was alone at his house, I'd punch him in the right eye and tell him never to speak to me again. Then I'd punch him in the left eye.
Ultradan
Yeeaaaars ago, I rolled the equivalent of five 18s and one 17 in front of the DM and a player for my character. I was very excited.
He died three sessions later. I had gotten used to think of him as invicible and played carelessly (OK, I was 13 and still - ? - stupid).
;-)
Bocklin
Wow, would this be best three out of four dice or what? At any rate, if the player rolled out there in front of myself and the rest of the group I say you let it stand; a player would, rightfully, feel cheated otherwise. Besides, with those rolls my guess would be that the player has some powerful allies on the higher planes that I wouldn't want to tick off by asking for a reroll.
I'd proabably grumble and even try to wriggle my way out but if the DM insisted I would reroll. But then I DM so I know it can be unbalancing.
I think that keeping a couple of 18's would be a good compromise.
But then again D&D is about luck so being lucky and rolling 6 18's is part of the deal, statistically it will happen and you have to suck it up, just like rolling 6 12's.
igi
Yeesh. I was all excited because my latest PC managed to get one 18 — and that was after picking the best of three ability score sets I'd rolled on 4d6.
...I'd punch him in the right eye.... Then I'd punch him in the left eye.
ROTFL.
As a player, I wouldnt even want to play a character like that. He has no weak points to roleplay....
I fully understand where you're coming from, but I disagree. See below.
...if the player rolled out there in front of myself and the rest of the group I say you let it stand; a player would, rightfully, feel cheated otherwise. Besides, with those rolls my guess would be that the player has some powerful allies on the higher planes that I wouldn't want to tick off by asking for a reroll.
The player's allies on the higher planes notwithstanding, the character would surely have some. A character like this could have an entire campaign centered around him or her. The reason I disagree with Mr. Blackhawk (above) is that, depending on the player's roleplaying skill, this could be milked for much fun and excitement. I'm thinking divine destiny. This character is unique (or at least one-in-some-astronomical-number) and should have a path laid out by the gods. Such a campaign could have a by-line like: "Set before great abilities are enormous challenges." I think a lot could be done to keep the PC balanced by putting a burden of responsibility on him. With a skilled player, I think it could be a blast.
When i was in high school and used to play with all my friends i taught my girlfriend at the time to play and she rolled 5 18's and 1 17 in front of us all but quit playing after the first session. Heh, but in my opinion dispite the obviously unbalanced factor the player should be allowed to keep the rolls because we as DM's enforce them keeping rolls they dont like so we cannot rightly make them reroll rolls they like.
...we as DM's enforce them keeping rolls they dont like so we cannot rightly make them reroll rolls they like.
Well said.
There are five times in history I rolled six eighteens.
One of those times, I did it for someone else.
When it first happened, my DM at the time said, "Well, well... that's going to change things a bit. A character of such great gifts would have to be the very reason for there being an adventuring party."
He adjusted his plotline a scoche and played us, even with the impossible character. He dumped anvils on me 'til I jumped at the sound of raindrops. I retired the character at a reasonably high level when the campaign ended due to two players moving away.
The second time I rolled perfectly a different DM bargained with me. He wanted to just undo what I'd done but he seemed to respect the oddity of it and so I lowered to two eighteens, two seventeens, and two fourteens. The character was still a maxed out roughboy. Lost that one to a badly worded trap.
As a DM, I'd allow it. There'd just be more anvil storms to watch out for. You want to role play a deity? Fine, you're Gromdy Humptybone, god of slightly bent salad forks.
First of all, if anybody rolls six 18s in a row, I'll pay that person a trip to Vegas with a 10 000 dollar credit card and he or she can gamble for me for a living.
Ultradan
I did it six times in 31 years, but I'm a terrible gambler. Be careful with bank rolling that Vegas idea!
I would allow it but I would pressure him/her heavily towards a full wizard career. I like the idea of a character with the physique of altas but avoids melee combat like the plague (which his/her super human immune system would actually make them immune)
But I don't feel it is right to keep players from amazing random luck. After all it happens all the time. The PC's get too much treasure, they find out too much info, They are too strong for the boss to present challange, it happens. Thats why we have the GOLDEN RULE of D&D, all rules can be and should be, reviewed, altered, and or completely disregarded should they interfere with the fun of the game. There are unlimited ways to restore the game balance should something unexpected happen, so it seems cheap to me to penalize the player for it rather than fitting the story to the player.
Let it stand! The game has a way of making all characters equal in time. A character with all 18s is just as likely to take a critical hit from a great axe as anyone else... In the end, I think the intelligence of the player determines characters success more than stats.
I agree, I think that the random all 18s are just one of those things that will make the session interesting. And you never know, the character might not be able to figure out what they want to do in life, pick up a level of everything, and not be that great at anything . . . it all depends on how its played.
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I would allow the player to use the character, and I would expect to be allowed to play the character if I rolled six 18s. That said, if the DM objected, I would go along with his decision. In almost 25 years of D&D, I've never seen more that 4 18s rolled myself, but when it happened, I don't remember even considering disallowing it. When the gods smile...
I would ask to keep a few (1-2) and reduce the rest by one d6+2 or to reroll them. I love playing the strong but forgetfull simpleminded Barbarian or the clumsy cleric or a weak (physically) Spellcaster. I like streotypes but I also like playing oddities. (a intelligent dex based barbarian, a brutish sorrceror) But yeah I would try to keep at least one If the DM saw the rolls and they all came up 18 asnd asked that they be rerolled.
If I was DM I would allow it and just throw biggger challenges at them and require the player roleplayed really well or all his/her abillities would be dropped by 4. bwa hahaha. I am the Evil DM! Fear my wrath!
I am running a high powered campaign and my freind is playing an ORC BARBARIAN and got an 18 in str. Next adventure they are fighting for a boss a 5th lvl rouge who is killing people in the Great metropolis of Hesperia. This means they will first have to find him. Hesperia has 1,000,000 residents so this adventure should be rather amusing. bwa hahaha. I am the Evil DM! Fear my wrath!
Let it stand.
The obviously rookie DM decided on a format for random ability generation and now the DM must live with those consequences.
Let it stand.
The obviously rookie DM decided on a format for random ability generation and now the DM must live with those consequences.
I think he was speaking hypothetically.
Even if he wasn't, how does random ability generation indicate a rookie DM?
Keep it.
But reaaaaaaaaally make the game interest and make him EARN those ability scores.
If you are rolling sets of 3d6*, you will typically get a set of six 18s once in about 101,560,000,000,000 tries. That's over 100 trillion. If you throw the dice once per second (no sleeping), that will take over 19 million years.
There haven't been that many dice rolls in the history of the universe so far.
I have no problem saying no way -- I'd have a hard time believing it happened. I've never seen anything close, playing since 1978.
Which is why I use point buy systems -- no cheating.
Regards all :)
Jack
*many (or most) roll best of four, which has much better odds -- I think about one out of 19 billion. 5000 times better odds will only take about 4000 years.
If you are rolling sets of 3d6*, you will typically get a set of six 18s once in about 101,560,000,000,000 tries. That's over 100 trillion. If you throw the dice once per second (no sleeping), that will take over 19 million years.
There haven't been that many dice rolls in the history of the universe so far.
I have no problem saying no way -- I'd have a hard time believing it happened. I've never seen anything close, playing since 1978.
Which is why I use point buy systems -- no cheating.
Regards all :)
Jack
*many (or most) roll best of four, which has much better odds -- I think about one out of 19 billion. 5000 times better odds will only take about 4000 years.
Intimidating odds. Odds I could never beat, and yet I have. Perhaps a yearning hope mixed with a dextrous toss? The die bounced around plenty but there you had it... six sixes.
Funny, the things that make one feel omnipotent.
Don't strip me of my laurels, I'm still resting on them. ;)
If you are rolling sets of 3d6*, you will typically get a set of six 18s once in about 101,560,000,000,000 tries. That's over 100 trillion. If you throw the dice once per second (no sleeping), that will take over 19 million years.
There haven't been that many dice rolls in the history of the universe so far.
I have no problem saying no way -- I'd have a hard time believing it happened. I've never seen anything close, playing since 1978.
Which is why I use point buy systems -- no cheating.
Regards all :)
Jack
*many (or most) roll best of four, which has much better odds -- I think about one out of 19 billion. 5000 times better odds will only take about 4000 years.
In my last play session I rolled a pecentage dice and a d10 to determine whether or not an attack would succeed. three times for a creature attaking a character with a displacement effect, five times in a different fight for a character attacking while blind. The dice rolled 77 in a row all eight times. I tried every different way to roll them I could think of, every time the same result. The dice do strange things. Scary things.
The odds of a planet being hospitable towards carbon based life forms is projected to be far beyond the range of one hundred trillion. Mathimatically improbable is an adjective that describes our very existance.
If one member of your gaming group somehow, impossibly rolled six 18's during character creation (for those who roll that is, please no discussion of point buy) and your DM asked that player to re-roll his character (for sake of balance) how would you react?
This is why I prefer the point buy method but since I have yet to find a player who does too, I use the dice method. So if anyone in my game rolled 3 18s (and I would see because I always watch), I would let it stand. Here's the catch; I've created a rule that allows PCs to buy ability scores with XP. In effect, lucky first level rolls are fun but are eventually balanced out. (Btw, this rule does not allow a score to be raised beyond its 'raw' racial maximum. I have also done away with Wish, Manual and Tome boosts.)
I've seen it happen more than once. A kind of odd tingling fills the air. We let him play the character, and he still got the holy hell kicked outta him by drow. I believe that no matter how high your con modifier is, you'll eventually roll that dreadful one for a fortitude save...
...and you will die.
As a player if any DM would ask that of me i'd loom at him... then as I continue to stare at him, woudn't know what to say.
Then I'd bring him into the little room beside the living room, close the door and deal something out. Like, free darkvision and I reduce one stat to a 14, access to the cleric sun domain and I'd reduce 2 stats to 12.. Something like that.
If the DM is categoric and really dosent want to hear anything, then my last deal would be I reroll my character, but with 10+d8 dice for each stat. I wont have 18 everywhere, but I wont end-up with any 6-8's either.
If that fails, i'm not sure I want to play with this DM anymore heh. And that's serious.
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As a DM, if one of my player rolled all 18's, i'd be very happy with him/her, but i'd also try to "bargain" with that person (in private) by offering nifty small bonuses in exchange for points. I dont mind 2x18 in campaigns, i've ran increadible ones with strong players before. But 6 is like... omg O_O
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Co-owner - Battlegrounds to Board Games
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I've played D&D since '84 and I am a very lenient DM. I allow 1 of 2 methods for character generation in my game. 1st roll 4d6 taking the highest 3 for each stat then roll 7 stats and take the best 6. 2nd method is roll 3d6 6 times and generate six full sets of stats and take the best set. Even through all this I have never had or even seen a character that legally rolled more that 2 maybe 3 18's even using my methods. But if someone rolled it right there in front of me I would let them have it, without any complaining. If they have mojo like that, then they deserve to play the character. I think it would be a great roleplaying challenge for the player to roleplay someone who was perfect in every way - I don't think it would be all that easy. As was mentioned above, you could center an entire campaign around this "GODBORN" perfect character. It has also been my experience that "Super Characters" usually don't last very long because their players get a little too cocky and think they are invicible. I have never had my game broken due to an over-powered PC. If you don't dumb down your monsters and run them the way the should be run and you won't have a problem.
Let it stand.
The obviously rookie DM decided on a format for random ability generation and now the DM must live with those consequences.
I think he was speaking hypothetically.
Even if he wasn't, how does random ability generation indicate a rookie DM?
Exactly. Whats wrong with random stat generation?
I guess I should extrapolate my position on this issue. Since primemover003 asked that we not discuss point-buy system (the clearly fair method of attribute generation), I refrained from taking my opinion that direction.
If my DM tells me that I am rolling 3d6 straight for my statistics, the DM is telling me a few things:
1) That all characters are not created equally. That’s ok, because one might argue that’s the way it is in real life or the way it might be explained in a fictional story. However, in my experiences this generates jealousy and animosity among the players who might have rolled average or even below average statistics. That’s not fun.
2) That the DM expects me to play a character where laws of probability say I will have an average score of 10.5, and most of my ability scores will be between 8 and 13. The deadliness of the game not withstanding, I prefer statistics in this range.
a. Most important to my argument is an assumption that the DM did not say “Characters will be generated randomly using the 3d6 method, unless you roll three six’s six times in a row, in which case you will be forced to re-roll a result of all 18s.” I don’t care how improbable rolling 6 sets of 18’s are – the DM outlined the criteria and must consider that this outcome is unlikely, and not impossible.
I speak to this because I have seen it in action. You don’t need 6 sets of 18s to ruin chemistry at the game table.
DMs, do yourselves a favor and just use the point-buy system.
DMs, do yourselves a favor and just use the point-buy system.
Never!
Ultradan
Once, waaay back when, ('79 I think) rolled 5 18's and a 17 in front of the DM. He said he'd let me play it ONLY if the character classes and race worked with the stats. (Note: original AD&D here) Since we had two other players working toward bard at the time, he said that wasn't an option, so went with a half-elf fighter/mage/cleric. The DM said yes after rolling a 99 on his STR. Said it ment that the character is a MUST.
That character (now epic level) is still around.
I have been playing since college (late 70's) and DMing for the last 25 years or so. I have no problem with disallowing a character that could affect game balance, or having one of mine tossed for the same reason.
That said, I hate point-buy systems. (Way too Lawful for my taste.)
I've never rolled *that* well, but I've had my share of above average rolls, like nothing below 10 or something.
My one good dice roll story was when I made a human fighter to join a game, the DM said he would watch me roll percentile for my 18 Strength, and I got the 00! He said it was the first time he actually saw someone roll 00 for Strength.
As a DM, I'd be worried about how all of the other players would react to such high ability scores, and I'd be initially against it. But I'd also ask what type of character he'd make, and go from there. I've allowed quite a bit of leniency towards character creation when it favors the "flavor" of the campaign setting or the character concept that the player has in mind.
I don't want bad dice rolls to stop a player from creating a character that he/she really wants to play, so I'd try to bite my tounge and not let really good scores change it as well.
As a player, I'd feel a little a loss on how to create an entertaining character that I'd enjoy role-playing. It's fun having a character with a 6 str or 8 dex, or whatever. Work it into the character and had a go at it. I've been doing that so long, I don't know what I'd do with six 18s.
Assuming properly random dice and 4d discard 1d rolling style the odds of rolling 6 18s are...
The odds of rolling an 18, per throw: 1 in 54
The odds of rolling straight 18s: (1/54)^6
Those odds are about 1 in 15 billion - a little worse, actually. (That's an American billion, not an English billion, if you were wondering. What brits in the audience would call a thousand million.)
So, if we presume that 2% of Americans play D&D, and the average D&D player rolls up 10 characters a year, for about 60 million characters rolled per year, the numbers say that we should expect a straight-18 character to be rolled fairly once every 25 years. That is to say, out of the 30-odd years D&D has been around, this has probably happened exactly once.
From the multiple people saying this has happened to them, I can only conclude that they were using more generous rolling schemes than "4d6 discard 1" or using significantly biased dice or a combination of the two.
The odds of a planet being hospitable towards carbon based life forms is projected to be far beyond the range of one hundred trillion. Mathimatically improbable is an adjective that describes our very existance.
I don't know who projected a probability "far beyond the range of one hundred trillion".
Here's how the game is played:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html
When I played with my old gameing group they would roll there stats and then because I could not be every were at once they always imbelished a few of there scores. Even more so if they were playing an arcain magic using class. Yet anouther reason I will not run a campain for them anymore. If in my campain running right now with new people were to roll all 18s on there stats I would take the dice and check to see if they were weighted. then I would take that person aside and bargen with them about there scores and mabe trade them for a magic item or something if they used like two of the 18s and then change the rest to like 12 or 13. That to say if I was still playing with my old group and not DMing and some how I managed to play a character with nothing but 18's I would totaly Min/Max just to get back at them. But thats just me because I like revenge.
Why is everyone so hung up on this idea of rolling 6 sixes. Someone said that it would be only achievable once every 25 years. Well isn't the whole idea that rolling dice is random. I roll 4d6 six times, I still have as much a chance of rolling 3 sixes each time I pick up the dice. Remember its random.
And so what if a character has six 18s for stats, doesn't that mean he is just rare and gifted, and isn't there an equal chance of having someone that is evil have those same stats. I personally wouldn't want to play someone like that, but hey if you want to and you rolled legally in front of the DM I can't see why he wouldn't let you play.
Besides as a DM you should be able to balance it all out anyways, isn't that our job as a DM, To accomodate players and make sure they have fun too? I would look at it as a challenge to DM a character with 6 18s for starting stats. And who doesn't like a challenge?
thats my two at least.
Assuming properly random dice and 4d discard 1d rolling style the odds of rolling 6 18s are...
The odds of rolling an 18, per throw: 1 in 54
The odds of rolling straight 18s: (1/54)^6
Those odds are about 1 in 15 billion - a little worse, actually. (That's an American billion, not an English billion, if you were wondering. What brits in the audience would call a thousand million.)So, if we presume that 2% of Americans play D&D, and the average D&D player rolls up 10 characters a year, for about 60 million characters rolled per year, the numbers say that we should expect a straight-18 character to be rolled fairly once every 25 years. That is to say, out of the 30-odd years D&D has been around, this has probably happened exactly once.
From the multiple people saying this has happened to them, I can only conclude that they were using more generous rolling schemes than "4d6 discard 1" or using significantly biased dice or a combination of the two.
Any odds calculation of this kind is based off of the assumption you are rolling the same 4 dice. Were talking thousands of different dice sets, each with the same odds you described above. So it is a possibility.
Assuming properly random dice and 4d discard 1d rolling style the odds of rolling 6 18s are...
The odds of rolling an 18, per throw: 1 in 54
The odds of rolling straight 18s: (1/54)^6
Those odds are about 1 in 15 billion - a little worse, actually. (That's an American billion, not an English billion, if you were wondering. What brits in the audience would call a thousand million.)
By my calculations, the odds of rolling a single 18 are 21 in 1296, slightly worse than 1 in 54. But the point is the same.
Like others here, I'd bet my lucky dice that every one of you that has rolled all 18s was using a more favorable method.
Of course, maybe you have super powers. In which case, be sure to use your powers for good! : ]
Having said that, I see no reason why the DM should not embrace the results. If you don't like it, you shoulda picked a point-buy method.
As cheesy as it may seem, I think DMing a character with all 18s would be a blast.
For what it's worth, there is a slight preference to roll a six on a d6.
The side with a 1 has less plastic scraped out of it than the side with a 6 -- the 1-side is heavier, and thus more likely to end up face-down. It's a big enough effect to make Vegas casinos go to irrational lengths to eliminate; they fill the pits in with something that has the same specific gravity (density) as the plastic the die is made of.
Mainly just trivia, but it does skew the odds we've been talking about slightly more in favor of rolling 18s. You're actually more likely to roll an 18 than a 3 (even on just 3d6).
That notwithstanding, I'm still going to disallow a character with all 18s in my campaign. Along with other concerns, I'm not going to let pure happenstance make a character into Superman (or Superwoman). Consider a game where the other characters have an average ability score of 14 -- it's like one person had a +4 bonus to every score. Try to figure out the ECL adjustment for that :/
Later all :)
Jack
The odds of a planet being hospitable towards carbon based life forms is projected to be far beyond the range of one hundred trillion. Mathimatically improbable is an adjective that describes our very existance.
Not true at all. The odds of life in the universe is exceptionally strong. In fact, it is almost mathematically impossible for life not to exist elsewhere in the cosmos in abundance. Sorry for the off-topic statement, but I love cosmology and can't let such a skewed statement stand.
I agree with the other DMs here- you used rolling, you keep the six 18s. If you don't like it, use point buy.
The odds of life in the universe is exceptionally strong. In fact, it is almost mathematically impossible for life not to exist elsewhere in the cosmos in abundance.
Say you take the smallest chance possible for life in the universe to exist (one chance in infinity) and multiply that by the number of planets in the universe (wich is infinity), you get 1. Or 1 chance on 1, or 100%.
((1/Inf.) x Inf.) = 1 = 1/1 = 100%
So yes, there is lide out there.
Ultradan
Has anyone noticed that all the people who mentioned having rolled 4-6 18s in row seem to remember it happening many years ago. The human memory is a strange thing. It kind of reminds me of those fish stories you hear from your uncle where each year he tells it the fish is a little bit bigger.
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If one member of your gaming group somehow, impossibly rolled six 18's during character creation (for those who roll that is, please no discussion of point buy) and your DM asked that player to re-roll his character (for sake of balance) how would you react?
Well, If the DM asked me to reroll on the argument of balance I would simply laugh at him and say "Try using the point buy system if your worried about balance!"
Although I would be tempted to try and play these stats I would agree with some other replies about it being harder to play a perfect humanoid. Instead of rerolling I would suggest "Trading" 2 or 3 of the 18s with other players lowest dice rolls.
I think it would be best to let such a roll stand, if it was done in public of course. If you're going to roll I think it best to do it all together with the group.
I think the whole point of rolling for stats is that you have a chance to get really good scores. That chance to "win big" is what gives the justification for playing that character with a bunch of 8s. Accept what the dice give, just try to make sure others are allowing in the randomness by not cheating.
rooster
If the player rolled fairly and in front of the DM, I'd let it stand.
It might be somewhat unbalancing, but once you law down the "rolling rules" you should stick with them. Either that or take the player aside and explain the situation in the hope they will reduce a few scores; perhaps the DM could offer the player an extra feat or skill points to reduce the scores (as desired) by, say, 6 points. That would bring the PC back down to earth and give the player a more interesting PC in the end. (I've discarded rolled characters with all 14s or 15s simply because they're too one-dimentional; having some ability variance aids both initial class selection and role-play, I've found.)
I'm currently playing a fighter that was rolled under 1st Edition rules, in front of the DM, with an 18(00) Strength. It's worth noting that we roll 4 d6s and keep the best three, but the d% came up 0-0 all on their own (I rolled them one at a time, dramatically, and my friend cheered when the 2nd "0" came up). Perhaps not 1-in-a trillion odds, but it felt good, and more honest than simply adding to my Strength due to racial bonuses or something along those lines.
I guess I should extrapolate my position on this issue. Since primemover003 asked that we not discuss point-buy system (the clearly fair method of attribute generation), I refrained from taking my opinion that direction.
If my DM tells me that I am rolling 3d6 straight for my statistics, the DM is telling me a few things:
1) That all characters are not created equally. That’s ok, because one might argue that’s the way it is in real life or the way it might be explained in a fictional story. However, in my experiences this generates jealousy and animosity among the players who might have rolled average or even below average statistics. That’s not fun.
2) That the DM expects me to play a character where laws of probability say I will have an average score of 10.5, and most of my ability scores will be between 8 and 13. The deadliness of the game not withstanding, I prefer statistics in this range.
a. Most important to my argument is an assumption that the DM did not say “Characters will be generated randomly using the 3d6 method, unless you roll three six’s six times in a row, in which case you will be forced to re-roll a result of all 18s.” I don’t care how improbable rolling 6 sets of 18’s are – the DM outlined the criteria and must consider that this outcome is unlikely, and not impossible.I speak to this because I have seen it in action. You don’t need 6 sets of 18s to ruin chemistry at the game table.
DMs, do yourselves a favor and just use the point-buy system.
I pretty much found myself going down this route - I have a player that just routinely manages to get characters with +12 after all stats are tallied - No one else can seem to get any closer then +8 and the poor players with a mere +5 are just over shadowed.
Interestingly the main player's characters seemed to die more then the rest of the PCs (not my doing - well not consciously anyway) But his new character always comes back meaner badder and better and quickly dominates the party all over again. Worse yet it was my poor neophyte thats getting the bad stats - its hard enough trying to make her part of the action and have fun among a party of vets without the stats making my life that much more difficult. I got sick of the endless loop and the unhappy players when they rolled their stats and just went with a point buy.
Say you take the smallest chance possible for life in the universe to exist (one chance in infinity) and multiply that by the number of planets in the universe (wich is infinity), you get 1. Or 1 chance on 1, or 100%.
((1/Inf.) x Inf.) = 1 = 1/1 = 100%
So yes, there is life out there.
I'm no expert on Life, the Universe, and Everything, so I can't comment on how scientists compute the probability of life existing elsewhere in the universe. I can, however, point out that your math is bogus. :-)
"Infinity" is not the same as a number like "12" or a symbolic quantity like "x". The two infinities in your formula do not cancel each other out. The "1/inf" is zero (really zero, not just a very small number) and "0 x inf" is mathematically undefined (what computer math folks call "NaN", or "not a number"), so the expression you wrote does not come out to 1. If you reassociate as "inf / inf", you still get an undefined result. It's not the same as when "x / x = 1" (for nonzero x).
Further, if the chance of a planet supporting life were "1 in infinity" as you assert then no planet (not even Earth) would support life. If you're using infinity as an abstraction for "really big number", then your math is still flawed, since your two infinities wouldn't be the same really big number, so again they wouldn't cancel.
Also, you'd need exponentiation, not straight multiplication, to compute what you're describing.
Thank you Mr. Spock...
From the multiple people saying this has happened to them, I can only conclude that they were using more generous rolling schemes than "4d6 discard 1" or using significantly biased dice or a combination of the two.
4d6 is indeed how I pulled it off twice. But the other times... nope. I have the odd habit of rolling each die seperately. Takes forever, what with all the yearning wishes I intone before release, but the suspense is unforgettable. Though rolling them seperately opens up the possibility of me controlling a single die at a time by soft rolling, this isn't the case. When I let them go they bounce and roll and hit their friends and roll back then roll on out to the store to get me something salty and then return to finally land on the table.
I just know there's an element of dexterity in there somewhere to challenge the coldness of the odds. Maybe if sixes really matter to the roller at a certain moment, matter as much as sex and getting into the college of their choice, the roller might just manifest what they're seeking.
Sad state of affairs when a single die can give sex a run for its money, eh?
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Folks, doesn't anyone else use Method Eight from the 3.5 DMG? 5d6, drop the lowest two. If the "rookie DM" theory is the case here, he might use just that and be considering that possibility, which greatly increases the chance of 18 in each set of five rolls by, what, a factor of six?
Just a thought.
But, as an answer to the original question, I'd let the dice stand. After years of using the first-edition Unearthed Arcana rules for character generation (best-3-of-9d6 for a fighter's strength, for instance!) and STILL having only slightly above-average numbers, I'd love to see it, though, in playing since 1982, it hasn't yet, except when my friend Barry brought in "cheater's dice" which always rolled 6 due to weights on the "1" side.
Any odds calculation of this kind is based off of the assumption you are rolling the same 4 dice. Were talking thousands of different dice sets, each with the same odds you described above. So it is a possibility.
That's good. I was wondering if seperate die may have played into it. I have as many die as some of these odds against I'm reading about here, and some of them are just lucky in certain combinations.
Hey, know how to roll a bunch of sixes? Just drill out the dot on the 'one' side and fill it with lead filings, then close it up again. I roll three sixes every single time!