Extreme Probablity


Advice


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I am TERRIBLE at mathematics, and worse at probability.

Could someone please tell me the odds of someone rolling a 100, then 90, then 90 again in that exact order on a d100?

I want to find out just how rare it would be for a variant aasimar from Blood of Angels to have +6 Charisma in lieu of here Spell-like ability.


For that exact order? It's 1%, 1% then 1% again. .01*.01*.01 so a .000001 chance. Literally 1 in a million. However, it should be noted that ANY combination on that table is 1 in a million. Including 22, 17, 86 or whatever else.


*Exactly* a 90, not a 90 or better? Then you just multiply out the probabilities - 1/100 cubed. It's exactly a one in a million shot.

ETA: Probably should've expected to get ninja'd here...

Grand Lodge

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Man, I feel you on that Ravingdork.

I game with a Lawyer, a Math Major, a Philosophy Major, and a Computer System Analyst in the Navy(I think that the title).

Who am I in the group? The former starving artist, who spent about 5 years homeless. I tend to get lost in a lot of conversations.

I have known these guys for over 15 years(not how much more), and I am still the guy who knows the rules of 3.5 and Pathfinder the best.

Of course, the moment I need to use any math, I usually have to look to someone else.


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As they said above, one in a million. There are 2 chances in a million of getting a racial stat mod of +6 off that table. 36 chances of getting two extra +2 racial ability bonuses which may or may not be to the same ability score.

And of course a really good chance of getting something totally useless. Detect pregnancy ...

Silver Crusade

Ravingdork wrote:
I want to find out just how rare it would be for a variant aasimar from Blood of Angels to have +6 Charisma in lieu of here Spell-like ability.

Every single three part combination of the results of three % die rolls is equally rare.

I haven't seen the tables in question, but if every power only covers a single number (as opposed to a range of numbers, like '1-10 = horns') then every single power has exactly the same likelihood, no matter how unlikely in individual power is.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Now, has there been any mention of the frequency of aasimar in Golarion?

We know it is 1 in a million out of the aasimar population, but can we get a ballpark figure on how rare such a character would in the world as a whole?

Liberty's Edge

Ravingdork wrote:

Now, has there been any mention of the frequency of aasimar in Golarion?

We know it is 1 in a million out of the aasimar population, but can we get a ballpark figure on how rare such a character would in the world as a whole?

Aasimar are way less than 1% of the population in most of Golarion. Though there is one whole nation with a bunch of them, so maybe call it 2% total. Golarion also almost certainly has less than 1 billion people. So that's a max of 20 million Aasimar, and probably much less. So less than 20 people worldwide. I'd speculate less than 10.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Potentially 20 such aasimar in the whole world? That's actually more than I would have thought.

Liberty's Edge

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Ravingdork wrote:
Potentially 20 such aasimar in the whole world? That's actually more than I would have thought.

That's a really high-end estimate, assuming both a higher population for Golarion and a higher Aasimar percentage of that population than is likely. Half that number seems a lot more reasonable.


In a world with gods, they can twist fate in their favor making the improbable probable.

The Exchange

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demontroll wrote:
In a world with gods, they can twist fate in their favor making the improbable probable.

In a world with players, they can twist the rules in their favor making their characters probable. ;)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Lincoln Hills wrote:
demontroll wrote:
In a world with gods, they can twist fate in their favor making the improbable probable.
In a world with players, they can twist the rules in their favor making their characters probable. ;)

Though both those statements are quite true, it's not really rules bending since the table specifically says selecting specific abilities is okay if the GM allows for it.

The Exchange

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Well, actually, 'probable' is still a mighty strong word to apply to some of the characters one sees brought to the table. 'Ludicrously improbable but not quite impossible' didn't have the same ring, though.


If ridiculously improbable characters is a problem for you as GM, simply give the players a list of generally acceptable races and classes before they create their characters. Anything not on the list requires special permission.


Is it even possible to get the same result two or more times on this table?

The Exchange

JoeJ: I'm not sure I go for that. I like saying 'yes' when I feel the game can handle these things. Players who want to run an exotic (of appropriate power level) at my table can usually do so, but I warn them that they're still only going to get their usual percentage of 'GM time' and a lot of the time they do get is going to be used to point out the complications of being, say, the Last Living Snuffluphagus. Or, in this case, 'Magical Wish Star Holy Aasimar Super Champion'.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Drejk wrote:
Is it even possible to get the same result two or more times on this table?

Yes, but you have to roll 100 first, which lets you roll twice for two abilities. Then, you have to roll the same ability twice. That, or tell your GM "this is what I want with this character" and hope he approves it.

Since all the bonuses are untyped pretty much across the board, it's fairly safe to say they all stack with each other as well.


Deadmanwalking wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:
Potentially 20 such aasimar in the whole world? That's actually more than I would have thought.
That's a really high-end estimate, assuming both a higher population for Golarion and a higher Aasimar percentage of that population than is likely. Half that number seems a lot more reasonable.

That's also assuming every assimar uses the variant table, which, assuming that's true, would make the rarest result... the basic spell-like ability the aasimar come with.

Liberty's Edge

Zodiac_Sheep wrote:
Deadmanwalking wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:
Potentially 20 such aasimar in the whole world? That's actually more than I would have thought.
That's a really high-end estimate, assuming both a higher population for Golarion and a higher Aasimar percentage of that population than is likely. Half that number seems a lot more reasonable.
That's also assuming every assimar uses the variant table, which, assuming that's true, would make the rarest result... the basic spell-like ability the aasimar come with.

Oooh, excellent point. That's probably less than half of Aasimar. Dropping the number to, say, 8 or so as a high end estimate, and probably more like 4 or so in reality.


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If any of those aasimar w/+6 CHA are commoners with less than the elite array it might be hard to pick out that they even have that racial modifier.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I suspect that many aasimars end up becoming adventurers and thus don't often use the basic array.

Liberty's Edge

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Ravingdork wrote:
I suspect that many aasimars end up becoming adventurers and thus don't often use the basic array.

Right...but adventurers are normally like, 5% of the population at most (that's the figure I use for all people of PC classes, actually). Even if Aasimar are 10 times as likely to become adventurers, that's still only half of them.


If we're theorising 10-20 million aasimar they won't all be adventurers, or likely even non-adventuring types with PC classes.


Let me introduce the concept of 'fate'...

Some people are just born with a particular gift or destiny. It happens a lot on fantasy. End of story regardless of probability?

Dark Archive

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Ludicrously improbable is standard for PCs.

Did you know that 80% Paladins, from the Worldwound to Katapesh to Cheliax were found in the woods as a child (Fey Foundling feat)? Or that they were all brought up by magical beasts (Magical Knack trait)? Or that the vat majority of adventurers, those fearless superhuman maniacs were bullied as a child (Reactionary trait)?

The Exchange

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Bullied by whom? The fey? Or the magical beasts?


Ravingdork wrote:

Now, has there been any mention of the frequency of aasimar in Golarion?

We know it is 1 in a million out of the aasimar population, ...

This doesn't follow. From a technical perspective, you're making an unwarranted independence assumption.

In less technical language -- does being an aasimar breed true? (E.g., if two aasimars marry and have children, what race are those children?) If a half-angel has six aasimar children, will those children have any similarities in their abilities?

It makes little sense to me that I should be peri-blooded but my twin sister garuda-blooded. But by the same token, if I inherited a specific ability from my grandfather, that's likely to be the same ability my twin sister inherited.

Liberty's Edge

avr wrote:

...

And of course a really good chance of getting something totally useless. Detect pregnancy ...

Situational, but not useless.

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