Has anyone ever calculated the number of possible character combinations? I know it's potentially infinite when considering RPing and backgrounds, I'm talking Races, Classes, Archetypes, Feats. Basic mechanical stuff that isn't numerically represented (like AC, HP, Ability Scores), just the pure choice stuff. I'm just curious if someone knows...this is for someone with more skills and patience than I.
(# of races x {# of classes + # of archetypes}) x (# of 'available' classes + # of 'available' archetypes)^(# of character levels you have - 1)
Using Archives of Nethys (and completely ignore Prestige Classes, because the math to calculate requirements and how many other classes could qualify them would take until after the new year—also ignoring the racial requirement for some class archetypes), the resulting number =
At level 1:
(52 x {37 + 516}) x (37 + 516)^(1-1) = 28756
Here's where it gets tricky. Once you've chosen an archetype or base class, you're not allowed to add a level to the original class OR any other archetype of the same class, as the case may be. You're locked in. So while there are 516 archetypes to choose from at the start, that number quickly falls once you start multiclassing. Ninja and Samurai have the fewest number of archetypes (with 0 and 1, respectively) while Druid, Fighter and Rogue each have 41 archetypes. Because of this, the equation above cannot be done by calculator. You need to noodle it out on your own based on which class/archetype is chosen.
Depending on what you chose at first level, the number of possibilities at 2nd level ranges from 14,723,072 to 15,902,068.
By 3rd level, the gap widens even more: 6,934,566,912 to 8,777,941,536.
Good gravy!! Holy crap.
Though that number is a mite inflated from actually USABLE configurations.
My numbers were not taking feats into account, but they are taking Kensai and Bladebound into account. As I said in the post, normally, you are not allowed to have 2 archetypes from the same class, so I'm not sure what you mean by a Bladebound Kensai Magus.
Rynjin, I would venture that every single one of the 28756 1st level possibilities are perfectly viable, and the vast majority of the millions of combinations by level 2 are as well. Past that, many if not most of the billions of possible multiclass combinations by level 3 would be ridiculous, I agree.
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My numbers were not taking feats into account, but they are taking Kensai and Bladebound into account. As I said in the post, normally, you are not allowed to have 2 archetypes from the same class, so I'm not sure what you mean by a Bladebound Kensai Magus.
Rynjin, I would venture that every single one of the 28756 1st level possibilities are perfectly viable, and the vast majority of the millions of combinations by level 2 are as well. Past that, many if not most of the billions of possible multiclass combinations by level 3 would be ridiculous, I agree.
You can have as many archetypes as you want, as long as they don't both replace the same class feature. I haven't check, but i presume that Bladebound & Kensai replace seperate sets of class abilities, so can both be applied.
I didn't look closely enough either, it seems. I saw that Bladebound and Kensai both added/changed abilities at similar levels (3, 13, 19), but didn't look closely enough to see that they don't actually overlap in terms of which ones they replace. True, this would increase the number of possibilities, but to figure out the exact number, I'd have to comb through every single archetype. Not gonna happen. xD