D&D General 1 in 1000 chance

[MarkB]

I've had some terrible luck making first rolls for new characters, but my absolute worst was with an Elf battle master fighter set up as an archer, with Elven Accuracy, attacking with advantage from hiding.

Triple natural 1.

 

[Dioltach]

I had a streak a few years back when four or five sessions in a row I did not once roll higher than a 12. No matter which d20 I used (and I even made sure it wasn't a d12), it was just, "Yup, I missed again."

 

[Mad_Jack]

I had a streak a few years back when four or five sessions in a row I did not once roll higher than a 12. No matter which d20 I used (and I even made sure it wasn't a d12), it was just, "Yup, I missed again."

Slight thread derailment here, but there was one time several years ago that me and the rest of our party replaced this one knucklehead's D20's with duplicates that were numbered 1-10 twice, and he didn't even notice - after two sessions, we had to tell him we'd spiked his dice before he ragequit, lol.

 

[el-remmen]

Slight thread derailment here, but there was one time several years ago that me and the rest of our party replaced this one knucklehead's D20's with duplicates that were numbered 1-10 twice, and he didn't even notice - after two sessions, we had to tell him we'd spiked his dice before he ragequit, lol.

 

[MarkB]

Slight thread derailment here, but there was one time several years ago that me and the rest of our party replaced this one knucklehead's D20's with duplicates that were numbered 1-10 twice, and he didn't even notice - after two sessions, we had to tell him we'd spiked his dice before he ragequit, lol.

We had a similar occurrence with someone whose dice luck was absolutely terrible - he forgot his dice one session and borrowed some from another player. His dice luck that evening was so consistent with every other game that we didn't realise he'd accidentally picked out a 20-sided d10 until he rolled a zero.

And even then it was like, "well, if anyone could make a d20 roll a 0, it's him."

 

[Flamestrike]

Today while I was DMing a PC took 3d10 damage from a Hellish Rebuke.

This is what I rolled.

View attachment 129678

Every result is a 1 in a 1000 chance.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Every result is a 1 in a 1000 chance.

Not quite, since order isn't important. If it was, then there would be 1000 permutations and you would be correct. But rolling 4, 5, 6 for 15 damage is the same as rolling 6, 5, 4 or 5, 4, 6 or 4, 6, 5, etc.

Since order isn't important, there are 220 possible combinations, with some totals more common than others. For instance, a total of 15 can be achieved by any of the examples above, but also by rolling 10, 2, 3 or 8, 6, 1 or 4, 4, 7, and so on.

However, rolling 10, 10, 10 for a total of 30 is 1 in 1000, while other totals certainly are not, being much higher; such as a total of 16 or 17 with 75 in 1000 each.

 

[Rabulias]

Not quite, since order isn't important. If it was, then there would be 1000 permutations and you would be correct. But rolling 4, 5, 6 for 15 damage is the same as rolling 6, 5, 4 or 5, 4, 6 or 4, 6, 5, etc.

While order does not matter for the final dice total, each combination of dice is 1 of 1000 combinations. 4, 5, 6 and 6, 5, 4 both equal 15, but each is a unique roll in that sense.

 

[DND_Reborn]

While order does not matter for the final dice total, each combination of dice is 1 of 1000 combinations. 4, 5, 6 and 6, 5, 4 both equal 15, but each is a unique roll in that sense.

Obviously, which is why I said "Not quite."

Since the TOTAL is what is important, however, order doesn't matter...

 

[el-remmen]

Obviously, which is why I said "Not quite."

Since the TOTAL is what is important, however, order doesn't matter...

Thank you for explaining this so I didn't have to point it out to folks who think they are really clever (but apparently not clever enough to actually read the whole thread and see how many times others have made the same comment). The odds of such pedantry on ENWorld are much better than 1 in a 1000 apparently.