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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8290334" data-attributes="member: 7025997">My recollection was that 1e and 2e D&D used (in statistics terms) a constant hazard function by level (each character has a 1/2 chance of making it to the next level), which produces an exponential distribution (after 1st level): 1/10 characters have a class level and 1 in 2 characters gets to the next level, so an 8th level character is about 1 in 1000 (1,280 if you want to be fancy) and an 18th level character is 1 in a million (well, 1,310,720).3e went to, roughly, a power-law distribution where you generate the highest-level named character (it has tables depending on the size of the community and the character type, with there being higher-level warriors than wizards, for example) and then there are twice that many characters of half that level, and then four times of one-fourth that level, down to 1st level (so if you have a 5th level fighter there are 2 3rd level fighters, and 4 1st level fighters). A 16th level mage would mean 2 8th level mages, 4 4th level mages, 8 2nd level mages, and 16 1st level mages.4e and 5e seem to have given up.</blockquote>