delericho
Legend
Odds of getting three '18's is 1 in 8,000. Odds of getting three values the same is only 1 in 400.
Improbable dice rolls
- Thread starter Quickleaf
- Start date
Odds of getting three '18's is 1 in 8,000. Odds of getting three values the same is only 1 in 400.
JamesonCourage
Adventurer
I definitely believed it happened. I was rolling d100 over and over again today (determining a lot of stuff between session), and twice in a row I rolled the same number twice (a 76 then a 76, for example). Odds of getting 76 twice in a row is 1 in 10,000, and this happened twice (the other number wasn't 76). Sometimes weird rolls happen.
Sure is pretty cool when it happens, especially when it's campaign altering, like when I rolled an 88 on the d100 twice in a row against a particular PC on a "Hit Chart", and it took out both of his eyes permanently. It was in a campaign that started out with no magic, too, and he was level 2. He didn't get his sight back until around level 11, and we played all the way up to level 30 (over the course of 2,200+ hours). And man did that change the campaign in some cool ways (like his Blind Fighter class).
Anyways, cool story. Thanks for sharing. As always, play what you like
Sure is pretty cool when it happens, especially when it's campaign altering, like when I rolled an 88 on the d100 twice in a row against a particular PC on a "Hit Chart", and it took out both of his eyes permanently. It was in a campaign that started out with no magic, too, and he was level 2. He didn't get his sight back until around level 11, and we played all the way up to level 30 (over the course of 2,200+ hours). And man did that change the campaign in some cool ways (like his Blind Fighter class).
Anyways, cool story. Thanks for sharing. As always, play what you like
Quickleaf
Legend
The ENWorld honor system?And how do we know you didn't just set them down on these numbers?
Wait, [MENTION=94831]Vhex[/MENTION] can ccoborate my story!That's just nuts. And I'm sure it was all player attacks in the first round against the BBEG too, huh?
Yup.
1) 2Ed: I personally rolled a sequence of natural 20s AND a 00 on percentile dice that let my human Ftr/Cleric hit a Lich (with enough buffs tht she needed a nat 20 to hit) with a Mace of Disruption, have it activate, have it actually disrupt & destroy the Lich- all on an evil demiplane- improbable enough that I asked if it would get noticed by her patron deity, Tyr. That's where the 00 came in: that was the roll needed to get Tyr to notice and reward her- with an additional Ftr level. Which was enough to get her ATT/rd up to 2.
2) 2Ed DarkSun: basically the flipside of the good fortune listed above, I had a Dwarf with a 19 Con fail a sequence of 1s for saves in consecutive rounds that resulted in him succumbing to a Stinking Cloud, then a Fireball, then being turned into a frog, and failing his system shock roll, dying. According to the math teacher in the group, that was more improbable than winning the Texas Lottery
3) those were bad enough, but those were just my improbable rolls. As detailed more than once, we had a combat in a 3Ed game in which the ONLY decent rolls were made on saving throws by the party while the NPCs kept failing saves. And both the PCs and NPCs couldn't hit- the PCs while needing only 9+ on adjusted attack rolls- and when hits did happen, they were only for a couple of points each. With normal rolls, the combat should have been over, one way or the other, in 6 rounds (36 seconds) or so. Instead, it lasted several minutes.
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Ramaster
Adventurer
We play with the (in-)famous rule of "If you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll, then confirm it with a second 20 you a get a third roll. If that roll is also a 20, you kill the target of the attack, no questions asked".
We had that happen TWICE on the same session. The first one, a gestalt Zen Archer did it to a mook on a mass combat.
The second one was way more spectacular. It was done by a gestalt inquisitor on a boss that had already knocked out on PC and killed another. The enemy was a heavily modified Planetar and the resulting hit caused a positive energy explosion that healed them for a couple DMG.
I WOULDN'T believe this story if it was told to me!
We had that happen TWICE on the same session. The first one, a gestalt Zen Archer did it to a mook on a mass combat.
The second one was way more spectacular. It was done by a gestalt inquisitor on a boss that had already knocked out on PC and killed another. The enemy was a heavily modified Planetar and the resulting hit caused a positive energy explosion that healed them for a couple DMG.
I WOULDN'T believe this story if it was told to me!
All the freaking time.
I roll in the open because if I were a player, I'd think the GM was intentially skewing the results.
One that is continually referenced at the table is a situation from a CHAMPIONS game a few years ago. The heroes were dealing with a hostage sitation in a large shopping mall and the situation went south. The bad guy went down and released his deadman switch. Over a dozen bombs were scattered around the mall. I announce that the bombs (2d6 RKA explosions) activate on 14- (~91% chance of success). The bombs have overlapping areas of effect and two adjacent detonations will leave the hostages in that area dying/dead.
Of the 14 bombs, only 3 detonated and they were no where near each other -- no one died. The chances of that result are infinitismal.
I roll in the open because if I were a player, I'd think the GM was intentially skewing the results.
One that is continually referenced at the table is a situation from a CHAMPIONS game a few years ago. The heroes were dealing with a hostage sitation in a large shopping mall and the situation went south. The bad guy went down and released his deadman switch. Over a dozen bombs were scattered around the mall. I announce that the bombs (2d6 RKA explosions) activate on 14- (~91% chance of success). The bombs have overlapping areas of effect and two adjacent detonations will leave the hostages in that area dying/dead.
Of the 14 bombs, only 3 detonated and they were no where near each other -- no one died. The chances of that result are infinitismal.
darjr
I crit!
In a 4e game I had a player rolling really bad all night. One time he rolled a 1 on a d20. I let him roll again, a 1. Then he jokingly aped frustration and tossed the die so it rolled onto the floor. It rolled a 1.
I ran with the joke and said I'd roll that die as DM from now on. The next attack was against his character and that die rolled a 20.
I ran with the joke and said I'd roll that die as DM from now on. The next attack was against his character and that die rolled a 20.
TwoSix
Everyone's literal second-favorite poster
Had a guy in our game with a reputation for rolling poorly. He dropped a fireball on 8 spectres, than had all 8 spectres fail their save. Rolled some decent damage, too. Then the DM remembered they were incorporeal, and thus had a 50% miss chance. The DM had the player roll under the miss chance. He rolled under 50% all 8 times. Not incredibly unlikely (1 in 256), but watching the misses pile up made it hysterical.
Next session, in the same necropolis, my character got grappled by a boneyard (Libris Mortis, I think.). Anyway, the monster had some ability to liquify your bones and cause an instant-kill if he grappled you. Last guy to go before the monster's initiative was this same wizard (of low-rolling fame). He cast disintegrate. Beat the monster's spell resistance (I believe he needed a 13 or better). Than the monster failed its Fort save (It only need a 4). Then he rolled a 102 on 22d6. The monster had 101 HPs left. Probability of getting >= 101 on 22d6 is 0.14%.
Probability of that spell working and saving my PC was 40% x 15% x 0.14% = 0.0084%, or 1 in 11,900.
Next session, in the same necropolis, my character got grappled by a boneyard (Libris Mortis, I think.). Anyway, the monster had some ability to liquify your bones and cause an instant-kill if he grappled you. Last guy to go before the monster's initiative was this same wizard (of low-rolling fame). He cast disintegrate. Beat the monster's spell resistance (I believe he needed a 13 or better). Than the monster failed its Fort save (It only need a 4). Then he rolled a 102 on 22d6. The monster had 101 HPs left. Probability of getting >= 101 on 22d6 is 0.14%.
Probability of that spell working and saving my PC was 40% x 15% x 0.14% = 0.0084%, or 1 in 11,900.
Ratskinner
Adventurer
Well, if we're including weird luck, I should add the story of Sandor, a paladin in one of my 2e games.
Sandor was amazingly heroic. Put any sort of BBEG in front of him, and watch it die in ridiculous fashion. Standout examples:
Flying, drow sorceress, with the party out of spells & ammo and no escape in sight. "Uhh, can I chuck my sword at her?" "You'll have like a -8 to hit." "Gonna die shortly anyway, ::rolls:: Natch 20!"
A green dragon surprise-attacks the party and takes down half of them with his first breath attack. The paladin rolls horrid intiative, the other survivors pepper it with spells. The paladin finally gets his go, a mounted charging attack, desperately trying to keep the beast away from the standing "squishies"; natural 20...max damage. The dragon collapses in a heap. (At least I got to screw them out of the treasure, I guess.)
However, what Sandor was not, was mundanely heroic. If ignominy was a possibility, the enemy was weak or comical, you could rely on rolls in the single digits, and often below five. For instance, around the same time he one-shotted that dragon, he and the cleric got dragged off into the woods by kobolds using 2e's overbearing rules. Before he killed the drow sorceress, he had been nearly beaten to death by an orc cook...wielding a frying pan. On several occasions, he was stuck out of combat by bad saves against low-level casters. Worst luck I've ever seen finding secret doors and the like, too.
It made for a bizarre game.
Sandor was amazingly heroic. Put any sort of BBEG in front of him, and watch it die in ridiculous fashion. Standout examples:
Flying, drow sorceress, with the party out of spells & ammo and no escape in sight. "Uhh, can I chuck my sword at her?" "You'll have like a -8 to hit." "Gonna die shortly anyway, ::rolls:: Natch 20!"
A green dragon surprise-attacks the party and takes down half of them with his first breath attack. The paladin rolls horrid intiative, the other survivors pepper it with spells. The paladin finally gets his go, a mounted charging attack, desperately trying to keep the beast away from the standing "squishies"; natural 20...max damage. The dragon collapses in a heap. (At least I got to screw them out of the treasure, I guess.)
However, what Sandor was not, was mundanely heroic. If ignominy was a possibility, the enemy was weak or comical, you could rely on rolls in the single digits, and often below five. For instance, around the same time he one-shotted that dragon, he and the cleric got dragged off into the woods by kobolds using 2e's overbearing rules. Before he killed the drow sorceress, he had been nearly beaten to death by an orc cook...wielding a frying pan. On several occasions, he was stuck out of combat by bad saves against low-level casters. Worst luck I've ever seen finding secret doors and the like, too.
It made for a bizarre game.
I had a Ranger who couldn't hit his Favored Enemy. It was ridiculous.
