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Statistics help, d10s, variable targets.
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9566620" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>This gets into some gnarly math. It all flows from fairly simple premises, but there's a lot going on.</p><p></p><p>Let's first start with the probability on a single die. If the probability of a success is P, then the probability of failure Q = 1-P. So on a target number of 4, P is 0.7 and Q is 0.3.</p><p></p><p>Expanding to two dice, we have three possible results: 0, 1, or 2 successes. These probabilities are as follows:</p><p>0: Q^2 = 0.3^2 = 0.09</p><p>1: This is a success on either one of the two dice, so it's P*Q + Q*P = 0.7*0.3 + 0.3*0.7 = 0.21 + 0.21 = 0.42.</p><p>2: P^2 = 0.7^2 = 0.49.</p><p></p><p>Going to three dice, things are getting complicated, but we'll soldier on:</p><p>0: Q^3 = 0.027. We'll hold off on 1 and 2 because that starts to get complicated, and go straight to</p><p>3: P^3 = 0.343</p><p>1: We want one failure and two successes. So this can be either PQQ, QPQ, or QQP. These are all the same result, so we get 3*(0.3*0.3*0.7) = 3*(0.063) = 0.189.</p><p>2: Same reasoning as above, but with two P and one Q. 3*(0.3*0.7*0.7) = 3*(0.147) = 0.441</p><p></p><p>With four dice, the options for 1-3 successes are:</p><p>1: PQQQ, QPQQ, QQPQ, QQQP.</p><p>2: PPQQ, PQPQ, PQQP, QPPQ, QPQP, QQPP</p><p>3: PPPQ, PPQP, PQPP, QPPP</p><p></p><p>This is becoming ridiculous. We need a more generic formula. What we need to know is: if you have n dice with k successes and n-k failures, how many ways are there to arrange those?</p><p></p><p>Well, if you have n of anything, and want to put those in any order, you have n options for what to put in the first slot, n-1 for the second, and so on. The mathematical term for this is a factorial, and is usually written n!</p><p></p><p>But in this case, there are a number of options that are functionally the same. So what you need to do is to divide the result by the number of ways to order each of the sub-divisions. In other words, if you want to know how many ways you can pick 3 out of 5, you take 5! (120) and divide it by 3! (6) and 2! (2), for 120/(6*2) = 120/12 = 10. This is usually written as C(n, k) or:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]394348[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So for 7 dice, you get:</p><p>0: 1 combination of Q^7</p><p>1: 7 combinations of P*Q^6</p><p>2: 21 combinations of P^2*Q^5</p><p>3: 35 combinations of P^3*Q^4</p><p>4: 35 combinations of P^4*Q^3</p><p>5: 21 combinations of P^5*Q^2</p><p>6: 7 combinations of P^6*Q</p><p>7: 1 combination of P^7</p><p></p><p>At this point, it all becomes busywork which you probably want to put in a spreadsheet, like <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jtsxr_zvE7KxwOjvmjR_7I9YixThunPP9Fg9rsWLpXo/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">this one</a> (feel free to copy and mod it to adapt it to your own needs). What you're looking for is in the "N or more" column, which tells you that there's a 0.97 probability of 4 or more successes, or 97%. If you modify P, you will see how that affects the outcome.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 9566620, member: 907"] This gets into some gnarly math. It all flows from fairly simple premises, but there's a lot going on. Let's first start with the probability on a single die. If the probability of a success is P, then the probability of failure Q = 1-P. So on a target number of 4, P is 0.7 and Q is 0.3. Expanding to two dice, we have three possible results: 0, 1, or 2 successes. These probabilities are as follows: 0: Q^2 = 0.3^2 = 0.09 1: This is a success on either one of the two dice, so it's P*Q + Q*P = 0.7*0.3 + 0.3*0.7 = 0.21 + 0.21 = 0.42. 2: P^2 = 0.7^2 = 0.49. Going to three dice, things are getting complicated, but we'll soldier on: 0: Q^3 = 0.027. We'll hold off on 1 and 2 because that starts to get complicated, and go straight to 3: P^3 = 0.343 1: We want one failure and two successes. So this can be either PQQ, QPQ, or QQP. These are all the same result, so we get 3*(0.3*0.3*0.7) = 3*(0.063) = 0.189. 2: Same reasoning as above, but with two P and one Q. 3*(0.3*0.7*0.7) = 3*(0.147) = 0.441 With four dice, the options for 1-3 successes are: 1: PQQQ, QPQQ, QQPQ, QQQP. 2: PPQQ, PQPQ, PQQP, QPPQ, QPQP, QQPP 3: PPPQ, PPQP, PQPP, QPPP This is becoming ridiculous. We need a more generic formula. What we need to know is: if you have n dice with k successes and n-k failures, how many ways are there to arrange those? Well, if you have n of anything, and want to put those in any order, you have n options for what to put in the first slot, n-1 for the second, and so on. The mathematical term for this is a factorial, and is usually written n! But in this case, there are a number of options that are functionally the same. So what you need to do is to divide the result by the number of ways to order each of the sub-divisions. In other words, if you want to know how many ways you can pick 3 out of 5, you take 5! (120) and divide it by 3! (6) and 2! (2), for 120/(6*2) = 120/12 = 10. This is usually written as C(n, k) or: [ATTACH type="full" alt="1737922029725.png"]394348[/ATTACH] So for 7 dice, you get: 0: 1 combination of Q^7 1: 7 combinations of P*Q^6 2: 21 combinations of P^2*Q^5 3: 35 combinations of P^3*Q^4 4: 35 combinations of P^4*Q^3 5: 21 combinations of P^5*Q^2 6: 7 combinations of P^6*Q 7: 1 combination of P^7 At this point, it all becomes busywork which you probably want to put in a spreadsheet, like [URL='https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jtsxr_zvE7KxwOjvmjR_7I9YixThunPP9Fg9rsWLpXo/edit?usp=sharing']this one[/URL] (feel free to copy and mod it to adapt it to your own needs). What you're looking for is in the "N or more" column, which tells you that there's a 0.97 probability of 4 or more successes, or 97%. If you modify P, you will see how that affects the outcome. [/QUOTE]
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