Animal Bond

[Telarus_KSC]

[Mataxes]

Okay. I spent the evening compiling some data that people might be interested in about this topic.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

This includes a list of all creatures from the ED4 GM Guide that are indicated as suitable animal companions, along with a sheet that shows the chance of success for a given Step against a given DN (covering Steps 8-23, and DNs up to 35).

(That second sheet may come in handy for future work.)

I haven't done any real analysis yet, but I figure there are people who might want a crack at it.

[Telarus_KSC]

Nice! Views into the data like this is very helpful when trying to work out mechanics. Especially that probability chart.

[Baravakar]

[Tattered Rags]

Haven't read through your entire analysis, but I believe Mataxes's numbers are correct, unless anydice accounts for exploding die. An 8 and 1 is at least a 9, but rolling a 1 and 6 (on d8 and d6, respectively) has a 5 in 6 chance of becoming at least a 9.

His higher numbers likely account for that, though I haven't verified it.

Edit:
Having now read you analysis, your numbers are likely close enough that the conclusions are accurate.

You make a good point. I'm not sure I'd pick A over B or the other way around, but that's for me to mull.

Edit 2: noticed an autocorrect fail

[Mataxes]

The numbers in my linked chart are taken from anydice and factor in the possibility of rerolls (there's an "explode" function available -- and change from "Normal" to "At Least"). Those numbers are the chance of success -- that is, rolling the desired DN or higher on the test.

I talked it over with a couple of my developers, and if you are going to allow the character to accumulate successes over multiple rolls, Willful should apply to each roll made rather than simply increase the total number of successes needed (because that gets around the point of Willful).

In other words, if you want to have unicorns, skeorxes, and the like as animal companions, you really need to raise your Animal Bond talent.

[Tattered Rags]

[Mataxes]

I think he's referring to the option I discussed in my large post earlier about willful just adding to the total number of successes.

That is, Friendly normally requires 2 accumulated successes, if you use that approach you need a total of 3.

In the long run, that method makes the more exotic animals easier to bond higher levels than they should. Once you are successful with the initial roll, at that point it is just a matter of time (because the high DNs no longer apply).

[Tattered Rags]

[Baravakar]