Don't be suspicious: Group Stealth Checks in Critical Role - Comparisons!
Finally, we have reached the conclusion of this project. At least, this edition of the project, I may review it in 50 episodes time and update Bells Hells statistics. But for now, we have reached the final post.
If you read all of that and wondered what other posts I am talking about, I would like to direct your attention here, here and here. Those three posts take a look at the group stealth checks performed by each adventuring party that has been the focus of a Critical Role campaign, comparing individual party members, guests, how often they use Pass Without Trace and how much it increases their average!
One may think that by looking at those three posts alone, you can form a good basis of comparison between the groups, but that is where you would be wrong. Because the campaigns span wildly different levels, and I think we can all agree that it is unfair to compare a level 20 party to a level 3 party.
Unfortunately, as Vox Machina's campaign started streaming when they were approximately level 9, and Bells Hells have only just reached level 8, we cannot compare the two. But what we can do is compare both of them to the Mighty Nein! So that's what we're going to do, under the cut!
VM versus M9
One very quick disclaimer: Whenever I am talking about Vox Machina as a group of a certain level, that is an approximation, as unlike the Mighty Nein or Bells Hells, Vox Machina used experience based leveling rather than milestones, which ultimately means that they did not all level up at the same time. Generally, when I say "Vox Machina were x level" it means that the majority of the party were that level, and none exceeded it. I may have done my math incorrectly at some points, in which case please feel free to let me know!
Between the levels of 9 and 17, Vox Machina made 74 group stealth checks, and the Mighty Nein made 54. First, before we get into comparative averages, I want to take a look at how many of these were with Pass Without Trace.
As you can see, 60% of Vox Machina's checks had Pass Without Trace up, while only 53.7% of the Mighty Nein's did.
Now let's look at the comparison!
So it seems Vox Machina scored consistently higher on group stealth checks than the Mighty Nein, even when taking the levels and Pass Without Trace into account! Probably because they had 2 rogues.
M9 versus BH
Between the levels of 3 and 8, the Mighty Nein made 46 group stealth checks and Bells Hells have thus far made 30. Once again, let's first compare their usage of Pass Without Trace at these levels. For Bells Hells, I am simply going to copy over the chart from their post, so excuse the slightly vague title.
That is a huge discrepancy! Only 23% of the Nein's rolls were made with Pass Without Trace, whereas 43% of the Hells' were. Let's keep that in mind when we look at the comparison.
Overall, Bells Hells are doing better than the Nein did at their level, but the Nein performed better when under Pass Without Trace. Take these values with a pinch of salt, and consider the sample sizes here: Bells Hells have done 17 checks without PWT, while the Nein did 35. And the Nein did only 11 checks with the spell cast, but the Hells did 13.
Ultimately, all of the averages are relatively close together! Vox Machina are a little sneakier, but none of the parties are terrible, by any means!
Finally, because I meant to include this in the individual posts but completely forgot, let's see some records, shall we?
The most group stealth checks rolled in one episode of campaign one was 4, in four different episodes: e4, e47, e92 and e113. The averages for those episodes were: e4 - 18.47; e47 - 36.72; e92 - 27.41; and e113 - 25.68
The most group stealth checks rolled in a single episode of campaign two was NEIN! Yes, really. Nine group stealth checks were rolled in episode 68, most of them wen they were trying to cross that chasm. The average for that episode was 25.39
The most group stealth checks rolled in one episode of campaign three thus far has been 5 in episode 48. The average for that episode was 22.59
Thank you all for reading along this far, I hope you've enjoyed it, and I wish you all a happy Apogee Solstice! Let's hope Bells Hells make it through the night.
emily axford, hottest woman alive and also coincidentally 42 years old, playing vesper childers, a perpetually twentysomething, yelling about how she wanted to live to be 40 and get very hot in her midlife is sooooo perfect
thinking about how c4 seems to have the oldest pcs so far, and then got curious about age distribution among the pcs, so for anyone else who wants to look at it, have another chart from yours truly!
due to various timelines and crossovers, characters are placed at the age they were around the start of their story (in most cases, this is the start of the campaign they were in, though there's a couple weird ones - and bertrand bell was impossible to decide so i put him at his search for grog age)
a star on the character portrait means we only have an approximate age for this character, so my best guess may be a couple years off. i also haven't watched c3, so apologies for any mistakes there, i am using the wiki!
conclusions i can draw from this:
c4 has the most middle aged characters
but c3 has the eldest distribution overall
27 is apparently the ideal age to start adventuring
There is a trick to each dice roll. To get high numbers, try these:
d4: Drop the die from a height of at least 4, this will guarantee you get 4.
d6: The cubic or "Caesar's Dice" can be made to roll a 6 by blowing on them as they fall. Do not try with 3d6 or you will get 666 and Satan will result.
d10: This shape is not physically possible, and works only with the placebo effect to make players think they have rolled it, thus you can make up any number and people will accept it.
d12: Anoint the die with Oil of Abramelin and seek guidance from the holy guardian angel of dice to guide them to roll the numbers you wish. Roll what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, 12 is the law, 12 under Thac0.
d20: Bribe the dice with payments of gold, silver, electrum, or ivory. Photograph yourself doing so, then blackmail them if they refuse. This also works on most politicians in the d20.
d100: This is a ball. Why are you rolling a ball for D&D? That's absurd, balls are for sports people.
dℵ₀: Do not roll infinite dice, this will annoy the DM.
fantasies about vampires coming to your town to fall in love with you and make hot vampire sex to you: old, outdated, boring
fantasies about vampires coming to your town to improve the public infrastructure, destroy the rich families milking you for money, and perhaps also making hot vampire sex to you (or helping you make hotter sex with your partner of many years): rejuvenating, what we need in this day and age, modern
Oh well.
Just finished watching The Mighty Nein (Campaign). Stopped experiencing mighty crisis, now I will think about how good the story is, how amazing all the characters are, and is it Thursday yet.
Jester being more worried for Molly than being scared by this whole situation. That's her friend and he's clearly in distress first and foremost. And she's here for him just like he's always there for her when needed
She even collected the scattered tarot cards for him. Gently supporting Molly as they go. Both of them have their issues, what matters is they're here for each other
