With Hope and Fear, how many 1st level character options are there?
Hey folks, I was hoping I could get someone to check my work on this.
During a livestream and/or interview, someone said that there are around a million character possibilities, and I wanted to find the exact number. (I don't remember if they said a million, billion or more, it's not important)
Ignoring things that have no mechanical effect and experiences, which can literally be anything, I've grouped player options into two sections: Things that interact and make things difficult, and things that don't.
Things that I haven't found any interactions between them (Shapeshifter seems minor enough):
- Armors (8 possible, or 16 if we want to include all the Campaign Frame and Sablewood setting options)
- Traits (6 possibilities for +2, 5 possiblities for -1, 6 possible combos for the +1s, gives us 6*5*6=180 possible)
- Domain cards (6 options for the first and 5 for the second, 6*5=30)
- Communities (15 options)
- Ancestries (using mixed ancestries, 23 top features and 24 bottom features, 23*24=552)
- Transformations (no transformation, 5 transformations, and shapeshifter, which lets you choose one ancestry feature, again 23 top features and 24 bottom features, so 6+(23+24)=53)
So, multiplying these all together:
8*180*30*15*552*53= 17,927,568,000
Or if we want to include the Campain Frames and Sablewood:
16*180*30*15*522*53= 35,855,136,000
Now it gets a little more complicated.
The remaining options: Classes, Subclasses, and Weapons
Subclasses are exclusive to classes, so we only have to count the subclasses.
There are 26 subclasses spread across the 13 classes, or 5 more for a total of 31 subclasses if we include the 2 current Void classes.
Subtract 1 from that for the Brawler's Martial Artist subclass, which gets to pick two Martial Stances, out of 4 (4 for first pick, 3 for second pick, 4*3=12)
Subtract another 2 from that for Warriors, who can wield 2-handed weapons as 1 handed (we will get back to that)
This gives us a total of 35 subclass options, or 40 with Void Content. (not including the Warrior yet)
With no regard for playability, there are 21 One-handed Primary Weapons, 13 Secondary Weapons, and 19 Two-Handed Weapons, including the Battle Wheelchairs (21*13=273 Duel wielding combos +19= 292 weapon choices)
If we add the Campiagn Frames and Sablewood, there are 34 One-handed Primary Weapons, 26 Secondary Weapons, and 38 Two-Handed Weapons (34*26=884 Duel wielding combos +38= 922 weapon choices)
Warriors can wield two-handed weapons as one-handed, so we get a total of 40 primary weapons (40*13= 520 combos *2 for the two subclasses =1,040)
With all official content, we get a total of 72 primary weapons (72*26= 1,872 combos *2 for the two subclasses =3,744)
All together, this gives us (35*292)+1,040= 11,260 class weapon combos with core content, (35*922)+3,744=36,014 with all official, and (40*922)+3,744= 40,624 adding the Void.
With the core content, this gives us a total of 17,927,568,000*11,260= 201,864,415,680,000
With all official content: 35,855,136,000*36,014= 1,291,286,867,904,000
And with all official and Void content: 35,855,136,000*40,624= 1,456,579,044,864,000
Just under 1.5 Quadrillian possible 1st level characters!
If there is interest, I may do a version where I limit it to feasible character builds. (restrict +2 trait to Spellcasting trait, and give characters a weapon that uses their +2 trait)
If this sort of thing is up your alley, I have a youtube channel where extensive use of spreadsheets are used to examine various parts of Daggerheart to help people make homebrew and to predict future Daggerheart releases!
Edit: Immediately realized I forgot Warriors being able to use 2-handed weapons as 1-handed, and while working on that, it was pointed out that there are only 23 unique top ancestry features.