#yoooo i just rolled a 71 i'm a phaser like my bestie blur

[imissjensi]

on this hellscape we call earth there are two things i am passionate about. dungeons and dragons, and kotlc. so why not combine the two in a dnd table to determine a special ability?

the first question you probably have is: "gubbs. there are twenty abilities here, why didn't you just use a d20?" and my answer to that is that i'm insane and chose to try and break down the abilities based on the likelihood of manifesting them without any genetic influence, and since some abilities are rarer than others, i used a d100 instead to represent the different weights of abilities.

really in-depth info on how i broke down the abilities below, along with a TL;DR with just the percentages at the end :)

I omitted Teleportation, Inflicting and Descrying since those abilities likely won't pop up again for a very long time. Since Inflicting and Descrying both only had one reported elf each before Sophie, and both are Councillors, they won't be passing along their genetics anytime soon. And Sophie's Inflicting was a result of the Black Swan tweaking her genetics. Teleportation is also exclusively a horse girl thing so that one is out as well, since it doesn't occur in elves organically. I am also aware that the Talentless chance is far lower than it should be. I address that near the end.

Due to there being twenty abilities on this list, the baseline percent for each is 5%, as that's how it would be if all abilities had an equal chance of happening. I adjust the chances from there.

First, I separated the abilities into categories. The first one was the easiest, which was the rare abilities. I only put three in this category, those being Pyrokinetics and Enhancers at a 1% chance, and Telepaths at a 3% chance. Pyrokinetics was easy, since Marella says that there were only twelve of them when the ability got banned, so it's very unlikely to manifest it. Sophie is the only Enhancer we know of, but we do know that there are more, since Dex had heard about the ability when she manifested it. However, I assume it's rare, since Sophie manifesting it is the first we hear of it. I also made Enhancer a reroll ability, since I believe it mostly manifests in people who already have an ability. There is absolutely no canon support for this aside from Sophie, so take this with a grain of salt. We are constantly told Telepaths are rare, (even if there are so many of them in the story) so they're at a 3% chance. Rarer than most abilities, but not the rarest. In total, the three rare abilities have a 5% chance of manifesting.

The next category is elemental abilities. Due to the elves being in tune with nature and appreciating natural beauty, I bumped the baseline percent from 5% to 6%, which is the likelihood for Frosters, Chargers, Gusters, and Hydrokinetics. Flashers sit at an 8% chance due to the Lost Cities' focus on light. We are also introduced to far more Flashers than any other of the elements, leading me to believe it shows up more in elves. Shades were bumped down to a 4% chance, because if light is the foundation of the Lost Cities and manifests more in it's citizens as a result, then the distrust and shun of darkness would make the shadows manifest less. Elemental abilities have a 36% chance of manifesting.

I then put Empaths, Mesmers, Beguilers and Vociferators into the "affects others" category. Empaths don't quite fit that description, but it was the best place I could put them. Empaths are at a 6% chance of manifesting, just because there are a lot of Empath characters in the series, so manifesting as an Empath may be more likely than other abilities. The other three in this category are all at a 4% chance. This is because all three of them involve manipulating/harming people. Mesmers manipulate actions, Beguilers manipulate emotions, and Vociferators can harness their voice to incapacitate someone. I know that these abilities aren't the only ones that can be used to harm someone, but they are the only ones (apart from inflicting) where you can only use it on someone else. Since elves can't handle guilt, I believe that these three abilities manifest less frequently, as their genetic makeup probably pushes against manifesting as something that can easily be misused. Hopefully that makes sense. The abilities that affect others have an 18% chance at manifesting.

Next is the "affects self" group, which is Vanishers, Psionipaths and Phasers. Psionipaths can use forcefields on anything, but I assume the most common use is to protect the user from something, so I put them in this category. All three of these are at the baseline 5%, as I could not think of a reason for any of them to be more or less likely based on elvin psyche or nature.

Finally was the miscellaneous group, which was just the last three. Technopaths are at the baseline of 5%, since there was no reason for it to be anything else. Polyglots sit at a healthy 10%, and are also a reroll ability for hopefully what are obvious reasons. I made the likelihood so high because to me it seems like every other character we meet is a polyglot. It should probably be lower though. Speaking of abilities that should definitely be lower, I made Conjurers have a 10% chance of manifesting. I should not have done this. The flimsy reasoning I do have, is that it's incredibly practical. Just having the ability to summon anything to you from anywhere as long as you know where it is is so useful. I would love to be able to do that. I also thought there were far more Conjurers in the series than there actually is. But logically, it should be a lower chance, and I should have took the left over percents from Polyglots and Conjurers and put them into Talentless. I made it a 1% chance for an elf to not manifest an ability at all. Far more than 1% of the elvin population is Talentless, I think I can say that confidently. I would go back and adjust the table, but doing so would require me to adjust all the numbers, as well as edit this post. I have been working on this for two hours and don't want to do that. Maybe I'll reblog it later with an edit.

I plan on making more dnd keeper crossover content, so hopefully this finds it's target audience.

TL;DR

Pyrokinetic - 1% | Enhancer - 1% | Telepath - 3% | Charger - 6% | Flasher - 8% | Froster - 6% | Guster - 6% | Hydrokinetic - 6% | Shade - 4% | Empath - 6% | Beguiler - 4% | Mesmer - 4% | Vociferator - 4% | Vanisher - 5% | Psionipath - 5% | Phaser - 5% | Conjurer - 10% | Technopath - 5% | Polyglot - 10% | Talentless - 1% |