Dice pool and limit sweet spot. Options

[FuelDrop]

The addition of limits to SR5 means that after a certain point extra dice start becoming less and less effective. I don't doubt that someone has gone and done the math for the best bang for your buck dice for any given limit, I was hoping that someone could link me to it.

[Umidori]

Limit x3?

~Umi

[FuelDrop]

Limit x3?

~Umi

I suspect that it's more complicated than that somehow. it usually is.

[Slide_Eurhetemec]

I suspect that it's more complicated than that somehow. it usually is.

The math here seems pretty straight-forward. Talking purely about the question asked, the relationship between dice-pool and limit, limit x3 is going to be the sweet spot, given you are rolling d6es and want a 5 or 6. Dice beyond that will be less useful. Everything else I can think of is really a question about dice-pool size - for example, if you regularly face dice-pool penalties, more dice is better, but the end number still wants to be 3x limit, sweet-spot-wise.

If you want a table for the declining utility of dice after limit x3, that I don't have, sadly.

[mister__joshua]

While limit x 3 is indeed ideal for any given limit, this would result in reaching the limit with an average roll and would allow for no above average rolls. The results for a dicepool will always be a bell-curve and I think really you want to work out how far down the downwards slope you want to be. limit x 3 is cutting off the dicepool as soon as the dice are not at full effectiveness. I'd suggest raising a limit to a point or 2 above your average roll. 1 point above should be fine for lower DPs. Higher DPs maybe 2 points above average to allow for the greater variance.

[Kyrinthic]

While limit x 3 is indeed ideal for any given limit, this would result in reaching the limit with an average roll and would allow for no above average rolls. The results for a dicepool will always be a bell-curve and I think really you want to work out how far down the downwards slope you want to be. limit x 3 is cutting off the dicepool as soon as the dice are not at full effectiveness. I'd suggest raising a limit to a point or 2 above your average roll. 1 point above should be fine for lower DPs. Higher DPs maybe 2 points above average to allow for the greater variance.

This sounds about right. you also want to factor your edge in. If you have a lot of edge, you can ignore your limit on many good rolls, so you can be closer to that pool/3 limit, but if you are working with a single edge or something, you might want to push that limit harder, because having every amazing roll capped by limit kinda sucks.

[Jack VII]

In case anyone is interested, Michael Chandra put together an odds chart a while ago to look at limits. The numbers listed in the fields are the odds (as in 1:X, where X is the number in the cell).

Dice vs. Hits Chart

[Jaid]

i would expect you'd want to have more dice regardless. even if you're hitting your limit regularly, it's better to be consistently getting 5 hits than to range from 3-5 hits most of the time. not to mention that there *are* effects that will increase your limit or reduce your dice pool.

certainly, there is a point where adding more dice doesn't do as much for you, but to me at least it's still well worth going past 3 x limit.