April's D&D Feedback Survey Results

WotC has revealed the results of its latest monthly feedback survey. Last month's survey dealt with game scheduling habits, character races, and Adventurer's League content. Additionally, a new survey has been posted covering problem spells, the DRAGON+ mobile app, and the Waterborne Adventures UA column.

The new survey is here. April's survey results are here, but below is a quick list of the take-home points.

• It turns out that that 1st-6th level games are still the most common a year after D&D 5E's launch.
• The most likely end point of a campaign is 10th-12th level.
• There is a preference for more open, sandboxy adventures.
• Smaller races are seen as weaker options.
• Adventurer's League content is reasonably well received, with specifically designed adventures more popular than Tyranny of Dragons adaptions for AL.

 

[Sacrosanct]

No real surprises. Which I guess is a good thing. The only thing is the smaller races one. Halflings seem to be one of the most mechanically strongest races with their lucky trait. In my experience any way. Shrug.

 

[Blackbrrd]

"There is a preference for more open, sandboxy adventures"
Time to start delivering then!

 

[Sacrosanct]

"There is a preference for more open, sandboxy adventures"
Time to start delivering then!

I'm trying, but I have to wait for the OGL

 

[I'm A Banana]

Less to talk about this time around. Real Life kills games on the regular, but the folks (or at least the folks engaged enough to respond to these surveys) keep trying to get into new ones, which leads to groups that want 20 levels but only see 10-12.

FWIW, in 5e, I see myself going higher than I have in most e's, getting a bigger chunk of that pie. My longest-running party, in the Dragonlance game, is level 7, and the DM does pretty solid accounting of XP by the book. I could see it petering out about level 10, but I could also see it going strong for longer than that.

That small races are weak is a little surprising to me - gnomes and halflings have probably one of the strongest racial abilities in the game! - but I think they have a sense that this might be more psychology than actuality in how they contextualize their potential response. Small races in 5e are perhaps the *least penalized Small characters ever* (no Strength penalty, no weapon sizing, you just can't reliably use heavy gear), so that's a little eyebrow-raising for me.

Glad those who make heavy use of AL are happy with it!

And onto the next survey: problem spells (I mostly just listed spells that I found to be weak in practice, like Blade Ward and Friends and Crown of Madness), nautical UA stuff (overall, quite good, with the minotaur's "always armed" and the swashbuckler's panache as being a little more problematic), and the Dragon+ app (I can only choose three things that I disliked?! )

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

"There is a preference for more open, sandboxy adventures"
Time to start delivering then!

IMO, sandboxes as adventures seem to miss the point. They're gazeteers with plot hooks and some maps. The level of detail in an adventure product is usually pointless in a sandbox, as you arent expected to use all of it. The parts your PC's dont explore is wasted design time. So why detail 15 rooms of a dungeon a party might never set foot in?

The Paizo regional companions are perfect for this sort of thing. 64 pages of campaign detail, organizations, important NPC's, locales and hooks.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

That small races are weak is a little surprising to me - gnomes and halflings have probably one of the strongest racial abilities in the game! - but I think they have a sense that this might be more psychology than actuality in how they contextualize their potential response. Small races in 5e are perhaps the *least penalized Small characters ever* (no Strength penalty, no weapon sizing, you just can't reliably use heavy gear), so that's a little eyebrow-raising for me.

It's mainly the loss of heavy weapons that is the issue, which impacts more than a strength penalty. The loss of great weapon fighting feats pretty much means any 2 hander character wont be of those races and is a bit limiting.

Given that damage is partly abstract, why do they need any sort of weapon restriction to force them to use smaller die types? Have small greatswords with no damage penalty.

 

[doctorhook]

I complained about the namedropping spoilers in Dragon+. I don't want my players knowing the names of all the villains before we've even reached third level in the adventure.

I also gave props for some of the creative bits, like the elemental trinkets.

 

[Celtavian]

If the majority wanted sandboxes, Pathfinder would be out of business. Makes me wonder about the validity of the survey.

 

[Minigiant]

No shockers there.

The small race thing is more a heavy weapons thing. No heavy weapons means Strength based small PCs must take defensive or two weapons routes or be rogues or monks. Medium size is better for defense warriors and dex warriors are lower damage after level 4.

Being small locks you out of the best offensive nonmagical combat types. Small casters are great however.