D&D 5E D&D Beyond Releases 2023 Character Creation Data

D&D Beyond released the 2023 Unrolled with data on the most popular character choices for D&D. The full article includes a wide variety of statistics for the beta test of Maps, charity donations, mobile app usage, and more. However, I’m just going to recap the big numbers.

The most common species chosen by players are Human, Elf, Dragonborn, Tiefling, and Half-Elf. This contrasts with the stats from Baldur’s Gate 3 released back in August 2023 where Half-Elves were the most popular with the rest of the top five also shuffling around.

Also, keep an eye on the scale of these charts as they’re not exactly even. It starts with just over 700,000 for Humans and 500,000 for Elf, but the next line down is 200,000 with the other three species taking up space in that range. This means the difference separating the highest line on the graph and the second highest is 200,000, then 300,000 between the next two, 100,000 between the next, and finally 10,000 separating all the others.

Top classes start off with the Fighter then move onto the Rogue, Barbarian, Wizard, and Paladin. The scale on this chart is just as uneven as the last, but the numbers are much closer with what appears to be about 350,000 Fighters at the top to just over 100,000 Monks in next-to-last with under 80,000 Artificers. This contrasts far more from the Baldur’s Gate 3 first weekend data as the top five classes for the game were Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Rogue, and Bard.

And the most important choices for new characters, the names. Bob is still the top choice for names with Link, Saraphina, and Lyra seeing the most growth and Bruno, Eddie, and Rando seeing the biggest declines from last year.

Putting that together, it means the most commonly created character on D&D Beyond is Bob the Human Fighter. A joke going as far back as I can remember in RPGs is, in fact, reality proven by hard statistics.

 

[Maxperson]

The numbers show approximately 350k fighters and around 260k wizards. Even if 20k people playing fighters switched over to wizards, there would still be significantly more fighters than wizards. I have no idea what you're talking about.

And I doubt anywhere close to 1 in 10 fighters are "pushed" or "pressured" into being fighters. Even among new players a lot of players who play fighters come to that decision on their own.

 

[Oofta]

And I doubt anywhere close to 1 in 10 fighters are "pushed" or "pressured" into being fighters. Even among new fighters a lot of players who play fighters come to that decision on their own.

Even if they are (I doubt it) then it's just as likely to be true for rogues.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I will say Druid may be underrepresented due to what a complete PITA wildshape is for new people to learn. All the complexity of a prepared spellcaster coupled with various forms in another book, that interact weird with your stats and proficiency bonus. I was really hoping it would be streamlined in 5.5.

 

[Oofta]

I will say Druid may be underrepresented due to what a complete PITA wildshape is for new people to learn. All the complexity of a prepared spellcaster coupled with various forms in another book, that interact weird with your stats and proficiency bonus. I was really hoping it would be streamlined in 5.5.

I agree, just give me generic forms with potentially an adjustment for things like flying or a climb speed. Then just use generic stats and I'll come up with a description.

 

[Minigiant]

I agree, just give me generic forms with potentially an adjustment for things like flying or a climb speed. Then just use generic stats and I'll come up with a description.

WOTC tried that.

Turns out the community hates generic templates.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I think this is true in some places, but I think this is not overall good for the game.

In my groups I make it a point to tell people to play what they want. We got a new gamer in a game we started 3 weeks ago and he said he wanted to play a Paladin. The rest of us, who have been gaming together for years came in with - melee Fighter, Barbarian and Ranged Ranger. Then the new guy (who was the first to say what class he was playing) said, hey "we seem melee heavy, maybe I should play a Cleric or another casters"

I chimed in and said "play what you want, we will make it work". The entire rest of the group agreed "If you want to play a Paladin, play a Paladin".

Of course, a veteran gamer will go "I get 3 meat shields?! Time to pull out that sorlock build I've always wanted to try!"

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

WOTC tried that.

Turns out the community hates generic templates.

Well, the templates were a big step down from the (IMO) overpowered level moon druid options. They should have taken another run with slightly better numbers and some spells supporting wild shape buffs granting extra features (poisoned claws, heavy scales/chitin, etc).

 

[Hussar]

Well, the templates were a big step down from the (IMO) overpowered level moon druid options. They should have taken another run with slightly better numbers and some spells supporting wild shape buffs granting extra features (poisoned claws, heavy scales/chitin, etc).

I think you are seriously underestimating how conservative the fandom is. Any change, particularly any change that would lead to streamlined play, is viewed as an attack on the playstyle of gamers.

 

[Minigiant]

Well, the templates were a big step down from the (IMO) overpowered level moon druid options. They should have taken another run with slightly better numbers and some spells supporting wild shape buffs granting extra features (poisoned claws, heavy scales/chitin, etc).

I think the biggest issue is that WOTC didn't have enough time to playtest temples with a bunch of fiddly parts to avoid making something even more powerful accidentally.

I still think the best option was to copy 4e's beast forms (bear, boar, cat, lizard, raptor, serpent, spider, wolf) with as primal spirits and have Beastmaster Rangers, Moon Druids, and Sumon Nature Spirit use them. Add more forms in new books.

 

[Hussar]

I think the biggest issue is that WOTC didn't have enough time to playtest temples with a bunch of fiddly parts to avoid making something even more powerful accidentally.

I still think the best option was to copy 4e's beast forms (bear, boar, cat, lizard, raptor, serpent, spider, wolf) with as primal spirits and have Beastmaster Rangers, Moon Druids, and Sumon Nature Spirit use them. Add more forms in new books.

See, the problem is, as soon as you try to have "standard" forms, the fandom will lose their collective poop (or at least the 30% that's needed to block any changes) and scream about how they are restricting play, forcing change for changes sake and various other standard complaints.

The odds that you could make that significant of a change to a class and get it past is very, very close to zero. No matter how many passes you attempt. At least, that's been my takeaway of the playtest.