Latest D&D Survey Says "More Feats, Please!"; Plus New Survey About DMs Guild, Monster Hunter, Inqui

WotC's Mike Mearls has reported on the latest D&D survey results. "In our last survey, we asked you which areas of D&D you thought needed expansion, and solicited feedback for the latest revision of the mystic character class and new rules for psionics." Additionally, there's a new survey up asking about DMs Guld as well as the last Unearthed Arcana (which featured the Monster Hunter, Inquisitive, and Revenant).

Find the survey results here. The most requested extra content is more feats, followed by classes, spells and races, in that order.

 

[RotGrub]

Be prepared to hate Drizzt even more. It's that character's fault that the 2e (and subsequent) ranger was the TWF king... Drizzt's original stats were made with a 1e ranger with the drow race from Unearthed Arcana (drow being inherently ambidextrous in those rules). So, when 2e rolled around the ranger got Drizzt's TWF and (apparently) drow lost their natural ambidexterity. So whereas the character was originally modeled on the 1e rules, the 2e rules were modeled on the character. Because fanboys or something.

I'll have to read The Drow of the Underdark book again, but I don't think they lost their natural ambidexterity in 2e.

Regardless, I think the drow were dual wielding in various modules long before Drizzt came along.

 

[Bad Fox]

Oh aye, I wasn't being clear. What I would not want to see is a book of feats being released unless all the content was given out for testing. In an attempt to clarify - this survey is yes, a marketing tool, intended to identify public opinion. It is also not how 5th Edition was designed in the first place, but is/was certainly a part of it, in that it can streamline the content available for testing. If wizards choose to unload a barrage of feats for testing - great! What I don't want is a barrage of feats unleashed with minimal to no testing, just because it might be popular and bring in the bucks.

A+

Agreed! But I do feel pretty good considering the level of caution expressed by Mike Mearls when he discussed adding new feats.

My expectation is that there will probably be material released into the wild through UA before they're formally published. The two test drafts of the psionics rules (with a third on the way!) shows a lot of care about doing rules expansions carefully.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It's interesting that fighters are apparently "not interesting" enough and yet they are the most played .

I'n't though? Always been the case, too. People would rather play the hot guy with the sword (whether that's Errol Flynn or Gerard Butler) than the old man in the bathrobe - Tier 5 vs Tier 1 be damned. Concept is a powerful thing for most players (and most players aren't hard-core optimizers). But, once they've played that character for a while, they maybe start to notice that it's really not making the impact on the game that Robin or Leonidas made in their own stories. Part of that's the nature of a cooperative storytelling game (all the PCs have to share the 'Hero'/protagonist lime-light), part of it's the class not being "interesting" enough to stand up to continued play. So you play a different class the next time around. Maybe a Paladin if you still want to be the hot guy with the sword, or maybe you trade up a few Tiers.

 

[Corpsetaker]

How come we don't get a basic survey that just asks what we want? Why make a specific list and then ask which of those?

I want more monsters and more DM tools. I want to make my own adventures because I think Wizard's AP's are very poor.

 

[Mercule]

Be prepared to hate Drizzt even more. It's that character's fault that the 2e (and subsequent) ranger was the TWF king... Drizzt's original stats were made with a 1e ranger with the drow race from Unearthed Arcana (drow being inherently ambidextrous in those rules). So, when 2e rolled around the ranger got Drizzt's TWF and (apparently) drow lost their natural ambidexterity. So whereas the character was originally modeled on the 1e rules, the 2e rules were modeled on the character. Because fanboys or something.

I am very much aware of this. Overall, I've just come to the conclusion that the 2E Ranger was an attempt at applying the Ballmer Peak to D&D.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Imaro]

I'n't though? Always been the case, too. People would rather play the hot guy with the sword (whether that's Errol Flynn or Gerard Butler) than the old man in the bathrobe - Tier 5 vs Tier 1 be damned. Concept is a powerful thing for most players (and most players aren't hard-core optimizers). But, once they've played that character for a while, they maybe start to notice that it's really not making the impact on the game that Robin or Leonidas made in their own stories. Part of that's the nature of a cooperative storytelling game (all the PCs have to share the 'Hero'/protagonist lime-light), part of it's the class not being "interesting" enough to stand up to continued play. So you play a different class the next time around. Maybe a Paladin if you still want to be the hot guy with the sword, or maybe you trade up a few Tiers.

Yes but the game's been out for a while now... if anything you'd think enough people would have gotten bored in that time (if the fighter was as boring as some claim) that he wouldn't still be the most played. The fact that he's still the most played over a year in doesn't really support your statements at all...

 

[Tony Vargas]

Another thing that might well factor into the top 5 including the Big 4 (in addition, of course, to them being the BIG 4), is that they're all the classes in the basic pdf and its much-used set of sample characters.

Or not!

For every broad rationale offered for a broad observation there are specific exceptions, sure. Heck, it's a virtually certainty that any broad statement made on a forum will result in at least one person presenting themselves as a counter-example.

Obviously, if the set of people wanting to play the kinds of archetypes covered by the fighter were universally happy with how the fighter played, there wouldn't be this familiar phenomenon of the fighter topping popularity polls, while also being the brunt of criticism and frequent requests for expansion and improvement. (Fighter SUX threads in 3.x, obviously, but also going back to the early days of the game, as well as currently.)


This is also another apologists' catch-22. If there are complaints about a class, but the class proves to be popular, then, obviously, those complaints are unfounded and no improvements are needed - conversely, if there are complaints about a class, and the class proves to be unpopular, then, obviously, interest in the class is not great enough to demand any improvements!

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

How come we don't get a basic survey that just asks what we want? Why make a specific list and then ask which of those?

I want more monsters and more DM tools. I want to make my own adventures because I think Wizard's AP's are very poor.

They did offer space for your to write your own answers. I don't recall exactly what I said, but I did say more spells, specifically 'world building' type spells like permanency and such that can have long term impact on the shape (literally and figuratively) of the world.

 

[Eric V]

Yes, but my paladin is doing just as well with her lay on hands in the healing department, and my bard from last year had the healing feat (whoops, talking about feats), and he was a better healer than the typical cleric.

I like the war, tempest and light domains but the others, not so much. Why does a nature cleric have proficiency with heavy armour? The trickery domain is really weak, and not all that tricky. Having abilities coming off channeling can be a problem, as you don't actually get to use channelling that often.

Anyway, I was just wondering, because clerics have been losing their popularity in our group, and wondering if this is happening elsewhere. They are getting replaced with characters and the healing feat. To be honest, I think the healing feat might be a bit broken, especially if you can wave those bandages around during combat. We don't actually allow that in our group...

Maybe it would change if we played past 8th level, but so far it's a very unpopular class at our table. Only the sorcerer is less popular.