D&D 5E Here's The Most Common D&D Party Composition

D&D Beyond's latest data-output looks at the composition of the typical adventuring party. The 'traditional' party always used to be Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard; let's see how that stacks up these days!

These screenshots were compiled by SageAdvice.eu. DDB's developer said "I’m going to be honest: this was really hard to look at from a data perspective right, so what I mean by that is it’s hard to figure out exactly how to chop this data up for it to be the most meaningful that we can make it all right. These are all campaigns where party members and characters within that campaign are taking hit point adjustments, so that’s one of the best senses that we have that something is actually being played”.

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[Connorsrpg]

I Started my current campaign June, 1 2018. I pre-generated the characters for 2 reasons. The first being that I was sure if he game would last as 3 out of 5 players were new to D&D, so I didnt want to spend a session creating PCs. Secondly I wanted simpler characters. I gave them some simple options to choose from. We ended up with 2 fighters, 2 rogues and 1 wizard. 1 of the rogues got eaten by a bullette and made a ranger. Thats how the party is now.

I generated a massive pool of 1st level PCs for my game too. I often do this. But I always generate a lot more than needed so there is choice. I determine those PCs completely randomly (race, BG, class, etc). Workds great and I get some mixes that won't normally be chosen. Really helps writing up their backgrounds etc for a unique PC When new players join or a PC dies, then they often bring in a new character of their creation. (Though sometimes a player will choose from the left-over pool I developed).

I think players like me doing their first PCs this way as it really shows how to tie their PCs to the setting. Once they have been playing in that setting for a while, they are usually more comfortable generating the next character.

BTW: This was for a game with several new players. But the veterans were also happy for me to do the characters

 

[Connorsrpg]

Regrading large groups, if you can physically accommodate - eg table/room size etc. I find it is not too much a burden as a GM/DM. I think the burden is more on the players. If they want to play in this big group and keep inviting friends, I am cool with that, but it is the players that must make the compromises...

In fact, when we went to 8 players (now 9), I wrote a post on our campaign forums to actually outline what this means for the players. Rather than repeat everything here, here is a link to that advice
Forum on large party groups - player advice

 

[Bolongo]

I find it interestung that in parties of 4 Sorcerors are more common then Wizards.

Eh. The first three lines in that table have the exact same percentage listed. Which means the difference is in the decimals they're not showing. That's not more common in any significant way.

What I find interesting is that in parties of 4 or more there is almost always a rogue (and in more than half of the smaller ones). Seems like the class that is hardest to fill the shoes of.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think the pecentages are so low and have so little variation that they tell us exactly nothing.

Seems pretty close to perfectly random, really.

This and this.

(With so many posts discussing the data as if any conclusions could be drawn, I thought these two posts deserved a repost)

 

[TwoSix]

What I find interesting is that in parties of 4 or more there is almost always a rogue (and in more than half of the smaller ones). Seems like the class that is hardest to fill the shoes of.

Which certainly seems like a case of older edition thinking still present in the modern day. They don't have any one capability that's hard to replace. As a package deal, though, they don't have any other class that's really a close analogue.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I think you are probably off by a couple of decimal points, given the installed user base involved.

Plenty of people have it installed without actually playing in a game. More importantly, ~2500 four-player games (possibly without doubles of any class) is ~12500 users (4 chars + 1 DM, times 2500 games). Even if some of those games have overlapping users, and even if most of the four-player games overlap with groups other numbers of PCs, the sample size in terms of total users could easily be 20000 or more and still be perfectly consistent with my estimated sample size. And that, again, doesn't account for the many people who may have it installed without using it for actively tracking their party.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Dick Van Patten and Willie Aames apparently. It's enough, though. Notice no party of nine

And everyone knows the party of five is Neve Campell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and the whiny angsty dude from Lost.

Yay! Someone finally liked my Eight is Enough joke. I thought I lost my skills for a minute. Thanks @DEFCON 1 ☺

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Which certainly seems like a case of older edition thinking still present in the modern day. They don't have any one capability that's hard to replace. As a package deal, though, they don't have any other class that's really a close analogue.

They're also one of the only two "agnostic" classes in the game, along with the fighter. Many people enjoy building a character concept before picking a class, and both the rogue and the fighter get a set of class features that can be used to "build your own adventurer" without flying in the face of any specific character concept or fantasy trope. In the end, it's a choice of supporting a concept with skills or hit points.

Even designers have been using this technique for a long time. Van Richten used to be a 10th-level thief with 15% pick pockets and 80% read languages...

 

[Scott Christian]

I'm curious about who wants to play with 8 people in the party.

I did for a few years. Prior to that group, we had a party for six months with nine. It is nightmarish at times. One round of combat lasting twenty minutes or longer. But, the pro side is you do get a lot of variation, see different playstyles, and get to see how different classes play without having to play the game forever. One huge drawback is I find that with the pacing as slow as what it is, the players have a tendency to get on their phones quite a bit.

 

[Morrus]

I'm curious about who wants to play with 8 people in the party.

It’s not ideal, but it never stays at 8. People drop off. Too many is better than too few.