D&D 5E The Fall Of The Dwarves: What Races Do People Actually Play?

What races are people actually playing, and how much of it is Tolkien fantasy as against other stuff?

Fortunately D&D Beyond provides a better source of data than we've ever had. The most recent data from less than a week ago in December 2020 alas does not provide percentages.

1. Human
2. Half-Elf
3. Dragonborn
4. Tiefling
5. Half-Orc

In February 2019, using stats found via this very site:

1. Human
2. Variant Human
3. Half Elf
4. Tiefling
5. Dragonborn
6. Wood Elf
7. High Elf
8. Half-Orc
9. Goliath
10. Mountain Dwarf
11. Lightfoot Halfling
12. Hill Dwarf

Which is a bit of a change from what people were creating in launch month for D&D Beyond (mid 2017)

1. Human
2. Elf
3. Half-Elf
4. Dwarf
5. Tiefling
6. Dragonborn
7. Genasi
8. Halfling
9. Half-Orc
10. Gnome
11. Goliath

The percentages are presented in different ways in 2019 and the launch month, with launch month merging the various subraces. So to compare like with like:

• Wood elves and high elves taken together in the 2019 data are more popular than half-elves (or variant humans)
• Meanwhile if we split the wood elves and high elves from 2017 they are probably both behind tieflings and dragonborn
• Dwarves taken together in 2019 are only just behind dragonborn. They've still fallen from ahead of tieflings and dragonborn to behind them
• Halflings combined in 2019 are neck and neck with half-orcs and ahead of goliaths
• Genasi combined in 2019 are a little behind goliaths and slightly ahead of combined gnomes

Interesting that dwarves have fallen so heavily out of favour - and half orcs have climbed so strongly into favour; I guess there's been a lot of talk here. The thematics of tieflings and dragonborn (entirely unsurprisingly IMO) have made them core races and even the dwarfs are disappearing in favour of half-orcs (which IMO is a surprise).

 

[Argyle King]

FWIW, My last 10 D&D characters:

Dwarven barbarian/paladin (dedicated to a dwarven god of valor, adventure, and drinking)
Lizardfolk (Oath of Ancients) paladin
Half-Elf fighter ranger with battlemaster and ranged style cheese (powerful, but painfully boring to play)
Dragonborn Storm Cleric/sorcerer hatched among dwarves... he identified as a dwarf and was sad he couldn't grow a beard
Aasimar Infernal Pact warlock
Catfolk rogue/monk
Half-elf necromancer (wizard/something else... don't remember)
Folgers Valdez (half-elf,) a humble coffee merchant swept up into a life of adventure (ranger/bard,) and his mule -Maxwell
Half-Elf Arcana Cleric
Dwarven Ranger

 

[Voadam]

There was a 3E era game that actually had dwarven steppes nomads along with a five elements magic system. I can't remember the name for the life of me and its telling that the game has fallen low on the Google search threshold.

The Sovereign Stone Campaign Setting and magic system is still around, now in Pathfinder 1e under a new company. The Dwarves, Marauders of the Wolf is the Steppe Nomad sourcebook.

 

[Shardstone]

Speaking as a young gamer, having only really been in the hobby around 6~ years or so, to me, Dwarves don't have the "magic" that the top races do.

Elves feel magical in every possible way, even in aesthetic. Humans are default. Tieflings and Dragonborn ooze magic, and half-orcs have a kind of darkly enchanted feel to them. But more importantly, half-orcs do the dwarf thing better than the dwarf for most people, because they can look more unique and aren't short.

In 1E, when dungeoncrawling was important, dwarves had these magical abilities to know stonework and architecture. But now the story of D&D has moved outside the dungeon, and the dwarf hasn't really followed. In order to make it popular again, it has to find a way to spin its magic into stories more pertenent to the average gamer.

Or not. Its good some races have become niche or are niche! That means 5E has a good spread, and thus is a more successful game.

 

[DND_Reborn]

So do I! lol.

Here are the ones I still have:

And now back to our regularly scheduled thread discussion...

 

[DND_Reborn]

Dwarves don't have the "magic" that the top races do.

Funny you should say that... in AD&D (like Gnomes) dwarves have a high resistance to magic and got bonuses to saves against such. Because of this originally dwarves could not be magic-users (or illusionists) and gnomes could only be illusionists.

Now, Gnomes still have some resistance to magic, but dwarves have lost theirs.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Funny you should say that... in AD&D (like Gnomes) dwarves have a high resistance to magic and got bonuses to saves against such. Because of this originally dwarves could not be magic-users (or illusionists) and gnomes could only be illusionists.

Now, Gnomes still have some resistance to magic, but dwarves have lost theirs.

Dwarves surely had a niche. They kept going and were hard to poison or spell.

now? I am a dinosaur: I still really enjoy the dungeon and did not know that was not popular. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Tonguez]

Funny you should say that... in AD&D (like Gnomes) dwarves have a high resistance to magic and got bonuses to saves against such. Because of this originally dwarves could not be magic-users (or illusionists) and gnomes could only be illusionists.

Now, Gnomes still have some resistance to magic, but dwarves have lost theirs.

Yeah, you can blame all those players who wanted to play Dwarf Wizards to be ‘different’.

I’d be happy to give Dwarfs back their magic resistance and limited ability to use arcane talents. Dwarfs still can access Divine magic and use runes but leave magic for those talc-soft elfs ...

 

[Charlaquin]

Speaking as a young gamer, having only really been in the hobby around 6~ years or so, to me, Dwarves don't have the "magic" that the top races do.

Elves feel magical in every possible way, even in aesthetic. Humans are default. Tieflings and Dragonborn ooze magic, and half-orcs have a kind of darkly enchanted feel to them. But more importantly, half-orcs do the dwarf thing better than the dwarf for most people, because they can look more unique and aren't short.

In 1E, when dungeoncrawling was important, dwarves had these magical abilities to know stonework and architecture. But now the story of D&D has moved outside the dungeon, and the dwarf hasn't really followed. In order to make it popular again, it has to find a way to spin its magic into stories more pertenent to the average gamer.

Or not. Its good some races have become niche or are niche! That means 5E has a good spread, and thus is a more successful game.

Not to try and argue with an opinion - I think this is a perfectly valid way to look at it - but to me, the idea that orcs do the dwarf thing better than dwarves is very strange. I suppose if you all you see “the dwarf thing” as is being strong and tough and seeing in the dark, that might make sense. But to me that’s only a small part of what makes dwarves dwarf-y.

 

[Charlaquin]

Dwarves surely had a niche. They kept going and were hard to poison or spell.

now? I am a dinosaur: I still really enjoy the dungeon and did not know that was not popular. Ignorance is bliss.

Dungeon delving is still very popular, they just aren’t the default mode of play any more. There are folks who detest dungeon delving (some of whom are regulars on these forums), but I don’t think it will ever fully go out of fashion.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, you can blame all those players who wanted to play Dwarf Wizards to be ‘different’.

I’d be happy to give Dwarfs back their magic resistance and limited ability to use arcane talents. Dwarfs still can access Divine magic and use runes but leave magic for those talc-soft elfs ...

Dwarves are already not played much, you really want to double down on that by locking them out of 2/3s of the classes? I’m fine with dwarven magic resistance, but race-based class restrictions don’t seem to me like they would improve game in any way.