D&D (2024) Do you see Fighter players at your own table?

[Incenjucar]

Prismatic Wall etc. are used because there are no actual rules for this rule. It's DM fiat. It's basically "The DM is allowed to DM." Utterly useless.

We can pitch a million different specific examples but it doesn't matter because every DM is going to have a different response.

As a bonus, ten to one that on average DMs would let the spellcasters do more with it.

 

[Emberashh]

Prismatic Wall etc. are used because there are no actual rules for this rule. It's DM fiat. It's basically "The DM is allowed to DM." Utterly useless.

There are rules. It isn't the game's problem you have an irrational disdain for the option the game gives you to do the things you actually want to do.

Improvising an Action
Your character can do things not covered by the actions in this chapter, such as breaking down doors, intimidating enemies, sensing weaknesses in magical defenses, or calling for a parley with a foe. The only limits to the actions you can attempt are your imagination and your character's ability scores. See the descriptions of the ability scores in chapter 7 for inspiration as you improvise.

When you describe an action not detailed elsewhere in the rules, the DM tells you whether that action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.

Source: PHB, page 193

We can pitch a million different specific examples but it doesn't matter because every DM is going to have a different response

Unless you're playing with every DM this is entirely irrelevant.

 

[Incenjucar]

The rule is that the DM is a DM.

 

[Emberashh]

The rule is that the DM is a DM.

No, it isn't. Grow up and get over it.

You are, in fact, allowed to acknowledge reality even if you don't like it. Your opinion isn't made lesser by acknowledging facts.

Just the opposite in fact.

 

[Incenjucar]

Edit: <No need to argue with ghosts>

 

[Yaarel]

Actually your poll was for just the last year. Since campaigns can last years, your poll skews things a bit

Very many? How do you get that from the poll?

5e campaigns dont really last "years".

Designers designed its experience point rate to normally reach level 20 in less than a year.

And. Most players dont ever play a campaign to level 20.

If by campaign, you mean an indefinite number of characters that are part of the same setting and the same saga, then sure, that might last years and decades.

Even so, what players are reporting to be true in their own gaming groups for almost the last year and half, is representative for how players are playing today in 2023 generally − especially in the aggregate.



Also I am not too worried about the implications deriving from the poll because they are easy to verify precisely. All one needs is full access to the DnDBeyond database. In this way, one can know precisely the frequency of nonmagical nonmulticlassing Fighter characters that update in ways showing ongoing use.

What percent of all characters in use are Fighters?
What percent of Fighters never multiclass?
What percent of Fighters do ability score improvements rather than an other feat?
What percent of any feat is nonmagical?

We can know the EXACT percentage of nonmagical Fighters − from the DnDBEyond database.

I estimate that somewhere around 48.8% of all Fighters at level 8 are nonmagical single-class Fighters.

Thus roughly 6.5% of all characters are "old school" nonmagical Fighters.

In other words, there are about as many "traditional" Fighters in 5e as there are Monks in 5e.



Again, all of these estimates are simple to verify with access to the DnDBeyond database statistics.



If in 5e, the frequency of old school Fighter players is about the same as the number of Monk players, that would explain why many players have one in their own group, and why many players dont have one in their own group.



All of this is surprising because, anyone familiar with D&D 3e, and especially if familiar with D&D 1e, probably assumes without doubt that "everyone knows" a Fighter is a "nonmagical" class.

But it might be not "everyone knows" this.

4e already began speaking about "Martial magic", and in 5e gaming fashions are shifting with masses of brand new generations of players.

At the very least, there appears to be "very many" players who think of the Fighter as magical class for a magical game.

 

[CleverNickName]

Do I need to quote the rules again?

I couldn't decide which version to use, so I'm posting both.

Spoiler: Option A

Spoiler: Option B

 

[Reef]

Just wanted to pop in and say that 5e campaigns can definitely last years. In the campaign where I was the non-magical fighter, we started at level one (with Phandelver) and made it to level 11 (near the end of SKT) when we stopped. And it was at least 18 months. We're all adults with families, and at best, we got to play two hours a week. And there were definitely weeks we couldn't. So 5e games can definitely stretch beyond a year.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Designers designed its experience point rate to normally reach level 20 in less than a year.

Did they also mandate a rate of play somewhere?

Any campaign can take years if you're not playing four hours a week like the Critical Role crew is.

 

[Yaarel]

Did they also mandate a rate of play somewhere?

Any campaign can take years if you're not playing four hours a week like the Critical Role crew is.

It takes about 200 encounters to reach level 20.

If each week has 4 encounters, that would be 50 weeks.

It would be about 52 weeks when concluding level 20.

But again, most campaigns never reach level 20.


At 4 encounters per week,

it takes about 82 encounters to reach level 8,

thus roughly 21 weeks.


The survey refers to Fighters "over level 7".