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

[HammerMan]

I just asked my sister to name the first fantasy character off the top of her head and she said Gandalf. I asked her for the next one and she said Frodo (which I assume isn't classed as a "warrior"). I asked her for something that wasn't from LoTR and she said Danaerys.

Those are great answers. And all ones I would expect to hear from a new player along with Harry Potter and Jon snow

Of course none of them are high level wizards in D&D mindset
Gandalf is a warrior scholar that inspires knows lore and has a few small spells. At best he is a low level bard.

 

[Minigiant]

These are incredibly broad-stroke assumptions and they even have numbers attached. Is there any official way to get that information?

Because I just asked my sister to name the first fantasy character off the top of her head and she said Gandalf. I asked her for the next one and she said Frodo (which I assume isn't classed as a "warrior"). I asked her for something that wasn't from LoTR and she said Danaerys.

I don't have the numbers but I'm not entirely sure that any of these assumptions are necessarily vorrect.

You mentioned the Fellowship

Gandalf (cleric or wizard or bard)
Frodo (rogue)
Samwise (rogue)
Aragorn (ranger)
Legolas (fighter)
Gimli (fighter)
Pippin (rogue)
Merry (rogue)
Boromir (fighter)

And ASOIAF

Every single adult male main character except 2 are fighters.

 

[Yaarel]

Gandalf is a warrior scholar that inspires knows lore and has a few small spells. At best he is a low level bard.

I stand by my character build that represents Gandalf as a high tier Paladin − high enough of a Devotion Paladin to gain the Flame Strike spell.

The part that confuses everyone, Gandalf is a Dexterity Paladin. Not a Strength Paladin. Obviously he has the high Charisma and never uses a spellbook, summons his steed, and fights with sword, even two-weapon fighting. He also turns Undead.

 

[HammerMan]

I stand by my character build that represents Gandalf as a high tier Paladin − high enough of a Devotion Paladin to gain the Flame Strike spell.

The part that confuses everyone, Gandalf is a Dexterity Paladin. Not a Strength Paladin. Obviously he has the high Charisma and never uses a spellbook, summons his steed, and fights with sword, even two-weapon fighting.

Not bad

 

[Yaarel]

Not bad

It was after I used the Paladin class to represent Tolkien Gandalf, and then used the Paladin class to represent Norse Thor, that I began to appreciate how amazingly versatile the 5e Paladin is.

(With Thor, there is only one unofficial modification: his Smites can deal Lightning and Thunder damage instead of Radiant damage. Everything else is official.)

 

[Mistwell]

The poll results are showing that the average group has more than one non-magical fighter. That's quite popular. Focusing on the 30% minority is really not the take away from these kind of poll results. When you have 50% answering 2 or more, and 20% answering 1, then the focus of this is not the vast minority but the overwhelming majority.

 

[HammerMan]

The poll results are showing that the average group has more than one non-magical fighter. That's quite popular. Focusing on the 30% minority is really not the take away from these kind of poll results. When you have 50% answering 2 or more, and 20% answering 1, then the focus of this is not the vast minority but the overwhelming majority.

except this thread started because someone decided to pick 1 poster out say that they had an opinion not shared by anyone and this shows 30% agree.

Maybe if we didn’t decide to insult berate and try to generally tear down people as “other” a 70/30 split wouldn’t matter but when you start with “Nah, you the only one that thinks that” and then 30% agree with them it says something.

 

[Mistwell]

except this thread started because someone decided to pick 1 poster out say that they had an opinion not shared by anyone and this shows 30% agree.

The thread is about the larger issue raised and not an individual spat which has no meaning outside the two people having it.

 

[CleverNickName]

I stand by my character build that represents Gandalf as a high tier Paladin − high enough of a Devotion Paladin to gain the Flame Strike spell.

The part that confuses everyone, Gandalf is a Dexterity Paladin. Not a Strength Paladin. Obviously he has the high Charisma and never uses a spellbook, summons his steed, and fights with sword, even two-weapon fighting. He also turns Undead.

I think the part that confuses most people is that Gandalf is described as a wizard. Others refer to him as a wizard, he refers to himself as a wizard, and he consults with other wizards about wizardly things. In the world of Middle Earth, Gandalf is a wizard.

But in the world of D&D, classes are a lot more malleable and Gandalf could be a wizard, or a paladin, or a warlock, depending on other assumptions you make and which characteristics you want to emphasize.

 

[Reef]

So everyone can see where I am coming from, here are two different but comparable charts that calculate how many "standard encounters" it takes to reach the next level. These charts visualize the math of the game. Notably, these "standard encounters" are leisurely. Gaming groups that prefer more challenging encounters, or even deadly encounters, will reach the higher levels much sooner.

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All well and good. However there’s been a move away from XP levelling to milestone. Which changes things around dramatically. When doing SKT (for example), I swear we wandered all over the place and probably spent way more time in between milestones than if we had been following the plot more efficiently.