D&D 5E D&D Beyond Releases 2023 Character Creation Data

D&D Beyond released the 2023 Unrolled with data on the most popular character choices for D&D. The full article includes a wide variety of statistics for the beta test of Maps, charity donations, mobile app usage, and more. However, I’m just going to recap the big numbers.

The most common species chosen by players are Human, Elf, Dragonborn, Tiefling, and Half-Elf. This contrasts with the stats from Baldur’s Gate 3 released back in August 2023 where Half-Elves were the most popular with the rest of the top five also shuffling around.

Also, keep an eye on the scale of these charts as they’re not exactly even. It starts with just over 700,000 for Humans and 500,000 for Elf, but the next line down is 200,000 with the other three species taking up space in that range. This means the difference separating the highest line on the graph and the second highest is 200,000, then 300,000 between the next two, 100,000 between the next, and finally 10,000 separating all the others.

Top classes start off with the Fighter then move onto the Rogue, Barbarian, Wizard, and Paladin. The scale on this chart is just as uneven as the last, but the numbers are much closer with what appears to be about 350,000 Fighters at the top to just over 100,000 Monks in next-to-last with under 80,000 Artificers. This contrasts far more from the Baldur’s Gate 3 first weekend data as the top five classes for the game were Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Rogue, and Bard.

And the most important choices for new characters, the names. Bob is still the top choice for names with Link, Saraphina, and Lyra seeing the most growth and Bruno, Eddie, and Rando seeing the biggest declines from last year.

Putting that together, it means the most commonly created character on D&D Beyond is Bob the Human Fighter. A joke going as far back as I can remember in RPGs is, in fact, reality proven by hard statistics.

 

[Minigiant]

What you are missing I think, is that most campaigns end at fairly low level and those levels are reached fairly quickly in 5e. If the new player who started with the easy fighter didn't like them, they wouldn't make another one. Martials would end up way behind casters, not in front of them.

Martials are enjoyable to play, even if you think they could be better or started with one as a new player.

My point is "they still play them and their abandoned PC would be on DNDB".

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Martials are enjoyable to play, even if you think they could be better or started with one as a new player.

Has anyone argued against this? I don't think anyone has.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

What do you consider to be pressure, because, "Hey, we have a warlock, cleric and rogue already, why don't you play a fighter, because we think we need one?" isn't pressure. It's a suggestion or request. Pressure is trying to talk him into it after he says, "Nah. I've been looking forward to playing a lore bard, so that's what I'm making."

I haven't seen anyone pressured since 3e.

That IS pressure. It's not strong pressure. It's not a big deal. But if it causes him to make a Fighter, then it's going to show up on this statistic (if he makes it on DDB) and his #1 reason to make that character might not be "because he enjoys playing fighters" (even if he goes on to enjoy playing it).

 

[Minigiant]

What do you consider to be pressure, because, "Hey, we have a warlock, cleric and rogue already, why don't you play a fighter, because we think we need one?" isn't pressure. It's a suggestion or request. Pressure is trying to talk him into it after he says, "Nah. I've been looking forward to playing a lore bard, so that's what I'm making."

I haven't seen anyone pressured since 3e.

"One of us gotta be melee on the monsters will swarm us."

"This fumble chart is harsh. One of use needs to bolt to Greater restoration,"

"Youre new. Casters would be too much. Play a fighter. Trust me. Bard? You sure you are ready for bard? MONK! You are way too new for monk."

Poof another fighter or cleric on DNDB.

 

[Clint_L]

In my experience, very few players are worried about optimization when they create their character and choose their species. Most players come in with a concept for a character they want to play. Often it has little to do with D&D, and more to do with their personality, or maybe the influence of a character that they loved in a show, novel, or video game.

Forums like this self-select towards the most dedicated players, typically folks who know the rules inside out, and definitely folks who enjoy discussing and debating the game incessantly. I think we definitely skew towards being much more concerned about optimization, what the character could hypothetically look like at level 20, and so on than do the vast majority of players. Most of my players just don't care. They want their character to be fun and reflect their creative idea. They want it to feel like their character.

I think these stats show that WotC has done a pretty good job of balancing classes, and creating viable species options beyond the traditional Tolkien ones.

 

[Maxperson]

My point is "they still play them and their abandoned PC would be on DNDB".

Further confounding the numbers. Now we have people who play and like martials, people who just mess around, people who make characters and level up offline, and people who use DDB the whole way. And by the by, that also applies to all those forced to play casters and don't like them, which happens just as often or even moreso.

 

[Maxperson]

Has anyone argued against this? I don't think anyone has.

It's heavily implied by the arguments about not knowing if the numbers shown by DDB are those who enjoy them. The implication is that they don't, but those of casters are enjoyed.

 

[Maxperson]

That IS pressure. It's not strong pressure. It's not a big deal. But if it causes him to make a Fighter, then it's going to show up on this statistic (if he makes it on DDB) and his #1 reason to make that character might not be "because he enjoys playing fighters" (even if he goes on to enjoy playing it).

Nah. It's not pressure. "Pressure" as the term is used in normal language goes above and beyond simple asking. When someone asks me to pass the salt at dinner, they aren't pressuring me to pass the salt.

 

[Maxperson]

"One of us gotta be melee on the monsters will swarm us."

Except that's not true. Melee can't stop monsters from swarming the group unless they have the Sentinel feat, and even then it only stops one monster.

"This fumble chart is harsh. One of use needs to bolt to Greater restoration,"

This is even LESS applicable than the first statement. It involves having a house rule for fumbles in play, which can't be assumed.

"Youre new. Casters would be too much. Play a fighter. Trust me. Bard? You sure you are ready for bard? MONK! You are way too new for monk."

Maybe you missed in my other post where I said that beyond new players... In any case, that's ONE fighter and cannot possibly account for all of the DDB numbers..............................unless they actually enjoyed playing the martials and kept making more after they were experienced players.

Poof another fighter or cleric on DNDB.

Or wizard or bard or sorcerer or... Pressure happened in all directions when it happened.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's heavily implied by the arguments about not knowing if the numbers shown by DDB are those who enjoy them. The implication is that they don't, but those of casters are enjoyed.

I don't think that's true - that the implication is that they don't. The implication is that we don't know and that it's quite possible that some of them don't. AND that was only in response to the idea that the ONLY explanation is that "people enjoy them". It's not the only explanation.

It is very likely true that a lot of people enjoy playing Fighters (I know I do!) but it being the "only" or even the "absolute biggest" reason for this statistic? Who knows? Maybe?

We were simply exploring other possibilities. I don't recall anyone exploring those other possibilities stating definitively that any of those reasons trump "enjoyment" (they don't make enjoyment a non-factor). There's just a lot more going on.