D&D General Data from a million DnDBeyond character sheets?

Lanefan · Jul 23, 2023

ECMO3 said:
I think it depends how you look at it. In 5E I have only played 1 character past level 3 without multiclassing,

Curious - is that mostly due to character-concept reasons or mechanical/optimization reasons?

FrogReaver · Jul 23, 2023

ECMO3 said:
I don't know if I buy this. I see a lot of fighter multiclasses, but I actually rarely see Fighter as the starting class. I see Rogue most commonly, but also classes with Wisdom saves are more common IME than fighter is to start.

That is not to say I never see them, just not real often.

I'm not sure what you aren't buying about it.

ichabod · Jul 23, 2023

Never mind.

ECMO3 · Jul 23, 2023

Lanefan said:
Curious - is that mostly due to character-concept reasons or mechanical/optimization reasons?

Character concept mostly. Usually to make something work for my character idea that I can't get on a single class.

I have never played any of the "power builds" - Sorcadin or Hexadin, although I have played a Shadow Sorcerer/Undying Warlock once.

Usually it is Wizard-Cleric, Wizard-Sorcerer, Wizard-Warlock, Rogue-Anything, Fighter-Ranger, Ranger-Bard, Cleric-Warlock

Multiclassing just gives you a lot more options - healing magic and offensive magic ..... martial weapons and sneak attack ..... armor and spells .....

For example, I have a Goblin Enchantment Wizard I am going to be playing soon in the upcoming Phandelver adventure. She is primarily going to be an Enchantment Wizard, and that is what I want to play, but the character idea is she is going to start the game pretending to be a Gnome Cleric of Tymora and working for a Harper (Sister Gaela) who is a real Cleric of Tymora in Phandalin.

To make this work I am taking the Secret Identity background and I have not decided whether she is going to start as a Trickery Cleric of Leira or a Divine Soul Sorcerer blessed by Leira. Either way she will get the Disguise Self spell, along with disguise kit from her background and some cleric cantrips and spells from her starting class to be able to fool the Harper and towsfolk. We are a couple months away from this campaign so I have some time to figure it out. A straight Wizard would be more powerful and the Cleric mutliclass is the stronger multiclass build, but I will probably end up doing the Divine Soul because I actually like that a bit better thematically and is not as MAD (I will need Charisma for deception regardless, if I go cleric I need a 13 Wisdom too).

A second example - I plan on playing a Damphir Long Death Monk in a Spelljammer campaign. She was a spelljammer and her ship was taken by Vampirates hundreds of years ago. She was bitten and taken prisoner for a few days before being made to "walk the plank" in wildspace. She walked the Plank and driftend away but did not die because her transformation started and she did not need to breath. She drifted for hundreds of years before coming up on a dead god floating. She started to worship the dead God and finally was picked up by a passing ship. So she is going to start as a Death Cleric but then multiclass to Monk.

I have played in highly-optimized games, but that works best if the entire table is doing it and is very experienced. If I was going for optimization I would pick a simpler backstory that would not require as much.

ECMO3 · Jul 23, 2023

FrogReaver said:
I'm not sure what you aren't buying about it.

That fighter is the most used starting class.

FrogReaver · Jul 23, 2023

ECMO3 said:
That fighter is the most used starting class.

This is what the data shows about starting classes by level. The graph is a little messy but I thought it better to include all info. Fighter and Rogue are the lines up at the top. IMO it's hard to dismiss the data when the pattern is there basically every level.

I suspect your group is abnormal in some way - possibly something as simple as they play alot of 5e compared to others. I theorize that people that haven't played much 5e tend toward martials. That definitely describes me. Most all my early characters were martials, and often rogue or fighter. Most all my characters as of late have been casters. I mean to some extent we know experienced players definitely guide newer players towards the less complex martial classes more often. That aligns nicely with what we are seeing here as well (especially since we know 5e has had alot of newer players over it's lifetime).

FrogReaver · Jul 23, 2023

@ECMO3 - I also checked and there are a bit more fighter multiclasses starting as something other than fighter than there are fighter multiclasses that started as fighter. This also aligns with your observation. I'll get and post the numbers on that shortly.

Lanefan · Jul 24, 2023

FrogReaver said:
View attachment 290818

This is what the data shows about starting classes by level. The graph is a little messy but I thought it better to include all info. Fighter and Rogue are the lines up at the top. IMO it's hard to dismiss the data when the pattern is there basically every level.

The thing that leaps out to me is that Barbarian, also a (supposedly) simple and easy-to-play class, is so low across the board. Any thoughts on why that is?

Hussar · Jul 24, 2023

Lanefan said:
The thing that leaps out to me is that Barbarian, also a (supposedly) simple and easy-to-play class, is so low across the board. Any thoughts on why that is?

My guess would be that barbarian is such a specific narrative.

Funnily enough, I wouldn’t say barbarians are all that easy to play. Every time you rage, you constantly have to do math - cutting damage in half - plus you have to remember reckless attack or not and the dm has to remember that too.

I’d say the paladin is a far easier class to play. Attack, maybe smite and add some damage. Doesn’t get much more straight forward than that.

FrogReaver · Jul 24, 2023

Lanefan said:
The thing that leaps out to me is that Barbarian, also a (supposedly) simple and easy-to-play class, is so low across the board. Any thoughts on why that is?

1. Conceptually it’s also much more narrow
2. Mechanically it doesn’t scale well past level 5-6
3. Mechanically doesn’t multiclass well into any caster class due to rage preventing spellcasting which is a huge chunk of classes/subclasses
4. Also mechanically doesn’t multiclass well into any character that wants Cha, Wis or Int due to MAD in str, dex, con and desired feats