2017 D&D 5E Class Satisfaction Survey Results

Thank you for doing this. This is actually really good feedback.

 

[mrpopstar]

It's so interesting to me that people find the fighter boring.

Here I am wishing the classes could be even more simplified.

 

[chunkosauruswrex]

I completely agree, especially with the part I've bolded. The Warlock has such interesting flavour that it's maddening to be stuck with the poorly-designed options available in the Player's Handbook.

Similarly, 5E didn't even provide enough spells for non-fire-themed Dragon Sorcerers to be viable (read: there literally aren't enough spells of other elemental types). Additionally, how did a Sorcerer class that doesn't synergize well with the Dragonborn race even make it to publication??

I strongly believe that not all classes received even close to the amount of playtesting required. (The Wizard is awesome! Eight subclasses at launch, all of them cool and unique.) Sorcerers and Warlocks are probably the most egregious examples of inadequate playtesting in 5E, which is a source of immense frustration for me.

I don't know how popular my opinion is, but I think the best example of what a warlock should look like mechanically is the Raven Queen warlock. It has a great expanded spell list with spiritual weapon, sanctuary, and cone of cold. It has unique mechanics in the sentinel raven merging. It is flavorful, and can do things no other class can do. Spiritual weapon is an amazing spell to use with how the pact slots scale. Combine that level of design with more at will or 1/day no pact slot used invocations and I really think the warlock would be a winner

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

I don't know how popular my opinion is, but I think the best example of what a warlock should look like mechanically is the Raven Queen warlock. It has a great expanded spell list with spiritual weapon, sanctuary, and cone of cold. It has unique mechanics in the sentinel raven merging. It is flavorful, and can do things no other class can do. Spiritual weapon is an amazing spell to use with how the pact slots scale. Combine that level of design with more at will or 1/day no pact slot used invocations and I really think the warlock would be a winner

Great example of one of the UA best. I liked it so much I have two characters using it (one a bard/warlock, the other a warlock with a few levels of rogue). The spell list is decent, too.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

It's so interesting to me that people find the fighter boring.

Here I am wishing the classes could be even more simplified.

Well the Champion fighter is a really good example of a simple class in 5E. It's only got a few things that are fiddly. IMO it's one of the best "I just like rolling dice" classes there is. What would you want more simplified?

 

[Ancalagon]

As far as the fighter being "generic"... is that a bug or a feature? When I read the battle master my first reaction was "cool, you could make a master fencer with that... oh and no need for a samurai class!!"

I'm also very glad that the ninja is in the phb

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[Jay Verkuilen]

As far as the fighter being "generic"... is that a bug or a feature? When I read the battle master my first reaction was "cool, you could make a master fencer with that... oh and no need for a samurai class!!"

Yeah, the battlemaster is pretty well done as indeed is the Eldritch Knight, though I think they played it a little too safe with it and it would have benefited from a "burning spell slots" type mechanic akin to the paladin, though different enough so as not to clone the Paladin. Same for the Arcane Trickster. The Champion isn't all that fiddly but IMO that's a good thing for the kind of player who just wants to roll dice and not have to deal with being a quasi-spellcaster. They only have a few decisions to make in play and mostly just get to kick in teeth. There are plenty of players who like that kind of play and it's a good thing to make sure there are classes that let them enjoy the game, which was a major failure of 4E until Essentials came out.

I'm also very glad that the ninja is in the phb

I thought ninjas just hung around airports and got sucked into jet engines....

 

[mrpopstar]

Well the Champion fighter is a really good example of a simple class in 5E. It's only got a few things that are fiddly. IMO it's one of the best "I just like rolling dice" classes there is. What would you want more simplified?

I would like the classes with more fiddly bits to be streamlined in such a way as to feel as smooth as an "I just like rolling dice" class.

 

[mrpopstar]

Yeah, the battlemaster is pretty well done as indeed is the Eldritch Knight, though I think they played it a little too safe with it and it would have benefited from a "burning spell slots" type mechanic akin to the paladin, though different enough so as not to clone the Paladin. Same for the Arcane Trickster. The Champion isn't all that fiddly but IMO that's a good thing for the kind of player who just wants to roll dice and not have to deal with being a quasi-spellcaster. They only have a few decisions to make in play and mostly just get to kick in teeth. There are plenty of players who like that kind of play and it's a good thing to make sure there are classes that let them enjoy the game, which was a major failure of 4E until Essentials came out.

It would not bother me in the slightest if there was a standard "gish" chassis upon which the paladin, eldritch knight, etc. were built.

Mechanics are far less important than flavor, for me.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

You know what I would have liked to see with the sorcerer? A true channeler of magic that is unique from a wizard. Either one of two ways:

1. Runes. Years ago I wrote a game where rune magic was one where each magical affect had a rune associated with it, and you as the caster would "draw" these runes as you cast in a combination that you wanted. for example, you could combine a gust, fire, and explosion rune to replicate something like a fireball. Each rune had a power level to it, and you were limited to a max potential power level depending on skill (level). So a novice rune caster couldn't go around blowing everything up.

2. Naming. This would be something similar to the King Killer chronicles.


Either way, I think the sorcerer really needed to be unique.

Soooooooo this. Last night I had the same revelation: Sorcerers should be doing the thing Wizards cant learn, that Warlocks cant bargain for. Shadow magic, Rune magic, Chaos Magic with its own list of spell with specific riders depending of your origin.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The fighter has the odds stacked against him right out of the gate for two reasons:

1. It's the class that has to cover the most archetypes, ergo, has to be the most generic. Having a dozen subclasses just isn't feasible.

Wait, why not? Why not have a generic base class and a bunch of very specific subclasses? Is there anything wrong conceptually with making Cowboy, Samurai, Knight Templar, Gunfighter, and Welsh Archer all subclasses of Fighter?