2017 D&D 5E Class Satisfaction Survey Results

Sacrosanct · Aug 21, 2017

Now that the most recent poll has been out for a few days and had time to acquire votes, here are the total results of the satisfaction survey. I suspect the data from this survey may be of some value in future conversations down the road, so you may want to remember it so you can search for it later. Of course there is the caveat that this poll is from EN World posters only. And there are always outliers (like someone voting very dissatisfied on every class because they hate 5e). So acknowledge those factors that may impact the results.

That all being said, I think there are some takeaways we can get from this. None of them are a big shocker, except possibly just how badly the sorcerer rated.

Personally, I think any time you can get a 70% or higher overall satisfaction rating for a class, you did a good job. So kudos to the design team and the approach of WotC to do playtests and get the feedback from the players. With no further ado:

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Survey locations:

Xeviat · Aug 21, 2017

So you're saying that we should keep talking about Fighters, Rangers, and Sorcerers, eh?

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Blue · Aug 21, 2017

Running a few more against your vote tallies. Here's one that's interesting.

Weighted net
VS or VDS is +/-3, while MS or DS is +/-2.
Barb 1.73
Bard 2.03
Cleric 1.70
Druid 1.21
Ftr 1.11
Monk 1.18
Pal 2.19
Ranger 0.35
Rogue 2.17
Sorc 0.11
Warlock 1.22
Wiz 2.13

With this the Rogue actually slightly edges out the Wizard for second place. It means that while the wizard had more % of any satisfied, rogue had more in the very satisfied department.

This rating is from +3 (all VS) to -3 (all VDS). None are actually negative, so all have at least a bit mroe satisfaction then dissatisfaction.

Paladin, Rogue, Wizard and Bard have the cutoff that the average scoring this way was higher then Mostly Satisfied.

The other end is the Sorc and Ranger, both under 0.4 but still slightly positive.

Blue · Aug 21, 2017

Xeviat said:
So you're saying that we should keep talking about Fighters, Rangers, and Sorcerers, eh?

Ya, those are the ones that need the most loving. Fighter is head and shoulders rated higher than Sorc and Ranger but still third lowest. Though we should remember that low rating does not equate to low powered. For instance, I gave Revised Ranger a dissatisfied rating for a number of reasons, but one was that it's first level power is overpowered.

We should also talk about what is right with Paladin, Wizard, Rogue and Bard looking for useful design patterns to apply to the classes that need help.

pukunui · Aug 21, 2017

I can't help but wonder how much better the sorcerer, and to a lesser extent the warlock, would be if WotC had included them in the public playtest. (I know they were in at the very beginning, but they only shared the versions that would make it into the PHB to the alpha testers.)

The ranger, too, could've benefited from more open playtesting. I can't remember how different the playtest version was to the PHB one, but I do know that the beastmaster wasn't openly tested.

ArchfiendBobbie · Aug 21, 2017

I'm surprised the warlock did as well as it did. Everyone I know complains about them.

Still, we need to fix the legolases and sorcerers.

Ancalagon · Aug 21, 2017

I contrast this poll (great job btw! Come one everyone, give this poster some XP - not me, the OP!) With this one:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?521614-The-classes-that-nobody-wants-to-play

And it's fascinating. In your poll, Fighter and Monk have similar levels of satisfaction - not great, but not horrid either. However in the "nobody wants to play" the fighter did quite OK, while the Monk is the *worst* by far!

Sacrosanct · Aug 21, 2017

Blue said:
Fighter is head and shoulders rated higher than Sorc and Ranger but still third lowest. .

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.
2. A lot of people wanted a basic fighter with very little fiddly bits, which directly opposes what a lot of other people want. And judging by the responses of people dissatisfied with the fighter (not the just survey thread, but all of the threads on fighters), most of them don't want a basic fighter and every subclass has to be appealing to them or the whole class is dissatisfied. So you've got two directly opposing desires that had to fit under the same class. Before someone quotes me with "no, we just want a fighter who can do things out of combat baked into the class", I will reply with "You do. You have TWO extra feats no one else gets that can be used however you want, including out of combat ability without sacrificing your combat ability, baked right into the class."

So really, the fact that the class got 70% overall satisfaction is pretty darn good.

ArchfiendBobbie · Aug 21, 2017

Ancalagon said:
I contrast this poll (great job btw! Come one everyone, give this poster some XP - not me, the OP!) With this one:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?521614-The-classes-that-nobody-wants-to-play

And it's fascinating. In your poll, Fighter and Monk have similar levels of satisfaction - not great, but not horrid either. However in the "nobody wants to play" the fighter did quite OK, while the Monk is the *worst* by far!