90% of D&D Games Stop By Level 10; Wizards More Popular At Higher Levels

D&D Beyond has released some more data mined from usage of its platform. A couple of weeks ago, it published some stats on the most viewed D&D adventures, from Dragon Heist and Strahd all the way down to Rise of Tiamat. This time, it's a look at player characters by tier of play.

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Tier 1 is levels 1-4, Tier 2 is levels 5-10, Tier 3 is levels 11-16, and Tier 4 is levels 17-20.

Tier 1 contains the most characters created on the platform (as you would expect), followed in order by Tiers 2-4. About 90% of games do not make it past the 10th level mark, as the developer notes.

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This chart shows that the fighter is the most common class at all tiers, followed by the rogue. At third place it switches up a bit - the wizard becomes more popular in Tiers 3-4 than in Tiers 1-2, while the cleric and ranger both have a strong presence at lower levels but drop off at higher levels.

You can find the report in the latest DDB development video below.

[video=youtube;4tuIrGLKSik]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tuIrGLKSik[/video]​

 

[Sacrosanct]

[MENTION=7006]DEFCON 1[/MENTION]

you are right, the problem is that a lot of people here just think that the current dnd official development team is something more akin to a pantheon on infallible design gods and that any request addressed to them or any comment about their deeds is heresy. and it is impossible to distinguish them from the people who state that is useless to ask because noone is listening.

Who thinks that? If it's "a lot of people" then it should be pretty easy to name some names of people who are doing that.

 

[Sacrosanct]

[MENTION=15700]Sacrosanct[/MENTION]

I meant through math embedded in system, sorry not being clear. name level does not imply a sort of 'control' on the randomness and the numerical results of in-session dice rolls.

Yeah, and as I said, there are rules like level limits, and CON bonus no longer applying. I.e., actual game mechanics that do exactly what you're saying 5e does that no other edition did.

 

[Retreater]

I know I tend to share a lot of frustration on these boards, but it's because I feel a kinship in the community here and value the input. I've been DMing for 25 years, but I am always learning. So if I air criticism about game design, I do so with the purpose of finding ways around my issues to improve the game experience of my players.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I know I tend to share a lot of frustration on these boards, but it's because I feel a kinship in the community here and value the input. I've been DMing for 25 years, but I am always learning. So if I air criticism about game design, I do so with the purpose of finding ways around my issues to improve the game experience of my players.

Which is always a noble goal, and one that more often than not you will get ideas and assistance from, from those of us here.

But what I think oftentimes happens is that coupled with a request for ideas on how to improve their game... many posters (not saying you specifically, but just posters in general) also take potshots at the designers for being stupid and how could they have designed such "obviously" poor or broken rules. It's never enough to want solutions, they also want to denigrate the work that was done because in their opinion WotC focused on the wrong things, or didn't playtest enough, or refused to write a book that catered to every single playstyle out there, etc. etc. etc.

And thus a thread that was meant to just be a font for ideas devolves into people showing up to defend WotC against what they feel is unwarranted attack by people who apparently didn't know or didn't care about what WotC was and is trying to do... only what they didn't do that the poster feels should have been an obvious thing. When the actual "obvious" answer is that's just not 5E was designed to do.

If someone needs specific ideas for specific problems at their specific table... it goes a long way to just address it like that, without placing blame for why they feel the need to ask. "Hey, I'm hoping to find an amended weapons table that does X, Y, & Z... anyone know of any, or any old threads that talked about it, or anything on DMs Guild about it?" for example. You ask it like that, and you'll get plenty of people dropping you links and such. Yeah, there will be the occasional person who will "help" by saying "Why do you need that? The weapon table is fine!"... but at that point you hopefully will have already received your answer and then you just don't need to answer their inane question.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm surprised by how many are playing in tier 4. 5.4% is a lot (even with DoMM out).

I'm not really sure how Beyond works, is it possible that people are creating level 20 characters as character building exercises? Maybe that plays into why classes are differently popular at different tiers.

Yes, it is possible, and in fact I think that is the most likely explanation for tier 4 being more popular than tier 3. These stats don't distinguish between characters being actively played and characters created as a thought exercise. I bet that if you took that chart and broke it out by level, you would find next to nothing from 17-19 and a huge spike at 20.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yes, it is possible, and in fact I think that is the most likely explanation for tier 4 being more popular than tier 3. These stats don't distinguish between characters being actively played and characters created as a thought exercise. I bet that if you took that chart and broke it out by level, you would find next to nothing from 17-19 and a huge spike at 20.

that's my thought as well. Not only players creating level 20 from the get go, but I'd suspect those people who play to level 17 don't stop until they hit level 20. If you're gonna do 95% of the race, might as well finish, right?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

In my final 5e campaign they hit 10-11th level and started curb stomping demon princes so we just called that a campaign and retired the PC.

 

[DQDesign]

Who thinks that? If it's "a lot of people" then it should be pretty easy to name some names of people who are doing that.

I don't know, you could ask to her:

many posters (not saying you specifically, but just posters in general) also take potshots at the designers for being stupid and how could they have designed such "obviously" poor or broken rules

 

[Magister Ludorum]

I'm sure that this is true for most players, but my own chronicles tend to go from level 3 (the usual starting point) and end somewhere in Tier 4, despite the fact that we level much more slowly than the RAW. (We use milestone leveling).

My current Greyhawk 5e game began in a small village in Nyrond dealing with low-level members of the cult of Iuz, and is planned to culminate in a confrontation with the Old One himself in the bowels of Castle Greyhawk 7+ game years (not real years) later. I'm hoping that 5e will make this more enjoyable at high levels than my previous 3.5e FR chronicle which spanned 3 game years and went to level 18.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I don't know, you could ask to her:

DEFCON 1 is talking about literally the opposite of what you accused. You said there were lots of people who act like the WoTC team are infallible gods. I asked who, and you to provide names. DEFCON is talking about people who take pot shots at the developers and attack them personally. Like CapnZapp, or FrogReaver, or Hussar (and others) have done in the past.

So again, if you're going to make an accusation, I'd hope you could back that up. Especially since you said "lots of people" are doing what you accused.