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.

​

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.

​

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]​

 

[Jacob Lewis]

JL - I would give you XP for this but can't for some reason. I agree that would be much better. Focus on level 1-10, slow down the leveling in make those levels with more features that are more "heroic" than "mythic," and move everything else out to supplements. Love it!

Well I appreciate you taking the effort to express your sentiments more than the XP. So thank you for that.

 

[bedir than]

This I disagree with. By the time a group is mid to high double digit levels, there's pretty much nothing native to the plane, outside of some dragons, that could individually challenge them in any edition. By that time, you're dealing with major demons and devils on a fairly regular basis.

From the SRD the non-planar non-dragons at CR 15+ are;
Purple Worm
Mummy Lord
Iron Golem
Androsphinx
Lich
Kraken
Tarrasque

Campaigns at those levels are seeking undead leaders and kaiju, regularly, not just as the big bad

 

[Travis Henry]

You lost a player at 1st level due to complexity? What the heck were they playing that made things too complicated, because at 1st level your options aren’t much beyond move and/or hit for most characters. 2nd and 3rd levels are where more options get added in (which I’m guessing was completely intentional by the designers).

5 personality traits
a long list of equipment
18-some skills
big list of Proficiencies
the three character powers (Second Wind, Fighting Style, and Position of Privilege) have long descriptions
the long text on the back of the sheet describing Humans, Fighters, and Background.

I know many ENWorlders may roll their eyes - but really, it's quite a lot of info. It's an info dump. And yeah, I figure there are tips for managing the info, but still... D&D is very complex, even at first level.

She's not a gamer gearhead - she's an artist. She liked some aspects of the game, but the crunch and sheer detail was too much.
At the same time, me and the other fellow were learning the rules for the first time ourselves. I did my best, but the first two sessions were slow and clunky.

Anything outside of combat is not much beyond a d20 roll with your skill modifier.

If that were only so. Well then, a character sheet could have hardly more than just the six abilities written on it! Visually, six boxes with six numbers in it would present a very different picture than the 40-some boxes filled with dense text on the front of the Starter Stet's noble fighter pregen char sheet, and its 3 novella-style paragraphs on the back.

I wish there was a BASIC BASIC D&D which was still an RPG (not a boardgame), and was still a vigorous engine for exploring the D&D Multiverse.

 

[Henry]

Looking at the stats, it mirrors the experience of the vast majority of my gaming life, throughout about seven editions of the game’s over 35+ years. I have a binder of characters from my basic and AD&D days — only 2 hit 9th level, the rest are 7th and below. Of my 3e, 4e, and Pathfinder days, only about six characters ever made it to levels 15 and up. Overall, it takes about six to 10 months for us to get a character to 9th or 10th level, and by then the group makeup has changed — or the DM is getting burnout.

 

[5ekyu]

5 personality traits
a long list of equipment
18-some skills
big list of Proficiencies
the three character powers (Second Wind, Fighting Style, and Position of Privilege) have long descriptions
the long text on the back of the sheet describing Humans, Fighters, and Background.

I know many ENWorlders may roll their eyes - but really, it's quite a lot of info. It's an info dump. And yeah, I figure there are tips for managing the info, but still... D&D is very complex, even at first level.

She's not a gamer gearhead - she's an artist. She liked some aspects of the game, but the crunch and sheer detail was too much.
At the same time, me and the other fellow were learning the rules for the first time ourselves. I did my best, but the first two sessions were slow and clunky.



If that were only so. Well then, a character sheet could have hardly more than just the six abilities written on it! Visually, six boxes with six numbers in it would present a very different picture than the 40-some boxes filled with dense text on the front of the Starter Stet's noble fighter pregen char sheet, and its 3 novella-style paragraphs on the back.

I wish there was a BASIC BASIC D&D which was still an RPG (not a boardgame), and was still a vigorous engine for exploring the D&D Multiverse.

"She's not a gamer gearhead - she's an artist. She liked some aspects of the game, but the crunch and sheer detail was too much."

I have added 60 yo grandmothers who have never played a game of RPg ever to a 3.5 game, novices to HERO supers-games and so on.

This requires DMing in a way that doesn't result in a "read all this and learn it" experience.

"Ok so you get the basic idea - what kind of hero-to-be would you like to play?" comes **after** some discussions of genre related bits they like.

You build some early character for them and hand them a basic summary easy-to-go guide of a character. not just dumping an official DDB print-out.

Then you hook them with the play, not the rules, not the system. They say "run across the room, jump the table and grab them..." and as they move the figure you start slipping in "so you jump the table make an athletics check" and "roll d20 plus athletics for the grapple attack to grab."

if they describe too much, just say " she thinks she may not make that much, but she can get this far is that OK? not "turns, actions, bonus..."

As time goes on, even just a few levels, they will either decide its not for them, that its great and they wanna keep going like this but more often they start picking up some of the bits and fiddly choices being made by you and others and learn as much of the fiddly bits as they need.

There is a lot of skill needed to bring folks into a game that they are unfamilar with. You don't just sit someone down to play poker and hand them the Roger's Rules and start dealing - unless your intent is to fleece them.

Obviously, you did not do that sit them down and fleece them but the descriptions of the "trouble" you present speak more for the GM/play style than the player and system.

By the end of that 3.5 game with the total novice grandma, she was running the show and system-fu was never a problem.

"Ok so let me stop this right here. **I am not in charge. I am not leader. I wont ever be leader. Got it!?**... Now you go do this and you go do that and you two come here because I need..."

ahhh... the memories.

 

[Parmandur]

This is also something I wonder - and have not seen an answer on - how do MC characters figure into this? Is a life cleric dip main druid gonna count as one of each? How many of the warlocks are from 1-3 level dips?

I think it would be very interesting to see the same data represented 4 ways...

All combined as it is now.
Single class only
Multi-class only
All combined but weighted by "levels in class"

Additionally I would love to see for each class and subclass how many are single vs multi-class.

I think those four-five slices on the same datasets of characters could be very informative.

IIRC, Multiclassing is pretty fringe.

 

[Wiseblood]

This sounds cool. Too bad I missed it. And I have no AUD.

Travis Henry Basic Basic D&D is there in D&D. A lot of people were taught D&D. Some taught themselves. No one gets it right. Not One. If you were lucky enough to start young chances are you grabbed some dice scribbled down some indecipherable drivel about how you were raised by wolves and proceeded to play something akin to good guys vs bad guys. (And loot the bodies or don’t because that’s dishonorable IDK)

If you’re all new to it don’t beat yourself up. A few key points is all you need. You need hit points, Armor Class ( or target number) and dice to roll and a modifier if any. That’s it. All the other rules are superfluous. They’re just there to create a more clear shared picture or experience. If everyone at the table can pretend, you’re on your way. If they can’t, it still can work and frequently does.

The rules are abundant and dense. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I even play with people that don’t even like D&D. They just couldn’t stay away from a table full of friends that were chatting and having a good time.

 

[Parmandur]

My initial question seeing this, having not used D&D Beyond, is whether this breakdown includes multiclassing. Fighter especially is a class where I could see characters with a few levels (amid another class) essentially double-counting classes used (with Fighter being so often discussed as the class most dipped).

I also wonder, given the platform in question, if the length of the campaigns here partly reflect different logistics between in-person and online games — are the sort of games played on this sort of platform often Howe which are played remotely by disconnected groups whose schedules might break down sooner than in-person groups (or simply coordinate playing times less often)?

He speculated that part of these results might be due to D&D Beyonds age, as many campaigns using these tools might simply not be there yet. Still, the preponderance of early level play is congruent with what WotC has repeatedly said about what sells.

 

[pemerton]

yes, but none before 5e explicitly addressed the issue in terms of game design.

Huh? 4e had explicit design features intended to handle 1 to 30 play. (Though I believe most 4e play was also in heroic tier, and epic tier the least played.)

 

[ad_hoc]

At the same time, me and the other fellow were learning the rules for the first time ourselves. I did my best, but the first two sessions were slow and clunky.

This is likely the root of it.

Even light/gateway board games are frustrating and seem overly complicated if no one knows how to play.

There are over 15 million 5e players now. The vast majority of them have been introduced to hobby gaming/RPGs through 5e. I think the biggest factors in 5e's popularity are its intuitive rule set, focus on story, and ease of play/pacing.

It's possible that your group got too bogged down in rules minutiae as you were trying to learn the game. It works remarkably well if you just give it a go without worrying about getting everything right.