Class Popularity?

[Rechan]

Something I've noticed, when people talk about their groups, and looking at various online-gaming groups:

1) Strikers are really popular. Most groups I've seen has at least two, if not three. (I know one with FOUR).

2) The ranger is very popular. Almost every group I've seen has at least one.

Anyone else noticing stuff like this? Or other observations?

(Sidenote: I find the ranger thing weird, since rangers appeal to me the least. Although the beastmaster ranger does look intriguing.)

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I've noticed a couple people in my group wanted to be a Ranger. The thing is though, each of them was approaching the Ranger from a different perspective:

-Person wanted a savage, Gnoll character (axe and dagger wielding is pretty savage)
-Person entirely new to D&D and wanted to try it out with to start.
-Person wishing to recreate a swashbuckler character from 3.5.

 

[Baumi]

Yeah It overlaps with my experience. While I have seen no neglected class (all PHB-Classes got used at least once) there is always a ranger in each group and we have often multible strikers.

Even my "strangest" group has still a Ranger and a Warlock in it, besides three defenders (Fighter, Paladin and Swordmage) and a Wizard and ... no leader

PS: I'm not sure if it important but all the Rangers in my groups decided to play that class before they have seen the mechanics for them, they decided simply because of it's description. So it's not because the might be overpowered but simply because Ranger seems to be a very popular archetype.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Considering strikers are also the most numerous class role so far with 3 of them in existence vs 2 or 1 of the others, it is nto strange it is the most picked class role.
Also the strikers are the ones with the highest damage output, especially the ranger and it's just nice to be able to deal huge amounts of damage, so I'm not suprised at their popularity.

That being said in one of my games of 6 players, we only have 1 rogue as a striker, with 1 paladin, 2 wizards, a cleric and a warlord to finish it off (the healing capabilities of this party are awesome however)...

In the other game we have 3 strikers out of 6 characters, so that one is a bit striker heavy maybe...

 

[Rechan]

Considering strikers are also the most numerous class role so far with 3 of them in existence vs 2 or 1 of the others

Swordmage makes 3 defenders.

If you wanted to count the playtests, the Artificer makes 3 leaders, and the Barb makes 4 strikers.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think so far Wizards have been the most common classes, Cleric, Rogue, Fighter, Paladin or Ranger closely following, and Warlord and Warlock last.

But it's really to early to tell. I didn'T want to repeat any classes or roles, otherwise my newest character would have been a Warlord again, not a Cleric.

Of course, these are data about 4-5 parallel running campaigns. Wizards are only in the first spot because there's just one controller so far. (WotC, if you want to put out another play-test, can you make it any of your Controller classes in the works, please?)

 

[DeusExMachina]

Swordmage makes 3 defenders.

If you wanted to count the playtests, the Artificer makes 3 leaders, and the Barb makes 4 strikers.

True, but while every player probably has the PHB, not everybody has the FR campaign book or downloaded the play test characters (or has a DM that allows them, I don't for example). Plus, these characters came at a time when many people already had a character up and running in their game. Casualties or something like that would have to occur before they get included.
So I didn't include those classes just yet...

 

[Leatherhead]

Based on the groups I play in, which currently only use the PHB and MM:

Strikers are popular, and rangers extremely so. There is a ranger in every group, rogues are the next favorite striker, but not many play warlocks. I blame the general lack of controllers, hunters mark, and Twin Strike for this. People love rangers for their AoE and multiple target powers, making me think that another controller would pry some of that interest away. Rogues must seem like too much work to set up for sneak attack (even though it happens allot), and warlocks deal less damage than the other strikers, making people just kind of gloss over them.

Wizards aren't popular for some reason, not every group has one, and none of them have more than one. I suppose it is combination of hangover from 3.x, their extra powers (spellbook/cantrips) that look overwhelming but really don't effect combat much, and their general lack of AC and hps.

Defenders are almost as popular as strikers. Fighters being the more common of the two. Every group has at least one defender, with some groups even using two. However whenever there are two, it is always a fighter/paladin combination instead of two fighters or two paladins. Something else I have noticed about paladins: they never seem to use their channel divinity powers.

Every group has had a leader, but never two. Almost nobody has made a cleric for their first character. Most groups start out with a warlord, but the people playing warlords don't have as much fun as the people playing clerics. I blame the clerics stigma as a walking band-aid and the warlord at-wills not having as much dice to throw around as other class at-wills for this.

 

[Rechan]

Wizards aren't popular for some reason, not every group has one, and none of them have more than one. I suppose it is combination of hangover from 3.x, their extra powers (spellbook/cantrips) that look overwhelming but really don't effect combat much, and their general lack of AC and hps.

I think there's just not a whole lot of amazement to the spells they have. Not a lot of zazz. Also, not a lot of room to min-max.

Every group has had a leader, but never two. Almost nobody has made a cleric for their first character. Most groups start out with a warlord, but the people playing warlords don't have as much fun as the people playing clerics. I blame the clerics stigma as a walking band-aid and the warlord at-wills not having as much dice to throw around as other class at-wills for this.

As far as my group is concerned, the Warlord's player is frustrated that he has no ranged options, and all his powers must be in melee, with an adjacent ally.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'd tend to agree that strikers and rangers seem to be popular so far. Wonder how this trend will look in a couple of years time? Thinking of the 3e Monk and how popular that was at first.

I'm DMing: 3 x Defender, 3 x Striker (1 ranger), 1 x Leader, 1 x Controller (although not all players can make every week)

I'm playing in a group with 0 x defender, 2 x Striker (but no ranger!), 1 x Leader, 1 x Controller. We've got another player coming in who might take a defender.