D&D 5E D&D Beyond Releases 2023 Character Creation Data

D&D Beyond released the 2023 Unrolled with data on the most popular character choices for D&D. The full article includes a wide variety of statistics for the beta test of Maps, charity donations, mobile app usage, and more. However, I’m just going to recap the big numbers.

The most common species chosen by players are Human, Elf, Dragonborn, Tiefling, and Half-Elf. This contrasts with the stats from Baldur’s Gate 3 released back in August 2023 where Half-Elves were the most popular with the rest of the top five also shuffling around.

Also, keep an eye on the scale of these charts as they’re not exactly even. It starts with just over 700,000 for Humans and 500,000 for Elf, but the next line down is 200,000 with the other three species taking up space in that range. This means the difference separating the highest line on the graph and the second highest is 200,000, then 300,000 between the next two, 100,000 between the next, and finally 10,000 separating all the others.

Top classes start off with the Fighter then move onto the Rogue, Barbarian, Wizard, and Paladin. The scale on this chart is just as uneven as the last, but the numbers are much closer with what appears to be about 350,000 Fighters at the top to just over 100,000 Monks in next-to-last with under 80,000 Artificers. This contrasts far more from the Baldur’s Gate 3 first weekend data as the top five classes for the game were Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Rogue, and Bard.

And the most important choices for new characters, the names. Bob is still the top choice for names with Link, Saraphina, and Lyra seeing the most growth and Bruno, Eddie, and Rando seeing the biggest declines from last year.

Putting that together, it means the most commonly created character on D&D Beyond is Bob the Human Fighter. A joke going as far back as I can remember in RPGs is, in fact, reality proven by hard statistics.

 

[Oofta]

If only they had thought to have the write-ups that took them an hour to write, at most, online when the movies premiered.

I think we also overestimate how long it takes to produce a digital product, especially in cases where there's tons of concept art already created, waiting to be repurposed.

And even a new starter set is 50% reused material, as the rules booklet will be the same. The amount of man hours needed to write a new short adventure, like Stormwreck Isle, is not enormous. They could definitely have had the boxed set out by the end of the year -- or even for the otherwise empty first quarter of 2024.

They were probably just a touch busy getting ready for the new edition and other higher priority books.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's not "how powerful" that matters, it's "how fun". I've noticed in my group players don't want to play full casters because learning what all the spells do it too much like work.

It's taken Baldur's Gate 3 for my wife, who's played a wizard for years, to really "get" the wizard class.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They were probably just a touch busy getting ready for the new edition and other higher priority books.

You are really overestimating how hard it is to pick up the phone, call one of their good freelance editors who's not being used at the moment and call one of their good adventure writers who's similarly not being used, and ask them to write a new starter adventure. Those two take care of most of the work.

I create content for a living. This part is really much, much easier than people here make it out to be, especially when you're WotC and have a Rolodex of people you know can 100% get it done.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I sincerely doubt there is a clean answer to any of these things, and wish WotC the best of luck in navigating this minefield.

I think this is the bottom line. People's experiences are different, profoundly important to them, but often in conflict with one another.

 

[Oofta]

You are really overestimating how hard it is to pick up the phone, call one of their good freelance editors who's not being used at the moment and call one of their good adventure writers who's similarly not being used, and ask them to write a new starter adventure. Those two take care of most of the work.

I create content for a living. This part is really much, much easier than people here make it out to be, especially when you're WotC and have a Rolodex of people you know can 100% get it done.

I'm sure they could have, but there are expenses involved, they apparently decided that the ROI wasn't there to justify it. Whether they were right or wrong, I'm not going to armchair quarterback their decisions.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

this just continues to show that despite the various theoretical debates people have regarding classes in D&D, it remains the fact that in terms of revealed preferences, people still prefer to hit things.

The theme and the actual gameplay of a class are separate matters, though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm sure they could have, but there are expenses involved, they apparently decided that the ROI wasn't there to justify it.

That's certainly one interpretation. Given how many of these opportunities they let go by, and that Hasbro apparently feels like they're leaving money on the table, there may also be an internal culture of "if we don't think of it ourselves, it's not worth doing," which certainly is a thing in many organizations.

Whether they were right or wrong, I'm not going to armchair quarterback their decisions.

Starting now?

 

[Oofta]

That's certainly one interpretation. Given how many of these opportunities they let go by, and that Hasbro apparently feels like they're leaving money on the table, there may also be an internal culture of "if we don't think of it ourselves, it's not worth doing," which certainly is a thing in many organizations.

Starting now?

I'm not the one who said they should have done it. I think a logical assumption is that they didn't do it because they have other priorities and concerns. I don't assume laziness or incompetence when there's a simple explanation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not the one who said they should have done it.

So, you are going to armchair quarterback, then.

I don't assume laziness or incompetence when there's a simple explanation.

As someone who has a good idea of the work involved, I think the issue is cultural ("we didn't come up with it, so it's not a good idea") or, yes, laziness. I deal with both internally and externally in my organization and this has the exact appearance of it.

 

[Oofta]

So, you are going to armchair quarterback, then.

As someone who has a good idea of the work involved, I think the issue is cultural ("we didn't come up with it, so it's not a good idea") or, yes, laziness. I deal with both internally and externally in my organization and this has the exact appearance of it.

You're assuming laziness, I'm merely stating that there are other legitimate reasons. I'm not making a call on it one way or another, we don't know.