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.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I like playing fighters and clerics. I really don't understand the lengths people go to in order to deny that someone may simply enjoy playing the class.

There is zero evidence that people feel compelled to play fighters. I have several fighters, rogues and barbarians in my current games, people are playing what they want.

I am biased or odd…but I always chose clerics in AD&D! No one forced me at all!

I got one up to 11th level. It took ages…but it sure was fun!

 

[ECMO3]

Dude, in your own campaigns, you almost never see fighters. 1 fighter in four groups and one group with none. And, two of your fighters are magicy fighters. HOw is your experience particularly different from mine?

Fighter is one of 12 classes (13 if you include artificer). 4 fighters (5 if you count the Barbarian/fighter) out of 31 characters means the class is overrepresented by about 100%.

 

[Hussar]

Deleted unhelpful snarkiness.

Not sure how this became an argument. All I was saying was how my group is and always has been an outlier.

I just have never seen that many fighters and I was lamenting that point.

 

[Maxperson]

Depends on whether you count paladins and rangers as caster or not. Full casters vs martial and half casters is about even.

I also don't see that it matters much, there are only so many options for non-casters given the design decisions made for 5E.

If you count monk as a non-caster, 4 of the 12 classes are non-casters. That means that if you add up all the numbers, casters will need to have 66% of the total just to break even in popularity. If they have less 66% of the total, then non-casters are more popular. With the top 3 being non-casters and having significantly higher numbers than the next nearest class, it appears that casters may not hit that 66% number.

 

[Clint_L]

I mean..you are the one who made the positive assertion (and provided zero evidence) and thus are the one with the burden of proof.

But we'll let that slide, because we've already done this dance months ago the last time the Critical Role data was used to try and make this case.

The evidence is freely available via CritRole Stats and as you point out it's already been cited, so...zero evidence? Apparently you already are well aware of the evidence, so that seems like an odd accusation. It's like you are kinda sorta accusing me of not backing up my claim, but also acknowledging the evidence on which my claim is based. Anyone can look it up if they doubt me.

The example then was "Beau does the most damage in the whole party" but that damage includes 13 sessions where Caleb does not participate in combat for whatever reason.

The conversation was a lot more nuanced than that, involved all three seasons and all of the characters, but yeah, Caleb does almost as much damage as...a monk.

On a per combat session basis, Caleb did the most damage outside of Yasha (whose overall partipation in the campaign, makes stats hard to compare).

That seems an awful lot like cherry picking.

Caleb has the most kills and more ">200" damage sessions than the rest of the cast combined...And this is with no magic item support to his damage and with a laaarge portion of his spellcasting devoted to utility.

As I pointed out in that thread, Caleb had a few sessions where he was able to do high damage thanks to excellent AoE opportunities. Like a fire mage should. On the other hand, he also had numerous sessions where he did little or no damage do to lack of opportunity, saving throws, etc. What point are you trying to make? That wizards can do better AoE damage than almost anyone else? I won't argue!

Heck, iirc, he's even pretty close in total damage.

I looked at all the seasons, and the ONLY character who comes close to the martial classes in damage is Caleb, who still winds up behind, both overall and per battle. Caleb does devote some of his spells to utility, but is also a specialist in fire magic - it's his whole thing. In fact, he uses several bespoke (and one very OP) spells that are all about fire damage.

So over three seasons and well over three hundred games we have ONE spellcaster who is close to competitive with the martial classes (though still behind). And it's not like those martial characters are particularly optimized, either, and those players are just as prone to using their turn for something other than doing damage.

My claim then, as now, is that martial classes in general are very good at dealing damage, better than spellcasters in many situations, and better in dealing consistent damage over time. The Critical Role data strongly supports that conclusion.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I really don't understand the lengths people go to in order to deny that someone may simply enjoy playing the class.

No one is going to any lengths. But you cannot assume that because people play a class that they are happy with it. For evidence, look at nearly any ENWorld thread discussing any given class.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I agree with this to a point, we don't actually know, but we can draw inferences.

Yes. The way to bet is that they do enjoy it. But that's not the same thing as saying with confidence that they do. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Deleted unhelpful snarkiness.

Not sure how this became an argument.

Welcome to the internet.

All I was saying was how my group is and always has been an outlier.

People within a group tend to play in similar ways. So they never see the great diversity of ways people play D&D.

Everyone's group is an outlier.

You personal experience is never going to reflect the great diversity of the group of {all people who play D&D}.

 

[Gammadoodler]

The evidence is freely available via CritRole Stats and as you point out it's already been cited, so...zero evidence? Apparently you already are well aware of the evidence, so that seems like an odd accusation. It's like you are kinda sorta accusing me of not backing up my claim, but also acknowledging the evidence on which my claim is based. Anyone can look it up if they doubt me.

The conversation was a lot more nuanced than that, involved all three seasons and all of the characters, but yeah, Caleb does almost as much damage as...a monk.

That seems an awful lot like cherry picking.

As I pointed out in that thread, Caleb had a few sessions where he was able to do high damage thanks to excellent AoE opportunities. Like a fire mage should. On the other hand, he also had numerous sessions where he did little or no damage do to lack of opportunity, saving throws, etc. What point are you trying to make? That wizards can do better AoE damage than almost anyone else? I won't argue!

I looked at all the seasons, and the ONLY character who comes close to the martial classes in damage is Caleb, who still winds up behind, both overall and per battle. Caleb does devote some of his spells to utility, but is also a specialist in fire magic - it's his whole thing. In fact, he uses several bespoke (and one very OP) spells that are all about fire damage.

So over three seasons and well over three hundred games we have ONE spellcaster who is close to competitive with the martial classes (though still behind). And it's not like those martial characters are particularly optimized, either, and those players are just as prone to using their turn for something other than doing damage.

My claim then, as now, is that martial classes in general are very good at dealing damage, better than spellcasters in many situations, and better in dealing consistent damage over time. The Critical Role data strongly supports that conclusion.

Sure.. I was aware of the evidence that you didn't cite in any specific way, and still haven't. I'm also aware of previous times you've made this claim, and my previous disagreements with the conclusions you have drawn from it.

Looking further into it now.. your assertion that the only caster who "comes close" across all characters.and all seasons is simply and demonstrably false.

2nd in total damage for the mighty 9? Fjord..Warlock.. also with fewer episodes of combat participation than Beau.

Current damage leader in Bells Hells on both a total and average basis..Imogen..Sorcerer

Damage leader on an average basis Vox Machina, Tiberius (Sorcerer) and then Keyleth (Druid) (though to be fair, I'm not at all sure how the VM stats are organized. It doesn't seem to be by episode).

As far as your justification of Caleb's status as an exception, it's also false..Damage dealing wasn't Caleb's whole thing. He was a transmutation wizard. His most used leveled spell was Alarm..Followed by Tiny Hut..Followed by Identify..followed by Polymorph..Followed by Detect Magic..Followed by Fortune's Favor..Followed by Mage Armor and Shield..Followed by Teleportation Circle and Comprehend Languages..And only after all of those do we get to Fireball. Hell, he cast Polymorph almost as many times as he cast alllll damaging leveled spells... And yet..more kills and close in damage (with fewer combats).

So yes, I find your interpretation shallow.. which is more generous than "wrong". I stand by it.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I mean..you are the one who made the positive assertion (and provided zero evidence) and thus are the one with the burden of proof.

But we'll let that slide, because we've already done this dance months ago the last time the Critical Role data was used to try and make this case.

The example then was "Beau does the most damage in the whole party" but that damage includes 13 sessions where Caleb does not participate in combat for whatever reason.

On a per combat session basis, Caleb did the most damage outside of Yasha (whose overall partipation in the campaign, makes stats hard to compare). Caleb has the most kills and more ">200" damage sessions than the rest of the cast combined...And this is with no magic item support to his damage and with a laaarge portion of his spellcasting devoted to utility.

Heck, iirc, he's even pretty close in total damage.

Where are these Critical Role Stats? i would like to see them.

Nevermind I found them