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.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

I suggest buying 100 slings and buffing a Bard as much as possible to Persuade 100 commoners to help you out.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

To beat it by themselves, 4 Aarakocra PCs with ranged weapons/cantrips should do it, if it's outside. It can't hit back, and they can whittle it down from safety.

Not very fair, since even the Tarrasque would fall to such a party, but you do what you gotta do.

 

[MNblockhead]

Yeah, I've been a DM for about as long as monks have been a playable class and I always have to figure out how they fit into game worlds. The very Asian-flavored ones often just don't ("uh, your character is a visitor from a country off the edge of the map"), and to date, the PHB has never flavored them as a tavern pugilist, which seems like it would be the easiest way to insert them into most settings.

I've never had an issue with monks. While D&D traditionally defaulted to nominally medieval setting, it was a always an anachronistic cultural melting pot fantasy setting. An, importantly, was almost always a polytheistic culture. I find it easy to believe that in such a culture there would arise orders of monastic warriors. If I felt the need to hew to medieval historically accurate cultures, I'd be more troubled by the polytheism.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The game doesn't generally get really fun until level 3.

Which, to me, begs the question why we have levels 1 and 2 if they are a speed bump for getting to real fun.

If you follow the general guidelines, levels 1 and 2 are just to get familiar with the group and your character. Typically a session each. Your experience is extremely unusual. I have only experienced a game that did not at least get to 8th level once and that was because the guy running it had an idea that just didn't work out.

Just hard to buy that so many completely unrelated groups all have had extremely similar problems.

If it happened even just twice I could say sure, maybe it was just bad luck or happening to get a particularly poor DM. But when it's game after game, and essentially my whole experience for the past near-decade of D&D, I feel quite justified in saying that there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. It may not be specifically what I believe it is, to be fair. But surely something must be causative here, not merely luck.

A level 2 party against a CR 3 solo is an easy fight according to the CR calculator, at level 1 it's hard but not deadly. But the claim was that a CR 5 troll would be a cakewalk for a level 1 party. I disagree.

Are we using the same encounter calculator?

Because a CR 3 fight is 700 XP. Even for five 1st level characters, that's still above deadly. My group was a party of 4, which makes CR 3 a Deadly+++ fight (that is, three XP tiers above the deadly threshold of 400 XP.)

And yet, despite being insanely deadly per the encounter calculator, this fight would only give 58.3% of the experience required to gain level 2 (175/300). (Oh and as I have said many times elsewhere, I have only once seen a DM hand out non-combat XP in 5e, and that was explicitly a special dispensation meant to catch that group up to a different group's level.)

If you "play with kid gloves" on, throwing only easy fights, it could literally take six medium encounters. I haven't seen six combats in a single D&D session ever, regardless of edition.

 

[Oofta]

I've never had an issue with monks. While D&D traditionally defaulted to nominally medieval setting, it was a always an anachronistic cultural melting pot fantasy setting. An, importantly, was almost always a polytheistic culture. I find it easy to believe that in such a culture there would arise orders of monastic warriors. If I felt the need to hew to medieval historically accurate cultures, I'd be more troubled by the polytheism.

In addition, there are plenty of combat techniques that have minimal reliance on weapons. The mythology around a specific type of martial arts is largely because of coincidence and different traditions.

 

[Oofta]

Which, to me, begs the question why we have levels 1 and 2 if they are a speed bump for getting to real fun.


Just hard to buy that so many completely unrelated groups all have had extremely similar problems.

If it happened even just twice I could say sure, maybe it was just bad luck or happening to get a particularly poor DM. But when it's game after game, and essentially my whole experience for the past near-decade of D&D, I feel quite justified in saying that there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. It may not be specifically what I believe it is, to be fair. But surely something must be causative here, not merely luck.


Are we using the same encounter calculator?

Because a CR 3 fight is 700 XP. Even for five 1st level characters, that's still above deadly. My group was a party of 4, which makes CR 3 a Deadly+++ fight (that is, three XP tiers above the deadly threshold of 400 XP.)

And yet, despite being insanely deadly per the encounter calculator, this fight would only give 58.3% of the experience required to gain level 2 (175/300). (Oh and as I have said many times elsewhere, I have only once seen a DM hand out non-combat XP in 5e, and that was explicitly a special dispensation meant to catch that group up to a different group's level.)

If you "play with kid gloves" on, throwing only easy fights, it could literally take six medium encounters. I haven't seen six combats in a single D&D session ever, regardless of edition.

I was assuming a party of 6 for XP calculation. But in any case, the first couple of levels are designed to go by in a session or three. The reason you have them is that they are intended to be "training wheel" levels to familiarize people with the core mechanics of their class. That and some people enjoy extremely low levels, it's something that 4E kind of just skipped over. Which, of course, you can always start a campaign at higher level if you want.

I can't say why it happens to you that games fall apart so quickly when it's never happened to me or anyone I know other than it's random chance. The odds are low, but not 0.

 

[Hussar]

I tend to be liberal with the anti-teleportation spells such as inner sanctum and forbiddance. They can be made permanent and, compared to the cost of building a castle are affordable. I do ban long distance teleport because I think it's boring, but even if I didn't you still aren't guaranteed to arrive safely.



I eventually house ruled that you can't attack anything outside the tiny hut.



Raise dead has been difficult in my games for several editions. I don't mind revivify, but that's based on how lethal a campaign the players want.



Thx. I think we just take different approaches to these.

So. You don’t have any of these problems because you’ve rewritten the rules for these spells.

But when I suggest that these spells are a problem and should be rewritten, I’m totally off base and have no idea what I’m talking about.

 

[MNblockhead]

Okay, who cast "Tasha's Hideous Lurking" on me!

Level: 1st, Castin Time: 1 Action, Range/Area: anywhere on the same plane so long as the target can read the thread, Components: S, M (typing and mouse clicks; computer and electricity); Duration (4 hours); School: Enchantment; Attack/Save: WIS Save; Damage/Effect: Stunned

A reader of your choice that can read your posts within range perceives everything written as unusually compelling and falls into a perusing stupor if this spell affects it. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become stunned and unable to take any action but continuing to read. A creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or less, or 16 or higher isn't affected.

At the end of each thread page, and each time it take personal offense at something that is written, the target can make another Wisdom saving throw. The target has advantage on the saving throw if it's triggered by a post. On a success, the spell ends.

Man, it took me 48 pages. That's what I get for making my Wisdom score a dump stat.

Anyway, as for some of the topics at hand:

I would be very interested to see a break-down by age range. In my personal experience, younger players are much more likely to play more "exotic" species and class combos. My son (15 years old) plays in three different campaigns and I don't think I've ever seen any of those kids play a human fighter. BUT they ALSO seem to stick to what is available in WotC published books. I thought that might be due to D&D Beyond but they all play pen and paper. It could be because they can't afford to buy a lot of third-party books...BUT, at I know that me and at least another dad are D&D nerds. I certainly have lots of third-party content that my kid has free reign over.

In my last D&D campaign, my group (adults) used DnD Beyond and a VTT. But I had even had fully homebrewed character options. But most of my homebrew character options in DND Beyond have been with races/species, magic items, and monsters. Not classes or subclasses. It would be very interesting to have stats from Roll20 and DnD Beyond on how many users are playing homebrew or third-party character options.

As for the side argument regarding trolls and 1st level characters, this so much depends on the players. My players have played various flavors of D&D for decades and are very tactical and will put in a lot of effort into intelligence gathering, scouting, and preparing--much more than many players would enjoy, in my experience. They regularly punch well above their suggested CR. I recently finished a five-year Rappan Athuk campaign--a mega dungeon that has a reputation for being deadly. My experience from running this campaign is that a prepared, careful group can make official CRs a joke, but a bit of bad luck, a bad surprise and what should be a cake walk can send them running. I believe I have enough experience with 5e to engineer encounters that will be challenging for the players, without CR inflation, but I really enjoy more sandbox settings where they can actually make use of the non-combat pillars to avoid or gain the advantage in combats. Or don't, but get their butts kicked when they just go running into a combat. A sufficiently rich sandbox will always lead to the occasional bad surprise, so I'm not too concerned if most combats are not that deadly. It fits into the more heroic style of play of 5e. I don't think that the game is broken.

I'm running Warhammer Fantasy 4e now, and the one thing I love about that system, is no matter how experienced and powerful your character gets, a bad roll on your part or a good roll on an enemies part can mess you up. Instead of bounded accuracy, it makes heavy use of crits, fumbles, miscasts, and advantage pools, and nasty nasty roll tables. You always have to think twice before running into combat. We are really enjoying the change. But I don't think that 5e should go this way. I don't think it would be welcome by most 5e players and would likely turn off or frustrate new players. Those hoping to find deadlier combat in 5e are likely going to be disappointed with the core rules. I do think that it would be nice if the 2024 DMG gives even more guidance and optional rules for grittier play styles for more experienced players who want deadlier play, but don't want to change systems. Yes, the DM can always tilt the tables by altering or creating encounters to be more challenging. But it really does help to have rules that make things deadlier, even if running official adventures without the DM having to put in even more work to make them challenging for experienced players.

 

[Oofta]

I was in a bit of a rush this morning, but I still don't see much changing. Long story short, if you're going to stack things against the monster this much by assuming they have to double move to close, have no range attacks, pick a monster most susceptible to the spells the party has I'm going to run the monster reasonably intelligently. The troll would not stick around waiting to be fire bolted to death. It would run away long enough to heal and come back.

I did give Warren fey pact, but that's just a fear effect.

If Sarah backed away after Shocking Grasp and the Troll was frightened it should not have been able to move closer to Sarah unless Sarah and Warren totally botched their positioning. Cause Fear is one of the best 1st level control spells and if you land it in melee (not sure Warren was in melee) you should take an AOO and back away trading one AOO for 3 regular attacks.

Until it made its save against Cause Fear, the party should have had it at Range, hitting it at will.

While I think it is going to be very difficult for any characters of 1st level to down a Troll, this party demonstrated no cooperation at all. Also why is Warren using TTD instead of Chill Touch?

1. Faerie Fire is a waste in this situation IMO, you need to control its movement.

2. Sarah should have some kind of first level spell. With a 16 AC shield maybe.

3. I think either THL or Cause Fear were both good options on round 1, if you were going flee. Using both is dumb, and using THL if you are going to attack is really dumb as it puts him on the ground where you are getting disadvantage.

If you are going to fight (which is not smart), the best spells you have for this combat are Cause Fear, Dissonant Whispers, Firebolt, Chill Touch, Produce Flame, Entangle, and Tasha's hideous Laughter in that order. If your Dwarf speaks Giant add Command in there after Cause Fear. You need to leverage those spells to maximum effect.

In the situation you describe; here is how this should have played out (trying to use the same rolls you did in the first round). Iam also giving Wiz a familiar:

Round 1:
1. Barry (barry could use either VM or DM, but since he is not frightened yet we will go with VM). Troll saves
2. Troll runs up next to Sarah and Will
3. Sarah uses Shocking Grasp and backs away (troll down 2 points)
4. Warren: casts cause fear. Troll fails
5. Wiz backs away (Troll has no reaction with shocking grasp), casts firebolt and misses.
5a. Wiz Owl Familiar - Uses help/flyby to give Drew advantage
6. Drew: backs up and casts produce flame with advantage. Misses.
7. Clary: casts toll of the dead. Troll takes 6 points damage.

Round 2:
1. Barry: Casts Dissonant whispers, troll saves, takes 6 damage.
2. Troll: Regenerates all damage, no one is within reach and can't move closer. Troll dodges. Fails save on Cause Fear. Troll has 84hps
3. Sarah: Cast's Firebolt with disadvantage (misses), backs up 30 feet
4. Warren: casts Chill Touch (with disadvantage) - hits for 2 damage, backs up 30 feet
5. Wiz: casts Ray of Frost with disadvantage - misses, backs up 30 feet
5a. Wiz Owl Familiar - uses help/flyby to give Drew advantage
6. Drew: Uses Crossbow straight up (dodge+help). Misses. backs up 30 feet
7. Clary: Casts Toll the Dead. Troll Makes save. Backs up 30 feet

Round 3:
1. Barry: Casts Dissonant whispers, troll fails save, takes 11 damage, moves 30 feet. Barry also backs up 30 feet. Troll is now 70 feet from closest PC.
2. Troll: Does not Regenerate because he was hit with Chill Touch. Dodges again. Troll at 71 hps. Makes save against Cause Fear (no longer frightened).
3. Sarah: Casts Firebolt with disadvantage, misses backs up 30 feet (now 100 feet away)
4. Warren: Readies action to cast Cause Fear if Troll gets within 60 feet. (Warren 70 feet away)
5. Wiz: casts Firebolt with disadvantage - misses, backs up 30 feet (Wiz 100 feet away)
5a. Wiz Familiar - uses help/flyby to give Drew advantage
6. Drew: Casts produce flame straight up. Hits for 4 damage. Backs up (Drew 100 feet away)
7. Clary: Readies action to cast Toll the Dead if Troll gets within 60 feet.


Round 4:
1. Barry readies VM if Troll gets within 60 feet.
2. Troll does not regenerate because hit with flame. Troll dashes. It moves 10 feet and triggers all reactions. Fails save against Cause Fear (stopping movement). Fails save against TTD taking 7 damage. Fails save against VM taking 1 damage. Troll at 59 hps. DM decides since he only moved 10 feet he did not take the dash action and instead readies an action to attack the familiar if it does flyby again. Save again against Cause Fear at end of turn.
3. Sarah: Casts Firebolt hits for 5
4. Warren: Fires crossbow hits for 5, backs up 30 feet
5. Wiz: Moves up, uses crossbow misses
5a. Wiz Familiar - uses help with flyby to give Drew advantage, but gets hit and killed by the Troll from redied action
6. Drew: Moves up, uses crossbow. Misses
7. Clary: Casts Toll the Dead. Troll fails save takes 12 damage

Round 4:
1. Barry casts VM for 3
2. Troll does not regenerate because hit flame. Troll dodges. Troll at 35 hit points. Troll fails save at end of turn.
3. Sarah: Casts Firebolt misses
4. Warren: Casts Chill Touch misses
5. Wiz: casts Firebolt misses
6. Drew: Casts produce flame. Hits for 2 damage.
7. Clary: Casts Toll the Dead. Troll fails save takes 8 damage

Ok here we are 4 rounds in, the party has taken no damage, used less than half its leveled spells and the Troll is at about 30% of its hit points. The party is going to get at least 70 feet away from the troll once he makes his save against CF and then continue moving away, giving them 3 rounds before they are attacked minimum. When the Troll finally makes his save against Cause Fear he is going to get hit with Entangle and THL and this is without the Dwarf being able to use command. With the initiative order the way it is Wiz can use Ray of Frost if Warren hits with Chill Touch and kills regeneration. This will rob the Troll of 10 move giving it even more limited mobility on a hit.

At which point it runs away, if not before. The troll is not on a suicide mission. A few minutes later he hunts down the party again. On a side not just about every game I've played either bans familiars attacking, or the familiar quickly dies. The moment the troll can ready an action to attack the familiar, it's likely dead.

Limfacs: With one PC having Chill Touch and 3 more having fire cantrips, the Troll is not going to regenerate often and the party will probably eventually overwhelm it even if only doing 6 DPR or so. Also Clary, Sarah and Warren have subclass abilities and while Sorc and Cleric subclasses are mostly not particularly useful in this whiteroom, most Warlock subclasses would be very helpful even at level 1. Feylock or Undead for example would really put the Troll in a hurt locker giving the party even more control. Also we did not consider Bardic inspiration in this whiteroom.

If the party could not back up this would change it a lot, but a smart party with healing word and many more 1st level slots left is probably still going to win this combat eventually ..... probably with some dead PCs, but they will still probably win.

Next encounter the same troll attacks again but has waited a few minutes and is fully healed.

Initiative
Drew
Wiz
Sarah
Troll
Warren
Barry
Clary

Round 1. Again troll starts 50 feet away because why not give advantage to the party.
Drew: sees the troll coming back, casts entangle and is out of spells. Troll saves, Drew moves back 30 feet.
Wiz: Casts fire bolt. Misses. Moves back 30 feet.
Sarah: Casts fire bolt and does 10 damage. Moves back 30 feet.
Troll: charges in, ends next to Barry and Clary. Can regen next turn.
Warren: out of spells, uses Fey Presence to cause fear. Troll saves. Warren backs up 30 feet.
Barry: Casts dissonant whispers. Troll saves, takes 5 points of damage.
Clary: Commands troll to flee. The troll is getting lucky another 16 for 15 save. It's unaffected.

Round 2
Drew: Casts entangle again and is out of spells. Troll fails and is restrained.
Wiz: casts hideous laughter and is out of spells. Troll makes save and is unaffected
Troll: Regains 10 HP. Attack with disadvantage. Hits Sarah with a claw, Sarah is down. Troll bites Barry and does 7 points of damage
Warren: out of spells
Barry: Disengages, moves back 30 feet.
Clary: Healing word on Sarah for 7 HP

Round 3
Drew: produce flame, throws and misses
Wiz: Ray of Frost to hinder movement if troll breaks free, hits for 1 point of damage.
Sarah: stands and disengages hoping troll doesn't break free. Moves away 15 feet.
Troll: breaks free from entangle, catches up to Sarah.
Warren: shoots troll, hits for 7 points damage. Backs up. Wishes a fond farewell to Sarah.
Barry: Mocks the troll for minimal damage if it fails, backs up.
Clary: tries command again. Troll fails and has to flee on it's next turn.

However, at this point the party is out of spells and the warlock has used his fey pact. I see no way the troll doesn't simply continue to hunt them down unless they can get to safety.

My conclusion? Unless you run the troll as a mindless killing machine the party is dead. It may take a couple of encounters with the troll running away and returning which would be the logical thing to do with a monster that regenerates. The only way this doesn't end with PCs dying until the troll is no longer hungry. At some point the spells that immobilize will fail. When they do if the troll is sufficiently hurt it runs away and comes back in a few minutes. I don't care if they keep pummeling it with fire, they just don't have enough juice to keep it immobilized and they can't do enough damage to kill it for the handful of rounds that it can't move.

The PCs only live if you assume the troll fails saves and has a death wish.

 

[Oofta]

So. You don’t have any of these problems because you’ve rewritten the rules for these spells.

But when I suggest that these spells are a problem and should be rewritten, I’m totally off base and have no idea what I’m talking about.

Some people have issues with them and deal with it how they see fit. Other people don't have a problem with them. Teleportation can be blocked and has a chance of failure. Raise dead has always been an issue.

The only one I think should be changed is Tiny Hut.