D&D 5E D&D Beyond: Updated Character Popularity

[Leatherhead]

In the latest D&D Beyond broadcast, they updated the lists for the most popular character classes and races on the platform.

Out of 8.8 Million characters(!), and apparently "'Paid VS non-Paid' doesn't alter this dramatically, at all."

 

[happyhermit]

Wait, the Champion is more than twice as popular as the Battle Master !?! And the Berserker is more than twice as popular as the Totem!?! Am I reading that right?

This whole situation where I don't feel like myself and those I play with are complete outliers is getting weird.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Wait, the Champion is more than twice as popular as the Battle Master !?! And the Berserker is more than twice as popular as the Totem!?! Am I reading that right?

This whole situation where I don't feel like myself and those I play with are complete outliers is getting weird.

All the ''free'' archetypes from the SRD are the most played if you believe that chart. I guess they are the more popular because they are the characters you can build for free before you start paying for extra stuff.

Oups, just saw that Paid vs non-Paid doesnt change much of the final result...strange.

 

[Leatherhead]

Oups, just saw that Paid vs non-Paid doesnt change much of the final result...strange.

I would imagine there is a significant number of people who made a free character first, then payed for more after they found out they liked D&D.

Though I think he meant the order of popularity doesn't change, even if the percentages are different.

 

[Mouseferatu]

This is one of those places where we need to remember that we, as forum participants, do not necessarily represent the norm. We're much more devoted gamers. We're far more likely to branch out, or to optimize.

I know several people who vastly prefer the champion fighter over the battlemaster--and the fighter over other classes in general--precisely because it's so simple. They don't care if they might be a tad more effective as a battlemaster, it's the lack of substantial choices to make (either during creation/leveling, or in battle), or powers to keep track of, that they're after.

I would imagine the same is true of the berserker barbarian, though in that case, I don't have the directly observed experience to say for sure.

 

[DQDesign]

[MENTION=1288]Mouseferatu[/MENTION]

I agree. Classes/subclasses complexity is too much for the casual/standard gamer, apart for the Champion and few other options.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I agree. Classes/subclasses complexity is too much for the casual/standard gamer, apart for the Champion and few other options.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's too complex for "the casual/standard gamer." I know lots of casual gamers who enjoy the more complex classes, too. And others who are perfectly capable of the greater complexity, it just doesn't appeal.

I'm just saying there's a portion of the casual gamer base who prefers the simpler options.

 

[happyhermit]

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's too complex for "the casual/standard gamer." I know lots of casual gamers who enjoy the more complex classes, too. And others who are perfectly capable of the greater complexity, it just doesn't appeal.

I'm just saying there's a portion of the casual gamer base who prefers the simpler options.

There's also a portion of us not-so-casual gamers, however small, that really enjoy playing characters that are straightforward (at least on paper). None of the 5e classes are too complex for me, to put it mildly. One of my favorite classes is the wizard and even it is not at all challenging mechanically compared to Gm-ing. One of the reasons I am playing D&D though, is because we can play both in the same game. I really don't want D&D to be much simpler, it is already not that complicated of a game and there are already a ton of lighter systems.

 

[Blazestudios23]

This doesn't match what I see locally at all. For some reason I hardly ever see anyone playing Wizards and Clerics. It's like they are bored with them. But I see lots of Bards, Druids and Paladins. Rouge is probably number one where I live. In the game I DM there's only one human and most players prefer not to be human. But for some reason dragon born is a popular choice in my area.