D&D 5E D&D Stats: What The Typical 5E Party *Actually* Looks Like

[Hussar]

There's no way in heck that "most" characters are multi-classed. Their data is biased in favor of characters that require an online tool to build, and away from the normal characters that we write down by hand.

I dunno, it certainly dovetails with my experience.

Of our five now 5e campaigns, so, about 30 characters (or so), there have been vanishingly small numbers of single classed characters and by far the second class has been fighter. To the point where I've only seen one or two single classed fighters out of about ten or fifteen characters with fighter levels.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Hussar]

OTOH, I have yet to see a single MC character.

That'w why anecdotes /= data. The MC data is weird to me; but the race data is why I am skeptical.

Well, fair enough. But, I'd point out that my anecdote dovetails with the analysis. So, it's not like the analysis doesn't actually reflect reality in some cases. Now, the question remains, how often does the analysis reflect reality?

I remember years ago asking on these boards about multiclass fighters and about a third of respondents said that they were seeing multiclass fighters. Now, that was lower than I expected, but, it's still very high.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Parmandur]

Well, fair enough. But, I'd point out that my anecdote dovetails with the analysis. So, it's not like the analysis doesn't actually reflect reality in some cases. Now, the question remains, how often does the analysis reflect reality?

I remember years ago asking on these boards about multiclass fighters and about a third of respondents said that they were seeing multiclass fighters. Now, that was lower than I expected, but, it's still very high.

It reflects reality among active players who bought either the $500 Legendary Bundle or the $270 "Everything Not an Adventure" bundle for D&D Beyond. Power users, whose behavior D&DB is invested in examining closely.

 

[Parmandur]

Just to be absolutely clear what the data presented entails: these are numbers for players who bought digital copies of the PHB, the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, Volo's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, the Wayfinders Guide to Eberron, AND the Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica (at least all player content from all the books, which is more expensive a la carte anyways). That is, anybody who didn't want Magic: the Gathering material, doesn't like Eberron or didn't have any interest in monstrous races (because, for example, they only play Elves) is excluded from these particular reports, even if they use D&DB all the time.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Parmandur]

Anyone who bought SCAG should not only be ignored, but should be actively shunned, akin to a gnome paladin wielding a rapier.

I've really enjoyed the book myself over the years (more for the setting fluff text than the player options), but perhaps that's an accurate diagnosis.

But seriously, yes, this is data on people who felt it was important to pay for Ghostwise Halfling and Arcana Cleric material in case they needed it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I do data analysis and quality assessment as a day job and we have a saying: “garbage in, garbage out.” That is, if you start with flawed methodology or flawed data, no matter how good your analysis, you’ll end up with garbage. That’s what this article looks like to me. There seems to be some glaring assumptions on the methodology of how that data was collected.

 

[Ashrym]

I don't think popularity and power are a linear correspondence. For example, many Bard subclasses are even more support than Clerics until higher levels (7+), and even if powerful that's only going to interest a subset of players who like to play that style.

It's like back in 4e where the average party would have 2+ strikers but only one defender and one leader. It's a popular style.

I just kept thinking of all the x is OP posts over the years. IME people paying for all the bells and whistles (ie all the books) tend to powergame and what isn't on the list is telling. OC, that's anecdotal and based on my own assumptions.

I also knew people who bought everything just to keep a complete collection so I can't really say for sure, lol.