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

[doctorbadwolf]

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

Eh, it’s been worth it for my games so far, and it came in the bundle. The Bladesinger, Crown Paladin, Swashbuckler, Sun Soul Monk, and Storm Sorcerer, are all great additions to the game.

 

[ccs]

Given the elf data, which flies in the face of everything I know (really.... one of the least popular races ... less than Bugbear, or shifter, or Gith, or Orc, or Kalashtar ...which I think was just made up?) ... I can't take this seriously.

Dude. elves are the same popularity as centaurs. Something Is wrong with data.

Tell me about it.
I'm so tired of everyone making Elves that for the current campaign, wich is not set in a predominantly elven area, I had to ban them as a PC race. If I hadn't at least 3*/5 players would have happily made another Elf something or other - despite having read the setting notes.

The party consists of a: Human Paladin*, 1/2elf Cleric*, Tiefling Warlock*, a Halfling/Gnome Fighter (he got cursed with "Form of a Gnome"), & a white Dragonborn Ranger/Sorceror (now there's a mix you don't see everyday....)

And the last 5e campaign I played in? (our Dungeon of the Mad Mage game doesn't count. No real "story" & just random PCs seeing how far we can make it) Consisted of 3 elves, 1 1/2elf, & my Halfling.
The DM actually altered the setting where the module series (Desert of Desolation) took place by making the default NPC race Elf!
So it was an Elven Pharaoh who's pyramid we had to raid, it was an Elven princess we had to rescue, Martek was a long dead Elven wizard....

God I'm so sick of Elves.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

Eh, it’s been worth it for my games so far, and it came in the bundle. The Bladesinger, Crown Paladin, Swashbuckler, Sun Soul Monk, and Storm Sorcerer, are all great additions to the game.

In my playas well. SCAG content gets slagged off as a meme at this point.

 

[Ashrym]

In my playas well. SCAG content gets slagged off as a meme at this point.

I seem to have missed that meme. I like storm sorcerers.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In my playas well. SCAG content gets slagged off as a meme at this point.

Yep. IME, SCAG is pretty important in terms of what gets played at the table.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

When your interpretation of the data leads you to conclude that the typical 5E party has every single character taking levels in fighter, it's time to step back and rethink whether you understand statistics well enough to write an article like this. (I'll give you a hint: You don't.)

Yup. When you get results that fly in the face of experience the only thing you are learning is that your analytical methods are deeply flawed.

If this article had been peer-reviewed they would have been sent back to the drawing board.

 

[Hussar]

Yup. When you get results that fly in the face of experience the only thing you are learning is that your analytical methods are deeply flawed.

If this article had been peer-reviewed they would have been sent back to the drawing board.

But, again, what about me here? The results he's getting line up pretty well with my experience. Why does your anecdotal evidence trump mine?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But, again, what about me here? The results he's getting line up pretty well with my experience. Why does your anecdotal evidence trump mine?

Quite apart from the weight of the comments in this thread suggesting your experience is the anomaly (and do you really see 95% of clerics multiclassed?!), it's quite clear that the research methodology is flawed.

1) In my experience, the vast majority of player characters used in actual play are not created or levelled on D&D Beyond. That's anecdotal, but in order for the research to be valid it's the responsibility of the researcher to demonstrate that at least a significantly large sample of player characters used in actual play are created on D&D Beyond for the results to be valid. They are also only considering people who have unlocked all options. If you take a small sample size and make it even smaller you are going to get all sorts of weird anomalies.

2) We have very good reason to suppose that the vast majority of characters that are created on D&D Beyond are never used in actual play. The authors' claim to have accounted for that, but they have not demonstrated that their selection process actually works. In order to do so you would need to take a sample of the characters your method has produced and survey their creators to find out if they are actually played.

3) It assumes independence: i.e. what character someone chooses to play in a party is not influenced by what the other players choose. This is quite clearly an invalid assumption. If a party already contains two of any character type it is unlikely anyone will choose to play as a third.

 

[akr71]

I like statistics but take them with a grain of salt. Too easy to manipulate or mislead.

One of my college textbooks was titled "How to Lie With Maps." It is the only textbook I kept.

 

[TwoSix]

The X factor is that those are the stats for people who bought literally all of the books in D&D Beyond: the true hardcore. Their other numbers from all users shows Elves way up the list. It is interesting that Humans, Half-Elves, Dwarves, and Dragonborn remain popular even with the option-loving hardcore players, though.

The Venn diagram between "Players who like D&D and are willing to drop money on D&D Beyond" and "Players who are no good at actually powergaming" has quite a bit of overlap, and like 90% play them Dragonborn, in my experience.