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How many Races it too much?
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8150534" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Much as this is a totally non-representative sample, it's interesting how <em>if</em> we ignore the "17+" category, things are <em>pretty</em> well-centered around 8 races, only slightly smaller than the full PHB--and, notably, more than the usual number of player characters in a game. If we take the D&D Beyond data from three samples we've had, we get the following as (apparently) the "typical" ENWorlder's 5e lineup, plus or minus maybe two options. I've included the top 10 for each data set, with the 9th and 10th in parentheses. Some of this is <em>slight</em> estimation, as the 2017 and 2018 data is presented <em>without</em> separating subraces, while the 2019 data DOES separate them. (Note these are the years they were <em>published</em>, so the data may not be exclusively from those years.)</p><p></p><p><strong><u>As of 2017:</u></strong></p><p>[SPOILER]Human</p><p>Elf</p><p>Half-elf</p><p>Dwarf</p><p>Dragonborn</p><p>Tiefling</p><p>Genasi</p><p>Halfling</p><p>(Half-orc)</p><p>(Gnome)[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p><strong><u>As of 2018:</u></strong></p><p>[SPOILER]Human</p><p>Elf</p><p>Half-elf</p><p>Tiefling</p><p>Dwarf</p><p>Dragonborn</p><p>Halfling</p><p>Aasimar</p><p>(Genasi)</p><p>(Half-orc)[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p><strong><u>As of 2019:</u></strong></p><p>[SPOILER]Human</p><p>Elf</p><p>Half-elf</p><p>Tiefling</p><p>Dragonborn</p><p>Dwarf</p><p>Half-orc</p><p>Halfling</p><p>(Gnome)</p><p>(Genasi)[/SPOILER]</p><p>Curiously, Dragonborn--despite their <em>apparently</em> controversial status--consistently rank in or just below the top 5. This is also very interesting because, despite some claims to the contrary, it's generally agreed that Dragonborn are in the running for the <em>weakest</em> "standard" playable race, that is, excluding things like the "monstrous" races that have nasty ability penalties or the like. Even more interesting, <em>tiefling</em> is unambiguously favored by people who use D&D Beyond, being #4 in <em>both</em> of the most recent dev analyses.</p><p></p><p>Human has always been the most commonly-chosen race for D&D, so filtering that out and looking at the remainder, I suspect there are two factors in play here. Firstly, Elf and Half-Elf are extremely strong picks, both for their base features, and for the Elven Accuracy feat (in games where feats are allowed). That Dragonborn (and Tiefling) sometimes edge out Dwarf, despite the mechanical advantages, suggests that they're liked for something more than just power; both seem to have made a real splash with the 5e audience, which strongly implies they're here to stay.</p><p></p><p>Curiously, Aasimar <em>were</em> popular enough to hit the top 8 for a time, but seem to have fallen by the wayside. Likewise, Genasi started off above even Halflings, but are now only barely making the top 10. Ironically, Genasi aren't even something you have to pay for--the EEPC is free to download--yet that still isn't enough to boost them! It would seem that "exotic-ness" alone isn't enough to buoy a race, or at least that there's some magic <em>je ne sais quoi</em> about Dragonborn and Tiefling that boost them above their "exotic humanoid-like" status.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8150534, member: 6790260"] Much as this is a totally non-representative sample, it's interesting how [I]if[/I] we ignore the "17+" category, things are [I]pretty[/I] well-centered around 8 races, only slightly smaller than the full PHB--and, notably, more than the usual number of player characters in a game. If we take the D&D Beyond data from three samples we've had, we get the following as (apparently) the "typical" ENWorlder's 5e lineup, plus or minus maybe two options. I've included the top 10 for each data set, with the 9th and 10th in parentheses. Some of this is [I]slight[/I] estimation, as the 2017 and 2018 data is presented [I]without[/I] separating subraces, while the 2019 data DOES separate them. (Note these are the years they were [I]published[/I], so the data may not be exclusively from those years.) [B][U]As of 2017:[/U][/B] [SPOILER]Human Elf Half-elf Dwarf Dragonborn Tiefling Genasi Halfling (Half-orc) (Gnome)[/SPOILER] [B][U]As of 2018:[/U][/B] [SPOILER]Human Elf Half-elf Tiefling Dwarf Dragonborn Halfling Aasimar (Genasi) (Half-orc)[/SPOILER] [B][U]As of 2019:[/U][/B] [SPOILER]Human Elf Half-elf Tiefling Dragonborn Dwarf Half-orc Halfling (Gnome) (Genasi)[/SPOILER] Curiously, Dragonborn--despite their [I]apparently[/I] controversial status--consistently rank in or just below the top 5. This is also very interesting because, despite some claims to the contrary, it's generally agreed that Dragonborn are in the running for the [I]weakest[/I] "standard" playable race, that is, excluding things like the "monstrous" races that have nasty ability penalties or the like. Even more interesting, [I]tiefling[/I] is unambiguously favored by people who use D&D Beyond, being #4 in [I]both[/I] of the most recent dev analyses. Human has always been the most commonly-chosen race for D&D, so filtering that out and looking at the remainder, I suspect there are two factors in play here. Firstly, Elf and Half-Elf are extremely strong picks, both for their base features, and for the Elven Accuracy feat (in games where feats are allowed). That Dragonborn (and Tiefling) sometimes edge out Dwarf, despite the mechanical advantages, suggests that they're liked for something more than just power; both seem to have made a real splash with the 5e audience, which strongly implies they're here to stay. Curiously, Aasimar [I]were[/I] popular enough to hit the top 8 for a time, but seem to have fallen by the wayside. Likewise, Genasi started off above even Halflings, but are now only barely making the top 10. Ironically, Genasi aren't even something you have to pay for--the EEPC is free to download--yet that still isn't enough to boost them! It would seem that "exotic-ness" alone isn't enough to buoy a race, or at least that there's some magic [I]je ne sais quoi[/I] about Dragonborn and Tiefling that boost them above their "exotic humanoid-like" status. [/QUOTE]
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