Last D&D Survey Results In! Plus What's Up With The Ranger?

As you may know, WotC has a monthly survey/feedback system going. I report on it each month. Last month's survey was about product expectations Gen Con, and the results report was much shorter than usual - just a couple of sentences. "In terms of product, setting books and monster books proved the most popular. We were also happy to see that many of you had played in our published campaign worlds or wanted to try them out. We also saw plenty of support for new character options, with a consensus that most players are happy with our current pace of "slow but steady." I personally feel that my - anecdotal - experience with the online community says the opposite about the current pace, but a survey's a survey!

There's a new survey up, covering the recent Ranger playtest. As WotC mentions, the Ranger is the least popular class, and they intend to approach the class in a number of different ways over the coming year. The Ranger is interesting, because it attracts a lot of snotty comments (not as many as the very concept of a Warlord, but that's another thing).

Click here to take the Ranger survey.

 

[SailorNash]

I had complaints about Ambuscade and the Barbarian++ Hit Dice. As well as summoning ghost bears for a warrior class where many don't even like a spell list.

My vote went towards self sufficiency. At will powers, or powers with a recharge mechanic. Good skill list, but not as varied as a Rogue or Bard. Rangers shouldn't ever be the ones needing a rest, and should be able to bounce back very quickly with little outside help.

Martial, Spellcasting, and Pets could be subclasses. Lets people pick what they like, without forcing the rest on others who aren't interested. But the defining parts would be core class and available to all.

 

[Orlax]

I had complaints about Ambuscade and the Barbarian++ Hit Dice. As well as summoning ghost bears for a warrior class where many don't even like a spell list.

My vote went towards self sufficiency. At will powers, or powers with a recharge mechanic. Good skill list, but not as varied as a Rogue or Bard. Rangers shouldn't ever be the ones needing a rest, and should be able to bounce back very quickly with little outside help.

Martial, Spellcasting, and Pets could be subclasses. Lets people pick what they like, without forcing the rest on others who aren't interested. But the defining parts would be core class and available to all.

Not sure I agree with your entire comment here however I do like one point. Rangers shouldn't ever be the ones needing rest (outside of being badly injured of course). But sure where to go with that but I like it. It sounds rangerish. He gets the party to a spot starts them up with a camp site and then gets to scouting around the local region while they rest, he returns at the beginning of second watch for a short rest and is out and coming back with a foraged meal right around when everyone's waking up and prepping spells.

 

[graves3141]

It seems strange to me that most people said they were happy with the slow release schedule. Wouldn't more products being produced by WotC be considered a win-win for everyone? More products would allow all of us the opportunity to pick what we want to buy from a larger variety of supplements. Wouldn't that make everyone happier?

 

[Parmandur]

It seems strange to me that most people said they were happy with the slow release schedule. Wouldn't more products being produced by WotC be considered a win-win for everyone? More products would allow all of us the opportunity to pick what we want to buy from a larger variety of supplements. Wouldn't that make everyone happier?

No; like others here, I'd buy less. What they are doing now is perfect.

 

[gyor]

Sales are a better indictator of weather or not the fans want more books published then a survey that will likely only be filled out by a motivated minority. If sales start to slump unless obvious caused by a bad product then its a sign to cut back, if product is selling like mad then slowly had wood to the fire, till sales just start to slump then cut back.

 

[gyor]

I think ironically that the Ranger pet works alot better with a Paladin in the party, thanks to all the passive aura buffing from features and spells.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

It seems strange to me that most people said they were happy with the slow release schedule. Wouldn't more products being produced by WotC be considered a win-win for everyone? More products would allow all of us the opportunity to pick what we want to buy from a larger variety of supplements. Wouldn't that make everyone happier?

More products would likely necessitate less time spent polishing each part of each product, which would mean quality of game content slipping to a lower standard... which, as I base my purchases on quality of game content, would mean that more products usually means less products that I actually will buy.

Not a win for me, even if it is a win for someone else.

 

[Orlax]

More products would likely necessitate less time spent polishing each part of each product, which would mean quality of game content slipping to a lower standard... which, as I base my purchases on quality of game content, would mean that more products usually means less products that I actually will buy.

Not a win for me, even if it is a win for someone else.

This is very much why I'm down with the slower releases and lower amount of crunch. Not just that but after a long enough time that lower quality content will flow into the game no matter how much I try to control what my players are bringing to the table. You can only crush their hopes of playing x,y, and z terrible content item so many times before they become dissatisfied with your game. Basically anyone who thinks the DM actually controls totally what makes it into their game is either a ton god DM that has no problem with losing players (not an indictment of that play style of it works for you keep on keeping on), or is fooling themselves.

 

[dndthrowaway1]

The content I enjoy most is all home-brewed, so these settings books do nothing for me. I want character options, and I want them allowed in AL, where we're now seeing some of the same characters with different names that we've had over the past 1.5 years.

Acknowledged that this may not be good for WotC and I am not making a claim that they should or shouldn't do it, just saying that it's what I want.

 

[Shasarak]

Not only that, but to me it seems like WotC is just trying to make sure that they are getting data that is as up-to-date and accurate as they can manage.

The online character builder used to be a good source of information about who was building what characters and probably more accurate then surveys.