D&D 5E More Data Mined from D&D Beyond: Most Popular Spells

[Leatherhead]

Top 10 Spells and Cantrips Known/Prepared by Class:

Keep mind, due to the nature of having low level characters, level one spells are naturally the most common.
Also this data discards any "always prepared spells" such as the Life Cleric's Cure Wounds, or Gnome's Minor Illusion
Edit: This list gathered data from characters who were made from both "Free" and "Premium" content. This means spells like Hex, which aren't in the SRD or EEPC, are not going to have a very strong representation, because most of the characters are from the "Free" stuff.


Bard:
Spells
Charm Person (37%)
Healing word (26%)
Cure Wounds (23%)
Thunderwave (22%)
Bane (20%)
Comprehend Languages (18%)
Animal Friendship (17%)
Detect Magic (16%)
Sleep (11%)
Disguise self (10%)

Cantrips
Vicious Mockery (37%)
Dancing Lights (29%)
Light (20%)
Mage Hand (16%)
Minor Illusion (13%)
Prestidigitation (11%)
Mending (7%)
Thunderclap (6%)
Message (6%)
True Strike (4%)

Cleric:
Spells:
Healing Word (19%)
Guiding Bolt (16%)
Shield of faith (12%)
Inflict Wounds (9%)
Payer of Healing (8%)
Cure Wounds (8%) See note above
Sanctuary (7%)
Command (6%)
Detect magic (6%)
Mass healing word (5%)

Cantrips Clerics do not have 10 cantrips, yet.
Sacred Flame (24%)
Spare the Dying (20%)
Guidance (16%)
Light (14%)
Thaumaturgy (12%)
Mending (10%)
Resistance (7%)

Druid
Spells
Cure Wounds (19%)
Healing word (12%)
Entangle (11%)
Thunderwave (10%)
Ice Knife (9%)
Speak with Animals (8%)
Faerie Fire (7%)
Goodberry (6%)
Animal Friendship (5%)
Moonbeam (5%)

Cantrips
Druidcraft (13%)
Shillelagh (11%)
Produce Flame (9%)
Poison Spray (8%)
Frostbite (6%)
Guidance (6%)
Thunderclap (4%)
Mending (4%)
Thorn Whip (3%)
Magic Stone (3%)

Paladin
Spells
Cure Wounds (14%)
Shield of Faith (11%)
Bless (9%)
Divine Favor (7%)
Command (5%)
Heroism(4%)
Find Steed (4%)
Detect Magic (3%)
Magic Weapon (3%)
Aid (3%)

Rangers
Spells
Hunters Mark (16%)
Cure Wounds (14%)
Absorb Elements (11%)
Alarm (10%)
Animal Friendship (9%)
Animal messenger (5%)
Pass without Trace (4%)
Speak with Animals (4%)
Beast Bond (4%)
Barkskin (4%)

Sorcerer
Spells
Magic Missile (23%)
Burning hands (22%)
Shield (20%)
Catapult (12%)
Aganazzar's Scorcher (10%)
Alter Self (9%)
Blur (8%)
Blindness/Deafness (8%)
Charm Person (8%)
Blink (6%)

Cantrips
Fire Bolt (27%)
Acid Splash (22%)
Chill Touch (21%)
Control Flames (21%)
Prestidigitation (20%)
Ray of Frost (20%)
Shocking Grasp (20%)
Create Bonfire (19%)
Light (18%)
Mage Hand (14%)

Warlock
Spells
Charm Person (28%)
Burning hands (23%)
Hellish Rebuke (17%)
Command (14%)
Witch Bolt (10%)
Comprehend Languages (10%)
Counterspell (9%)
Blindness/Deafness
Darkness (6%)
Hex(6%)

Cantrips
Eldritch Blast (47%)
Chill Touch (29%)
Create Bonfire (16%)
Mage hand (9%)
Minor Illusion (8%)
Prestidigitation (8%)
Frostbite (5%)
Poison Spray (5%)
True Strike (4%)
Thunderclap (3%)

Wizard
Spells
Magic Missile (15%)
Mage Armor (11%)
Shield (9%)
Burning Hands (8%)
Sleep (6%)
Detect Magic (4%)
Charm Person (4%)
Thunderwave (4%)
Feather Fall (4%)
Fireball (4%)

Cantrips
Mage hand (24%)
Fire Bolt (23%)
Chill Touch (20%)
Acid Splash (19%)
Ray of Frost (18%)
Light (18%)
Control Flames (18%)
Prestidigitation (11%)
Create Bonfire (9%)
Minor Illusion (8%)

 

[Guest 6801328]

53% of Warlocks don't take Eldritch Blast....?

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I find people's spell choices bizarre. One thing I haven't heard clarified is whether or not these statistics are based on SRD content only characters or not, as that would probably change a lot of the data.

Bard: Charm Person is such a nebulous spell that depends almost entirely on the DM's definition of what constitutes "a friendly acquaintance". Dancing Lights being higher than Light, and both being higher than Mage Hand and Minor Illusion is weird to me. Most DM's don't pay much attention to dim light/darkness modifiers and Mage Hand has such incredible versatility while Minor Illusion is one of the most powerful utility cantrips in the game (in the hands of an imaginative player). The bard also has access to Healing Word and yet it's not even on the list, let alone Cure Wounds being higher. Healing Word is far, far better than Cure Wounds so I'm surprised it's chosen so often.

Cleric: See? Healing Word at the top. At least this makes sense. The rest of the spells make sense too but then we get to the cantrips. Guidance being lower than Spare the Dying is just insane. Spare the Dying is made entirely redundant by a 5gp Healer's Kit and can be used by anyone. Guidance is widely considered an amazing buff cantrip.

Druid: Again, Cure Wounds higher than Healing Word. Weirdoes. Entangle is a horrid spell. Faerie Fire and Goodberry so low is just plain bizarre. And then Druidcraft, seriously? And it's higher than Shillelagh, wtf is going on with these choices?

Paladin and Ranger seem about right. Sorcerer seems pretty on point.

Warlock: Hex at 6%? Wth? Witch Bolt is higher than it! I don't even...

I mean, I get that not everyone optimises but there's a difference between optimisation and just logical choices. There seems to be no logic to people's choices in certain classes.

 

[gyor]

How is cure wounds or healing word not prepare 80% - 90% of the time? Those numbers are shockingly low.

I think many of these are just for fun builds and not intended for game play.

 

[Gadget]

What? That many Warlock players take the abysmal Witch Bolt? I could see some of the choices as being flavor, such as Druidcraft and prestidigitation, but really.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World

 

[Yaarel]

I am unsure how useful these spell stats are without more information about their context regarding the ones choosing them, and the ability to divide the spells by level and so on.

They only thing new I notice is how popular spells about animals are (heh, regardless of how less useful the spell is).

 

[Yaarel]

The main conclusion that I arrive at when looking at these spell stats is, many newbies are checking out D&DBeyond, which is a good thing.

 

[cbwjm]

I don't understand the obsession some people have with Eldritch Blast and Hex, they are fine spells if all you are doing is optimising for damage but hardly necessary to be effective. Hex especially is fairly restrictive if you only have a couple of spell slots/short rest, you may want to have a little more variety in your spell options instead of feeling like you have to use your first spell slot on casting Hex.

 

[Yaarel]

The most frequent spells seem reliably good, in this context spells with 20% or higher.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I wonder if a lot of these choices are the result of randomly created characters?

I don't understand the obsession some people have with Eldritch Blast and Hex, they are fine spells if all you are doing is optimising for damage but hardly necessary to be effective. Hex especially is fairly restrictive if you only have a couple of spell slots/short rest, you may want to have a little more variety in your spell options instead of feeling like you have to use your first spell slot on casting Hex.

Because they're very clearly the best choices, so much so that they really should be given as a core part of the class itself rather than as choices at all. There should also be a melee equivalent of EB.