D&D 5E Nobody Is Playing High Level Characters

According to stats from D&D Beyond, above 5th level characters start to drop off sharply, and above 10th level, the figures are very low. The exception is level 20, which looks like it's probably people creating experimental 20th-level builds.

Some of them say 0%; this isn't strictly accurate, but levels 16-19 are used by an insignificant number of players. Interestingly, there are more 3rd-5th level characters than there are 1st-2nd level.

D&D Beyond has said before that under 10% of games make it past 10th level, but these figures show the break point as being bit lower than that. DDB used over 30 million characters to compile these stats.

 

[Anoth]

It works. But to me feel like you jump the shark at level12-13. Then you have to jump sharks with lasers level 14. When 15 rolls around they are 60’ long mutant sharks that slumbered for millennia at the bottom of the ocean. Level 16 you find out that was just the larval stage of the sharks. Then you discover the world IS a shark and it died these sharks are the new beginning for the world.

The world itself began to lose cohesion some time ago. That is the problem I have with high level.


I may get over it though. If my motorcycle is fast enough.

That sounds like fun

 

[jmucchiello]

The world itself began to lose cohesion some time ago. That is the problem I have with high level.

Cohesion in a D&D world is tenuous from 1st level up. Where are all the other poor sons of farmers who zoom through 1st to 10th level in 2 weeks? Or are the PCs really that special?

 

[ChaosOS]

Some campaign settings bother to answer this. In Eberron, the ability to gain levels like PCs is exceptional - it's the Draconic Prophecy.

 

[Nikosandros]

Even Magic-Users did not have mechanical choices as they leveled up. They only gained new spells when they found them in the wild. The class did not automatically provide you new spells as you leveled up.

I actually fully agree with your post, but I can't resist the nitpick...

Spells Beyond Those At Start:
Naturally, magic-user player characters will do their utmost to acquire books of
spells and scrolls in order to complete their own spell books. To those acquired,
the magic-user will add 1 (and ONLY 1) spell when he or she actually gains an
experience level (q.v.)..

 

[ClaytonCross]

I think this is caused by GMs not players. I say that because I have never had a GM that would keep a story going past level 15. They all said the same things.
1. I just was excited about the story any more. (still not sure how being lower level helps that)
2. Its too hard to make challenges when your tool sets are so large.
3. I had a basic story I wanted to run and its done. You have beaten the final boss. So lets stat over with this new idea I have from watching X tv show or read X book.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think this is caused by GMs not players. I say that because I have never had a GM that would keep a story going past level 15. They all said the same things.
1. I just was excited about the story any more. (still not sure how being lower level helps that)
2. Its too hard to make challenges when your tool sets are so large.
3. I had a basic story I wanted to run and its done. You have beaten the final boss. So lets stat over with this new idea I have from watching X tv show or read X book.

Even if the story isn't done, the power curve is so much closer to being logarithmic curve than linear curve or some gradual whatever yield curves are any unfinished story needs to transmogrify into the reality warping cosmic horror end of the power scale to even be considered as much more of a threat than the average anime one strike kill battle. @ChaosOS mentioned how eberron has places like the demon wastes/argonessen/mournland/etc to give those high level PC's a place to go, but there's still the mythic levels of recovery rarely seen outside stories of greek gods & such so there's not really any threat from attrition at those levels.

Maybe 5.5e will feature some type of plateau system drawing from how respecs in ddo let you keep something while losing so much else to build back up rather than continually advancing to the point of being ale to shrug off siege weaponry & still topple kingdoms by lunch.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

LOTS of people prefer their choices made for them, and with 5e going after the casual crowd, this was a very important design choice.

Why would people not want to have the agency to choose for themselves?

 

[Eric V]

Why would people not want to have the agency to choose for themselves?

Gosh, so many reasons. Lots of TED talks on the subject, but it boils down to: deciding can be hard, and if the official book says X, then that's one less decision to worry about. When one makes a decision, one has to own it, and people of don't like that level of responsibility.

From the WotC side, keeping decision-making to a minimum helps keep the casual crowd, which is the market they are going after.

 

[tetrasodium]

Why would people not want to have the agency to choose for themselves?

he's probably not entirely wrong, just that there is a scale of too much choice & too little choice. 3.5 was a bit extreme with how much choice you ad each level & how important it was to pretty much plan many of those those choices 1-20... that was probably too much, but 5e went too far the other way with some of its simplifications.

 

[jmucchiello]

I actually fully agree with your post, but I can't resist the nitpick...

That's the DMG. Not the PHB. As I mentioned (I thought I mentioned), when the PHB came out, fighters didn't even know they were significantly better at combat progression than other classes.