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Message: <blockquote data-quote="der_kluge" data-source="post: 336604" data-attributes="member: 945">Culled from research done on this very site.Class Popularity (based on the group makeup of many who post here)CLASS..........# played.. % ranking------------------------------------------Fighter............1038.... 16.6%Rogue.............. 840.... 13.5%Cleric................ 831.... 13.3%Wizard............. 815.... 13.1%Sorcerer........... 529.... 8.5%Ranger............. 437.... 7.0%Monk................ 403.... 6.5%Paladin............. 374.... 6.0%Barbarian......... 303.... 4.9%Bard................. 275.... 4.4%Druid................ 208.... 3.3%Psion................ 138.... 2.2%Psychic Warrior... 50.... 0.8%Next, a ranking of all the core clases in order of most powerful to least powerful (based on an average of user responses of their own personal rankings) - covers all class levels.CLASS...........Rank..(average score)------------------------------------------------------------Cleric..............1......2.588235294Fighter............2......3.411764706Wizard............3......4.647058824Rogue.............4......5.411764706Sorcerer..........5......5.470588235Paladin............6......6.000000000Druid...............7......6.235294118Barbarian........8......6.352941176Monk...............9......7.411764706Ranger..........10......8.352941176Bard..............11.....10.00000000Analysis:The core classes (cleric, fighter, wizard, rogue) are in the top four in both categories.  Most agree that cleric is the most powerful class, but fighter is the most popular.  Rogue eeks out cleric by a narrow margin in the popularity category, but falls behind in the power category.  There is statistically no difference between the power level of the rogue and the sorcerer.  Sorcerer has a solid foothold as the 5th most powerful and 5th most popular class.A full 65% of gamers are playing the most common classes (cleric, fighter, wizard, rogue, and sorcerer).  the last 6 classes make up the remaining 35%, with Psion and Psychic warrior making up only 3% of the gaming population.  Psion and Psychic warrior weren't included in the second category as only PHB-classes were considered.Druid and Barbarian are closely tied on the bottom half.  Bard is the second least popular among the core classes, but is solidly considered to be the weakest.  The other class, Ranger is considered not quite as weak as the Bard, yet comes in second the weakest category.  Ranger is more popular than monk, or Paladin, however.Draw your own conclusions----------------------------------The questions remain - are some classes perceived as being weak because they are not as popular, or are some classes not as popular because they are weak?  MY own perception is the latter, as I changed a Bard to a rog/sor because the class was too weak, and in my current game, one of my friends made a cleric with plant and travel as his domains, and is basically no different than a druid from a role-playing standpoint.  My friend admits to being a min-maxer, and thus chose cleric rather than druid because of the many reasons why cleric ranks #1 in the power category, yet druid comes in at a paltry 8th.Discuss.</blockquote>

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