D&D 5E The classes that nobody wants to play

[Lidgar]

Everything has been played at least once if not 2x or more. If I had to choose, I think our group's least favorite so far is Warlocks.

I cast Eldritch Blast. I CAST Eldritch Blast. ELDRITCH BLAST, I cast thee!

 

[Blue]

Summary Monday 5:45pm EST.

So I took the listed percentages of each poll, subtracted the percentage of least played from the most to get a net most/least seen. Positive numbers are that they show up as frequently played more than they show up as not played.

The last number is a simple "out of 100" with the the highest ranked as 100, the lowest as 0, and then others ranked relative.

Rogue	13.39%	100
Fighter	9.23%	84
Barbarian	6.19%	72
Wizard	5.56%	69
Paladin	4.86%	67
Cleric	-1.31%	43
Bard	-1.63%	41
Warlock	-3.80%	33
Ranger	-6.68%	22
Druid	-6.75%	21
Sorcerer	-6.80%	21
Monk	-12.25%	0

Rogue and Monk are our extremes, neither particularly close to the runners up. Fighter is also strong and ahead of the pack. Barbarian, Wizard and Paladin round up the positive, and none have only a trivial amount. Median falls between the cleric and the bard, but both are more likely to be on the "we don't see it" than "most played", but only by a small margin. Warlock falls below, but not by too much. Ranger, Druid and Sorcerer fall below by about the same % that Barbarian and Wizard are above.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

I don't see any monks in the groups i DM for, though I do consider it to be my own main squeeze. I have also only ever seen a single player roll a cleric intentionally (the other was a premade i offered for death house), and druids don't seem to exist either.

I just don't really have personalities that might be drawn to those classes at the moment, and quite frankly, the group has a really low (average) degree of system mastery, and those all feel like the kind of "alt" classes you get lured to by reading their entry- also i get the feeling cleric is viewed as supportastic more than anything else.

When I play overall, is probably going to break some preconceptions- also I've yet to see a magic user not focus on blasting, which is notable because i play wizards as enchanters.

 

[Ogre Mage]

Summary Monday 5:45pm EST.

So I took the listed percentages of each poll, subtracted the percentage of least played from the most to get a net most/least seen. Positive numbers are that they show up as frequently played more than they show up as not played.

The last number is a simple "out of 100" with the the highest ranked as 100, the lowest as 0, and then others ranked relative.

Rogue	13.39%	100
Fighter	9.23%	84
Barbarian	6.19%	72
Wizard	5.56%	69
Paladin	4.86%	67
Cleric	-1.31%	43
Bard	-1.63%	41
Warlock	-3.80%	33
Ranger	-6.68%	22
Druid	-6.75%	21
Sorcerer	-6.80%	21
Monk	-12.25%	0

Rogue and Monk are our extremes, neither particularly close to the runners up. Fighter is also strong and ahead of the pack. Barbarian, Wizard and Paladin round up the positive, and none have only a trivial amount. Median falls between the cleric and the bard, but both are more likely to be on the "we don't see it" than "most played", but only by a small margin. Warlock falls below, but not by too much. Ranger, Druid and Sorcerer fall below by about the same % that Barbarian and Wizard are above.

Thanks for doing this!

I thought the fighter would place in the middle of the pack and am slightly surprised to see it in a strong second place behind the rogue. Of course, it is a longstanding core class in D&D with a great deal of potential inspirational material in fantasy literature and media. It is not a full spellcaster so it is reasonably friendly for inexperienced players. And the mechanical implementation of the class in 5E looks solid to me. One thing both the fighter and rogue have in common is the ability to take an additional action (action surge and cunning action). I wonder if that is related to their high ranking?

The monk is clearly the most unpopular class, but the ranger, druid and sorcerer show significant levels of unpopularity as well. In the case of the ranger, we could surmise a major reason for this is the much-discussed problems surrounding the beast master subclass. If this poll had been done before the UA revision the ranger might have ranked even lower. I am a fan of the druid, but between being a full spellcaster and wildshaping it is one of most complex classes to run. That may be unappealing to some players. I have heard a fair amount of complaining about the sorcerer, mainly that it doesn't have enough spells. The subclasses were initially very limited -- just draconic and wild. I and many other players would have preferred more subclass options like in Pathfinder. They are starting to come but right now most are not AL legal. This is a case where my local gaming area is an anomaly to the poll data -- I have seen many sorcerers. Satisfaction with the class varied. Some liked it, but one woman I played with hated her sorcerer so much that she dumped it and ran a wizard instead.

 

[hastur_nz]

In the groups I run and play in, I've seen at least one of every class played as a PC, with the sole exception of Ranger.

One player was going to start off my new campaign with a Ranger, but decided on Sorcerer instead. I've considered swapping my dual-wielding Fighter(Eldritch Knight)/Mystic, for a Longbow-wielding Ranger(Hunter), so we actually have someone who uses ranged attacks rather than melee, but it wasn't a compelling proposition as most often fights are mostly a few of us going toe-to-toe, no problems.

 

[Ogre Mage]

Going by the data in the polls, I think bard looks like it's in a pretty good place. It shows up equally in both polls (15% on each), and has one of the lowest response rates (so it's not all that noticeable in its presence OR absence). Clerics and warlocks are in a pretty similar place, just with a slightly higher response rate.

Yes, I agree. I have gone from being a bard skeptic in previous editions to being a bard fan in 5E. I actually think it is one of 5E's best designed character classes -- a great marriage of flavor and game mechanics. And magical secrets is certainly a big prize for character optimizers. It finally feels like they got the class right -- an incredibly versatile class which supports a wide variety of character types. If we had conducted this poll during the days of 3E or 4E I suspect the bard would have ranked poorly. But they are firmly in the middle rank here.

 

[Ogre Mage]

There are fewer classes that gets played in my group, but no one wants to play a cleric. They all know the importance of having a healer in the group, but they hate having to become a walking first aid kit for every bone headed plan that racks up damage to the characters and sucks the spells slots from the cleric. They'll play anything but a cleric - paladins, bards, rangers, druids -- anything with a heal capability, but not a cleric.

This is a longstanding problem in D&D due to the stereotypes surrounding the cleric as a band-aid. 3/3.5E tried to address this by making the cleric overpowered but I am not sure how much that actually increased the cleric's popularity. For years the cleric was my go-to class because being the healer seemed like an easy way to be useful in the party and nobody else wanted to play one! I think 5E has done a good job designing the cleric class, although power-wise they have come down since their 3/3.5E heyday. The 5E ability for all classes to use their hit dice to heal during a short rest was meant to take some of the "healing pressure" off the cleric but in my experience most players forget they have it. Clerics are holding their own in these polls, sitting firmly in the midrank. But I don't think they will ever be among the most popular classes, partially for the reason you mention.

 

[TwoSix]

Yes, I agree. I have gone from being a bard skeptic in previous editions to being a bard fan in 5E. I actually think it is one of 5E's best designed character classes -- a great marriage of flavor and game mechanics. And magical secrets is certainly a big prize for character optimizers. It finally feels like they got the class right -- an incredibly versatile class which supports a wide variety of character types. If we had conducted this poll during the days of 3E or 4E I suspect the bard would have ranked poorly. But they are firmly in the middle rank here.

Agreed. Very broadly, there appear to be three tiers to these ranks:

Popular Tier: Rogue, Fighter, Barbarian, Wizard, Paladin
Middle Tier: Cleric, bard, warlock
Unpopular Tier: Ranger, Sorcerer, Druid, Monk

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I thought the fighter would place in the middle of the pack and am slightly surprised to see it in a strong second place behind the rogue. Of course, it is a longstanding core class in D&D with a great deal of potential inspirational material in fantasy literature and media. It is not a full spellcaster so it is reasonably friendly for inexperienced players. And the mechanical implementation of the class in 5E looks solid to me. One thing both the fighter and rogue have in common is the ability to take an additional action (action surge and cunning action). I wonder if that is related to their high ranking?

WoTC polls have told them that fighter has consistently rated as the most popular class--pretty much for the entire history of D&D, including 5e. This poll just indicates that forum goers who dislike the fighter truly are a (somewhat) vocal minority.

 

[pdzoch]

This is a longstanding problem in D&D due to the stereotypes surrounding the cleric as a band-aid. 3/3.5E tried to address this by making the cleric overpowered but I am not sure how much that actually increased the cleric's popularity. For years the cleric was my go-to class because being the healer seemed like an easy way to be useful in the party and nobody else wanted to play one! I think 5E has gone a good job designing the cleric class, although power-wise they have come down since their 3/3.5E heyday. The 5E ability for all classes to use their hit dice to heal during a short rest was meant to take some of the "healing pressure" off the cleric but in my experience most players forget they have it. Clerics are holding their own in these polls, sitting firmly in the midrank. But I don't think they will ever be among the most popular classes, partially for the reason you mention.

I am usually a DM. But when I am a player, I typically play a cleric because the others do not want to. But I refuse to play a walking bandaid. I tend to be a warrior cleric up front in the battle and using buffs so I do not have to break out the first aid spells later. Hopefully it will inspired the group to see the cleric as something more than a first aid kit.