[UPDATED] Most D&D Players Prefer Humans - Without Feats!

I've played in games that don't allow multiclassing, but never games that don't allow feats. Go figure.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm one of those players that want a broader palette of character customization options. The lack of options, along with feats and ASIs competing for the same character resource, really turned me off of 5E.

If yours is a commonly-held position then feats etc. might be showing as less popular in 5e simply because those who like feats and mechanical customization are instead playing 3e or Pathfinder or another similarly-crunchy system rather than 5e.

Me, I'm the other side: mechanical backing for every aspect of what makes a character tick just leads to an overly-complicated game where the mechanics get in the way. Just give me a dozen or so class choices with clear distinctions between them, and I'll customize with fluff.

 

[Gadget]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. This crowd has always been perceived as more "hardcore" and finding out they are non-conformant with general casual game play trends is hardly shocking. That said, from what I've seen, most of the excessive mutli-classing and feat application I've seen in the past three editions has been solidly in the optimization category. I find feats in this addition not particularly well designed to begin with anyway.

 

[TwoSix]

What isn't clear to me is whether the data actually supports his assertion that "players prefer not taking feats", or merely the fact that they don't take feats. Feats being an optional rule in 5E requires this distinction to be made for the data to be meaningful enough to say "prefer".

Yep. "Players don't prefer feats" is not the same as "Player's don't prefer the current version of 5e's feats."

 

[houser2112]

If yours is a commonly-held position then feats etc. might be showing as less popular in 5e simply because those who like feats and mechanical customization are instead playing 3e or Pathfinder or another similarly-crunchy system rather than 5e.

In a perfect world, I would still be playing Pathfinder. My group moved to 5E despite me. I decided I'd rather endure playing a less-ideal system with very ideal people than try to find another group that plays PF.

 

[Tranquilis]

There is another possibility for those surprised with this information: As large as it is, the Enworld community (at least many members posting in this thread) is an aberration. The great unwashed, unenlighted riff-raff that don’t hang out online with hyper-fans must be legion, and play differently than many here. ;-)

The Earth is flat!

 

[Ath-kethin]

Good. Now if they could just move feats and multiclassing into the DMG, so people will stop assuming that they're allowed by default, that would be great.

Amen to that! All the optional rules should be in the book of rules options. We would cut down on so many arguments that way.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[TwoSix]

There is another possibility for those surprised with this information: As large as it is, the Enworld community (at least many members posting in this thread) is an aberration. The great unwashed, unenlighted riff-raff that don’t hang out online with hyper-fans must be legion, and play differently than many here. ;-)

The Earth is flat!

Oh, absolutely. I'm not a representative sample. ENWorld isn't a representative sample. I'm not sure how you can get a representative sample, honestly. I think that's kind of the point. D&D is big enough I have doubts about ANY statement about how the majority of players play.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Listing what people here play and our feelings about feats is probably not the majority of players. Only a small subset of players will seek out a forum like this and there is a whole sub-forum devoted to power gaming builds.

My 2 daughters play and neither one of them care about feats. They build a story in their mind and play that character. They do not agonize for hours about an extra .5 damage per hour.

In 5e, feats are listed as optional. I am not all that fond of them, they vary wildly. I allowed them in my main game after level 8 (they just hit level 12) and every elf took misty step, for example. Seems that one should not be so good that it is a shame not to take it.

 

[Yaarel]

Amen to that! All the optional rules should be in the book of rules options. We would cut down on so many arguments that way.

Add gods to the list of options that go in a separate book.