I've never seen a single Human Fighter PC at any table I've ever played at.
Bear in mind that it's still only 40,000 of 1.2 million, or 1 in 30. Human is only a problem if the DM is paying a lot of attention to lighting, in which case lack of darkvision is a big liability, otherwise it's fine, and honestly, fighters are really really good in tier 1, which is the most common tier of play.
I wouldn't take the data from the article too seriously, as it just pulls raw data, but it is good food for thought. For sure human fighters are appealing to players, but whose to say how many of these are a few level dips? Or created by players using the free DndBeyond account without full access to many of the other classes and races?
Personally, I struggle with naming a favorite class. I've played them all at one point or another except for bard. The class I have played the longest in 5e would be an artificer. I wouldn't say artificer is my favorite, though. That really has more to do about the character and the campaign.
This link is cool though as you if you go further into the page you can sort/filter and look at stuff like level of class.
Interesting to see the Wizard leap frog to the number one spot in tier 4. Makes a lot of sense but I would guess that most of the tier 4 characters are just folks theory crafting to level 20.
The tier 1 and 2 numbers, in my opinion, would be the most reliable numbers to look at for classes that are actually being played. Looks like all the classes are fairly even which matches my personal experience. Fighter and rogue just a touch ahead of everyone else.
Sadly no love for the artificer. It's an acquired taste. I'll admit it. :)
Interesting to see the Wizard leap frog to the number one spot in tier 4. Makes a lot of sense but I would guess that most of the tier 4 characters are just folks theory crafting to level 20.
The tier 1 and 2 numbers, in my opinion, would be the most reliable numbers to look at for classes that are actually being played. Looks like all the classes are fairly even which matches my personal experience. Fighter and rogue just a touch ahead of everyone else.
Sadly no love for the artificer. It's an acquired taste. I'll admit it. :)
Yeah if you dig into the level-by-level numbers it is interesting. Most of the Tier 4 characters are L20. That tells me they are either for one-shots or theory crafting.
There are also weird blips at L3, L5, etc - pretty sure it is "let me see what this build looks like at L5".
Knowing how I personally use DDB and make 4-5 characters (at various levels) for every one that I actually play in a game, I do look at all of this with a fair degree of skepticism.
That said it is interesting to see what's in there.
There are also weird blips at L3, L5, etc - pretty sure it is "let me see what this build looks like at L5".
Level 3 and Level 5 are the two most popular One Shot level choices in my experience. Level 3 is perfect when you want characters doing low-ish damage (no feat, no extra attack) but not going to die to a stiff breeze. Level 5 is perfect when you want them to feel like full DnD characters, but not be too complex for a one-time character that players aren't likely familiar with playing.
It's absolutely wild to me to encounter people who've never played a Human Fighter or even encountered one in actual play. I've played games that consisted of *nothing but* different variations of Human Fighter. It's the only class/race combination that I have any interest in playing at all, really; for me the game is primarily rules-light, not hyper-realistic medieval combat sim with a bit of magic tacked on for flavor.
I play with a lot of medieval combat reenactors, though, and D&D is often the gateway into that hobby for many people.
Yeah, there are lots of Human Fighters out there; not everyone wants to play a Magic-User.
It's absolutely wild to me to encounter people who've never played a Human Fighter or even encountered one in actual play. I've played games that consisted of *nothing but* different variations of Human Fighter. It's the only class/race combination that I have any interest in playing at all, really; for me the game is primarily rules-light, not hyper-realistic medieval combat sim with a bit of magic tacked on for flavor.
I play with a lot of medieval combat reenactors, though, and D&D is often the gateway into that hobby for many people.
Yeah, there are lots of Human Fighters out there; not everyone wants to play a Magic-User.
I can see people who already appreciate medieval combat reenactment to be able to more easily appreciate the classic human fighter. Pretty much every real-life medieval combatant was a human fighter... maybe a rogue.
In 5e I prefer to play the Bard. It provides me with the opportunity to boost others in combat making them feel good and allows me to play the charismatic player I enjoy between encounters.
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In 5e I prefer to play the Bard. It provides me with the opportunity to boost others in combat making them feel good and allows me to play the charismatic player I enjoy between encounters.
Bear in mind that it's still only 40,000 of 1.2 million, or 1 in 30. Human is only a problem if the DM is paying a lot of attention to lighting, in which case lack of darkvision is a big liability, otherwise it's fine, and honestly, fighters are really really good in tier 1, which is the most common tier of play.
It would be really interesting to see the same data broken down by tiers. What class/race is most popular at each tier?
Yeah. That would be quite interesting.
This link is cool though as you if you go further into the page you can sort/filter and look at stuff like level of class.
Ok, quick and dirty to see how to work with the data on that site. Might do something more if I feel like it later.
(1) I removed all multi-class entries because they are a pain to deal with (65k entries out of 1.2M were multi-class like 5%ish)
(2) I only looked at class not race
(3) Formatting is kind gross, just quick copy paste from spreadsheet
(4) Note that the sorting is on the TIER1 column
CLASS
TIER 1
TIER 2
TIER 3
TIER 4
Fighter
12%
12%
12%
11%
Rogue
12%
11%
10%
9%
Paladin
8%
9%
9%
9%
Cleric
8%
8%
9%
7%
Ranger
9%
8%
7%
7%
Wizard
8%
8%
10%
12%
Barbarian
8%
8%
7%
8%
Bard
7%
8%
7%
6%
Monk
6%
7%
7%
8%
Warlock
7%
7%
7%
8%
Druid
6%
6%
6%
6%
Sorcerer
7%
6%
7%
7%
Blood Hunter (archived)
1%
1%
1%
1%
Artificer
0%
0%
0%
0%
Blood Hunter
0%
0%
0%
0%
Artificer (UA)
0%
0%
0%
0%
The Tiers were broken down as:
Tier 1: 70%
Tier 2: 22%
Tier 3: 5%
Tier 4: 3%
Nice work, Trax!
Interesting to see the Wizard leap frog to the number one spot in tier 4. Makes a lot of sense but I would guess that most of the tier 4 characters are just folks theory crafting to level 20.
The tier 1 and 2 numbers, in my opinion, would be the most reliable numbers to look at for classes that are actually being played. Looks like all the classes are fairly even which matches my personal experience. Fighter and rogue just a touch ahead of everyone else.
Sadly no love for the artificer. It's an acquired taste. I'll admit it. :)
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Yeah if you dig into the level-by-level numbers it is interesting. Most of the Tier 4 characters are L20. That tells me they are either for one-shots or theory crafting.
There are also weird blips at L3, L5, etc - pretty sure it is "let me see what this build looks like at L5".
Knowing how I personally use DDB and make 4-5 characters (at various levels) for every one that I actually play in a game, I do look at all of this with a fair degree of skepticism.
That said it is interesting to see what's in there.
Level 3 and Level 5 are the two most popular One Shot level choices in my experience. Level 3 is perfect when you want characters doing low-ish damage (no feat, no extra attack) but not going to die to a stiff breeze. Level 5 is perfect when you want them to feel like full DnD characters, but not be too complex for a one-time character that players aren't likely familiar with playing.
It's absolutely wild to me to encounter people who've never played a Human Fighter or even encountered one in actual play. I've played games that consisted of *nothing but* different variations of Human Fighter. It's the only class/race combination that I have any interest in playing at all, really; for me the game is primarily rules-light, not hyper-realistic medieval combat sim with a bit of magic tacked on for flavor.
I play with a lot of medieval combat reenactors, though, and D&D is often the gateway into that hobby for many people.
Yeah, there are lots of Human Fighters out there; not everyone wants to play a Magic-User.
I can see people who already appreciate medieval combat reenactment to be able to more easily appreciate the classic human fighter. Pretty much every real-life medieval combatant was a human fighter... maybe a rogue.
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Fighter and closely followed paladin
I didn’t see what you did there.
In 5e I prefer to play the Bard. It provides me with the opportunity to boost others in combat making them feel good and allows me to play the charismatic player I enjoy between encounters.
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User name checks out...
Love dwarf paladin and human barbarian.