Decades of D&D fans repeating the old adage “Friends don’t let friends play half-orcs” may have had some tangible effects. Yesterday, FiveThirtyEight published data on the most D&D popular classes and races and well, half-orcs only make up about five per cent of all D&D characters played between August 15 and September 15.
Dungeons & Dragons
For comparison, more than 50 per cent of players were either human, elf, or half-elf.
To figure out the most popular race and class combinations, FiveThirtyEight asked the makers of the online tool D&D Beyond for data. Their chart, which is based on over 100,000 characters registered on D&D Beyond, confirms what longtime fans already knew: No one wants to play half-orc sorcerers.
Just 126 characters (0.1 per cent) were half-orc sorcerers, while the most popular class-race combination, human fighter, had 4888 (4.8 per cent) characters. 14 per cent of all characters are human. Also, people love elf rangers — hello, Legolas — and tiefling warlocks.
I was surprised to see that people love dwarf clerics, a combination I’d never really thought of. You can check out the data here.
Comments
9 responses to “The Most Popular D&D Races And Classes”
I’m still on my first D&D campaign (play by email) that’s been going on 18 months. First character died off early (Human Ranger) which was enough for me to get a sense how to play, and now I’ve mixed it up with something different (Dwarf Swashbuckler).
Dwarven clerics aren’t so surprising. There are few races that get bonuses to wisdom.
Cool article Cecilia :). Sorry, Obviously wasn’t meant to reply to you, But hey Gold dwarves are cool, I like deep nomes Snirfneblin? Ah idk how to spell it.
Huh? It’s easily one of the most common class/race combinations in D&D. Don’t know about 5e but in earlier editions they had a number of bonuses when it comes to divine magic so they’re the go-to race for Clerics, along with Human that is just generally good at everything.
Maybe people are inspired by everyones favourite Dwarven Cleric – Merle Highchurch?
That’s a weird way to spell Durkon Thundershield
Not enough goblin barbarians, bards, fighters or paladins. Heck, there are not enough goblins in general.
Piglet the Barbarian was adorable.
https://youtu.be/u8MRyyFDX3c
Elves and humans are boring. Dwarves the best.