race popularity

[111111111]

But honestly pretending in any shape or form that humans won't be the most popular pick is being dishonest to yourself.

What race would be easiest to immerse and roleplay?
It is definatly without a doubt kobol.. err Humans.

Humans have an inherit bias in popularity contests because we are fucking human.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Average Manatee]

A bit silly to lump elves from different games together. Non-human races are popular when they are well written with a strong sense of character. Hence why Dark Elves and Drow are generally popular while generic sissy elves are the butt of jokes. If the race archetype itself doesn't inspire roleplaying then you are just LARPing a human with pointy ears. This is when you get the numbers for Dragon Age, where elves have nothing to them except being the bitch race whose sole purpose is to act as some kind of commentary on racism. Nobody wants to be the bitch, just as nobody wants to be short.

 

[aweigh]

elminage gothic does races and race/equipment combinations much better than wiz 8, mainly to having had an extra 15 years worth of iteration and formula perfecting, although wizardry empire 2 already did these things better than wiz 8 as well, and wiz empire 2 came out in 2002.

 

[DraQ]

A bit silly to lump elves from different games together. Non-human races are popular when they are well written with a strong sense of character. Hence why Dark Elves and Drow are generally popular while generic sissy elves are the butt of jokes. If the race archetype itself doesn't inspire roleplaying then you are just LARPing a human with pointy ears. This is when you get the numbers for Dragon Age, where elves have nothing to them except being the bitch race whose sole purpose is to act as some kind of commentary on racism. Nobody wants to be the bitch, just as nobody wants to be short.

The only dark elves that aren't shit are TES Dunmer.
Drow are just an entire race of BDSM enthusiasts.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Moink]

Elves are only good for one thing.

i should add poll so you can judge fellow codexians. Problem is I cant decide on selection.
Should one stick to simple (elf), go more complicated (elf, drow), single system(dnd), or go crazy (like having both halfling and kenders as option; moon elves/wood elves/heban elves/candy elves/tooth elves).
Cant decide beside not going crazy. Would go simple but then people will start complaining that elf and drow are complitelly 2 different things.

Go for just "Human, Elf, Dwarf" instead of the various sub races to get the best results.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

i should add poll so you can judge fellow codexians. Problem is I cant decide on selection.
Should one stick to simple (elf), go more complicated (elf, drow), single system(dnd), or go crazy (like having both halfling and kenders as option; moon elves/wood elves/heban elves/candy elves/tooth elves).
Cant decide beside not going crazy. Would go simple but then people will start complaining that elf and drow are complitelly 2 different things.

I would go single system, since most other games copied from DnD's notes anyway.

 

[Fairfax]

2017, data about dnd, popularity in D&D Beyond
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-your-dd-character-rare/

it contains race/class combination and I dont know how to embeed it in here, this quickly compiled table of races only will have to do:
HUMAN 25,248
ELF 16,443
HALF-ELF 10,454
DWARF 9,507
DRAGONBORN 8,185
TIEFLING 7,634
GENASI 5,971
HALFLING 5,916
HALF-ORC 5,039
GNOME 4,634
GOLIATH 4,522
AARAKOCRA 3,868
AASIMAR 1,767

looking at above irs hard not to look at classes popularity
FIGHTER 13,906
ROGUE 11,307
WIZARD 9,855
BARBARIAN 9,063
CLERIC 9,009
RANGER 8,887
PALADIN 8,840
WARLOCK 8,711
MONK 7,892
BARD 7,804
SORCERER 7,587
DRUID 6,328

id never expect bards to be more popular than sorc?

I wouldn't read too much into any of that. D&D Beyond has extremely limited options (races, classes, subclasses, feats, everything) unless you pay for them, and classes have few races with a +2 bonus to their most important stat. For instance, gnome is the only race that gives +2 INT (unless you use VHuman+feat), so a lot of wizards pick gnome even if they don't like gnomes.

As for Bard being slightly above Sorcerer, that makes sense. Sorcerer is not particularly interesting, its best subclasses are only available if you buy content from a supplement, and overall it's an inferior, less versatile Wizard. Munchkins like it for multiclassing, though. Bards are actually powerful and extremely versatile, but I guess the flavour isn't for everyone, and it's not as simple as most 5E classes.

 

[Mikeal]

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[deuxhero]

I'd say the Dragon Age data is going to be skewed by how the origins worked. Elf and Dwarf had very limited options while humans had most options. Further the same data says a decent chunk of people tried all the origins (which Bioware, being completely retarded, took as "most people don't play past the start").

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B_cI3Ieu_m14bhefFGB5GVY0cgTp89Rb/view

Survey of just under 10k Pathfinder characters.
33.8% Human
8.9% Half Elf
7.3% Elf
5.9% Half-Orc
5.3% Tiefling
4.9% Dwarf
4.7% Aasimar
4% Halfing
3.2% Gnome
1.9% Kitsune
1.5% Drow

This is likely a bit skewed by Pathfinder's balance. Humans are the best option for most classes (Summoner is the only real exception, and even then humans are pretty high up.). Half-Elf and Half-Orc get human's choice of boosted ability score (You can add a +2 to any stat), which makes them solid for most things, while if you're going to take weapon profiency or skill focus (which is needed to take the very nice Eldritch Heritage feats) Half-Elf compares fairly solidly. Aasimar and Tiefling have a long list of variants that allow them to do pretty much anything (though the basic forms of each race are still popular). The real interesting thing is that elf is so high up. Elves suck in PF because they lose con, the stats nothing* can dump and gain +dex +int, which is for classes that are really hurt by lower con. Kitsune being as high as it is is also interesting. Not sure if it's furies, people that like shapeshifting, being an eastern race or all of those combining.

*Things that become undead can dump it, but I'm not aware of any player friendly options in PF for becoming undead.

 

[Mastermind]

I'd say the Dragon Age data is going to be skewed by how the origins worked. Elf and Dwarf had very limited options while humans had most options

Elves were the best mages and dwarves the best warrior/rogues tho, there was no reason to play human except for larping.

 

[Volourn]

Of coruse, in DnD, one of the thinsg that hurts MA dwarves popularity wise is that they get a =2 con which isn't a 'favored' stat for any class so people who are trying to get the best punch for their character class likely skip them all things being equal.

Plus, unlike elves, dwarves don't look like humans but with pointy ears. they don't even much in common with RL 'human shorties' since DnD DWARVES ARE THE THEIR OWN THING.


Plus, dwarves have true honour. Most people don't and can't role-play them properly. It is why paladins evenbtually lose their 'LG only' shtick. People wanted the paladin powers but not the paladin repsonsibilties.

 

[aweigh]

dwarfs are manlets

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

Elves are a joke in games because devs insist on races being (((equal)))

 

[Neanderthal]

Half Orcs and Ogres lately, except in Runequest and other settings where humans are a bit more interesting.

I'm not liking this trend of making Orcs more pussyish and Elf like either. Proper Orks WAAAGH.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

I like dwarves. They're industrious and have good work ethic, they take things like honor very seriously, and they like booze.

 

[111111111]

I like dwarves. They're industrious and have good work ethic, they take things like honor very seriously, and they like booze.

sounds just like the germans

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

I like dwarves. They're industrious and have good work ethic, they take things like honor very seriously, and they like booze.

sounds just like the germans

Which makes you wonder why they get stereotyped as short Scots.

 

[deuxhero]

Of coruse, in DnD, one of the thinsg that hurts MA dwarves popularity wise is that they get a =2 con which isn't a 'favored' stat for any class so people who are trying to get the best punch for their character class likely skip them all things being equal.

In PF they get a wisdom bonus as well. The problem is there are only three classes, Druid, Cleric,and Warpriest, that actually use wisdom. Druid are the least popular core class according to the same survey and an unusual pairing for dwarfs. Cleric and Warpriest (Which are effectively the same class slightly tweaked) both have a decent number of dwarfs.

Real problem is gnomes, which are dead last in the core races. They don't have a clear niche either mechanically or setting wise. I can understand why 4E dropped them (though not why they put scalies in instead of them. If they wanted a non-Half Orc bruiser race they should have picked Warforged or Shifters, who were actually popular and not too hard to integrate into an existing setting.)

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Honestly, the race which gives the MOST munchkin potential.

like NWN2 MOTB; i always rolled a Yuan Ti pureblood. Them stats and innate spell resistance is too good to pass up. and in such a high level campaign, the ECL doesn't really matter unless you go full caster.

in SOZ and OC the ECL was a bit of a problem yes, so choose other races.


In Bugfinder: patchmaker, If I have to play any sort of caster with save or suck/save or die spells, I would choose elfes for the tasty +2 spell penetration. But since I hate elves, I choose to build casters as buffbots and go aasmir for the +4 stat bonus./ or maybe human for the extra feats. depends.

 

[catfood]

Humans. Kill the rest but spare the sexy elven bitches.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I like gnomes and fey because they are like elves, but vibrant and interesting instead of ennui laden terminal snowflakes. I also heavily favor spell casters and illusionary/enchantment magic. Between all of their other bonuses, they are a natural choice for me.