A quarter of Dungeons & Dragons adventurers play as humans

Despite the various fantasy races and species players can embody when roleplaying in Dungeons & Dragons, it turns out that most still prefer to stick with what they know – being a human.

Data analytics site FiveThirtyEight looked at the stats from Dungeons & Dragons companion app D&D Beyond to see what kind of characters adventurers choose to make, and discovered that the reliable human fighter came out top, with 4.9% of created heroes opting for the classic race-class combination.

Humans were far and away the most popular species for created characters, with more than 25% of players choosing the race regardless of class. Second-most popular were elves, with 16.4% of players going for full elf characters and 10.5% roleplaying as half-elves.

With just 1.8% of characters, the least popular race by far were aasimar, the god-like beings of celestial descent that appear in human-like forms. Just above were aarakocra, the humanoid bird people for whom 3.9% of players showed a preference.

The least popular combination overall was the pick of aasimar ranger, with a measly 0.06% of heroes.

What’s interesting is how the choice of class appears to skew somewhat towards the stereotypes of each race. Most aarakocra characters were monks, in fitting with the species’ peaceful nature and agile physicality, while the majority of elves were rangers a la Legolas – although their half-elf kin were more fond of serving as bards. Dwarves were unsurprisingly popular as fighters, but the figure was actually beaten by a hair by the choice of dwarf clerics.

So it may not turn out that your roleplaying avatar is as unique as you might hope – perhaps next time you’re creating a character, take a look at the figures and try a combination away from the crowd.