One D&D Cleric and Species: Survey Results

Here follow my notes about the One D&D Cleric and Species survey results video that Wizards of the Coast released in February 2023.

For more context and my Standard Disclaimer, check out the introduction to this series.

Key findings:

• Cleric: overall high score
• Goliath: really popular, 80+% satisfaction
• Dragonborn: most improved satisfaction, from 60s to 80s
• Ardling: ”isn’t going to make it”, moving out of the playtest for now, need to introduce when it makes sense with story context. Won’t be in PHB, might be in a future iteration.

Druid & Paladin coming next!

Next UA will see revisions based on “deep digging” into comments to investigate where scores and written feedback aren’t aligned. For example, the Jump action scored decently, but had largely “meh” written feedback. The Jump action is now out. A more explicit list of things that were tested but which should be used in their 2014 version during playtesting is also coming in the next UA.

More videos being added to the cycle — they want to do one when the survey opens in addition to the “new stuff” and “survey results” videos we get today.

Schedule changing — new UA content will be “every few months”. The next one “in the next few days”, then around April for the subsequent installment (which is described as “chonky”). Todd Kendrick says “moving from monthly cadence to chonkier bits bimonthly” (but this is kinda BS IMO because they were already struggling to be bimonthly). This schedule change is due in part to feedback — players wanting more time to test, and wanting releases to be bigger/more substantial.

“Evergreen” design process videos are coming too. Showing people what’s going on under the hood, “Master Class” style.