D&D General Druid vs. Paladin - March Madness 2024 - Final Round!

[CleverNickName]

I was gonna wait until tomorrow to kick this off but...nah. LET'S GOOOOO!

It's the final round--all those weeks of voting has lead us to this moment.

It was no surprise that the #3-ranked Paladin defeated the #6-ranked Monk. And it was only a very minor upset when the Paladin went on to defeat the #2-ranked Rogue--if you recall during the playoffs, the Rogue and the Paladin were only 4 points apart. The odds were definitely against the Paladin in the semi-finals, though, going up against the top-ranked Fighter. The Martials Semi-Final match was too close to call for days...it looked like the Fighter was going to win by an alphabetical tie-breaker. But toward the end of the game, a series of last-hour votes put the Paladin over the top, putting our righteous warrior within smiting distance of the title!

It's a completely different game over on the left side of the bracket, however, where the "Casters" of D&D have been duking it out. For those of us who love to cheer for the underdog, this has been your game. The closest thing we have to a "Cinderella" story in this competition, the #6-ranked Druid started out in third-to-last place on the bracket, defeating the #3-ranked Warlock right out of the gate, followed by the #2 Cleric in the quarter-finals, and then the #1-ranked Wizard just last week. Now the Druid has advanced to the top slot of the bracket for a shot at the Championship--can they keep the momentum?

Here's where the bracket currently stands.

How This Works

• This is the final round of the competition: the Championship Game! It all comes down to Druid vs. Paladin.
• Vote for the class you would most like to see win.
• Vote for any reason you like, too: personal favorite/least favorite, most/least powerful, most/least fun, oldest/newest, most/least played, etc. Vote for whatever you think makes the class worthy of advancing to the final round.
• When the poll closes, the votes will be applied to the bracket and the one with the most votes wins.
• In the event of a tie, the winning class will be determined by alphabetical order (Druid).
• For the folks playing to win: each correct guess on your bracket is worth 1 point. Scores will be tallied when the poll closes, and posted to the Leaderboard.
• For the folks playing for fun: you can still post your bracket to the Leaderboard thread. You might not win a prize, but you'll still get to join the party.

Important! Read before voting!

• You won't be able to change your vote once you submit it, so vote with conviction.
• You won't be able to see the poll results until after you vote, so you can vote with clarity.
• Your vote will remain anonymous, so vote with confidence.

 

[CleverNickName]

I can't believe it, but not a single member of the Core Four club (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue) made it into the final round.

I'm okay with it. Anything was bound to be a lot more interesting than Yet Another 'Fighters Vs. Wizards' Argument. Again. For the fifteenth time. This week.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I can't believe it, but not a single member of the Core Four club (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue) made it into the final round.

I'm okay with it. Anything was bound to be a lot more interesting than Yet Another 'Fighters Vs. Wizards' Argument.

the core 4 do tend to get IMO alot of, well undeserved isn't the right word, but alot of support simply for legacy and tradition and being what they are without needing to do much else.

 

[GuardianLurker]

There were some pretty good contenders. I'm still surprised that the Druid has come this far, but my tongue in cheek comments aside, it is a solid class.

I still think Wizards are better. But then, I really value flexibility in my casting classes.

 

[Tonguez]

This is wild, I'll need some divine inspiration to determine which class should bloom and which deserves to be smote-smitten-smited-??

 

[Vaalingrade]

Wow, two classes that deserve to exist as-written ended up in the finale.

It's an actually tough choice now.

The druid, while also suffering from the Ranger Problem of being multiple classes jammed into a single one and never appreciating which side their bread is buttered on, is also the Shapeshifter and are one of the casters that's generally not positioned to be the reason some other class gets less. Plus, if DD1 keeps its promises, it looses it's vestigial metal taboo idiocy, personally completing the crown of slothing off legacy mechanics that dictate roleplay.

The Paladin, historically a terrible class based on how it similarly dictated roleplay, has come a long way, baby. After shedding the albatross of alignment for realsies this time, Paladin finally became a true Champion of The Cause and is one of the classes that most benefited from subclasses in the form of things like Oath of the Ancients. It's also somehow the class that manages to do gish right with smites.

An actual pair of Cinderella stories. I'm going to have to vote for Paladin as Most Improved.

 

[Cadence]

If I can't have Cleric, I guess these are the closest two... Now to decide!

Edit: Paladin. Because I still remember the alignment paladins from a billion years ago even if I never played them. And because I'd really like the time to do a Priest/Cleric/Paladin division of the divine classes, and because I'm still made DC hasn't done an Arak and Valda collection. (Even if she wasn't that kind of paladin).

 

[Argyle King]

As said elsewhere, this is a tough vote for me.

Oath of Ancients -a Paladin with strong toes to Druids- is among my favorite 5E things.

 

[Yaarel]

Tough choice. Druid v Paladin.

I love the flavors of the Druid. Paladin is the better class design and now amazingly has great flavors. Heh, but I want a fullcaster to win.

I still havent decided yet.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

I can't believe it, but not a single member of the Core Four club (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue) made it into the final round.

Does anyone even play those classes anymore in 5e? In my experience playing nearly exclusively with people who never played before 5e, I can't remember the last time I saw a Cleric, Wizard, or Rogue, and only really see Fighters as multi-class dips for Action Surge. All I ever see are Bards, Sorcerers, Barbarians, Paladins, Warlocks, Rangers, maybe the occasional Monk or Druid