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

[CleverNickName]

 

[DrJawaPhD]

In the game I run for my son and his friends, only 1 rogue, 1 cleric, and 3 wizards out of the 18 characters (6 total different players). Ages have ranged from 10-14 at time of character creation.

For both this post and a few others who responded to my question, I find these anecdotes fascinating even if not particularly related to the thread at hand. For comparison, here is what I've seen in my two recent campaigns, which are predominantly <25 year olds (not counting me) who have never played any edition before 5e:

Main Campaign:
Dwarf Paladin - Vengeance
Goliath Paladin - Oathbreaker
Leonin Paladin - died before subclass
Tiefling Sorcerer - Draconic
Tiefling Sorcerer - Aberrant Mind
Tiefling Sorcerer - Aberrant Mind
Halfling Warlock - Great Old One
Aasimar Warlock - Hexblade
Plasmoid Barbarian - Giant
Dwarf Barbarian - Totem
Elf Barbarian - died before subclass
Earth Genasi Bard - Creation
Water Genasi Bard - died before subclass
Elf Bard - Eloquence
Minotaur Monk - Open Hand
Drow Ranger - Beastmaster
Half-elf Ranger - Drakewarden

Second Campaign:
Autognome Ranger - Beastmaster
Elf Ranger - Swarmkeeper
Hadozee Barbarian - Zealot
Warforged Artificer - Artillerist
Thrikeen Druid - Spores
Bugbear Druid - Moon
Tiefling Sorcerer - Draconic

 

[Mind of tempest]

druid is down four points

 

[CleverNickName]

Please stop posting the score. Folks are supposed to vote in order to see them.

 

[ezo]

I think it is mostly academic at this point anyway. I doubt there will be enough votes to swing things from where they stand.

Please stop posting the score. Folks are supposed to vote in order to see them.

Yeah, it is annoying. I mean, you hid the results for a reason...

 

[schneeland]

My personal favourites (Wizard, Cleric, Fighter) are out already, so I don't really care strongly enough about either of the choices. That being said, I don't think I have ever played a Druid in D&D, but at least once I played a (delightfully "lawful annoying") Paladin, so my vote goes to the latter.
It makes me realize, though, that conceptually I like both archetypes, but somehow the Diablo versions are more appealing than their D&D counterparts.

 

[CleverNickName]

And that's the championship! The paladin has defeated the druid, and is the 2024 Champion!

Congratulations to @GuardianLurker! Send me your email address via private message, and I'll email you the prize code. Thanks for playing!

 

[Vaalingrade]

As much as 2002 me is absolutely infuriated at the idea of Paladin getting anything, they earned it for previously enumerated improvements over 2002's Paladin.

You've come a loooong way, baby.

 

[ezo]

BOO! HISS! I demand a recount!

Actually, as far as 5E goes, I get why Paladin made it. Has always been a preferred class of mine, except the whole doesn't have to be lawful good anymore. Sigh...

 

[GuardianLurker]

Thank you for doing it. I certainly didn't expect to win.

BTW, for those of you that are curious as to what my answers might be to the "Name 3 Paladins" question...

Comics/Marvel: Captain America, Spider-man,X-Men's Beast
Comics/DC: Superman, Captain Marvel, Hal Jordan or John Stewart
Novels/for alignment-flavored Pallys: Any of the knights from Eddings' the Elenium
Novels: Joram (Kurtz, Saint Camber), Honor Harrington (Weber, Harrington series), Bahzell (Weber, Oath of Swords)