D&D: Paladin & Druid Survey Results Say Players Love Paladins, Hate Wildshape
WotC shared the Paladin & Druid Survey Results from the One D&D Playtest. And while Paladins shine, Druids could use a little work.
The results are in—from the Paladin & Druid Playtest Survey, that is—and surprising very few people, Paladins got a pretty good score while the new Druid mechanics got a resounding rebuff from the player base. What did players like? What did they hate? And what came out of nowhere?
Let’s talk about the Paladin & Druid survey results, and see if we can guess where D&D will take these classes next.
You can watch the whole survey above and we’ll take you through each class section below. It seems like a lot of players responded to this survey, which is good overall. Here’s what the people had to say.
Paladin Survey Results – Smite Good, Smite Spells Better
Paladins, in general, were extremely satisfying. No surprises there. Paladins have always been one of the strongest classes in 5th Edition. On top of that, they have a sort of built-in narrative hook in their class. They come with the “protagonist package” of being able to use swords and also have cool powers.
Per WotC’s metrics, every feature in the class and subclass scored at least a 70% satisfaction score. Which, in WotC-speak means that people liked it enough that they’re going in the right direction, but might need to revisit key things.
In particular Divine Smite. That was the “least satisfying” option, coming in at 72% satisfaction. Now Jeremy Crawford didn’t reveal exactly what details people were unhappy with—there were a number of complaints, including smite being too clunky, resistance to being used once per turn, and so on. But what they did talk about was how many players seemed dissatisfied with the Ranged Smite option.
We can only conclude this is because some people are cowards who hate both change and fun.
Druid Survey Results – People Ain’t Wild About Wild Shape
Druid, on the other hand, was a different story. And you know it’s bad when you don’t get numbers. Nary a single percentage point was mentioned for this section. But it’s not surprising; the new mechanics were a bit lackluster.
Wild Shape seemed to draw the most community dissatisfaction. Animal forms as templates aren’t new (if you recall the D&D Next Playtest, 3,000 years ago), but a lot of folks seemed absolutely divided on it. Going forward, it seems that WotC will be revisiting Wild Shape, trying to make it a little more user-friendly and game-ified.
People did love the “more options for Channel Nature” which feels pretty exciting. Seems like that opens up a lot of possibilities in the design space.
Similarly, the Circle of the Moon needed some love. People, understandably, hated the direction of Combat Wild Shape. WotC has said they will not be allowing the “runaway” power of the Moon Druid getting to refresh their pool of HP. Just a reminder that anyone can be a coward who hates fun.
What do you think of the results?
