I'm sure most of you have already got the email.  I shall share my thoughts as soon as I give them a once over.  However, in the overview doc, right away I saw that hit points are lower.  Yay!

The playtest packet you are about to download includes the following new or updated content:

 

*   Character creation, levels 1 – 5

 *   Rules of play

 *   DM Guidelines

 *   Pre-generated characters

 *   An updated bestiary

I was actually able to download this playtest packet from Wizards. They seem to have improved things at the server end, at least.

At first blush I like what I see much better than the first iteration. Not sure about the way abilities are scattered about through backgrounds, races, classes and specialties. Oh, and doing half damage with the Two-Weapon Fighting sucks...

I foresee a lot more demi-human PCs.  Yeah, humans get extra stat bonuses, but demi-humans get to increase the damage die type of their "traditional" weapons by one step.  So while a human might do 1d8 for a battle axe, the dwarf gets to roll 1d10.

One thing I hate hate hate hate hate (really hated it in 3e) was the way they organized spell descriptions.  They put all spells (cleric and MU) into the same section and organized them alphabetically.  I MUCH preferred 1e's way with each spell type (divine or arcane) having it's own section, and then organized by spell level.  When I want to read the descriptions of a couple level 2 cleric spells, I don't want to flip through 100 pages to find them.

So what exactly is my fighter doing when he "spends an expertise die"?

Quote from: Piestrio;570971So what exactly is my fighter doing when he "spends an expertise die"?

A few things.  You can spend it to cleave (just like the 3e feat).  Or spend it to increase the damage of one of your attacks.  Or if you miss but get at least a 10, you can roll the dice and still do that amount of damage to a target.  Or you can do a jab and attack without spending an action.  You can also spend one to do a knockdown to a target, avoid damage, get a bonus to hit targets behind cover, those sorts of things.

Basically, spend them to get the ability of a lot of 3e feats.

Quote from: TrueGygaxFan;570973I am very excited about this new playtest!  I love the two-weapon fighting rules because now I can make a cool elf warrior with two katanas and also Opportunity Attacks make way more sense now!  I don't know if this will be the best edition of D&D ever because they are all so good, but I look forward to playing it with all my gamer friends!

All of us already know.

Seems like a large improvement. Totally agree about the spell organization.

Looks like more shit to me.

Quote from: Piestrio;570971So what exactly is my fighter doing when he "spends an expertise die"?

I struggled with that question with a friend of mine and came up with this:

"I'm watching my opponent's patterns, looking for a break to force (x)."  Given that non-trained fighters aren't used to guarding their attack patterns and such, it seemed to fit pretty well.  It's a calculating instinct; the lunge-feint (abstracted) that untrained people fall for.  Just like people who don't know any better look up and to a side when they lie.  That awareness is something that's always there for you in combat; you are using it to determine the most effective action for that short period of time with an eye towards maneuvering, repositioning yourself, controlling the tide of battle, unexpected surprises (improv) or raw power and, depending on what you're doing, it may or may not work.

I got it earlier this afternoon, looking through it, I think I might have missed something. Some of these spells look pretty damned strong for a lower level spells. Inflict light wounds is 3d8 at a level 1 spell, Melf's acid Arrow at level 2 with 2d8, just seems a bit much for me

Quote from: CoffeeDave;571059I got it earlier this afternoon, looking through it, I think I might have missed something. Some of these spells look pretty damned strong for a lower level spells. Inflict light wounds is 3d8 at a level 1 spell, Melf's acid Arrow at level 2 with 2d8, just seems a bit much for me

I haven't had a chance to download it yet but have a feeling wizards are going to have FAR less spells than 3x in the final version. If so, making them mean something will work just fine especially since at-will and encounter spells are in the mix at least as options.

We already know they want to limit clerics ala sorcerers in number of spells so no panic here currently.

Quote from: CoffeeDave;571059I got it earlier this afternoon, looking through it, I think I might have missed something. Some of these spells look pretty damned strong for a lower level spells. Inflict light wounds is 3d8 at a level 1 spell, Melf's acid Arrow at level 2 with 2d8, just seems a bit much for me

MAA was always a pretty good spell.  Look at Arc Lightning.  Wow.  1st target within 100 ft takes 5d6 if it fails save, and 2d6 to a second creature.  And that's a 2nd level spell as well.

I can only assume this is to make up for the inflated hit points.

On a side note, I am not liking all these attacks and spells that still do damage when you miss.  That seems off to me.

This looks like an unholy mess of 3e and 4e.

They are doing the feat/level thing like in 3e.

Plus, they've got all the special powers going per level under each class ... exactly as in 4e (e.g. Fighter: Level 1: Combat Superiority Level 2: blah).

Then, they've got actions in combat codified, limiting your options and imagination. Pick your action from this list . . . instead of just saying, tell the DM what you want to do.

Plus, Attacks of Opportunity are back in a literal, defined sense. You just know all those 3e/4e fans are going to take this as carte blanche to force a grid upon the game, again.

What happened to building a simple core to make fans of older editions happy?

Fuck this bullshit.

How could they possibly have gotten this wrong? The original claim that fans of earlier editions could get what they want seems to be false, at this point.

How do I get my 2e experience out of this? How do you get your Basic or 0e experience out of this?

A simple core a la 0e/Basic (like S&W, LL) should be the starting point. LL got this right with the core game and adding other books for more complexity to emulate AD&D (WotC could do the same with modules).

5e is just going to piss people off. Novel mechanics never seen before in any edition of D&D, combined with 3e feats and 4e level-based powers. Great job, WotC! I threw it straight into the Recycle Bin.

Reposting this in the right thread:

I downloaded the new playtest package. Looked up the classes. Thought they were kinda neat. Nothing really jumped at me screaming "OH MY GOD THIS IS SO WRONG". But then... I just lost any desire or excitement about this game. I'm like... "meh, whatever. Yet another bland copy of D&D." I want to be excited about this game and yet... I don't know. *shrug*