Hmm.
The thing I don't like about these previews is that its hard to see what's a trend and what's a one off.
So much about a class is bound up in its powers. Often classes have themes in their powers that define much of who they are. Sometimes its obvious, like the Warden's "Forms." The use of Forms is pretty clearly something that Wardens do from levels 1 to 30, and something that defines who and what a Warden is in combat.
With the Sorcerer, its pretty clear that the Dragon version has a theme of close blasts. There are several of them, and they apparently represent dragon breath. Cool by me. But what about Lightning Breath, and the way it creates a personal, ongoing sustainable effect? Is that a big part of the class, with one of those available at every daily power level? Or is that a one off thing that we're just happening to see?
Without knowing things like that, its hard to know exactly what we're seeing.
As it stands, I like the dragon version. My usual complaint applies- I tend to like themed characters, and I'd personally prefer if there were more ways to theme after your particular dragon instead of after all dragons in a grab bag. That's been my objection to dragon themed things in D&D for two editions though, so I've gotten used to it. I like the theme, I like the implementation of the theme, and I think the class would be fun to play. I kind of wish that their bonus damage was more tactical, like rogues and the Prime Shot classes, but that's life.
I'm not as sure about the chaos magic version. I hope fans of chaos magic like it, but its not really for me.
I'm noticing a lot of powers that penalized specific defenses. That's kind of odd, the game hasn't gone in for that much before now.
Random comments to follow in a second post.
