My first impressions. Drow are gray and WotC doesn't like drawbacks on abilities, powers, or characters in general.
First, drow. Honestly I always thought the pitch black skinned drow were very difficult to picture, and extremely difficult to draw. If you look back at previous version of D&D the art for drow is all over the place as they use different colors to portray a race that would essentially just be a black splotch. Paizo went with purple drow (or lavender), which I kinda like more than the gray, but gray works too. I think over all it is a good aesthetic change.
No draw backs. Now I know people can disagree on this, and people like different things, but one of the things I liked about the Wild Magic Surge was that things could go horribly wrong. You can cast grease or fireball centered on yourself, you can turn into a potted plant, you can get older or younger, everybody within 30' could gain vulnerability to damage.
The Wild Magic barbarian has none of that. Everything is good, and not just good, but good for you and your friends. You can't control what magic will happen, but you can control who is effected by it. If it is protective lights, it protects you and your friends. If you grow a bunch of plants around you, they only hinder your enemies. I mean, sure, magic can do that kind of stuff, but if it is really random, why does it always recognize who is friendly and who isn't? Why doesn't it randomly effect everyone? Or randomly give the bad guys a bonus?
Now I understand this is supposed to be a benefit, so the majority should be beneficial, but you can throw a few curve balls in there to make things interesting. I mean, if you always won at gambling, it wouldn't be fun anymore. Sure you would still do it to make some money, but now it is just a chore.
To continue on the "no drawbacks" theme, Customizing your Origin. Overall I like the addition, I'm not saying that it is always good to have drawbacks, sometimes drawbacks are just not fun. So giving people the option to remove drawbacks from a race they would like to play is fine. That said, I think they are being a little dishonest here as to their reasoning. To quote:
"Whatever D&D race you choose for your character, you get a trait called Ability Score Increase. This increase reflects an archetypal bit of excellence in the adventurers of this kind in D&D's past. For example, if you're a dwarf, your Constitution increases by 2, because dwarf heroes in D&D are often exceptionally tough. This increase doesn't apply to every dwarf, just to dwarf adventurers, and it exists to reinforce an archetype."
This is not true. I can go back and look at previous editions of D&D, this is not why the dwarf Constitution increase exists. It exists because it represents how an alien race, the mythical dwarf, differs from humans, as a species. ALL dwarves get this bonus because dwarves are different from humans. Why couldn't they just be honest? I think it would be cooler to say that, yes, MOST dwarves are tougher, but you are the exception, you are special, you are different, you are an adventurer. But instead we now have to wonder. Are all of the mythical species in D&D exactly the same? Do they, on average, all have 10s across the board? Are elves not more dexterous? Are gnomes not more intelligent? Dwarves are not more hardy? What the heck!
AND I LIKE THE RULES! I'll be honest. I had some reservation at first, but I have since been convinced that adventurers, being exceptional, should be allowed to move their stat bonuses around. And they just destroyed that whole argument!
Oh well, just fluff I guess, which I can ignore, but it is dishonest fluff. Just... Why?
Finally. I know they want to remove limitations, but forget the dwarf monk. What about the mountain dwarf wizard bladesinger with +2 Int, +2 Dex, and wielding a morningstar? Who, of course, by doing so, is honoring the elven way?
Once again, I would actually be fine with this combination, but it totally would NOT be elven bladesinging. I would flavor it as a uniquely dwarven magical martial technique that has the same game mechanics.
