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Hopefully the character builder data will indicate what's actually being played and steer the game in the right direction.

A non-essentials version please.

When you design a game based on the question "why have you stopped playing our game?" the people still playing it may not like the result. WotC did the same thing with essentials, redesigning the game for people who were not playing it and upsetting a good proportion of gamers who are.

Is that a save or die spell I see before me?

A blanket stoppage of the cleric's powers would be a crude and unfun way of challenging you friend's character. Good encounter design and solid tactics are all your dm needs. You have two defenders in your party as well, they should be able to protect the cleric from too much harm.

The power creep is intended, along with the monster power creep in the MM3/DSCC to reduce grind.

If we are to go down this route I would rather it was as a development of the skill power system, this should have been a bluff power, not a wizard power. The whole point of limiting class based non-combat abilities was to prevent "must have" classes and I don't want to see those days again.

For me, 3e changed the way D&D was played far more than 4e has. 3e was also a far better game than its predecessors, but for me 4e is better again. What is D&D is really a personal decision, the problem arises when some people insist it must be a collective one.

Dying when emotions are running high and to rub salt into the wounds, the villain escapes? Sounds like the dead character should come back as a revenant to seek revenge!

WotC are not investing effectively in the brand. The endless sackings, increasing typos and errors in the print books, slothful progress on electronic tools and shrinking content of the online magazines are all symptoms.

After the change from 3.0 to 3.5 they were probably worried about asking people to switch again so soon. Hence the rather aggressive marketing campaign pointing out that this time there were real changes and why (they felt) players should make the switch. Don't forget the market had saturated &...

Is the boxed set really intended for continued repeat play? I was under the impression it was a quick starter you played a couple of times then moved up to the next tier of Essentials products. Those are the books that need to be robust.

WoTC material is largely aimed at the home brew dm; short, almost background free adventures that can easily be slotted into an ongoing game. There are lots of splats for players because the game is new and the way classes are designed means there need to be lots of classes and much of the...

I see the growth of Paizo is a result of WotC pitching their products back at their mainstream audience, the casual player. 3e is a good game, it brought in hard core gamers who previously didn’t play D&D, but it’s also a complex and time consuming one. For a while, everyone was happy, however...

So hard core gamers would rather the entire rpg hobby wither and die rather than have the gateway system that is D&D be actually playable by all those pesky new and casual gamers. Brilliant.

Going forward, will new classes look like essential classes, the original classes or something completely different?

Turn up to the next gaming session naked and tell everybody you got hacked. Get to maximum level as fast as possible, then grind incrementally small gear increases for the next couple of years. All loot is ranger loot.

I don't buy the balance vs flavour argument. Just because something is no longer supported by (often bad) mechanics doesn't mean it can't be done. You can use narrative and story to create that sense of wonder instead, even better your are no longer limited by "if the bad guy can do it, why...

5e will be 100% digital and come with a free iPad.

I follow the Guardian CiF pages, people behave exactly the same there arguing over politics etc. I think the anonymity of the internet encourages people to be rude.