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I think the best system is a small bonus (say a +1) for race in 1 or 2 stats, and some fluff about what the race tends to be good or bad at. Players should be able to play clumsy elves, charismatic half-orcs, and burly halflings, and they shouldn't automatically win D&D if they decide to play...

I wouldn't expect anything like that before the 24th. From the most recent information online, it sounded like they were just going to make some material available for download on their website.

This is maybe an indication that you're both off the reservation. 5e will have more in common with 1st and 2nd edition than 4e did, and probably about as much or even a little more than 3e did. Which is to say they all have classes and races and hit points and armor classes and experience points...

I kind of like how Essentials handled it: A light, portable Rules Compendium. A separate book (or books) for Character Gen. A boxed set with DM stuff for DMs. A boxed set with Monsters and stuff for DMs. Alternatively, if they want to get away from "stuff" in 5e, they could just release all of...

Eh. If you do that, people will feel obligated to max. out in order to keep their characters "balanced." I'd rather they were just very stringent about giving bonuses.

I stopped buying WotC products when they stopped putting out PDFs. PDF availability will be a major factor in my purchasing decisions for 5e.

I disagree with Mattachine's characterization. Cantrips weren't At Will until 4th Edition, and Cantrip slots were (in my experience) very rarely used for direct damage spells. (That said, I'm open to most of what WotC is proposing. The only thing I'm not sure about is using "Cantrips" as a name...

I can see it now: Player: "But the PHB says I can play whatever race I want, and the DM has no choice but to accept it!" DM: "I don't use that rule."

I think you're misreading the quote: I think his point is that combat won't be too terribly different from what folks have come to expect from D&D over the past few editions, but that it'll be optimized so that it works just as well on- or off-grid. He's not saying that you will need to make...

In their defense: 1) they're not exclusively targeting "old school fans" 2) "old school fans" are not a monolithic group 3) they're still very early on in the development process

Except that the nature skills are really what define a Ranger to (most?) people and the combat styles are secondary. There was a thread a while back where folks were talking about what they look for in a Ranger class, and the consensus seemed to be closer to "sneaky terrain-based warrior" than...

If the goal is to reduce the number of hit points creatures have relative to the amount of damage that can be dealt to them per attack, decreasing the amount of damage that can be dealt per attack isn't going to solve the problem. Similarly, if you reduce the amount of damage dealt AND the hit...

I rarely use the standard XP system. Generally, my group levels up characters between levels. I'd be interested t oknow what percentage of Enworlders actually use the XP rules as written (either in 3e or 4e).

If 5e gives us class ability trees along the lines of late 3.5's alt class abilities, I'll be well satisfied.

Fighter intimidates. Rogue bluffs. Cleric uses diplomacy. Wizard casts Charm Person! Fighter breaks down the door. Rogue picks the lock. Cleric prays for a miracle! Wizard casts Knock. Fighter hacks through them. Rogue sneaks up on them and takes them out one at a time. Cleric casts flame...

You're arguing two different things. The fact that 4e wasn't as successful as it could have been doesn't mean that any individual decision made in the implementation of 4e was wrong. If the rules were exactly the rules for 3.5, but presented in the style of 4e, we have no idea how it would have...

To the extent that there is jargon, I'd like to see it better reinforce the genre. One of the problems with "THAC0" is that it sounds like a Star Wars robot. Even some of the old school terms like "Hit Points" and "Saving Throws" are more gamey than atmospheric. I suspect we're well past the...

But what's the size of that customer base? I don't have the numbers, but my sense is that RPG sales were at their highest in the 80s, spiked with the release of 2000 and have been trailing downward ever since. Any given attempt to capture a new audience can fail if you don't get the approach...

I wish people wouldn't say this. Not because I have any problem with people not liking 4e, but because the sentiment so obviously DOESN'T mean what you're saying. OF COURSE it's D&D. You're free to argue that it's BAD D&D, but the idea that it's NOT D&D is demonstrably false. I get that what...

Let's at least agree that if a kobold falls in lava, it should die automatically, no save.