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First off, 1d8 damage isn't guaranteed to kill anybody, not even a "common man." You're just as likely to do 1 damage as 8. Second, any peasant with a light crossbow is just as deadly as a low level wizard with ray of frost. As for higher level wizards, well, common men should rightly fear them...

I'm joining this conversation a bit late, but I think that the approach they're taking to alignment in Next makes this largely a moot point. Classes no longer have alignment requirements. Spells like detect evil now detect things like devils instead. So there's really nothing preventing you from...

Not everyone has to take more than one attack cantrip, or any at all. It just gives people yet another option. After all, resistance just means you're doing half damage. It's not the end of the world, and in Next, immunities seem to (thankfully) be rare.

I like having a wide variety of cantrips with different energy types and side effects. It helps mages diversify rather than every mage just having some generic "arcane bolt." It also gives mages a reason to learn more than one attack cantrip, since they might run into an energy resistant enemy...

In 5e, magic items are completely up to the DM and are not an assumed part of the game's math or balance. They're not to be taken for granted as they were before. A mage in past editions could guarantee that he could have a wand, if not by buying it at the local magic mart, then by making one...

I remember them mentioning a "javelin of fire" at-will ability for mages quite some time ago. That would make a good fire attack cantrip, I think.

Not everyone likes playing a wizard that has to resort to using a crossbow. I, for one, love the attack cantrips in 5e. I couldn't disagree more, and I think people are greatly overestimating the power that attack cantrips in 5e actually have. At 1st level, they're like a light crossbow...

I notice that they keep using the term "spells" instead of invocations. I hope this doesn't mean a warlock is going to have spells and spells per day just like a wizard or bard.

No.

It seems to me like they're trying to cram too much into a single class here. It's like they're trying to take the original warlock, the hexblade and the Pathfinder summoner and combine them all into the same class. I would think hexblades would work better as one of the multiclass subclasses...

I agree, but I don't expect it to ever happen. +X magic items are too much of a sacred cow.

In 3rd edition, players needed +AC items because attack bonuses increased naturally with levels but AC did not, so the only way to keep your AC up to par was with magic items. In Next, attack bonuses only increase by +5 (starting at +1 and going up to +6), and maybe a couple more points from...

We know that player ability scores cap at 20, at least without magic, and monster ability scores cap at 30. A character or creature gets at most a +6 proficiency bonus from its level/HD, due to bounded accuracy. So even though they will no doubt be making some improvements to the monsters, we...

As far as I can tell, there is no general rule against magic items stacking without limit. If you have several items that raise AC, saving throws, ability scores, etc., nothing prevents them from all stacking together, raising one's stats to game-breaking levels. This entire problem can be...

Having spell slots "migrate" to higher levels like in 13th age would be interesting. It could help address some balance issues. They could give casters more than one 6th-9th level spell per day without giving casters dozens of total spells per day. It would also address the oddity of cantrips...

You could have a spell system where every spell starts at level 1 and gets better with higher level slots, but that isn't what I was proposing. Scaling spells in Next don't entirely replace higher level spells. Fireball, for example, when cast at 9th level, does the same damage as meteor swarm...

I really like how spells can be cast in higher level slots, such as fireball to do more damage, etc. Unfortunately, most of the spells that do this are offensive spells. I think this mechanic should be used for most other types of spells as well, not just for increased damage. There are plenty...

I just downloaded the new packet and noticed that they made wild shape an "encounter" power instead of a daily power (you regain your uses when you take a short or long rest), and they also added beast speech at level 7. Awesome. That solves two of the issues I mentioned earlier. It's almost...

I like the simplicity of just gaining the animal's stat block when you turn into it, though I'm still a bit leery of the hp idea. I'll have to see how it turns out in play, of course, but it seems to me like it could potentially lead to balance issues. This could give druids a massive amount of...

1. I think this makes it far too easy to learn new cantrips. The feat that gives you 2 bonus cantrips, not to mention the elf and gnome racial abilities, are practically worthless now (at least for mages). Since cantrips aren't limited by either spell slots or preparation, I don't think mages...