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If the new edition combines some quicker combat rules with and old-school feel and the best parts of 4e (for me), then I will buy and play. If not, I'll pass.

This example supports my position, too: heavy armor is for warfare and otherwise planned battles and exhibitions. When Conan is on an adventure, he tends to wear something like leather, or no armor (only clothing), or furs (when in the Arctic).

"Does it mean a cube with 20 cubic feet inside, or a cube, 20' on a side?" I remember a lot of badly written jargon back in AD&D.

I agree--maneuvers have to be viable. That can be a trade of accuracy for effect (my least favorite option), trade damage for effect, or trade action for effect (such as your suggestion, above). Once a good set of maneuvers is made, improvisation can work from that base set. Characters that are...

Experience has shown that the game is called Dungeons & Dragons. I think, and hope, that it will remain such.

D&D went on a "rampage" of codifying rules that culminated in 3e. Everything was so well defined that many thought it stomped on creativity--in my interpretation. At the opposite end of the spectrum are OD&D and BECMI, where certain things weren't defined or explained at all, and no guidelines...

Of course, not all "thieves" are actually thieves. Likewise, not all clerics seek to convert--many seek to punish, or to exclude. The big four classes need to accommodate several archetypes each. Just sayin'.

I like the idea of choosing from a menu of special abilities. I dislike spellcasting rangers--disliked them from AD&D right through 3e. Non-casting ranger variants existed in all editions for a reason.

It seems only the BECMI elf class got it from the get-go.

Again, I hope that 5e has a strong fighter/magic-user class right out of the gate. It's one of the most common multi-class combos, but also one of the hardest to balance with multiclass rules. For example, the balancing issues of fighter10/wiz10 vs. fighter 20 vs. wiz 20 are usually part of any...

Did we have this thread already? I guess we'll have it several more times in the next year or two.

I can't imagine a D&D adventurer in realistic full-plate, tromping through a dungeon. You would be incredibly loud, have extreme difficulty with climbing, tire quickly, and have no peripheral vision. In medieval times, full armor was for the battlefield and ceremonies, not expeditions.

I see this sentiment in many threads. The 4e rules do not prohibit combat creativity, nor do they say what cannot be done. Instead, the rules say what can be done reliably. The rest has to be judged by the DM, similar to AD&D or OD&D. The DMG (p. 42) and the DMG2 (terrain powers section) give...

I think about how many PC wizards I saw in AD&D find ways to get rid of their familiar to roll on the table again, or simply ask to make a new wizard because they got a lousy familiar. I liked the 3e version of familiars the most, to be honest. Fourth edition has a nice take on them, too. No...

If a special attack that is used situationally (like immobilizing a target to stop it from fleeing) doesn't work get reliably, I wouldn't use it. Neither would my players. If a PC had an attack with a 20% chance of knocking a target prone, that isn't very reliable. Experience would quickly tell...

As others said, death rules have always varied in campaigns. Why not just have 5e explicitly tell DMs: whether or not PCs come back from death is a campaign decision. Then, examples can be outlined. Some people like D&D to be a sort of competition. Some people like D&D to be a sort of gamble...

I voted "Other". The game doesn't need to represent what real medieval European soldiers wore. D&D isn't that game. I would like armor to represent fantasy literature and other fiction. It doesn't need to be over the top (no manga, no chain bikini), but I don't want D&D adventurers to be...

How death is handled depends a lot on play style. In a story-based game, death and the possibility of resurrection should be story-based. In a competitive game, or in a DM-as-adversary game (a completely valid style), death should be a big penalty, and new characters should not be as good as...

I think 5e simply needs to start, out of the gate, with a multiclassed fighter/wizard. The idea has been around since Elves appeared in BD&D. It is such a commonly used/desired/discussed multiclass--just design one from the outset. It could be useful on its own, and as a standard for other...

By the way, 4e has a non-heal, non-buff cleric: the Invoker. In AD&D, non-heal, non-buff clerics were generally the province of the various "NPC only", unofficial classes presented in Dragon Magazine.