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Tolkein, Leiber, Howard, Moorcrock weren't fads of the "'70s, and '80s, and '90s". So, since there were tortles and dire tiger mounts in a module, the game was letting you emulate He-Man and TMNT campaigns? I see people here saying that you should be able to emulate Harry Potter in D&D...

Nonsense. It didn't try to emulate Star Wars, He-man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.

Does D&D really have to try an emulate every new fad that comes along? What ever happened to just making new RPGs to handle new stuff? If you want to play Harry Potter, then there should be a separate Harry Potter RPG. Why is everyone so desperate to piggyback on the D&D brand?

How about Hercules, King Arthur, Beowulf, and Robin Hood? Do youngsters still know about them? As for Frodo, I seem to remember him doing pretty well at the box office not too long ago... and Bilbo should be doing well later this year. I got into D&D long before I knew of Elric or the Gray...

The quote from Mearls refers to fighter/wizard balance, not that the fighter simply exists in legend.

Please provide examples.

"attaining balance is something that we must do to make D&D fit in with fantasy, myth, and legend" I'd like to know exactly which myths and legends Mearls is referring to.

Yes!! I love this game! I got it for Christmas when I was a kid and it's responsible for getting me into D&D. I'm really glad it's coming back. Definitely picking the new one up. Going to miss the old Erol Otus art, though:

The static saving throws. They just work. I wouldn't mind re-categorizing them as Fort/Ref/Will, though. The 1e saving throws made it relatively easy for high-level characters to save, so save-or-die and other high-powered effects were more viable for high-level spells and monsters.

How about Frank Mentzer, the lead editor for BECMI D&D? He's still around and working in the game industry along with some of the other old timers like Tim Kask and Jim Ward. I'm not sure if they'd want to be involved or if WotC would want them to be involved. However, if WotC is serious...

My guess is that it's probably something in the business plan. Remember these business decision gems from WotC? 1) Releasing 3.5 right on the heels of 3.0. 2) Hard-wiring grid & minis combat into the 3e and 4e rules to support their minis line. 3) Splatbooks rushed out the door with...

Except that it's a terrible analogy. D&D isn't a machine. It's not limited by technology (except maybe by improvements in desktop publishing and art creation). Classes didn't have different XP tables because no one thought of having a single table. They had different tables because it was...

The game has a 40 year history, not a 4 year history. If you are interested in building the best D&D possible (not necessarily the best game possible, but the best *D&D* possible) you need to consider the entire 40 year span. Ignoring the classic editions because they are older is just plain...

I don't care too much for the "at-will" magic abilities. Being able to throw a weak magic attack every single round cheapens magic. I don't see the problem with a 1st level wizard having to use weapons most of the time, like throwing daggers or using a sling. After all, the 1st level wizard...

It's only important if combat takes up the bulk of game time, like it does in 3e & 4e. If 5e takes a large chunk of combat time and redistributes it to exploration and roleplaying, then sacrificing combat ability for better exploration and roleplaying skills makes sense. Prior to 3e, thieves...

Clerics do ok in melee. Not as good as a fighter, but they can hold their own. The risk of sending a cleric into melee is that if he gets killed, the party may lose its best source of healing. Rogues, on the other hand, are too squishy to be in melee for very long. Unless they manage a...

It's a Saturday morning cartoon that ran during the 80s. There was also a game or something...

You may disagree, but the fighting-man (fighter) class got its name from Chainmail, where it referred to any figure in the game that wasn't a magic-user or a monster. When OD&D came around in 1974, the fighting-man was basically the catch-all for any character that didn't use magic (i.e. a...

The fighter is supposed to be a plain vanilla type of class. When you have to start giving it special stuff to keep up with everyone else, you end up not having a plain vanilla class anymore. As far as "non-XP" games go, instead of giving the group an arbitrary level, give them an arbitrary...

Mechanically, it made character classes easier to balance. In 1e, paladins are essentially fighters with some additional abilities. In exchange for those additional abilities, they have to earn more experience in order to gain a level. Once you make fighters and paladins use the same XP...