The pregen fighter is awful. I understand a more complex/manuever-based version is coming soon, but even for a "simple" version that is just a really uninteresting excuse for a "class". I feel like this system has so much freedom for the designers to really just sit down and think about what are cool things, both in and out of combat, that veteran warriors have going for them and to play off that without being bound to some rigid skill or power system, and right now they aren't taking any advantage of that.
Like imagine a trait that says something like "Veteran Wariness: Even when surprised, you are never caught without weapon and shield at hand". Thats not mechanically complicated at all--in fact its mechanically simpler because you don't have to figure out their numbers without weapons. it doesn't add any complexity or length to the fight. But it adds flavor to the class in a way that has real impact on gameplay. Or something like "Shake it Off: For purposes of resisting spells, treat the fighter's HP as thought it were doubled." That isn't an extra manuever, the simplicity minded player who doesn't want to have to do too much thinking can still just stand around and attack, but it's at least something to give the class some flavor beyond hp, ac, attack, damage. There is so much more potential here to make even a "simple" fighter awesome.
I like what I'm seeing of the magic system. Spells as rituals, the bland of vancian and at-will, the HP thresholds on spells.
Really good stuff.
Advantage/Disadvantage is awesome. if they combine with FATE style zones for combat, I could actually see it resulting in a moderately tactical, easy to play gridless combat engine, which would be a
ing miracle of rpg design. For example, if you move away from an adjacent melee combatant enemy, you are disadvantaged for one round--cuts down on the fiddliness and game time spent on attacks of opportunity, while still creating a degree of "stickiness". LOTS of potential here for handling a wide variety of combat situations in a simple way.
The monster design is very meh, but the core mechanical idea of "Monster X gains advantage when condition Y is met" isn't a bad one for simulating/incentivizing some monster behaviors, and I can see some potential for synergy there with monsters that put a character at disadvantage, then other monsters that can take advantage of that by gaining extra effects vs. disadvantaged characters. Obviously if this is how monsters look when the game ships that will suck, but I see potential in the system for brining in less fiddly version of 4e-style mechanical differentiation.
I'm not seeing at all how backgrounds could be made modular or how one would mix and match elements from different backgrounds to make your own--the different backgrounds offer varying numbers of skills, and a grab-bag of traits that really vary in utility in power, such that it'd be hard to know when merging two backgrounds how many skills your new background should have, or how much each feature is "worth".
I do like that lots of the features are binary rather than fiddly math bonuses. Dwarves don't get a bonus vs. poison--it straight up doesn't work. That speeds up play in a way that is flavorful and fun.
