If I want to play a ranger with the playtest packet with D&D Next, I can pretty much already do it. I I just need a start with a fighter and give him a good dex. Then I need is a background that gives me spot, stealth, survival and nature lore. If I take the sharpshooter speciality, I essentially have the low-level 3.5 ranger. So... why do I need a Ranger class?
Specialities can pretty much cover everything that variant classes did. A warlord is essentially a fighter that gives bonuses to allies or restores hp right? So why couldn't that be a speciality? Fighters can be Rangers and Warlords, Clerics can be Paladins or Invokers, Rogues can be bards and assassins, and Wizards can be Illusionists or Necromancers. Specialities also have the advantage that they are easier to multiclass with, (Cleric Warlords or Wizard Bards or Fighter Assassins) to give a little variation.
There is only one way that WotC 5e design team can make me give two toots about new classes. The warlock and the sorcerer have new mechanics for magic for people who don't like it Vancian, or for those who just like to try something new (like the guys who liked playing psionicists). But I don't really need them. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they were kept out of the basic game and put in an advanced player's guide.
I can pretty much get all the flavour of a warlock or sorcerer with the right selection of spells. The warlock needs evocation and summoning spells, the sorcerer needs evocation and spells that boost his melee attack, damage and AC. Both are perfectly feasible with the wizard.
But I can appreciate someone wanting to fool around with variant systems. So if the 5e design team does decide to give us a ranger, warlord, paladin, assassin, bard, and other subclasses as being full classes, I hope they take all the time they need to create something interesting from a gamist perspective. From a roleplaying perspective, all of our needs can be covered with specialities connected to the big 4 classes (Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, Fighter).
Specialities can pretty much cover everything that variant classes did. A warlord is essentially a fighter that gives bonuses to allies or restores hp right? So why couldn't that be a speciality? Fighters can be Rangers and Warlords, Clerics can be Paladins or Invokers, Rogues can be bards and assassins, and Wizards can be Illusionists or Necromancers. Specialities also have the advantage that they are easier to multiclass with, (Cleric Warlords or Wizard Bards or Fighter Assassins) to give a little variation.
There is only one way that WotC 5e design team can make me give two toots about new classes. The warlock and the sorcerer have new mechanics for magic for people who don't like it Vancian, or for those who just like to try something new (like the guys who liked playing psionicists). But I don't really need them. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they were kept out of the basic game and put in an advanced player's guide.
I can pretty much get all the flavour of a warlock or sorcerer with the right selection of spells. The warlock needs evocation and summoning spells, the sorcerer needs evocation and spells that boost his melee attack, damage and AC. Both are perfectly feasible with the wizard.
But I can appreciate someone wanting to fool around with variant systems. So if the 5e design team does decide to give us a ranger, warlord, paladin, assassin, bard, and other subclasses as being full classes, I hope they take all the time they need to create something interesting from a gamist perspective. From a roleplaying perspective, all of our needs can be covered with specialities connected to the big 4 classes (Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, Fighter).