I could really get behind this. 4e started to head a bit this way in some of its later releases (assuming I've got your meaning right), but could have gone further. For instance, I think that 4e could probably have merged the STR cleric and the paladin, and the WIS cleric and the invoker, without too much loss if it was done well.
But D&Dnext seems to be based on a fairly traditional conception of what "feels like" D&D, and that seems to mean that a lot of these classes have to be distinct.
I agree, it does look that way, but does a character type being distinct necessarily mean it has its own class? This is a bit of a change of focus, but there were an awful lot of bladesingers around in AD&D2. I think they were very distinct, and they were a multiclass kit. I suspect there would be a strong lobby behind them as "feeling like" D&D, but they've never been a base class.
I worked up a list of 28 classes from D&D3, and the Pathfinder APG for flavor, (the only reason I didn't use D&D4 was volume [and, okay, what I see as redundancy {see above re: WIS clerics and invokers}]) and I found eight of them that I felt were distinct enough in themselves and from each other to be classes; the rest could easily be resolved as a subclass or feat track. I think eight is a really good number.
That will probably be another thread, though.
What is really great about this thread is that no matter what we or Wizards decide, I feel confident that I will be able to mod the D&D5 class system into whatever sort of experience I want it to be, without the need to write dozens of powers. Yay for dungeon master agency!
(Sorry for the faint criticism of D&D4; I humbly request that it not derail the thread.)
And now I have to learn multiclassing rules and deal with heaps of added complexity just because the designers wanted to throw up a pointless roadblock to stop storm shamans from also being pilots? FOR WHAT BENEFIT? All that rule is doing right now is making it harder for my players to play things that don't fit within the designers' preconceived and largely irrelevant notions of what "types of characters" exist at my table.
The designers' notions of what "types of characters" exist at your table are pretty central and relevant to the playing of a class-based roleplaying system.
