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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6614030" data-attributes="member: 6680772">So I was kicking this idea around for a while, as part of my own personal retrospective on the 5e design process, and since a couple people have expressed interest in what the playtest was like, I thought I'd go ahead and do it.So this is going to be broad strokes, since there are a lot of small differences, but I hope some others might pick up the smaller details they remember or notice in the playtest packets.So, the first playtest was released on May 24th, 2012, about 5 and a half months after 5e and the playtest was announced.  It contained 9 files: How to Play, DM Guidelines, 5 pregens, a Bestiary, and a Caves of Chaos conversion.  There was no chargen section, and the pregens only went up to 3rd level.  The original plan was to slowly increase the advancement of the pregens up to 10th level through a number of packets, testing out the core rules, and then introduce chargen and slowly bring that up to 10th level.  That plan was abandoned almost immediately -- the 2nd playtest packet included chargen.[sblock=How to Play]The essential core rules of the game were quite stable right from the beginning.  You had Checks and Contests, Attacks, and Saving Throws, as well as Advantage and Disadvantage.  None of this ever changed, and is pretty much (and at times word for word) in Published 5e as it was in the first packet.  Ability scores and related checks/saves were essentially the same.  Climbing, swimming and crawling cost double movement as it does now (though written "every 5 feet costs and extra 5 feet" rather than the current rules' "every foot costs two feet").  Standing up only cost 5 feet of your move, instead of the half-movement it costs now.  The stealth rules are really not all that different -- relying heavily on DM judgment, and fulfilling of "not-being-seen" and "not-being-heard" conditions.  The big difference is that in the playtest, if you were successfully hidden, you could not be targeted, except by area effects.  In 5e, attackers get disadvantage on targets they can't see, but can still target a space where they think the enemy is.  Perception is still pretty much the same.In combat, surprise was determined entirely by the DM, and it meant a -20 to your initiative.  Movement is much the same, except that Published 5e lets you move through the space of a creature 2 Sizes larger than you, while hostile spaces are entirely unpassable in the first playtest.  Reactions exist, but bonus actions and opportunity attacks do not.  There were initially a few more different Actions available: Attack, Cast a Spell, Coup de Grace (drop unconscious characters to 0 HP; kill characters at 0 HP outright -- replaced by crit rules in finished 5e), Dodge, Help, Hide, Hustle (currently Dash), Improvise (now a sidebar rather than a distinct action), Ready an Action (currently Ready), Search, and Use an Item (currently Use an Object).  With no Opportunity Attacks, there was no need for Disengage.Crits dealt maximum damage.  Otherwise melee attacks, ranged attacks, damage, resistance, and vulnerability are the same.  Death Saves were DC 10 Constitution saving throws, and so subject to any Con bonuses.  Three successes stabilized you, while a failure made you take 1d6 damage that could not be reduced.  Negative HP equal to your CON score plus level meant death.  This was simulate "bleeding out".  It took 2d6 hours to wake up after being stabilized, rather than 1d4.Short rests were 10 minutes long, although at this point there were hardly any features that refreshed on a short rest.  Long rests were 8 hours (limit to 1 per 24-hour period), and you needed 1 HP to take one.  Long rests restored all HP and all HD.There were fewer conditions, even though some didn't make the final cut: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Ethereal, Frightened, Invisible, Intoxicated, Paralyzed, Prone, Restrained, Stunned, and Unconscious.Equipment is similar, but slightly different.  The lists would be slightly revised throughout the playtest, and the early lists were largely there just to be there than carefully designed and written.  Armor was Light, Medium, and Heavy.  Heavy armor imparted a -5 feet movement penalty, and all medium and heavy armored imposed disadvantage on stealth checks.  For weapons, you had Basic, Finesse, Martial, and Heavy Weapon Categories.  There was no versatile property.  However, one of the special weapons was the Bastard Sword, which acted like the current Longsword.For magic, cantrips were called "Minor Spells", which were called Cantrips for Wizards, and Orisons for Clerics.  Magic worked pretty much as now: each spell had a level, casters had spells slots, and spells could be cast with higher level spell slots.  Rituals also worked pretty much the same.  Lip service was paid to the idea of verbal, somatic, and material components, but these weren't spelled out, except in isolated spell descriptions (e.g., fanning the fingers for Burning Hands).  Spell DCs were 10 + spell casting ability mod.  No proficiency in the game at this time.[/sblock][sblock=DM Guidelines]The DM Guidelines contained advice for when to use checks and saves.  The DCs were similar, but a bit different.  Trivial was DC 10 or lower, Moderate was DC 11-14, Advanced was DC 15-18, Extreme was DC 19-22, Master was DC 23-26, and Immortal was DC 27 and Higher.  I like the way they do it now.  Much smoother and easier.  Skills were not really skills per se, but rather typical actions categorized as either Exploration or Interaction.  They were Exploration: Balance, Climb, Escape Bonds, Find and Disarm Traps, Notice a Hiding Creature, Open a Door, Pick a Lock, Recall Lore, Search, Swim and Track; and Interaction: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Gather Information.  Many of the write-ups of these actions included typical DCs of varying difficulty.  Note that these were listed in the DM Guidelines, not the How to Play section, and while the character sheets would note bonuses for these actions, they were not explained.  Further, they were not tied to any ability score.  Certain ability scores were suggested, but it was up to the DM to make the call.  The idea was that this was a DM side mechanic -- he would just note what the action was, which any player could attempt, and if a player happened to have a bonus for that, they could add it to the roll.  Very similar to what we have now, but presented very differently.Because the first playtest was meant to be used with Caves of Chaos, no DM encounter building guidelines were included.[/sblock][sblock=Characters]The pre-gens consisted of a Human Cleric of Pelor (representing the "laser cleric"), a Mountain Dwarf Cleric of Moradin (representing the "bash-y cleric"), a Hill Dwarf Fighter, a Lightfoot Halfling Rogue, and a High Elf Wizard.In the original conception, characters would have a Background and a Theme.  Your Background would give you bonuses to certain of those "typical exploration/interaction actions" mentioned above (+3 in this case) due to "training".  It would also provide a non-mechanical feature, much like now.  Themes were how you got Feats.  You would start off with one specific feat, and gain another specific feat at 3rd level, similar to how class features work.  The playtest included the Healer, Lurker, Slayer, Magic-user, and Guardian.The Pelor Cleric got light and medium armor, and basic and simple missile weapons, while the Moradin Cleric got heavy armor and the warhammer.  They both got divine magic and channel divinity (which could be used to cast a free Turn Undead spell, or at level 2 used for another thematic feature.  Both also got a +2 bonus when making a magical attack.The Fighter was pretty light.  Their lone starting feature was a +2 bonus to damage, and a twice per day "Fighter's Surge" at 2nd level.  There were some complaints about the lack of features, so Mearls suggested giving them an extra theme.Rogues got a Rogue Scheme -- essentially like an extra Rogue-themed Background.  Since Backgrounds were intended to be optional, this provided Rogues with the necessary Thief Skills.  This Rogue's Scheme was Thief, which meant they got Open Locks, Find/Remove Traps, and Stealth at +3, Thieves' Cant, and Thief Hiding (a combination of the Mask of the Wild and Naturally Stealthy features).  They also got Skill Mastery (like Reliable Talent in the current rules), and Sneak Attack (extra damage when attacking with advantage).Wizards were similar in basic structure to what they are now.  Like clerics, they got a +2 to Magical Attack rolls, no doubt representing the Magical Attack Bonus that was present in the game until it was folded into proficiency.Advancement was set at 2,000 XP for Level 2, and 6,000 XP for Level 3.[/sblock][sblock=Bestiary]The Bestiary is only for monsters that are in the Caves of Chaos adventure, so there were only 32 monsters.  Most took up a page, with some taking up two.  The entries were made up of statblock section (economical at 13 lines), then a unique trait, a combat section that suggested tactics, a habitat and society section (the ecology, so to speak), and a legends and lore section, with interesting fluff.  The lowest XP value was 25 for Cave Rat and Giant Centipede, while the highest was 550 for a Gnoll Pack Lord.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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