I don't really see at first blush where they could simplify further without breaking stuff. Much better to make basic = standard, and then have an advanced come out a year later. Definitely will get tons of sales on that if the core rules are good. I like'm so far, I just rolled up a barbarian who dual wields a bastard sword and spiked shield, quite tough (ac 18 at level 1).
I think Weapon Mastery needs minimum level 9 and / or remove it entirely. Dual Wielding also kind of sucks. I need to take it to wield even one medium weapon with my light offhand weapon. That's even a feat tax over earlier editions, i.e. worse. I think not applying str mod to offhand attacks is enough, and re-instate the -2 / -2. That way, it's a real tradeoff, then maybe the level 9 feat could remove the offhand mod penalty, and another at level 11, to remove the -2 / -2, because at that point you're better off not dual wielding since you dpr will drop due to all your attacks being at -2. Having a flat -2 to all your attacks if you take the extra attack is worthwhile when you are, say, in my case, raging, since I have advantage on both. But I really dislike how the barbarian rage damage boost only applies to one attack, that doesn't scale elegantly with either dual wielding OR levelling up and getting extra attacks. I'd rather the bonus be less but apply to all your attacks, simpler math that way.
Also, the recommended specialty for barbarians is Reaper, which includes Combat Reflexes that adds an extra reaction, but since you get more and more rages per day, there's negative synergy there, since you can't use your reaction at all while raging. Same with lots of other feats that should work while raging. Or at least remove it from the recommended list for the barbarian, it's a trap choice that benefits you less and less. If I were a DM, I'd house rule that feat to allow the bonus reaction to be usable even while raging.
I really dislike that you can't dual wield two larger weapons. Since attack bonuses are very hard to come by, -2 / -2 is the simplest thing to implement. Then when I decide, do I dual wield or not, I really have to think long and hard about whether it's worth it. Right now it's quite good to use a handaxe + spiked shield. I mean, using standard 15 15 15 8 8 8 at level 1 I have 15 HP, 18 AC, and kick ass at a bunch of things. I just wish Weapon Mastery weren't in the mix for feat selection, because it IS OP, compared to all the other situational modifiers. I'd rather take Hide in Shadows at level 3, or maybe Track, than have to shrug and say, yeah, I need Weapon Mastery. It's actually better for my guy, mathematically speaking, to skip on using a bastard sword in his main hand via the Dual Wielding feat, to use a handaxe + shield and take weapon mastery instead. That sux. Every single combat focused specialty has Weapon Mastery. It's DDN version of Weapon Expertise or Dwarven Weapon Training or white lotus whatevers. I'm a power gamer who doesn't want these "I must...take...this...feat...or comparatively I will suck". Feats should allow you to do cool new stuff, not a flat out re-roll on all damage rolls. That one feat gives you more of a damage boost than ALL the rage damage boosts. And barbarians are supposed to be damage monsters, that to me is a design flaw.
