Well, now I've had a chance to digest some of this... There are things to like here, things to go 'meh' about, and things to go 'huh?' about.
Like:
Hands down, the best versions of Suggestion and Protection From Evil ever to appear in the game. Ray of Frost got a much needed change, too. I also like Remove Affliction much better than Cure Blindness, Cure Deafness, Cure Disease... Dispel Magic got an interesting change.
The fighter's Combat Superiority. I think this has a lot of promise, though obviously it needs extensive playtesting.
The Necromancer specialty freaked me out. It's... definitely flavorful, that's for sure! Interesting that they went with a regular specialty, instead of the advanced ones they were talking about before. (I can't wait to see the Illusionist version!)
Slower healing variants. Very welcome!
Races - I like what I'm seeing here so far. But I really want to know how they're going to handle the half-elf and half-orc, two long-gimped races. (And the gnome, of course!) Though I really think elves shouldn't be able to see in complete darkness.
Meh:
I much prefer the term 'theme' to 'specialty'.
I'm disappointed that we're moving back to fixed skill lists and fixed ability score use.
Turn Undead got nerfed almost to the point of oblivion. As written, clerics can never turn wights, much less higher-up undead. Now, maybe we'll be able to prepare it in higher slots to affect nastier stuff? But if so, there is no sign of it in the rules. (No sign of preparing *any* spells in higher slots, in fact.) Also, all clerics have this auto-prepared?! Really?! ALL of them? Even the evil ones? Even the Storm Domain priest whose faith doesn't care in the slightest about undead?
Bane and Bless give +/-1 on attack rolls. Really?! Likewise for Prayer, Divine Favor, etc. - why not some form of advantage or disadvantage, rather than moving back to bonuses and penalties?
Many spells inexplicably lack ritual forms - Protection From Evil in particular cries out for this.
Holy Water does still ludicrously small damage. Though I might just declare undead and fiends to be vulnerable to holy damage on general principles, which will help it some.
Alignment: Sigh. Neutral is back to 'maintaining the balance', a stance so witless it makes me want to reach back in time to slap Gygax back into his senses. At least Protection From Evil no longer directly references it.
Huh?
The wording on skills is just weird, and then the Skill Mastery rogue ability compounds the confusion. I figured it out, but man, that's awkward.
The Thief ability Night Vision is utterly useless to a dwarf or elf. I'd give the Thief something else, at least if they have the ability from race.
There were other things for all three lists, but I'm getting tired. Another day!
Arumaer: The ability score bonuses from class are *only* available during character creation, not when multiclassing.
As for the Weapon Attack bonus, I'd say take the best of all your classes. Though that might make single-level-dipping in Fighter too attractive... Strictly speaking, you should do a weighted average of your classes, but that's more complicated than necessary.
Question: When the classes say under Hit Points, 1d10 (or 6) plus Con mod, does that mean:
1) Either roll 1d10 or take 6, depending on what the GM's rule for the campaign is;
2) Either roll 1d10 or take 6, your choice when you level; or
3) Roll 1d10. If the result is less than 6, take 6 instead.
