The 8 classes in the PHB...

[Morrus]

So the Monk and Bard are up in the air?

By "up in the air", do you mean "unknown"?

It all seems pretty certain, with the caveat that 100% accuracy does not exist until the book has been seen. Check the classes section on the 4E Info page for the fairly convincing evidence that the class line-up is as I posted above.

So the Monk and the Bard are... unlikely. We know there are eight classes exactly, and we have very strong evidence of the presence of eight classes.

 

[Guild Goodknife]

I think the "racial change which may raise some eyebrows" could refer to the Eladrin. From what we know they're mostly high elves with new flavor and a new name.

 

[Morrus]

I think the "racial change which may raise some eyebrows" could refer to the Eladrin. From what we know they're mostly high elves with new flavor and a new name.

Nah. The comment was made long after we knew about the Eladrin.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I am pretty sure that gnomes have been confirmed as being playable, but out of the MM instead of the PHB.

 

[M.L. Martin]

So the Monk and the Bard are... unlikely. We know there are eight classes exactly, and we have very strong evidence of the presence of eight classes.

Yes, but was the '8 classes' figure given before or after the book's page count (according to Amazon) jumped by 32? If before, there's enough room for a 9th class, and we just might get one--especially given how cagey the designers are being about 'mystery characters'. Granted, the mystery could be only race, instead of class or both, but I'm not inclined to consider that 8 class count 100% certain just yet.

 

[gothmaugCC]

Morrus, I think you'ven ailed all the classes and races.

In James Wyatt's newest dungeoncraft article (entitled: Episode 1, Its never to early) in Dungeon #151, he goes through the process of building a town for 4th edition. He mentions how "As a starting point, I'm going to flip through the races chapter of the Player's Handbook so that, no matter what race a player chooses for his character, there will be some story ideas in his background.", and deciding where/how each presented race will fit into his new town of greenbriar. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Eladrin.

He does not mention half-elves (though with a elf/human town mix, they are kind of implied), or gnomes.

Tieflings now are another story entirely. He mentiones that they are in the PHB, but he can't think of a good story reason why there would be a population of Tieflings in his new town, and that he would hold off on allowing players to play tieflings until AFTER they had left the general area. I don't know about you, but that doesn't inspire alot of confidence in me about the "new lore" the 4th ed PHB has created for them. If one of the 4th edition designers, who is writing an article for Dungeon magazine as a preview of 4th edition can't figure out where to put them, my faith in thier creative endeavors drops even lower.

 

[Glyfair]

Have I missed anything?

The changeling was mentioned as a possibility at GenCon. We haven't heard anything about it since. While that might argue against being in the PHB I, we also haven't heard anything about it being in the MM I, either. I doubt they would consider putting it in the PHB and then leave it out of the initial books all together.

 

[jeffh]

Nah. The comment was made long after we knew about the Eladrin.

Yeah, but WotC's left hand doesn't always seem to know what the right has been doing in terms of releasing 4E information.

 

[Villano]

So the Monk and Bard are up in the air?

I suspect the Monk will turn up in a 4E Oriental Adventures. Didn't someone say something about monks having a more "Asian flavor"?

 

[Aage]

I believe it has been speculated, and I'd welcome the idea, that a Oriental-style book migh introduce the monk (and ninja/samurai/wu-jen)... Ki Power Source anyone?