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I ran through my first playtest session last night, it was brief, we covered several of the changes, some of the new features and discussed older editions (A lot of discussion about how 5e feels like 3e).  After a long time spent talking and preparing, we started to roleplay our playtest characters, got into motivations and choosing a hook that everyone agreed upon.

Then we got to encounter A and rolled initiative.  The players knocked down 5 kobolds in the first round before they could act.  A breakdown of rolls went something like this:

The Fighter missed but killed a Kobold due to "close call" from his Reaper feat.

The Wizard used magic missile and subdued one rolling minimum 2 from 1d4+1 reduced the Kobold to 0 and there is no staggered in 5e so he died.

The Rogue used stealth and attacked with Advantage and rolled high, applying sneak attack damage.

The Knight Cleric also rolled high on his d20, although he has the lowest to-hit at +4.

The Healer Cleric, "lanced" a kobold dead, also with a higher than average roll.

When the Kobolds turn came around, they were outnumbered 3 to 5, so I rolled 6 on 1d4+4 for reinforcements, just so that I could use their "Strength in numbers" ability.

From page 6 in the CoC document, Kobolds have two attacks, Spear +0 and dagger +2.  I also used the Bestiary document and found two attacks with different modifiers, Spear +0 and dagger +1.  From the HTP document, I found rules for daggers as Finesse and Ranged weapons, substituting Dex for to-hit and damage.  Since I have no way of knowing if the Kobolds are trained in daggers, like the Rogue, it seems that the +2 to hit and 1d4+2 damage seems like the best option for Kobolds to do the most damage but if the Kobold is trained it could be +4 or even +5 to hit at this low level.
So each kobold attacked with +2 to hit and Advantage.  I sent 4 against the Fighter and 4 against the Melee Cleric because they were front-liners and never rolled higher than 12 on 16d20.  For this reason alone, the strength of the Kobolds was lost on the player immediately.

In round 2, only one miss from the party, 4 down and 5 left.
So the Kobolds lost their Advantage when their attack turns came along.
All 5 remaining Kobolds attacked the fighter and only 2 hit with low damage, 2d4+4 only gave 7 damage.

In round 3, all the Kobolds were finished and the party took a short rest only healing the Fighter 6hp due to rolling low on 1d12+2 but they decided to head out without spending additional resources to heal a single hitpoint.

In area 1 they avoided the trap but also failed to activate the Kobolds in the other room and managed to sneak into the Garbage room and became swarmed by the rats immediately. The Fighter dropped the Dire Rat with one hit from 5hp to -12hp and didn’t even roll max. The Rats did a lot of damage to the Fighter who was the closest to the trash and had quite a lead on the other players so it was difficult to justify them attacking anyone else.  Plus, when they all 18 attacked the Fighter, all attacks were with Advantage, which even though many of their bites hit, the damage was low and the Fighter sucked it up. 

The Wizard asked very politely if he could, “light up the Fighter”, and the Fighter, although it could have dropped him at that moment, elected to be hit with Burning hands.  With half damage on a miss, and the fighter failed his check, all the rats were eliminated with one spell.  Nice and neat.  Cure Light Wounds from the cleric, helped the Fighter get back up a little but still not to full.  Also, the note about the garbage lighting on fire, I elected to play out the worst case scenario, all the players ran from the blaze, black smoke poured out of the room.  They ran into the trapped room to find the Kobolds had been alerted by the smoke and I had plans to bring on the Guards and Chieftain from two other encounters since the smoke was getting really bad.  We rolled initiative but it was late and we had to stop.

My Wizard's Familiar at 3rd level is a pokemon named Pikachu.  In the first round of combat, Pikachu runs up to deliver my touch attack: shocking grasp, before he gets sent back into his pokeball by an ogre's greatclub.

Advantage - Roll 2d20 take the better of the two.
Disadvantage - Roll 2d20 take the wose of the two.
First level hitpoints - Con Score + Single roll of hitdice.
Additional level hitpoints - Single roll of hitdice or Con Mod, which ever is higher.
Dodge - Full defense for +4 bonus to AC and Dex saves and checks.
feet - Squares are gone and feet are back.
Improvise - Roleplaying for power gamers.
Intoxicated - disadvantage and damage reduction 1d6.
Electrum (ep) - half a gold peice?

3.5 Provoke = 5e Disatvantage for ranged attacks and somatic spell casting.
3.5 Damage types are back, including non-leathal damage.
4e Death and dying rules.  
Short Rest + healers kit = roll a dice per HD and add Con Mod to each die rolled.
Light Armor adds Dex Mod.
Medium Armor adds 1/2 Dex Mod.
Heavy Armor adds no Dex and movement is reduced by 5 feet.

dieroll-(number out of 400 rolls)[% chance to roll](number of rolls equal to or greater)[percent to roll dieroll or higher]

2d20 drop the lowest
01-(01)[0.25%](400)[100%]
02-(03)[0.75%](399)[99.75%]
03-(05)[1.25%](396)[99%]
04-(07)[1.75%](391)[97.75%]
05-(09)[2.25%](384)[96%]
06-(11)[2.75%](375)[93.75%]
07-(13)[3.25%](364)[91%]
08-(15)[3.75%](351)[87.75%]
09-(17)[4.25%](336)[84%]
10-(19)[4.75%](319)[79.75%]
11-(21)[5.25%](300)[75%]
12-(23)[5.75%](279)[69.75%]
13-(25)[6.25%](256)[64%]
14-(27)[6.75%](231)[57.75%]
15-(29)[7.25%](204)[51%]
16-(31)[7.75%](175)[43.75%]
17-(33)[8.25%](144)[36%]
18-(35)[8.75%](111)[27.75%]
19-(37)[9.25%](76)[19%]
20-(39)[9.75%](39)[9.75%]

1d20
01-(1)[5%](20)[100%]
02-(1)[5%](19)[95%]
03-(1)[5%](18)[90%]
04-(1)[5%](17)[85%]
05-(1)[5%](16)[80%]
06-(1)[5%](15)[75%]
07-(1)[5%](14)[70%]
08-(1)[5%](13)[65%]
09-(1)[5%](12)[60%]
10-(1)[5%](11)[55%]
11-(1)[5%](10)[50%]
12-(1)[5%](09)[45%]
13-(1)[5%](08)[40%]
14-(1)[5%](07)[35%]
15-(1)[5%](06)[30%]
16-(1)[5%](05)[25%]
17-(1)[5%](04)[20%]
18-(1)[5%](03)[15%]
19-(1)[5%](02)[10%]
20-(1)[5%](01)[5%]

The percentage increase for each dieroll from 1d20 to 2d20 drop the lowest.
01-[+0%]
02-[+4.75%]
03-[+8.99%]
04-[+12.75%]
05-[+15.99%]
06-[+18.75%]
07-[+21%]
08-[+22.74%]
09-[+24%]
10-[+24.74%]
11-[+25%]
12-[+24.75%]
13-[+24%]
14-[+22.75%]
15-[+21%]
16-[+18.75%]
17-[+15.99%]
18-[+12.75%]
19-[+9%]
20-[+4.75%]

community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

"From the Livechat earlier this week, all the numbers are, in fact, accurate. The increased damage dice are due to racial features that are "hidden.""

This is classic pregen style from WotC.  Until the character generation mechanics are published we have to go by what's on the character sheets.

community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

Defender is nice ability.

Defender: While you are using a shield, when a creature within 5 feet of you is attacked, as a reaction you can give the attacker disadvantage on the attack. 

Reactions: Some actions allow you to act when it isn't your turn, usually in response to a trigger...  When you take a reaction, you can't take another one until the start of your next turn.  Also, any effect that denies you the ability to take actions also prohibits you from taking a reaction.

As a Knight, the Cleric of Moradin is going to be on the front line attacking with the Fighter (or the Rogue) and each round, as a reaction, he can make the monsters roll twice and take the lower result on an ally.  This promotes team play and staying close to the cleric.

Two PCs with the Defender ability, using it on each other might resemble phalanx soldiers.

I loved playing my 4e Avenger.  She rolled twice against her Oath. 

Here are some Stats for 5e Advantage.


Regular Roll
1d20 average is 10.5

Advantage Roll
2d20 take the highest is 5530/400 = 13.825

13.825 = 10.5 +3 +13/40

Disadvantage Roll
2d20 take the lowest is 2870/400 = 7.175

7.175 = 10.5 -3 -13/40

Advantage/Disadvantage is around +3/-3 on average.

2e had Vancian
3e introduced attacks of opportunity, prestige classes
4e added powers, surges, bloodied

I'd like to see something new in 5th edition that makes gameplay better and more fun.

I finally downloaded the playtest, I was unable to download before.  I read over the letter and skimmed all the rest.  My overall first impression is that the new edition is similar to 4e with returning elements from previous editions, possibly 3.5 and 3e, possibly earlier.  I have yet to notice any unique or new rules.