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Based on my read throughs of the playtest packet I want to give some initial feedback. 
First, the characters need a lot of work but it's still early so I understand.
Second, armor vs weapons, there are obvious fixes that need to be made here and maybe should have been made before the release.
Third, this packet was meant for going over the core mechanics  not classes.
Going over the core mechanics I love the challenges. They are something new that I like and they will allow more options for dms 
To add more to the story lines. I also like the new advantage disadvantage rules, but I feel they should have more of an effect like being used to solve the weapon armor problem, for example a rogue using a shortsword vs a knight in full plate the rogue has disadvantage but. When the...

See this external blog post here: Alternative 5th edition character: The Bow Fighter

Not sure how extensively this topic has been discussed already, but I don't quite feel up to searching through countless blogs/forum threads right now.

Since they seem to really be stripping classes of previous editions down to the basic elements that differentiate them, I'd like to discuss which classes don't really have much overlap, and see which classes can be stacked as themes or backgrounds on top of them to create what we've seen before. I think all variations of what people want to see would be possible with DnD Next's modularity. Not all variations should necessarily be separate classes, though, but possibly themes instead.

Let's start with what might be the base classes. What does each class have that's unique, and shouldn't be available as a Theme to anyone? I'm going to throw...

Updated my blog with my groups first DnD Next experience. It involved the players successfully using flour to create a dust explosion to take out some of the kobolds. Also, the post includes our thoughts on the system so far. Here is a link to my actual blog. 

garglinggoblin.blogspot.com/ 

Here's a link to my actual blog. I will hopefully soon have some posts up about DnD 5th ed, as well as other pen and paper RPGs. We're going to be test playing tonight!

garglinggoblin.blogspot.com/ 

I am a mathematician by day and a DM by night so this is a chance for me to unite two of my loves.

Mike Mearls said that the advantage system is similar to adding a +5 on a 20 sided die. Let's treat Mr. Mearls as an oracle and see if we can decipher what he means. After a probabilistic analysis, we'll find that he is right--in a way--but that the advantage system is actually much better than simply adding a modifier. 

Rolling two d20's and taking the maximum is the advantage system. What are the probabilites of getting any particluar value? By simply counting the number of ways a roll can occur and dividing by the total number of possible outcomes, we can find:

1     1/400
2     3/400
3     5/400
4     7/400
5     9/400
6    11/400...

Well, I just read through the DND Next playtest materials, and all I can say is WOW what a change. it looks to me like the developers have abandoned many of the more annoying and limiting aspect so f 4E in favor of the type of simple adjustable rules that made 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions so much fun. With the structure of the class powers, and and eventual move to power cards, I often fealt that I was playing Magic, and not DND. DND Next feels more like the earlier versions, where wizards were required a pretty good understanding of the spells, and where the fighter was an easy to play alternative focused more on tactics. The "everyone build effectivly the same" model of 4th edition stagnated the development of memorable characters and reduced the enjoyment of the game. I am hoping the DND...

I am a big believer that the crossbow the the prototype of the muzzle loaded firearm, and that once it is fired it is either to be used as a melee weapon or discarded. Load times on both categories historically preclude multiple uses in close quarters. DnD Next addresses this, but a bit weakly.

As the play test rules stand, the crossbow may be fired as an action, and reloaded as an action. This means that the crossbow weilder attacks every other round, if they stick with the weapon throughout the combat. They can, optionally, load and fire in the same round if they treat it as a disadvantage (roll 2d20 and take lower result). This I also find acceptable except that for the most part a bow does the same amount of damage as its crossbow counterpart and can be fired every round. This makes ...