Quick note: for whatever reason when I submitted this it ate the last half of the post, I didn't notice it until after the playtest came out, and I don't feel the need to go back and add all that was stolen by the bit bucket. Read if you wish, but know it's not complete.

On the eve of the playtest I have run out of time. This is what I get for going to band recitals for my daughter and having a job. It didn't help that new information came out that made me have to redo half of my notes.

This will be a very condenced version. I just want to get it out there, and will be covering the last 2 classes. The wizard and the rogue.

What do you get?

Rogues

• Abilities: 1 Dexterity
• Skills: 2 to trained skills (one extra skill or trait?)
• Weapon Profs: Light weapons
• Armor Profs: Light Armor and

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The meat shield, the mixture of muscle, sweat, metal, and badassery that we have all know and love. The Next Speculation seems to be making the fighter not only versatile, but as powerful as wizards in later levels.

Design Goals

The Legends and Lore Fighter Design Goals article stated the following as design goals for the Fighter.

1. The fighter is best at fighting
2. The fighter draws on training and expertise, not magic
3. The fighter exists in a world of myth, fantasy, and legend
4. The fighter is versatile
5. The fighter is the toughest character
6. A high level fighter and a high level wizard are equal

Through this document if something I mention covers one of these goals it will be followed by the number surrounded by parenthesis; ex. (1).

Most of what I will discuss is 1, 4, 5, and 6.

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This is the second entry in my series of "Class Actions" (which, in law, is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court, in this case, WotC D&D department). Here is the first one, about the paladin. Today we're talking about the cleric.

By the end of April, Mike Mearls gave us his "Cleric Design Goals". I should have blogged about this before, but I couldn't find the time, so I'm doing it now. Expect one entry on the fighter, the rogue, and of course, the wizard.

Mearls gives us five concepts D&D's D&D team (see whay I did there?) had as north when designing the new class. Well, not exactly new, but c'mon you got what I meant.

 

1. The Cleric Is a Healer

This is really the obvious one. For as long as I remember, soldiers at World War I shouted

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[sblock=Wait, what?]
Okay, I was hoping this image would speak for itself, but since I happily dance the border between serious commentary and humor, I had better explain.  I created this little grid when thinking about who or what your real model for a class is, while there were arguments going on about what is or isn't an appropiate or representable concept.  This was all for amusement, but I figured I might as well share it, and my reasoning behind it.

FIGHTERS
1e-3e: Yeager (Nodwick).  Not a complicated fellow.  Kills things with swords, likes booze, doesn't have or seem to need extravagent powers.  This is pretty much what the fighting man is and wants to be all the way until 4th edition.
3.5: Nodwick (Nodwick).  Of the core four, Fighters really did get shafted...

Since I'm running out of time I should really get this thing rolling. I may end up in the playtest which may or may not change my current opinions on how things should be, so I should start the speculation while it's still speculation, and before it becomes feedback.

The end of this blog will be updated with a TOC for the future posts I will make in this series. However, before I get into the meat and potatoes of the whole thing I should probably set my scope so that others can see where I am going with this.

Overview Scope

The idea I am going with here is to take what has come foreward in the L&L articles, speculation from many sources (to include myself) from the boards. I will try to give credit to board posters but I may forget or not find where it was first mentioned. Most of what

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There is plenty of room to seperate the paladin and the cleric.
Yes, 3.0e the paladin was underpowered, probably the most comparing the classes, right next to the ranger.
If you look to the next closest iteration, (3.75) Pathfinder, you find that the Paladin was actually balanced with the other classes.

I would like the return of the paladin to chivalry. By following the base chivalrous virtues, the paladin could gain the below..spread out over level progerssions 

Courage - Defending your allies and those who need defending
Justice - Hunting down your "sworn enemies"
Mercy -  sparing an enemy from death,  higher chance of gaining infomation after combat??
Generousity - Essentially Vow of poverty, or giving to those in need, would like variants, if a paladin grants...

To Start I support the ability to play a werewolf drow sorcerer, mind-flayer death knight, or even a dragon vampire. But I believe that these should not be contained within feats.

I have DM/GM and played 3.0, 3.5, 3.75(pathfinder), 4e & StarWarsRPG. From that experience base, my initial reaction is, yes it can be done. Then I paused and began thinking about the mechanics and groundwork that would need to be provided to players and I changed my mind.

To note, in all of my gaming groups, there was a house rule, if its outside of the players handbook and the Dungeom Masters Guide(v3.5), ask the DM.

Races was one of those things that my experienced players would ask about, since I have played a few, I knew very well how the Level adjustment system worked and could even build new races. But if

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There's a lot we don't yet know about 5e mechanics, probably because the designers themselves have not yet figured out what these mechanics are going to look like. So this post is being made based on a couple of assumptions (that may easily prove to be wrong): that the themes mentioned in the recent blog post are going to be builds; that each class is going to have a relatively small number of mechanically distinct themes; that each theme has feats associated with it that provide specific abilities; and that a player can customize their character by taking whatever feats they want from other themes in their class as well as choosing to take levels in other classes.

With those assumptions in mind, I'm going to lay out what I would consider the most important classes to include in 5e and...

In law, to "plead the Fifth" refers to the right not to implicate ones' self in a criminal offense (in this case, contradicting WotC dogma). On the other hand, a class action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court (in this case, WotC D&D department). Having said that, welcome to the "Pleading the Fifth: Class Actions" sub-section in my blog. My best friend in this lair called Wizards Community, Rafael Romo aka LordArchaon, has joined me in this Class Action effort. I'm sure you want to check his view on the paladin too.

Unbreakable Faith: The Paladin  

The controversial clues hinted in a recent DnDNext blog entry about the paladin by Tom LaPille has inspired some friends and me to take some action into giving

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