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   Are there auto successes in D&D Next when it comes to skills? Does the rogue have more of those built in due to his awesomeness with skills?

...we also suggest that DMs allow automatic success whenever the players do something creative or clever that should just work.
It makes me happy that they're pointing this out. Way too many DMs IMO reward creative or clever solutions that should just work by saying "Yeah, here's a bonus. Roll the dice."

As for the rogue, we're looking at more reliability for the class, rather than automatic success.
Of course, more reliability can occasionally mean a greater number of situations where the success is, in fact, automatic.

   Is the idea in D&D Next that all fights or encounters could be run with or without a grid, or do you expect that some encounters or scenarios will require a grid?

In general, we want the vast majority of our rules to be perfectly functional whether you're using the grid or otherwise.
Not super happy with this. If the simple core rules are in fact complex grid rules, what's the point? I don't like grids, because they bog down the combat. Giving me a system bogged down with grid rules and saying 'oh, you don't have to use the grid' doesn't strike me as the best solution. We'll see how easy it is to run fast, simple combat with the rules. If it's not easy, we'll give that feedback.

Moreover, I think including encounters that make use of a battlemat nearly mandatory is something we want to be judicious with, saving it for adventures that are really geared toward the tactical style of play.
Including encounters that make the use of a game board nearly mandatory is going to make my non-purchase of whatever product you put that in absolutely mandatory. As an aside, what percentage of RPGs have 'nearly mandatory' grids in their core rules? 4E... 3.5 maybe... Mechwarrior? Grids aren't an RPG system, they're a wargaming system that's badly failed its disguise check.

   How many playtests with pregens do you think we'll go through before we start getting into the character creation rules?

After a couple months of testing the actual roleplaying game, you can futz around with the paper-dolls to your heart's content.

May 21, 2012 -- 10:03PM, Tevish_Szat wrote:

2. Sounds to me that rogues get the option to "Take 10" after rolling the dice to see if they got better than 10.  Which is awesome.

Upon looking again, appears you're right. Sort of like how Perception checks were handled in 4e - you roll, and then either take that result or your 'Passive Perception' score (10 + check modifier), whichever is higher.