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May 24, 2012 -- 8:58AM, Tobold wrote:

Unless I completely missed something in the playtest material, D&D Next does not have "powers" any more, neither for monsters nor for players.

I must say that I am not happy with one aspect of this: It divides character classes into those with spells and those without. And those without spells have considerably less options in a combat round. It appears as if a fighter in combat can't do much more than "attack", while a wizard has a choice between various spells.

Now I totally agree that is more like D&D used to be before 4E, but I found that removing the difference between "interesting" spell-casters and "boring" fighters was one of the best features of 4E, and would be sorry to see that go away.     

I suspect martial powers (under that name or another) will be one of the optional subsystems in the full game or in a supplement later.

Personally, I prefer for there to be some classes without powers, as it creates a wider variety in character playstyle. Sometimes, it's okay to not want to have to worry about having multiple options. It's certainly harder to balance the power-haves and the power-have-nots with one another, but I think the extra work is worth the diversity in the system itself.

May 24, 2012 -- 9:18AM, spqr202 wrote:

May 24, 2012 -- 9:15AM, Fitzco wrote:

During the most recent web conversation, it was stated that the playtest was going to contain the "simple" fighter, but that the finished product is going to contain option-full fighters as well.  So no, the sky isn't falling 

sorta akin to a Player's Option: Combat & Tactics release?

From how it was brought up, I think you're going to have the option of both a slayer (or pre 4E) fighter, as well as a more complex fighter, in the player's handbook from the get go.