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First, I like the D&D Next Ranger's favored enemy. In playtests, it displays the ranger's specialty versus certain enemies while at the same time letting him or her apply those bonuses to other monster and situations as well. The Giant Killer has been especially impressive. The Brute Hunter felt lacking however.

So... there is no favored enemy variant for Fey.

Those pesky fey. So what do we know about them?

Well according to [url=www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4wand/20121127]James Wyatt's Wandering article[/url], fey are special indeed.

Fey are tricksters

While some can be brutish, most like the indirect route. They will attempt to trick you into unfavorable situations and toy with you if they believe they can. Some fey can disguise themselves as other beings naturally. Many can outright...

Truly I do.

I keep seeing, armor as damage reduction in the list of possible modules for D&D Next. I've seen many DMs and Homebrewers attempt this baby. It'll a hard one. There are plenty of issues to deal with when you at Miss Chance (which is what AC is) and Damage reduction. Many game don't even try to make them near equal because of the difficulty. The difficulty skyrockets when you attempt to do it in a format that is not computerized like tabletop gaming.

For D&D this is especially true. The Defense system is based off AC (miss chance) and HP (diminishing defenses). Adding a 3rd element into the normal scope of action would be hard to balance. There issues are:

1. The relationship between AC and DR. Whether the modules lower armor values or not.
2. The new roles of light, medium, and heavy

...

Sorry no mechs.

In a recent Legends and Lore article, Mike Mearls discussed the the Design Goals of D&D Next.  He stated that the two guiding principles are:

1. Create a version of D&D that embraces the enduring, core elements of the game.
2. Create a set of rules that allows a smooth transition from a simple game to a complex one.

While I wish him and his team good luck on that first goal (they'll need it), it's the second that hooked me. It brought me back to the state I was in during my Playtester Profile Interview last month (props to the interviewer).

The desire to peel away layers. And the best layers to peel are Armor layer, right?

No. Not sending your blood-frenzied barbarian to tackle a stalwart hobgoblin warrior, toss it's face a few knuckles, and rip his chainmail into pieces...