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After tweaking some characters to fit into the changed rules, we began where we left off. The party discovered most of the secret doors in the dungeon thanks to successful spot checks, and found the undead drow "king", from whom they managed to get the crown from by paying him with 90 gp in compensation (the price was originally 300 gp, to which they managed to make him agree to by making hard persuasion checks, and managed to make him agree to a lower price by a nigh-impossible deception check). I gave them XP for good role-playing, and they leveled up. The party, after returning to town, decided to tackle the Ogremoch's Bane quest. They have yet to encounter meaningful threats in terms of combat. The skill die mechanic, while nice, sometimes seems a little too swingy, and I think there should be an option that lets you use a fixed bonus. I am wholly in support of making magic missile a first-level spell instead of a cantrip by default, but having a watered down version as a cantrip you could only take with approval by the DM would be nice. Also, wizards shouldn't have a limit other than spell slots on the number of spells they prepare.

I finally managed to get a group of people, albeit ones who are very new to tabletop roleplaying, together to test the playtest materials, using the reclaiming Blingdenstone adventure:

Characters:

Name: Z. (Real name unkown)
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Fighter (Archer)
Background: Spy
Specialty: Magic-User

Name: Rebecca
Race: Human (I tweaked the race to give an extra feat at level 1, since, surprisingly, the "+2 to one, +1 to all others" ability adjustment, by itself, is pretty weak)
Class: Sorceror
Background: Commoner
Specialty: Necromancer

Name: Gemlin
Race: Hill Dwarf
Class: Fighter (Protector)
Background: Bounty Hunter (also, Z's contact)
Specialty: Survivor

Name: Hamza
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Cleric of Pelor (Sun)
Background: Noble
Specialty: Archer

First of all, character creation was great in that it took up a lot less time than previous editions.

We established that Gemlin was already in Blingdenstone, gathering information. When the other characters arrived, I told them that they knew thay Blingdenstone's further reaches were infested with orcs, kobolds and purple worms, an unkown terror (Ogremoch's Bane) lurked in in the furthest reaches of the caverns, and that Burrow Warden Kargien might have work for them. After being given the quest of retrieving the crown from the House Center, the players agreed to do that first. They dispatched the zombies and fire beetles easily with magic missiles and weaponry, and sprinted through the guard post before the portcullises fell by making successful dexterity checks.

==END OF SESSION 1==

Up until now, I like the current system. The combat, being short due to low HP, doesn't get in the way of the story, although more combat-oriented campaigns would benefit from WotC making rule modules for high HP campaigns ("multiply base HP and base HP gained every by 3, and multiply monster HP by 3" would suffice, and, on the flipside, there could be rule modules for wounds, limb loss, etc.). Advantage/Disadvantage is a nice mechanic since the DM can give it out easily.

In my opinion, rangers should have the option between choosing to specialize in a type of biome (underground, forest, etc.) and gain physical benefits, such as skill training, ability to ignore difficult terrain related to your biome, etc. or be able to use ritual magic from arcane, divine or primal power sources.

I think rangers should still also get a fighting style. For example, a two blade ranger gains feats from the dual wielder specialty as bonus feats, along with other benefits, such as being able to take disadvantage on each attack in exchange for full damage on each one while benefiting from two weapon fighting, while archer rangers gain bonus feats from the archer specialty, and gain exclusive benefits too.

I think spells will be divided according to their power sources, or the main caster class of their source, excluding psionic abilities. So they'll probably be divided into arcane (AKA Wizard), Divine (AKA Cleric), Primal (AKA Druid) spells and psionic abilities.

Psionics should be optional rules, implemented as a feat which grants you psionics when you first take it, and gives you more powers as you take it multiple times, and supplemented by metapsionic feats, and be based around power-points. I think psionic abilities should be divided into minor abilities, which function like minor spells, lesser abilities, which require power points equal to their level, and greater abilities, which require power points equal to twice their level.

Example idea:
A fighter takes the aforementioned psionic feat and gains power points equal to his highest mental ability score, adding 2 every time he gains a level. He gains a number of psionic abilities equal to his highest mental ability score modifier, none of which can be of a higher level than him.

I think that sneak attack's only option shouldn't be extra damage, but should vary according to your rogue scheme. For example, assassins get the extra damage, thieves can immediately make a skill or ability check to steal an item or an amount of gold, and thugs can knock the target etc.

OR:

All rogues deal sneak attack as extra damage, but assassins take decide to take 3 on each die or roll when applying it, and other schemes gain extra effects to sneak attack as normal.

For players and GMs who want combat to last longer, WotC could make a very simple rule module like this in the Next DMG or upcoming playtest packets:

• High-HP Combat: Multiply base character HP and the base HP they gain at every level by 3. Multiply all monsters' HP by 3. 

To adress the extremely low HP of many caster classes in Next:

• Smart Fighter: You can predict the abilities of your foes instead of dodging them.

Benefit: You can substitute your intelligence modifier for your dexterity modifier while using no armor or light armor you are proficient with.

• Dodge the Worst: Even if they hit you, you can make sure they don't strike a vital spot.

Benefit: You can substitute your intelligence modifier for your constitution modifier when determining starting hit points and hit points you gain every level.


I think wizards should have the option of taking these as bonus feats instead of meta-magic feats.

To prevent front-loaded class abilities, weapon and armor proficiencies and class features should be gained every time a character takes a level in a class other than their own, while miscalleanous abilities, such as spells and CS dice should progress normally, since they aren't front-loaded. Thus, classes should have different progression tables for characters who take them as their first class and characters who multiclass into them. This type of progression is more realistic, as, unlike their first level in their first class, which represents the fruit of years of training, taking a level in another class means beginning to learn its techniques.
Here are two sample scenarios, one with a wizard taking a level in fighter, and a fighter taking a level in wizard:

• A wizard takes a level in fighter. He gains leather armor proficiency, along with the ability to cast wizard spells with armor, and proficiency with a specific weapon type within a category (such as blades within finesse weapons). Every time he takes a level in fighter, he moves 2 "steps" up the armor table (such as going from leather proficiency to displacer beast hide and mithral proficiency) or 1 step of moving between categories, or, he can gain proficiency with a weapon he of a specific type within a category. To gain training with martial melee weapons, he must first gain training with finesse weapons, and to gain training with heavy weapons, he must have gained training in martial melee weapons. The same thing applies to ranged weapons. Expertise dice and combat maneuvers progress normally. This way, after 4-8 levels, he has the weapons and armor proficiencies he needs, the amount of levels he needs to take depending on how much of a boost in armor and weapons he wants. For class attack bonuses, only the highest ones between classes counts, so, if he takes more levels in fighter, his weapon attack bonus scales better, and if he takes more levels in wizard, his magic attack bonus progresses better.
• A fighter takes a level in wizard. He gains spells as normal, but gains features such as arcane knowledge, etc. at certain levels, and cannot cast wizard spells with armor other than leather. However, as he takes levels in wizard, he progressively gains the ability to cast wizard spells while using better armor types, like the wizard multiclassing into fighter progressively gaining proficiency with more types of armor.

If a wizard chooses to specialize in a school, they gain benefits at certain levels, in exchange for only being able to cast wizard spells from that school, and having less spell slots. So, a generalist wizard has more latitude in spell casting more spells per day, which makes up for not having special benefits. On a side note, I think all wizards should get an extra meta-magic feat whenever they take a level in wizard when they would gain a feat, and wizards should be able to substitute their intelligence modifier for their DEX and CON modifiers for AC and HP, respectively.

• Evocation: Evokers (Which could be also called warmages, due to most evocation spells being focused on dealing damage) have 1 favored spell per level of wizard spells they can cast (1 favored spell when they can cast 1st level wizard spells, another when they can cast 2nd level wizard spells, etc.). When an evoker uses a favored spell, they have a 50% chance (on a d%) of managing to gather enough residual elemental energy from the spell to treat it as not being expended. This chance decreases by 10% each time the spell is used between long rests.
• Necromancy: Necromancers gain feats from the Necromancer specialty as bonus feats when they reach certain levels of wizard (1, 3, 6, 9, etc.) along with other special benefits, like having your undead servant get stronger as you gain levels in wizard, having multiple undead servants at higher levels, being able to burn hit dice equal to a spell's level to regain the use of that spell, etc. (IMO, Necromancer and Magic-User feats should stay feats, as not only wizards would benefit from them)
• Illusion: Illusionists' school benefits allow for stronger illusions, higher save DCs against illusions, extra illusion spells, and maybe illusory effects gaining special benefits that make them seem more real.