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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...

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...

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.