I've been playing D&D for 15 years now and I just wrapped up reading the 5e PHB. I'd though I share my thoughts. This will have what I thought was good, bad, and in general musings.
General Musings
All the tables in the book should be labeled. Just makes referencing a bit easier.
I am bored of Drizzt. Please showcase other authors who write books for you.
A lot of the character art I think is just awful looking.
Chapter 1: Step-by-Step Character Creation
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I love the table reference racial ability scores. Great for quick reference.
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Much easier math then all other editions. Simple doubling or halving bonuses is a great way to streamline things
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Ability score generation. They should have showcased the 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 as the primary method. Rolling for scores almost always means player power levels will be all over the place. I like everyone being on the same playing field and taking it from their.
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I am coming around to the idea of a max ability score of 20. I initially hated it but it seems to allow for more rounded characters, and characters with more play in secondary/tertiary stats to experiment with.
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I dislike random HP. I know people love the randomness of it. But dying in the first fight because of a piddly goblin doesn't make someone an adventurer. Adventurers should be made of a bit tougher stuff.
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Not seeing 1000 xp to get to second level was a bit weird at first
Chapter 2: Races
- There is no Wisdom primary (+2) race. This is a pretty big set back for Clerics/Druids and others whose spellcasting is wisdom based.
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I don't like the Races not all being equal with the stat bumps (except human). All have a +2 to one stat and then a variance between +1 and +2 in other stats. Not much rhyme or reason to it.
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Dwarf - Standard dwarfiness. Though why mention the Duregar if you aren't making them a subrace option.
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Elf - Standard elf - I don't like how it states for the DM to limit race usage for the Drow.
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Halfling - Stout Halfling could have used different features, to much like a dwarf.
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Humans - The Variant seems much better. Also holy crap to the number of names.
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Gnome - They mention the deep gnome but offer no stats.
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I felt the other races are all standard and didn't have anything to say about them.
Chapter 3: Classes
- First off there are a lot of very situational bonuses that most classes have. It leads to cluttered and confusing character sheets.
- All classes have option of starting equipment or gold amounts. I love the starting equipment option.
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Casters being able to user armor while casting with no penalty if proficient. I love it.
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Barbarian - The feature Persistent Rage comes way to late. I see lots of Rages ending early because of rage ending conditions due to table play. They do not have enough scaling damage, or attacks. Frenzy only being used at adventure ends is shitty, unless the party wants to drag a slow brick around.
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Bard - Would be better if Bardic Inspiration could be used as a reaction or a bonus action. Same number of attacks as a barbarian if you are Valor based seems strange to me.
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Cleric - DM controlled powers with Divine Intervention. You shouldn't have to rely on the DM for getting your powers to work. I would like to see Multi-domain stuff (similar to how Pathfinder does it), I can see lots of melee characters going into the War Domain for better scaling damage. Nature domain getting proficiency with heavy armor seems weird.
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Druid - I just didn't find them that interesting to comment on.
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Fighter - 4 attacks at 20, now that is what barbarians should have. Superiority die are kind of weird. They should increase the minimum (by adding proficiency bonus) rather then increasing the die size. Also once out of superiority die Battlemasters get real boring (almost as boring as champions). Some maneuvers shouldn't be tied to the superiority die, they just don't get the dice bonus if used. I can see almost ever classing MCing 2 levels into fighter for Action Surge.
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Monk - Probably my favorite melee class. Deflect Missiles is great with the benefit if you reduce the damage to zero. They also tell you to refluff weapons! Though it should have been repeated in the Equipment chapter to.
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Paladin - Only 1 Channel Divinity per rest is awful. Needs more uses to differentiate more from the Cleric.
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Rogue - Kind of bland. Spell Thief feature is the only thing I found that was of much interest. Pretty cool.
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Ranger - Beast Master ranger is really bad, so that is something for all the 4e fans out there!
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Sorcerer - I love it. Sorcery points are interesting. METAMAGIC IS LIMITED TO SORCERERS! I'm iffy on Wild Surge especially since it is all based on how mean the DM wants to be to you. Also are Wild Surge and Tides of Chaos two different procs? So you can be rolling twice on the table?
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Warlock - Invocations needed to get higher level spells. Huh. I'm not quite sure what they have in mind with the Warlock to be honest.
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Wizard - Standard Wizard. Though a few issues with the spell schools. Shouldn't the ward form Abjuration be a bonus action to make? Are spells considered attacks so could you redirect it with Instinctive Charm?
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Overall I think they fell short with a few of the classes.
Chapter 4: Personality and Background
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Characters can be any sexuality they want, nipped that in the butt before anyone could complain. Good on you WOTC.
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The 9 alignments are back - what is more interesting to me is that there is nothing tied to alignment! Huzzah.
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Languages - Just an aside. Why do so many use the Dwarven script? (Also no common script. I'm so lost!)
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Setting up the Personalities for characters is great to RP newbs and veterans alike. Great for the rookie who doesn't quite get the hang of it yet but having sort of a script to follow, and great for the veteran who might be a bit tied down to some cliches, or makes the same character over and over again.
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Inspiration - Rewarding RP. I don't like it. The story is reward enough. This may help some people though.
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Backgrounds - I feel the features vary a lot in terms of usefulness and the gold amounts for the prepackaged equipment.
Chapter 5: Equipment
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No reason not to take the pre-selected equipment if you are rolling for gold. Way to much risk to be shafted if you roll for it. I'd prefer them to have gold amounts after all pre-selected equipment is taken so you can buy a few odds and ends.
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Shoddy gear can't be resold!
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The Dragon Sorcerer that gets Wings has the gold cost set on a variable amount if they want to get armor made. I don't like that all to much.
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No variable shield sizes. Would have liked to seen Small/large shields (+1/+2)
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Can't use an empty sling as an improvised weapon
At least they though of it. -
If you want to use a crossbow, you better take the Crossbow feat. Being able to only attack with it every other turns SUCKS! I would make the loading cost be 1/2 of your movement. Not an action.
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Fishing Tackle should give advantage when used (for foraging), not all items are described in the equipment packs, also there should be more lock types. Sadly more animals aren't listed. I don't know about you but I like seeing animal prices for some reason.
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Lastly, no descriptions for the weapons. I miss them.
Chapter 6: Customization Options
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They should limit the multiclassing options to 2 or 3 classes at most. Just to limit the power players a bit I think.
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Feats. I don't like them being optional. I think they should have the stat bump taken out (except for Resilient) and be given at the same levels as the Ability Score boosts, or given every other level. So level 1 or 2, 8, and 16 you would have feats. (or 1 or 2, 4, 12, 19) I do however like that they have 4e style of multiclassing. Grabbing some cool features of classes via feats is neat.
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Durable - The name of the feat is wrong. Should be like Quick Mender or something.
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Great Weapon Master - Should be given disadvantage, if going with the whole less math theme.
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Healer - If you cast a spell or make a potion those should benefit from more HP returns.
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Keen Mind - Seems like knowing your way north and hours before sunrise/sunset is more a survival thing. Bland feat.
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Lucky - Everyone should have this.
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Mounted Combat - is interesting
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Sharpshooter - Should be Bows only. Crossbows already have a powerful feat.
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Tavern Brawler should make the dice size d6s.
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Tough - Merge with Durable IMO.
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Weapon Master - Sucks.
Chapter 7: Using Ability Scores
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No more Endurance skill, or not being proficient with Constitution seems kind of off. Shouldn't you be able to prep your body for what you are enduring?
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Skills are good. They kept the jobs based skills regulated to kit proficiency which I love. Doesn't clutter skill lists.
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I love the variant skill system.
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Carrying capacity - Can small creatures carry the same amount of weight? Only mention medium and larger or tiny. Completely misses small.
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Saving Throws - I personally like the Non AC defenses that 4e used. Having to rolls saves for attacks can really bog down play with some dice rollers, rather then just comparing a number.
Chapter 8: Adventuring
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Other Activities - Drawing a map should required Cartographers Tools, Should add an option to cover tracks.
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I like the inclusion of marching order, and that only certain people can benefit from passives depending on where danger is. I hope it will be used well.
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Maximum Fall damage - Hog Wash! I want to fall more then 20d6! Worth of damage.
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Darkvision and Colors - Is it really that important?
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Short Rest - With the limited healing it provides it is going to be another 5 minute work day.
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Long Rest - Only recovers 1/2 levels worth of Hit dice? That is garbage! Long Rest should recover everything. This leads to the healing potion quaffers and wands of cure light wounds spam that every pre 4e edition has.
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Downtime - It has in-game benefits like crafting armor and giving you boosts with Recuperating. I love it.
Chapter 9: Combat
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Initiative - Groups of the same monsters go on same initiative. Glad it is in writing now. (I hate each monster has own). The tie mechanics aren't good. It should go who ever has the highest modifier then, a roll off if still tied. DM shouldn't decide who is faster like that.
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ONE FREE OBJECT INTERACTION! THIS IS AMAZING!
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I love the movement changes. Things are going to be less static and open up a whole new tactical world!
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Reactions - Should change the name to Immediates since some are interrupts and other actual reactions. I like OA being one.
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All creatures are difficult terrain. Makes a lot of sense
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Prone - Dropping prone should require 5-10 feet of movement, or require it to be your turn if you want to drop prone.
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You can't stand on prone creatures spaces. Not even allies. I don't like that change. Going to end up with a lot more dead characters, and annoying blockages in combat.
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Small Creatures - They take up the same amount of space as medium creatures, can carry the same weight as medium creatures (maybe), but they can't wield heavy weapons. I don't get why they are being punished.
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Hard/Soft corners a thing of the past?
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MEDIUM CREATURE CAN NOT SQUEEZE! Squeezing is going into a space one size category smaller then your own. But small creatures take up the same size as medium creatures. This makes zero sense as written.
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I never liked concentration and spell casting
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They clarified what an attack was an edition to late.
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Ranged attacks - They don't provoke. Awesome.
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Half cover and three-quarters cover are bulky terms. Whats wrong with Cover and Superior Cover?
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Critical Hits - Critting and doing less damage then you would have on a normal hit sucks. I really like the 4e method of Maxing damage dice with some bonuses. They should have a max damage die and then another damage die that is rolled. At least there isn't crit confirmation.
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They give a weird example for Resistance and vulnerabilities.
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Temporary Hit points last till a Long rest (or end of spell) I like that.
Chapter 10: Spell Casting
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Preparing spells is dumb. At the end of a long rest you should decide what spells you want prepared for that day. None of the annoying 1-min/spell level. Or else the preparer is spending ~90 minutes at max level preparing the spell list. That spell caster can't take watch, (unless an elf to mediate for 4 hours) It makes the long rests 9.5 hours long.
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Rituals don't take forever to cast like in 4e!
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No grid shapes for the spell shape types
Chapter 11: Spells
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A terribly organized spell list. It should be by spell level, not alphabetically.
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I have way to many notes for the spells to talk about here.
Appendix A: Conditions
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No ongoing, or regeneration conditions
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Removing 1 level of exhaustion after a long rest. That sucks.
Appendix B: Gods of the Multiverse
- No Jergal
Appendix C
I think this is more suited to being in the DMG then PHB
Appendix D: Creature Statistics
Ughhh. Having to reference the spell list for monsters. I loved the 4e stat blocks. Should have stuck with those.
Appendix E: Inspiration Reading
They should have included other editions of D&D.
Sounds fun! Me next:
Preface: This was fun to read.
Ability Scores: The racial bonus summary is handy. A little disappointed "roll 3d6 and arrange how you like" wasn't listed, because this way the bell curve is actually centered on the supposed 10-11 average, but I can see people wanting higher stats for more dangerous professions. They can't list all ways to roll, I suppose.
Races: Happy most of the colorful playtest flavor text made it here. Why the heck are races not in alphabetical order? Humans: I would have preferred Earth ethnicities to Faerunian ethnicities that I find difficult to distinguish without seeing their art objects, appearance, and way of life (which would be material for another book), but I like the idea of including at least one fantasy ethnicity for humans. Tielfing hairlines are still ugly. 
Happy to see no dragon boobs.
Classes: Summary table is handy! I'd have likely preferred book excerpts (like in Races) over the awkward prose intro to each class. Instead of making an MP system that looks like Vancian, go all the way and drop spell slots! Slots take up art space, make spell levels not coincide with the class level they're learned, and are more to remember.
Personality and Background: Great stuff.
Equipment: Happy to see trade goods, mounts and vehicles, and weird-shaped coin illustrations. Trinkets are awesome.
Using Ability Scores: Don't know why the DM rolling secretly for the PCs isn't mentioned, as it has all the benefits of passive checks without the result being predetermined for each PC.
Combat: Medium creatures, by definition, can't squeeze. I'll pretend they're small for such purposes. Two-weapon fighting feels like fighting with two weapons; nice!
Spells: It would have been nice if the spells-by-class (at least for the wizard) had the spell schools indicated, because the combination of class, school, and level is important to know for certain class choices like Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, and any Wizard. Coming from 4e or Dungeon World, I keep thinking these spell descriptions could be condensed a bit more, like: "All creatures within x ft from a point within y feet of you must m (n save for half damage)." Most of the long ones just have elabortate effect, tho'; no helping that.
Appendices: These are fun, but I, alas, Intoxicated is no longer listed.
Art: I overall like the art, tho' some marginal objects appeared oddly flat. I enjoyed the variance in culure of the subjects, and the instructional illustrations (like spell origins and conditions). The tapestry on p.73 is pretty interesting, and I've yet to sit down to decode it.
I've only played a few games so far outside the playtest; resolutions are quick and I don't need to think about the rules much during play as DM or player. I look forward to playing some more.
Well, if the other 1/2 is things liked, it stands to reason for a review. 
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Limond wrote:
Only comment is that I don't believe that a crossbow can only be shot every other round. Rather, you can't shoot more than once in a given turn. I don't see where the loading property says it takes an action to reload the crossbow. It only states that you can't fire more than one shot with the crossbow in a round.
the spell section is dreadfull to be polite.
I hope that second print will remedy that.
they had almost perfect spell list/spell description in 3.5E:
in spell lists by class you had scholl(wiz/sor) and shord description and in long description you had class listed for what classes at what spell level could use that spell.
we could have endurance skill(con) or is it maybe pasted to athletics already?
I kinda expect assimars to be +2 wis +2 cha race.
I really miss a feat at 1st level.
feats should be character based for levels 4,8,12,16,19 and class based at level 6,10,14 for those classes that get them at that level.
we should get 10th level spells for full casters at lvl19, also max 1 slot per day and put some realy powerfull 9th level spells there I.E. wish, gate, time stop, true ressurection etc. maybe buffup some 9th level to match those.
limit multiclassing by having required ability 13 for second class, 15 for 3rd and 17 for 4th class. max 4 total classes. to limit exploits because I stated feats should not be linked to class levels.
I line OPs idea for superiority die; 1d4 + prof bonus is better that incresing die size(more consistency).
inteligence bonus could add bonus languages.
short rest should be 30min, but that is easy to house rule.