Wizard, followed closely by cleric and then druid. You know, like every other edition.
Monk, I think we'll be getting the best version of him we've seen in D&D yet.
Rise of the rule sets.
Curently there seems to be a basic rule set with optional modual to change rules.
My prediction is that we will see a growth in the amount of these moduals, and their influece on the game.
Forgoten realms wil use the basic ruleset, but as more campaign settings come out they will diverge further and further from this base ruleset.
Starting with campaign setting that say something like "this campaign setting was designed and playtested asuming the following moduals as default"
Also player created ( or compiled) rulesets will apear.
The difrences between the rule sets would become bigger and bigger, untill a point is reached where just saying we are playing D&D doesen't cover it.
And prases like "we are runing a D&D game using the planescape ruleset" will become more and more common, maybe eventualy even becoming "we are playing planescape"
This will lead to people complaigning that the rule set they decided to use is scattered over multiple books ( PHB,DMG,campaign setting,specific books with aditional moduals)
And this might eventualy lead to campaign specific player handbooks, that gather all the moduals used for one specific ruleset into one book and use them as default.
edwin_su wrote:
I suspect that the asswere is going to come back into style and become the defacto main race of D&D in this edition.
What's hilarious about this thread is Mearls hated the breakout star of 4e and had its arms and legs chopped off.
RIP Warlord.
akaddk wrote:
LFK wrote:
Orzel wrote:
Chakravant wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote:
Paladin even became a subclass of the cavalier.
I hear even eldritch knight and arcane trickster will be sub-classes now. How awful, someone might actually play them!
Eerongal wrote:
Gunthar wrote:
Chakravant wrote:
JohnLynch wrote:
JohnLynch wrote:
We’ve removed content from this thread because of a violation of the Code of Conduct.
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Chakravant wrote:
JohnLynch wrote:
We’ve removed content from this thread because of a violation of the Code of Conduct.
You can review the Code here: http://company.wizards.com/conduct
Please keep your posts polite, on-topic, and refrain from making personal attacks. You are welcome to disagree with one another but please do so respectfully and constructively.
Remember, a community is a joint effort of all those involved, and while we want intelligent meaningful and productive banter to ensue we also need it to be polite and considerate of others.
Thank you for your time and support as we continue to try and make a great community for everyone.
LFK wrote:
We’ve removed content from this thread because of a violation of the Code of Conduct.
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Please keep your posts polite, on-topic, and refrain from making personal attacks. You are welcome to disagree with one another but please do so respectfully and constructively.
Remember, a community is a joint effort of all those involved, and while we want intelligent meaningful and productive banter to ensue we also need it to be polite and considerate of others.
Thank you for your time and support as we continue to try and make a great community for everyone.
Green Knight, whether it's released initially or later on.
Honorable mention to Thaumaturgy.
Orzel wrote:
We’ve removed content from this thread because of a violation of the Code of Conduct.
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Please keep your posts polite, on-topic, and refrain from making personal attacks. You are welcome to disagree with one another but please do so respectfully and constructively.
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Orzel wrote:
akaddk wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote:
4 out of 30 posts here are from mods policing the vitriol. That's pretty sad, guys. Can't we tone down all that negativity and talk nicely?
* Anyway, I'm really excited to see the Eldritch Knight. I predict that will become pretty popular.
* I also predict that Clerics, as always, will be the strongest over-all class. They have a hefty mixture of survivability, utility, heals, and offensive spells/weapons. Kind of a no-brainer.
* Rogues are going to become bad-asses, especially if multiclassed.
That said, I really don't care at all what becomes popular. I'll continue to play the characters I want because of the story I want to tell, not because of some powergaming attitude.
I think it's going to be hard to predict a breakaway class, what with the subclass and subrace system. As things stand, though, I expect the Weaponsmaster Fighter to be huge. Everyone I know loves the new fighter, and they are pumped about not just a warlord, but all the tactics. Eldritch knight has also met with skepticism, but also cautious hope it could be awesome.
So, I expect fighters to be making a breakaway.
Marshall wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
1eejit wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
I will go out on a limb and say the chain warlock. I think between the 5e action economy and my strong suspicion that a wizard or cleric summoning anything will have to use concentration to control the summoned critter which means that pimping your summons will require feats or magic items (like in 4e). Since the chainlock gets the pet via the class feature, I don't think he/she will need concentration and thus will be able to use spells to buff his/her pet (and will probably have access to the same feats and magic items as wizards get). That could make the chainlock the best summoner, and if anything the last couple of editions have proven, when a class is the best at something, a lot of people will love it and a lot of people will hate it--both of which will make it more prominent.
If it is popular, I hope we can get a lovechild of a shaman and an invoker to get a divine version of the chainlock, with more of a partner vibe since I know there are a number of people who are put off by the master/slave connotation (although I am happy to let my players change the fluff on it in the meantime). It seems like there could be some different mechanics (like having the summoner being able to donate some hitpoints to the summoned).
Someone posted pics of the weaponmaster fighter a while back and the warlord potential looks pretty good. You can allow allies to attack, allow them to move, give them extra damage, and even give out temp hp.
If they made the warlord a seperate class, I can't imagine it being all that different.
Really, we'll never let them produce a workable warlord, because it would never satisfy everyone. If it gave out temp oh instead of healing, half the warlord fans would reject it as an unequal healer to the cleric. If it healed, another group would reject it for martial healing. If it did comparable things to the current martial classes, it would be rejected for a lack of tactical options, but if it did more it would be rejected for being unbalanced and better than the other martial classes.
Trying to force a 4e style class into the 5e mold will be a wholly unsatisfying experience.
I'm not a fan of extra classes. New classes should be added when you make something big, like psionics. Classes are a huge part of the game, something you do for as much as twenty levels. They should be big and iconic things, established in fiction and folklore and part of the shared fantasy experience. Too many classes bloats the game faster than any other content.
I'm happy to see WotC keeping classes like the spellsword, beguiler, assassin, and illusionist a part of other classes.
The_Jester wrote:
Mechagamera wrote:
Breakout classes are unlikely in 5e, but I imagine we'll eventually see some really cool ideas for subclasses. However, it does sound like options might be a little more rare in 5th Edition compared to 4e and 3e, with fewer splatbooks being released.
At least that's the plan.
And there's so much established stuff to go through, that just updating the must-have options and content will take some time for new content to appear.
Of course, this will depend on the staff. Many will be reluctant to update and write the content and ideas of other writers, leap at the opportunity to add something new, trying and slip their own little addition into D&D, hoping it will take and become part of the history of the game. But, in practice, most new additions are quickly forgotten and seldom make it to a new edition, for the reasons stated.
Honestly, I'd like to see a mortorium on "new" ideas for at least a couple years and a focus on updating the best of the past. Or work on making their current content as appealing as possible. Let's see some awesome ways and ideas of bringing the new races and options into existing worlds or flavouring them in different ways.
Races becoming PC options is tricky. There's some cool choices, but most have already been done in 2e's Complete Book of Humanoids or 3e's Savage Species or the MM.
All the easy go-to examples like minotairs, gith___, gnolls, orcs, drow, goblins, kobolds, and the like have been done before.
Heck, in 3e they had to set out to create a brand new race that hadn't been seen before to become the cool new antagonist race/ semi-PC race, in the same vein as the githyanki. That was the shadar kai.
Obviously, I see subraces and subclasses being among the breakout additions. Those and backgrounds. I expect a lot of 3rd Party and homebrew options that expand on those additions. Lots of new warlock pacts, sorcerer bloodlines, rogue archetypes, fighting schools, etc.
Ramzour wrote:
With new classes. Setting classes and subclasses won't go far as they are usually tied to settings. And updating old classes will be hard if already linked to author or too similar to old classes. So the vest better for a first timer breakout will be a class too different to meld with another class, like a truenamer or nonmagical crafter.
For race. A class has to have a special thing to breakout. A natural weapon like gnolls, a special sense of antagonism like gobliniods, to a freakishness like plant people.
Dex-based fighter. In terms of numbers, at least, there aren't many reasons to go any other way if you want to play a fighter.
The_Jester wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
Hurin88 wrote:
Hurin88 wrote:
I predict that somebody will build a module that let's you play like you're in the world of Lamia Daughter Quest, so Lamia will become the breakout star.
Eventually, and for a small amount of people, and probably not all that likely, but still a cool idea to me.
I think Eldritch Knights are gonna be popular. Why? One word --Gish 
.
Artifact wrote:
Grifford wrote:
LFK wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
Polaris wrote:
Chakravant wrote:
Polaris wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
Looks close enough to being credible. Although quite outdated. Eldritch knight sems to have 1/3 spell progresion rounded up.
Mephi1234 wrote:
One of the great designs choices in 4E was to avoid “God Stats”, and part of that was Fortitude/Reflex/Will. Sure, DEX still was the natural initiative boost and had some skills associated, but your Reflex could also be derived from INT and you could feat an initiative boost if you really wanted one. STR/INT, CON/INT, CHA/INT and WIS/INT characters no longer automatically had multiple bad defenses/saves.
One of the bad things about 5E is the over-value of Dex once again.
Gunthar wrote:
Gunthar wrote:
UngeheuerLich wrote:
Hurin88 wrote:
h347h50 wrote:
Until he has to scale the castle wall, lift the overturned wagon off his injured ally, or drowns...
Knowing is half the battle!
One of the more subtle breakout starts might be Inspiration.
This is one of this cases of a common house rule so many people use just becoming part of the base ruleset.
And since it's part of the base rules I can imagine lots of homebrew content and variants popping up.
Heck, I'm working on my own subsystem for Ravenloft that builds on Inspiration.
Chakravant wrote:
Gunthar wrote:
Lawolf wrote:
h347h50 wrote:
Lawolf wrote:
h347h50 wrote:
Gunthar wrote:
Polaris wrote:
Lawolf wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
Karnos wrote:
I parsed a duelist using dexterity versus a great weapon fighter using strength with a 1d8 and 2d6 weapon respectively. I assumed an attribute progression of +3 to +5 during the progression and a base AC of 15 for the opponent over twenty levels. I used the Champion martial path outlined by the Basic Rules; so, it takes additional attacks and increasing critical chances into account. Here's what I got:
Level Dexterity Strength
1 5.45 6.65
2 5.45 6.65
3 5.68 7.07
4 6.75 8.23
5 14.55 17.70
6 17.00 20.33
7 17.00 20.33
8 17.00 20.33
9 18.15 21.67
10 18.15 21.67
11 27.23 32.50
12 27.23 32.50
13 28.95 34.50
14 28.95 34.50
15 29.63 35.75
16 29.63 35.75
17 31.35 37.75
18 31.35 37.75
19 31.35 37.75
20 41.80 50.33
It's not a huge difference overall.
Multiple attacks without sacrificing most or all of movement.
The biggest blast for all warriors, especially fighters and monks.
Nesian42Ryukaiel wrote:
The_Jester wrote:
LFK wrote:
Gunthar wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
LFK wrote:
By 'Breakout/New Stars' do you mean who will prove to be OP, and the darling of the min/maxing power gamer crowd?
I don't know about that too much. I would like to see a fighter who can really use pole arms to awesome effect. That'd be a first in D&D, at least for me. There should be a reason to use them aside from reach...
I'd also like to see a psion that isn't a weaker wizard or a wizard emulator.
I hope at least one 5e martial PC has some AoE's and someone other than a damage-focused caster needs some DoaM too.
Really, though, it's up to players and DMs to make something stand out.
It'd be nice if we got a _new_ campaign setting, with something awesome that a lot of people liked, well, except the Gygax grogs.
Too early. There's nothing novel or compelling in the Basic game (which is only to be expected). We'll at least have to wait for the PHB to pick out anything that really says "Look at me, I define all that's great about 5e!"
The paladin will be pretty awesome mechanically I think. An elf archer paladin with a splash of wizard... I think would be pretty nice. Can't wait to see the subclass options though. Put me down for Pal/Wiz... 
TiaNadiezja wrote:
Tony_Vargas wrote:
Lawolf wrote:
We miss feats. I agree with Tony Vargas, it's too soon.
I hope that, in the spirit of 4e, all class will be at least viable, with some honorable mentions.