Given how the Guild is, at least to some extent, a large conglomerate of many, many roleplayers with countless backgrounds and walks of life I figured it was only fitting to bring up the topic of the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons seeing as there wasn't one - at all, even in the various interest checks.

In short, I am curious as to what any of you think, regardless if you've played any of the tests, the modules, or the game itself.

For myself just having read over the Player's Handbook the game's core elements seem like a welcome throwback to 3.5e with a lot of the craziness of 3.5e heavily scaled back and rendered more tame; spellcasters in particular. Yet at the same time it has that sense of more to it than "I swing my axe at the orc." for most melee classes - the Fighter and Paladin being quite distinct, and the Monk actually looking viable and fun. Spellcasters still have their classical advantage of versatility, limited largely by the new Concentration mechanic, but better longevity than previously (outside of 4e). Multiclassing is a lot more fun, I think is the best word. You don't instantly suck if you lose spell casting levels or dip more than a few levels into a class; hell, some classes even have variants now that get spells as part of their class (the Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster) when they're classically non-casters.

The races look fairly attractive individually; no more human racial superiority, albeit the variant human is [i]still[/i] superior in most cases given how rare skills and feats are, and how most classes now only require two stats. Elves aren't actually terrible, aside from the Drow with their light sensitivity (that racial is murderous if you ask me for most games - somehow more so than actually [i]playing[/i] a Drow elf in most games), and half-elves aren't bad either. Halflings are absolutely stellar - their Lucky racial is fantastic, easily one of the best if not the absolute best racial.

Feats feel extremely powerful (beyond your Power Attack + Leap Attack + Shock Trooper + Combat Brute combos of 3.5e), and given how many stat boosts Fighters get, I am fairly impressed with where their power level sits; though most appear to be melee oriented, it is about time and a welcome change. Feats are even, strangely, entirely optional... that part I'm not sure I agree with, but I guess that is the way they got away with letting a Dungeon Master block things they might see as "too powerful" more easily and have text to back it up outside of Rule Zero.

Advantage and disadvantage as mechanics are... neat, and there's plenty of room for weal and woe in them. It does invent some oddities, but again, it is left to the Dungeon Master to decide if someone is actually at an advantage or disadvantage, especially since both cancel out and you're not digging through rules or begging your Controller or Leader to help you out of a dire spot. Saves based on each ability score? Really interesting, and while I can't say it is "perfect", it certainly makes every class need at least a bit of something - or, if not, give it a bit more impact. I'm still going to err that Wisdom and Constitution checks are going to likely be the most important ones still, but time will tell.

What are your opinions, complaints, pros, cons, and so forth? What sort of characters are you intending (or already have) built, why those?