D&D Next Basic Ruleset is out!

[Prime32]

[...] it gains an additional action on each of its turns. That action can only be used to take the Attack (one weapon attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide or Use an Object action.

Does that translate to 'attack with one weapon only' or 'one attack only'? Ambiguous wording,  ho!

You can't perform the Attack action with multiple weapons, and "weapon attack" is a defined term. So the second one.

[Amechra]

Two Weapon Fighting lets you make an attack with your off-hand weapon as a Bonus Action.

[Nunkuruji]

To break down two-weapon fighting for Rogues and Fighters

(I think I'm right, correct me if I'm wrong)

Fighter

A 20th level two-weapon fighting Fighter can in 1 round
Attack 4 times with the primary weapon with the attack action; Extra Attack(3)
Attack 1 time with the off-hand weapon as part of the attack action, using the singular bonus action for the round
Use Action Surge and attack 4 times with the primary weapon with the attack action; Extra Attack(3)

I don't believe there's anything that states one gets additional off-hand attacks with Extra Attack, or an additional bonus action with Action Surge


Rogue

A Rogue applies Sneak Attack once per round on a successful attack
Two-Weapon Fighting gives an additional chance to hit and trigger Sneak Attack, should one fail on the primary attack. I think this would be the primary reason to even bother. That said, a Rogue should be looking to have the advantage on the attack most of the time to trigger SA, as such also gaining 2 die rolls for the attack, and thus having better odds to hit anyways.

If you want to take advantage of TWF, I think the best setup ends up being dual daggers
-Need finesse or ranged weapon for SA
-Need light weapon for TWF
-Dagger is all of these things, 2gp/1lb

*I am assuming that a thrown weapon counts as a ranged weapon, even though they are obviously not reprinted under the specific Simple/Martial Ranged Weapons category

This perhaps gives a favorable chance to SA at range or melee
-TWF throw daggers if you have advantage at ranged (20ft). Granted I would probably only throw the 2nd dagger if the 1st misses. I'm going to presume the Rogue still doesn't want to be the initiator into melee. Again, with advantage, 2 die rolls, 1st should hopefully hit anyways.
-TWF melee daggers if your fighter buddy is already up in their face.
-The downside is that you've used the singular bonus action for the round and won't be able to Cunning Action into Dash/Disengage/Hide

I'm a bit disappointed one can't trigger the Hand Crossbow with TWF, though it has the [light] tag like it should be able to. Perhaps the PHB will add some clarity.

[Libertad]

Something spotted over on Something Awful:





So there are certain spells wizards can effectively cast at-will.  According to someone who has the PHB, they include: Alarm, Animal Messenger, Augury, Beast Sense, Chariot of Sustarre, Commune, Commune with Nature, Comprehend Languages, Contact Other Plane, Detect Good and Evil, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, Divination, Drawmiji's Instant Summons, Feign Death, Find Familiar, Find Steed, Forbiddance, Gentle Repose, Identify, Illusory Script, Knock, Leomund's Secret Chest, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Locate Animals or Plants, Locate Creature, Locat Object, Magic Mouth, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, Phantom Steed, Plant Growth, Purify Food and Drink, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Sending, Silence, Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants, Spiritual Weapon, Tenser's Floating Disk, Unseen Servant


Also:

The DM can impose more realism. For example, a suit of plate armor made for one human might not fit another one without significant alterations, and a guard’s uniform might be visibly ill-fitting when an adventurer tries to wear it as a disguise.
Using this variant, when adventurers find armor, clothing, and similar items that are made to be worn, they might need to visit an armorsmith, tailor, leatherworker, or similar expert to make the item wearable. The cost for such work varies from 10 to 40 percent of the market price of the item. The DM can either roll 1d4 x 10 or determine the increase in cost based on the extent of the alterations required.

Hopefully the noncasters get some cool-ass shit to balance out "realism" and ritual casting.

[wotmaniac]

Hopefully the noncasters get some cool-ass shit to balance out "realism" and ritual casting.

Attack 1 time with the off-hand weapon as part of the attack action, using the singular bonus action for the round

[Nunkuruji]

Any indication whether Mansion has a costly material component? Otherwise it encourages more 5 minute work day crap...

I saw the realism sidebar, seemed like a nod to throwing in the more detailed 3.5 rules if you really wanted to deal with it.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Chariot of Sustarre ... niice, that's an oldie 1e Druid spell.

They seriously put recharge magic in Core.  Wow. 
I'm'n'a assume Abuse and Howls will commence soon.
I'll pay lots of attention to this.

While I doubt they actively considered the BG era 4e trick
of using the level 4 Duplicate ritual to bypass components,
(hence making ritual costs near nothing) the wotc boards
had a consistent off-C.O. theme of using rituals without costs.
Musta rubbed off.  Or the casual discussion of 4e NPCs
and monsters having infinite rituals anyways.
Interesting.

[Libertad]

Also, the book out-and-out tells you that you need a Cleric in the party:

[SolEiji]

Also, the book out-and-out tells you that you need a Cleric in the party:

I really want to rewrite that....

"For adventurers, teamwork and versatility is is key to their survival.  Without the healing magic of clerics and paladins, adventurers would quickly succumb to their wounds.  Without the uplifting magical support of bards and clerics, warriors might be overwhelmed by powerful foes.  Without the sheer magical power and versatility of wizards and druids, every threat would be more complicated.  Without the muscle of brave warriors of all brands, squishy spellcasters would find themselves in danger."

[Libertad]

Without the muscle of brave warriors of all brands, squishy spellcasters would find themselves in danger."

If they really cared about fighters they wouldn't have listened to the people screeching about "Damage On A Miss" or "Second Wind."

[JohnnyMayHymn]

if they keep the 1/week stuff (i.e. Cleric's Divine Intervention), Mansion could enable the 15 minute work week

i could see them limiting other abilities to every X days as an attempt at balance

[LordBlades]

Am I the only one who finds 1/week abilities cumbersome?
A day (or rest cycle) is relatively easy to keep track of and a day rarely takes up more than 1 session. A week not so much. An action-packed week(like let's say a town under siege) can easily take up 5-6 sessions. At 2-3 sessions a month this amounts to 2-3 months of RL time. Do they really think having to keep track of ability recharges for that long is fun?

Ultimately, I feel such abilities will just encourage players to take week long breaks. If you've just defeated the goblin tribe threatening the village, there's literally no reason to not twiddle your thumbs in the middle of nowhere for a week before moving on.

[Unbeliever]

Am I the only one who finds 1/week abilities cumbersome?

I agree.  I feel like some old Forgotten Realms stuff also had once/tenday, which falls into the same category.  I have pretty much the same feelings LordBlades does about it. 

I am even not entirely in love with the "per day" model, as the same sorts of issues can arise.  But, the per day one is very much a fixture of D&D, and it's also pretty easy to wrap one's mind around.  Most of us get tired over the course of a hard day, need to rest, etc. 

[Keldar]

In practice, people have tended to treat 1/week abilities as non-existent.  Has anyone ever made use of Quivering Palm?  The rare usage makes it something that is saved for emergencies, which of course never come.  Because there may be a worse one tomorrow. 

Curative abilities with a rare use do have some value.  You encounter situations where they are useful less often, and having one always on hand without eating other resources can be useful.   And when you need it, you actually use it.  Its not like you expect to need to cure another curse tomorrow.  They're still terrible abilities, but they at least they get used.

In short, 1/week abilities are illusions of power, not real power.  They make the player think they're getting something that level, but actually give them nothing.

[Nunkuruji]

1/week ends up usually being 1/chapter in terms of the modules I've run. Good enough to save for the BBEG, I guess. Other than a Paladin Remove Disease, no one else ever had abilities on that timer. Regardless, I don't think the ability was ever used.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Wonder why 1/week abilities, aren't just stuffed into the Rituals.

[Agita]

Without the muscle of brave warriors of all brands, squishy spellcasters would find themselves in danger."

If they really cared about fighters they wouldn't have listened to the people screeching about "Damage On A Miss" or "Second Wind."

Second Wind actually is a fighter class feature, which I think is nice.

While magic is indeed still top dog, I do see a significant difference in the released basic rules in that mundanes are not obsolete. In my experience, gamers tend to be willing to accept differences in power so long as they're not outright trivialized. Tome of Battle's success was in large part founded on this - it didn't make martial adepts as powerful as spellcasters, but it did enable them to not just stand there picking their noses. Mixed parties in World of Darkness and Exalted are predicated on this acceptance, as is the prominence of magic in Shadowrun.
Also noteworthy is that spell slots may actually be a restriction, with the number being reduced compared to 3.x and casting modifier not adding bonus spell slots. Invoking the 15-minute work day is... not fair to the ruleset, I think, as there's really no way for the writers to stop a group that's really determined to implement it. Even if spells like Rope Trick or Magnificent Mansion aren't available, someone will get the idea of blowing all their resources in one encounter and then going "We look for a place to hole up for 24 hours". Not every instance of expecting some reasonability of GMs and players is automatically a case of the Oberoni fallacy.
For that matter, DCs are proportionally significantly lower too, so there's that, and stacking buffs is a no-go in a lot of cases with the Concentration duration.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

  ... so now someone has to build a "just stand there picking their noses" build.  Maybe add in the Sickening condition via somatic component eating said nose picking, eh?