5e Playtest Leak?

As usual my "surfing of channels" has allowed me to get pointed to a post on Something Aweful that purports to be leaked info from very early playtest documents as remembered by the poster.

I cannot vouch for the authenticity and not being a playtester have no clue to the veracity so consume this information with a grain of salt. Also note: At this point it is all speculation and we don't know how the Kraken will take shape come release time.

Below is a condensed form of the info weeding out the nonsense posted by people replying to the OP.

Stats
· Rolling primary method. Array is something like 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.
· Race is +1/-1. Class is +1 to the prime stat (but only if it’s your first class—3.x multiclassing is in effect).
· At level 3, +1 to one stat.
· CON: Your starting hit points is equal to your CON score.
· INT: Extra languages.
· CHA: Loyalty and Max Henchmen
· WIS: Gives bonus to CHA saves (?)
· Score maximums: 18+class+race, so 20 is max, but not clear what “max” means.

Races
· +1/-1 to stats.
· Dwarf: Dwarven weapon training (good with hammers and axes); darkvision 10’.
· Halfling: Automatic proficiency in slings, thrown, etc.
· Human: +1 to all saves, and two bonus d6 that can be applied to any d20 roll(s) in a day.
· Dwarves move 20’, halflings 25’, everyone else seems to be 30’.

Classes
· Skills: +2 for passive checks; +1 for active checks.
· Wizard

o Detect Magic
o Flame Javelin (at-will)
o ritual caster
o Mage Armor (+2 AC for the rest of the day).

· Fighter

o d10 HD
o d10 crit dice (don’t have to confirm to deal the extra damage, but can confirm to deal even more damage)
o Fighting Style

§ Archer: When you shoot, you can shoot again at -5
§ Guardian: Adjacent enemies get -2 to attacks if they don’t include you
§ Slayer: Do an extra d10 on a hit, but then can’t do it again until your next long or short rest
§ Two-weapon fighting: +1 to AC; when you hit with your main weapon, you can attack with your off-hand weapon at -5 (but if you do, you lose the AC bonus until your next turn)

o “Skills”: +1 to break down doors, smash “compartments”, or destroy objects
o +2 to damage rolls with weapon attacks
o Fighter’s surge: Once per day, the fighter can take an action at any time.

Spells
· Spell lists, “spells per level” tables
· Knock: Opens anything. Stuff that’s welded shut, portals held by chains, etc.
· Charm Person: level 1 (brd, drd, wrlk, wiz); Turns someone into a trusted friend and companion. Won’t do anything outside of normal, etc. Target remembers being charmed.
· Invisibility: level 2 (brd, src, wrlk, wiz): DC 17 concealment, advantage against all creatures you attack. It goes away if you do anything harmful.
· Animate Dead: Exists in some form; has a max HD

System
· "Advantage," "combat advantage," "skill advantage," "+2 to skill" - Not normalized yet.
· Crits: Max damage on 20, plus crit dice on confirm, and 20s explode.
· Rules for donning and removing armor

o Heavy armor takes 1d4+1 minutes to remove

· Many of the rules for the playtest documents were copied directly from older sources

o Many 4e-like rules are reworded

· Monsters can lack ability scores—they aren’t susceptible to attacks vs. that ability.

o A wraith with "–" STR can’t be bull rushed; a golem with "–" CON can’t be poisoned

o Undead lack CHA, which means the current version of Turn Undead technically doesn’t work on them.

· Nine alignment axis is back, as are items that have mechanical effects based on alignment.
· 20 status conditions, many of them similar or overlapping
· Healing surges are gone; each rest gives you a certain amount of HP back.
· Action economy is not strictly called out.

o There are no “move actions”, etc.; such things are described in prose.

· “the core maths of the system don't scale with level anymore. There's no base attack bonus and no 4e-style +halflevel, no skill points and no +level to skills either. Absent feats and so on, you have the same chance to hit at level 12 as you did at level 2.”

Monsters
· "Monsters are built 4e-style. They're divided into minion/standard/elite/solo and monsters of increasing rank get more hp and damage per round. Their hp, damage, and AC/to-hit/to-hit-with-spell all scale with level."
· "So anyway, the rules tell you to pencil in what you think the monster's ability scores might be, then compute its hitpoints and attacks and so on. If it makes multiple attacks, divide its per-round damage by the number of attacks it's supposed to make and otherwise mess with the math so everything lines up with the provided table. (Presumably, this is the point when you go back and fill in the monster's precise ability scores, carefully massaging its Str to line up with the static damage bonus on its melee attack, etcetera)."

Items
· Potion of Delusion (Healing): When you drink it, it heals d8 HP, but the next time you take damage, you take an extra d8.
· Unknown item: Each enemy you kill is raised as a 1 HD zombie under your control which doesn’t count against the max HD of undead you can control with Animate Dead.

So let's have a look at some of these bits of info.

There will also be a point buy option for stats that the collector seemed to leave out of the above. I like that rolling is listed as the standard with point buy and set arrays as options. I expect this to be the case anyway.

The class gives a +1 to the prime requisite stat. Ok, nothing wrong there I suppose.

Upon reaching 3rd level characters get a +1 to apply to one of their stats. I don't know the reasoning for it. We never used the aging rules back in 1e unless someone got zapped badly by monsters that cause aging or got that one longevity potion that undid youthfulness instead, or too many haste or wishes were employed. I'm not fond of the 4e explosion of stats since it made no sense. What was causing this vast and unending race to demi-godhood? Why was the common man stuck in 3d6 land while the PCs could have stats eclipsing some dragons? The rationale behind it escaped me. So where does this +1 come from? Will there be more at higher levels too?

CON score as starting hitpoints and then class dice each level after. That isn't too much beyond early edition fighters, and below what a 1e Ranger could potentially get. When it comes to the other classes though it breaks with my feeling that hit points also reflect the training one has in avoiding getting killed in combat. Why would a mage with a high CON be as tough or tougher than someone trained for combat? Also it gives those poor old 1d4hp wizards potentially 4 times the old style hp, talk about a bonus!

INT for extra languages, CHA for Loyalty and Max # of Henchmen, nothing new there. Will reaction rolls be an option?

WIS giving a boost to CHA saves. While I can rationalize it, I still don't know how that is meant to work in game.

Stat score max of 18 + race and class bonus, capped at 20 total. I really have no problem with that or anything to add.

Dwarves are automatically good with hammers and axes. What if the dwarven culture in the campaign world has dwarves more accustomed to using magic than mining and fighting I supposed you could house rule as we're accustomed to doing.
Dwarves also can see 10 feet in the dark. At least there's one race that doesn't need a nightlight to find the bathroom.
Dwarves move 20 feet while halflings move 25 and others move 30. Ok, so that darkvision is perfect for locating the perfect party member to piss on since he's too slow to get to the latrine in time.
Halflings automatically good with slings and throwing things. Read my campaign journals and you'll see that in action.
Humans get a bonus to all saves and twice a day can add 1d6 to any d20 roll. I guess they'll need something to make them interesting enough to play.

Wizards start with Detect Magic, Ritual Caster, An at-will called Flame Javelin which requires a to-hit roll. I'm ok with those I suppose, but they'll also have available the spell Magic Missle which won't miss. Where is Read Magic? Shouldn't they also start with Read Magic?
They also get an all-day-sucker style defense bonus called Mage Armor. It stops functioning when they take their "long rest" You have to sleep sometime you spell sllinging jackass! You just nod off and BAM!

Fighters. Do they get all of the above or is it a menu to choose from?

Invisibility sounds rather weak. The DC to overcome it is a mere 17. A lot of enemies will find the user of that spell easy enough that it won't matter.

Skills seem to have take 10 as the standard passive option and the choice to roll as active option. Also there are various types of "advantage" that give a +2 bonus. Hmmmm . . . can I backstab the lock while I pick it?

Critical hits cause maximum damage for weapon die type on a natural 20. (fighters can automatically add 1d10) Also the 20 can "explode" allowing an additional weapon die type for each natural 20 rolled. Is that going to be needed? Are monster hit points going to still be very high? I hope not since more hit points means longer combats,

20 conditions like slowed, prone, petrified, etc. How often do all these things come into play?

"So anyway, the rules tell you to pencil in what you think the monster's ability scores might be, then compute its hitpoints and attacks and so on. If it makes multiple attacks, divide its per-round damage by the number of attacks it's supposed to make and otherwise mess with the math so everything lines up with the provided table. (Presumably, this is the point when you go back and fill in the monster's precise ability scores, carefully massaging its Str to line up with the static damage bonus on its melee attack, etcetera)."  So much for keeping it simple. I'm not looking to do math homework, I'm looking to play a game. If I'm buying the book the least the publisher can do is give predetermined monster examples to drop right into the game that don't require a slide rule to modify.

Ok, so I'm a little snarky about some of it, but I suppose if they really are trying to make everyone happy they risk pissing everyone off. And, this may not even be legit.