Divination

Amusingly enough the spell pictured isn't from the divination school but conjuration.  Which just goes to show that conjuration gets all the good tricks.

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Abjuration

I consider Abjuration the workhorse school of magic.  It gets the job done.  The job being keeping you from becoming a bloody smear on the scenery.  Of course it's not very flashy about it.  So take your pick.  Alive or flashy?  Of course some people will insist on both, but that's a matter for the next school of magic I'm going to posterize.

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Conjuration

Conjuration.  Quite a school.  In 3.5 D&D it is arguably the best school.  If only because whatever your problem you can summon something to deal with it.  It's the epitome of having friends in high or low places.  Depending on your alignment.  I prefer high places because they're less likely to screw you over royally.  Or peasantly.  That said there's a host of fun to be had with a PrC like the malconvoker.  I'm good, and I mess with demons to get them to do what I want.  Nice to see the shoe on the other foot for a change.
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Transmutation

Transmutation is a fun school of magic.  Not the least because it has all the polymorph and other shapechanging magic.  The look on the faces of the enemies when your wizard or other spell caster turns into something completely asskicking is worth the price of admission.  It also has some other useful spells that can buff your allies and hinder your enemies.  But really it's all about the shapechanging.

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Evocation

I've decided to do a (short) series on the D&D magic schools.  At least from the point when there were magic schools.  Starting off today with everyone's favorite, if not most effective, Evocation!  After all, who doesn't want to make things explode.  Especially if there are pretty colors involved.  And death to your enemies.  Can't forget death to your enemies.  Though you might if you stare at the explosion too long.

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Tutorial

There's a lot of talk comparing D&D to video games.  This is usually a negative comparison.  I however believe that D&D could learn a lot from video games.  Especially in the "getting people playing" category.  For the most basic version of D&D (dndnext and all that jazz) rather than toss in an example of play I feel the system should have an introductory adventure that teaches the system as it plays through the adventure.  This should teach the system both to the players and to the DM.  In other words a completely new group of players who have not played before should be able to jump right into playing the adventure.  That's how video games do it.  Straight to the action.  At least in the good ones.  While it is tougher to make such an adventure with roleplaying games I think D&D should take a page from the video game play book and not dink around with long character creation beforehand, especially for new players.  If they want to put that in the advanced version that's fine by me.  I do like me some crunchy fiddly character bits, but I know lots of other people don't and having a new person's first experience with the system be "look at all these options that mean nothing to you right now before you can play" is downright atrocious.

The other proposal I'd like to put forth is no choices at first level.  In other words the basic box (to steal an old term) will only have pre-generated first level characters.  Each one has a short description highlighting their skills and "if you like this, you should pick this character".  You pick one and off you go playing the game.  As a addendum to this, by the end of the first session (which should coincide with the end of the tutorial adventure) the players should reach level 2 and have their first character decision as they level up.  It's fine if the game has to have a few more levels to compensate for this.  Again all of this is for the basic box set to get people into the game.  The indepth crunchy character options can show up in the "advanced" set.

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Normal (For the PCs)

Brain fried.  Have quotes from some decidedly not normal peeps.

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Lamm: (( I am a noble paladin, and I am terrible at my jooooob ))

Gniff: "GNAHHHH only stepping back for a second and then you'll feel my wrath!"
wightpriest: "Your wrath is impotent!"
Lamm: (( Ooooh buuuuuuurn ))

*Msamaki sees nothing
*Enemies in the room are revealed
*Msamaki sees too much

Eneki: (( Im out of words =/ ))
Lamm: (( Speechless, eh? ))

LooneyGM: (( Hanif is up ))
LooneyGM: (( and hanif is down ))

* Lamm walks around with arrows still sticking out of him, inspecting the merchandise

Giff *does CPR Doggy Style *

* Msamaki summons PURGING FLAMES *burp*
Gniff: (( at least it came from that end ))

Lamm: (( Moving is for suckers, so... ))
LoooneyDM: (( you can get flanking if you move ))
Lamm: (( Too thinky. Hitting now! ))

Prophecy

I hate bandwagons.  I really do.  Of course that doesn't mean I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon of getting my prophet on for 5e D&D.  I will be proved completely wrong in any predictions that I make regarding the mechanics of the system but that doesn't stop me from doing it anyways.  Here is my list of mechanical bits that I believe will be in 5e.

The d20 as the main resolution die.  Iconic die of D&D and roleplaying in the USA as a result.  Changing this would burn way more bridges than it would build.  It's staying.

Hit points.  While some are calling for their removal or replacement by a wound/fatigue sort of system I believe these will come back for another round of D&D.

Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha.  They've been around a long time.  I see no reason why WotC will change them up now. It would piss too many off to make a change to the six standard ability score names.

3-18 ability scores.  I'd love to see these gone.  Even if they were only replaced by their bonus mods, ie Str +2 rather than Str 14 (+2 bonus).  That said they've been around forever and enough people will find it "not D&D" if they're gone to ave them dropped.

Armor Class, Defenses, and anything else that has higher number is better.  Since ditching THAC0 D&D has done away with all forms of "lower number is better".  I doubt the number of people who want any of the "lower number is better" options back is big enough for WotC to swap them back in.

Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard.  These are the core concepts of classes/roles that players have been playing in some form or another since the beginning.  They won't go away and I expect them to be the only classes in the lightest version of the new game

Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling.  According to surveys done by the D&D team 2/3rds of players playing the current edition are playing these races.  Tolkien strikes again!  Expect these to be the standard races in the lightest version of new D&D.

That's all I have for now.  Tune in tomorrow for a complete lack of musings and more random quotes from my fun crazy players.


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Lich

I've never really understood the appeal of lichdom.  I know, I know, immortal and all  that jazz.  But even if you were a human fantasy character obsessed with living forever, there are so many better ways to gain long, or eternal life.  And then there's the whole cosmology bit.  Even your lowly commoner can end up somewhere reasonably awesome for eternity if they are sufficiently devout.  That always seemed like a better choice to me than giving up so much to hang out on the material plane forever.  Or if you really want to hang out here on the prime material, figure something else out.  Endless reincarnation loop if you must.

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Sewers

While the dungeons of the fantasy worlds definitely are the classics for crawling around killing things and taking their stuff, what you might find in the sewers under a fantasy metropolis has been of interest to me.  I blame watching teenage mutant ninja turtles as a child.  A whole other world hidden beneath the feet of people who don't care about it, other than the fact that it makes their shit go away.  This of course brings up the possibility of shit based economics but no one really wants to go there.  An idea I heard of similar merit was a mechanical craftsman society living underground (example being dwarves) who tossed their broken and trash pieces of machinery and wizardry into a deep chasm at the edge of their territory.  At the bottom of said chasm live another society of creatures (goblins or some such) who have an entire economy (and possibly religion) based off the "gifts from above".  Food for thought. 
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Edition Wars

I had another poster but given the news of 5e (though technically it isn't being called that yet by WotC) I have this one for you.  I expect despite all of the efforts of the Wizards that there will still be edition wars and trolling and flaming and etc.  I have many many thoughts on this announcement but I will only comment on the one.  It appears to me that Wizards is starting this edition transition off on the right foot.  So far they've avoided sticking their collective foots in their mouths and chewing vigorously.  Time will only tell if they manage to keep it this way or end up fanning the flames of another edition war mess.

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Random Encounters (another)

Random encounters are not something with which I have had lots of experience.  As a DM or GM I prefer to plan out the encounters my players see.  As a player I haven't played under a DM who has used random encounter tables.  That said I find the concept incredibly hilarious.  Why are there these particular creatures attacking us?  Because that's what the DM rolled!  Even better if the table is truly full of randomness that you wouldn't see in any other game.  Like completely aquatic creatures in the middle of a desert or a fire vulnerable creature in an active volcano.  Or an acid shark.  It's a real thing in D&D.  I kid you not.
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Artificers

I'm a fan of artificers, and not just because they're a new class for Eberron.  The idea of having a utility belt full of gadgets that prepare you for any situation is plain old fun. Being the only class that really does the 'tinkerer' role well is added frosting on the cake.  Of course it runs the chance of becoming a complete annoyance to the other players when you don't have enough skills to properly use everything you've created.  Magical mishaps can be amusing the first time or two but after that the other players are going to want you to stick to upgrading their weapons.  Preferably with enchantments that don't explode on them.  Remember, wand of wonder is a privilege, not a right. 
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(Looking for) Trouble

Your players are going to go looking for trouble at some point.  Their methods may vary, and may not be quite so obvious or oblivious to common sense as our poster today but you should still oblige them.  Even more so if they are as crazy going as the poster.  The most fun happens when the players go out on their own to find trouble.  Then they can't complain about what they find when they find it.  Well they can but they were asking for it.
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