Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
| Dungeons & Dragons | ||
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| RPG published by Wizards of the Coast |
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| Rule System | D&D | |
| Authors | Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford | |
| First Publication | 2014 | |
Also called D&D Next. The 5th edition of Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. The "sorry about 4E" edition, where they had a long period of playtesting instead of computer simulations. Available as a free 110-page *.pdf with a subset of the rules, and in the usual three hardcover tomes: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual.
Took dramatic steps to try and regain the "feel" of older editions without being a "3.5 tweak-clone" like Pathfinder, due to the immense rage spawned by Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.
Contents
What's The Same
Player classes are still the classics (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard in free version, plus Paladin, Warlock, Sorcerer, Bard, Barbarian, Ranger, Monk, and Druid in full PHB), players have the archetypal races (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling and Human in free version, adding subraces such as Mountain/Hill Dwarves, Forests/Rocks Gnomes, Forests/High/Dark Elves, two versions of the Halfling, also Tieflings and Dragonborns). Spellcasting is through spell slots used to cast the known/daily prepared spells as many times as there are slots available (essentially, you no longer have to assign a spell to each spell slot). Strength, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Charisma. Ability scores can give small bonuses to your dice rolls. Characters can be skilled at predefined tasks like 'acrobatics' or 'intimidation' to get bonus to rolls. Target numbers. Experience points, and every class has the same # of exp to advance to the next level. Classes get features as they reach new class levels. Hit points, roll different dice for random hit-point counts for each class. 10 silver pieces = 1 goldpiece. In combat, targets have armor class to-hit numbers determined by armor & stuff.
Character alignments are two-axis good-evil & law-chaos.
Multiverse in PHB looks like old Planescape with best ideas from 4th Edition cosmology added.
What's Different
A big change is the advantage/disadvantage mechanic, which collapses a hell of a lot of the circumstance bonuses. If a character has an 'advantage' for a skill roll or combat roll, the player rolls two d20 and takes the better one. If a character has a 'disadvantage', roll two d20 and take the worse one. These advantages and disadvantages cancel each other out, and do not accumulate; you will only ever roll two d20 and choose one.
Max skill check DC is 30 {{citation_needed}}. Target numbers including Armor Class are capped hard; no more DC 80 skill rolls, no more AC 120 monsters. Goblins can still hit you when you're a level 20 paladin, they just do weaksauce damage (Fixed damages to make the combats faster are also suggested/used for the weakest creatures). Swarms are still a problem, as are clever little shits, no more Superman characters.
No more BAB. No more skill points; either you have proficiency in a skill, or you don't. As you level up, you get a 'proficiency bonus' (roundUp((level)/4)+1) you add to any rolls for those skill checks you're proficient in. Seems small, but see above about skill checks and ACs not getting stupid large even at high levels.
Attributes are more important than before. They're used for skills checks and saving throws (no more 'fort','reflex','will' per level). Characters will boost their ability scores as they level up, so Intelligence score isn't just your big swollen brain but also your training.
Saving throws are like skills checks. Each class is proficient in two attributes for saving throws, so they get to add their proficiency bonus. So when a Cleric gets hit by a charm spell, that's a wisdom save: d20 + wisdom bonus + proficiency, versus the spell DC (explained below).
Races come with racial bonuses, but you also chooses a racial sub-type. IE. all dwarves get bonuses to save vs. poison, but Hill Dwarfs get +1 Wisdom while Mountain Dwarfs get +2 Strength. This has been around since Dragon Magazine was still a print magazine, but it's codified right there at character generation.
Each class has a subtype called "archetype" you choose at 1st, 2nd or 3rd level, depending on the class. This lets you choose some of the class features you get as you level up. For Clerics this would be their god's domain that the Cleric is gonna be all about (Basic Set only has "Life" domain). For Wizards it's the school of magic (Basic Set only has "Evocation"). Paladins have the Oath they swear.
Character background is now a mandatory part of character generation. A Background includes additional skill and tool proficiencies, and even bonus equipment, as well as a "Feature" that gives some sort of social advantage. For example, a Criminal has a contact in the criminal underground, or a Sailor being able to get free passage for their party in exchange for assisting the ship's crew. Backgrounds also have tables players will roll on to get two Personality Traits, one Ideal, one Bond, and one Flaw, though like most tables of this nature the player can just choose whatever sounds best to them (or come up with their own that fit the background 'cause this is a roleplaying game). When you role-play these well, the DM can give you an "inspiration" token you can spend to get advantage on one roll (that's roll two d20 pick the better one, or cancel out a disadvantage). This has often been a houserule but now it's codified and it will likely push people into using the fanmail mechanic more often, and roleplaying for benifits instead of being entitled to a hero point with every long rest. Presumably this is all to help out new players with the idea of playing a character that isn't of their own personality, but it also probably helps the players who view their characters as walking stat blocks with little to no personality into trying actual roleplaying for once. The PHB even explicitly suggests working with your DM to come up with a custom background if none of the ones in the book really fit your character. The basic set comes with five pre-made character backgrounds, and tables so you can roll the "traits" "ideal" etc.
Starting equipment is now decided with the use of a list for a given class, as well as equipment granted by choosing a background. Some things in a list give you an option, such as choosing between two kinds of weapons or item packs. It's an awfully generous amount of items to start with when you add it all up. Of course, you can roll for starting gp like in older editions, but you stand a decent chance of rolling poorly, and considering how the monk's starting item set alone has the potential to be worth more than the maximum roll for their starting money (22.5 vs. 20 gp, without even taking background equipment into account) you'd be stupid not to take items from the list, unless some rule passed this writer's knowledge.
Electrum pieces are once again acknowledged as existing in D&D.
4e's Legacy
5e plays, looks and feels a hell of a lot more like 2nd edition than anything else, but make no mistake, there's a few things that have crept in from the 4th edition as well, for good or ill.
No mechanical effect to character alignment. No more "Barbarians must be Chaotic, Bards must be Chaotic, Druids must be Neutral, Paladins must be Lawful Good" stuff here. Paladin flavor definitely leans towards the Goodly alignments, but focus is given on following their archetype's Oath over a specific alignment. DM is still given permission to drop a mechanical penalty on a player who is purposely breaking/ignoring their oath, but at least is given the option to switch over to the Blackguard-ish "Oathbreaker Paladin" archetype instead of forcing the player to become a different class instead. Alignment is basically character mindset/flavor only.
Necrotic and Radiant Energy survived the edition change and still replace Positive and Negative Energy, though they are tied to the old "Positive Energy Plane" and "Negative Energy Plane", which are here imagined as secondary planes beyond even the Outer Planes.
Poison also remains a damage type in this edition, but since Poison as its own damage type was a 2e thing that 3e chucked out for some absurd reason, it doesn't really count.
Psychic damage type also remains.
Dragonborn and Tieflings remain core races, appearing in the PHB1 race lineup alongside the iconic human/dwarf/elf/Halfling/gnome/half-elf/half-orc setup. Both races retain aspects of their 4e lore as well, tieflings moreso than dragonborn -- dragonborn, in fact, have been made somewhat closer to the half-dragons/draconic template of older editions in that they need to choose which of the iconic chromatic/metallic dragons they resemble. However, races outside the standard Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Human are now considered uncommon where small town and villages treat them with suspicion.
Eladrin returns as a playable race, here an Elf sub-race introduced in the DMG.
Warlock remains a core class.
Feywild, Shadowfell and Elemental Chaos have all survived the transition.
Second Wind lives on as a class feature for Fighters, probably 'cause they're the class that needed it the most. Action Points sort of live on in the Fighter as well, in the form of Action Surge, which lets a Fighter make a second action on their turn, but needs a short rest before getting this extra action back.
The death/dying mechanic, in which you need three "saving throw" successes or failures at 0 HP to either live or die still remains.
Many class-related feature-powers, like the Warlock's Eldritch invocations, are designated as needing either "a short rest or a long rest", or "a long rest" to recharge after being used. This is essentially a fancier/less universal version of the encounter power & daily power set-up from 4e.
The idea of superpowerful "Epic Boons" being awarded for hitting level 20+ appears in the DMG as a homage to 4e and its Epic Destinies.
Magic/Spellcasting
Spells don't vanish like Vancian spellcasting "fire-and-forget". Clerics and Wizards get a small number of 'cantrips' that they can cast at-will. The attacking ones are equivalent to weapons, and scale up with level. Other do not scale up their effect with caster level, but they may have bigger effects if cast using a higher spell slot. The caster either prepares each day a number of different spells (cleric, druid, wizard) or uses all the spells in his repertoire (sorcerer, warlock, bard) which are then freely cast using spell slots. There is no "Improved Hold Person" or "Hold People," instead you cast this 2nd level spell using a 3rd level slot to affect one additional person.
Some spells can be cast as rituals, usually divination stuff. They take at least 10 minutes to cast as a ritual, but don't use a spell slot. Still needs to be on your spell list, but this means no more blowing an entire day's worth of spell slots on casting "Read Magic" and "Identify" just so you can assess loot.
Some spells, like buff enchantments or protection abjurations, have a continuous effect maintained by 'concentration'. The spellcaster can maintain concentration as a free action, but can only keep concentration going for one spell. No more heaping a bazillion enchantments or abjurations all at once.
Another change to spellcasting is that many spells have been collapsed into one; instead of having six different buff spells, one for each stat, there is now one and you pick which stat to buff when you cast it. Examples of spells that have this are the Runes spell series and the Symbol spells.
Spells are no longer cast with XP as a required component. Wish, for example, does not require EXP to cast; however, it is much more dangerous to use (the caster has a 1/3 chance of never being able to cast it again).
Charge-based magic items such as wands, staves, etc have returned, but are no longer completely "fire and forget". If you use your last charge in such an item, there's a 1 in 20 chance that it will be destroyed (roll a D20 after charges drop to zero, item disintegrates after use if you roll a 1), but otherwise it will regain a number of charges based on the item each morning. So, if you're careful and lucky, you can keep using the same wand (or other item) throughout your career.
Combat
There's a "disengage" maneuver that lets you step away from an enemy without provoking an AoO. The "charge" manoeuvre is noticeably missing , but you can both move your speed and do all of your iterative attacks(which are now a class feature and not based on your to-hit roll.) In addition, you can now break up your movement over the course of your turn; do a partial move, action, then more moving instead of "move then attack." Two weapon fighting doesn't give you a huge minus to your attacks, you just need to use two light weapons and you don't get your usual attribute bonuses with the off-hand.
Combat is faster. {{citation_needed}} The advantage/disadvantage mechanic speeds up combat by making situational modifiers simpler.
Resistance, vulnerability and immunity have changed. Whereas before they used a numeric system, now it's much simpler; you're either Vulnerable (double-damage), Resistant (half-damage) or Immune (no-damage) to a damage type, or you're not. Also, any of these matters is applied explicitly after any circumstances - example given in the PHB is a character with Acid Resistance being hit for 25 Acid damage whilst under a spell that lowers damage by five. So the initial 25 damage is lowered by the spell first, then resistance gets applied, so only 10 Acid damage is inflicted.
Setting
Cosmological setup has some new features. Most notably, the Inner Planes have been changed to have an Exalted-esque "Border Elemental Plane/Elemental Plane/Elemental Chaos" layout. The Border Elemental Planes are closer to 4e's envisioning/reason for revamping the elemental planes; they resemble the material plane, but with the chosen element being more dominant. As one ventures "deeper" into the elemental plane, though, that element becomes more dominant, similar to approaching the Elemental Poles in Creation. Eventually, it's nothing but pure element wherever you look, unless you head back towards the Material Plane. And then, beyond the Elemental Planes, you have the Elemental Chaos, where they all go mad and become a swirling tide of insane elemental matter and energy, giving you stuff like 4e's Riverweb, mountains of burning ice, seas of liquid salt, storms of acid, etcetera. For an example; the Border Elemental Plane of Air would look like an infinite sky with lots of floating islands in it, perhaps even the size of continents. As you venture even deeper into the Plane of Air, those "earthbergs" become rarer and rarer, until eventually there's nothing but infinite, empty space all around you.
No official campaign setting; whereas 3e used "Greyhawk with the serial numbers filed off" and 4e used "Points of Light", 5e just includes basic suggestions so a variety of settings can be done, including Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Eberron, as well as more than enough material to homebrew something.
Races
The first PHB contains the eight iconic races of editions past, plus the 4e additions of Dragonborn and Tiefling.
Dwarves, elves, halflings and humans are all labeled as "common" races who will be seen practically everywhere (save the drow subrace for elves), whilst the others are labeled as being "uncommon" races.
Race design is similar to 4e, minus the "racial powers" setup due to the loss of that mechanic; all bonuses, no penalties - with one subrace exception.
Many races have a subrace mechanic, where they can choose to be a specific kind of that race for further added bonuses.
The first DMG includes rules for custom-building subraces and whole races, with the Eladrin and Aasimar used to demonstrate the rules.
Dwarf
Your standard dwarf. Short and stout, grumpy but loyal, expert craftsmen, love digging, and tough as an old boot sandwich. They get a +2 bonus to Constitution, have Darkvision, protection against poison, training with axe and hammer weapons, training with several kinds of artisan's tools, are slow but immune to heavy armor's speed penalty, and get bonuses when making History checks about stonework. They get two subraces; Hill and Mountain.
Hill Dwarves are wiser (+1 Wisdom) and even tougher than regular dwarves, giving them extra maximum hit points equal to their character level.
Mountain Dwarves are more warlike, getting +2 Strength and free proficiency with light armor and medium armor.
Elf
Still pretty standard; graceful, eerie, beautiful, mary-sueish bastards. Grace translates to a +2 bonus to Dexterity, keen senses give them Darkvision and proficiency in Perception, they are resistant to charming and immune to sleep, and they trance instead of sleeping. They get three subraces; High, Wood and Dark.
High Elves are the magically adept elite. They get +1 Intelligence, proficiency with long & short swords and bows, an extra language, and the ability to cast a Wizard cantrip of the player's choice.
Wood Elves are the iconic forest-dwelling primal elves. +1 to Wisdom, same weapon proficiency as High Elves, even quicker (they have base speed 35 feet, making them the fastest of the default races), and they're extra adept at using natural phenomena for hiding.
Dark Elves have innate magic (Dancing Lights cantrip at level 1, Faerie Fire 1/day at level 3, Darkness 1/day at level 5), superior darkvision, +1 Charisma, proficiency with rapiers, shortswords and hand crossbows, and are the only (sub)race in the corebook with any kind of racial penalty; they take disadvantage to attack rolls and Perception checks when they or their target is in direct sunlight.
The DMG-added Eladrin get the elf weapon proficiency (as per High/Wood Elves), +1 Intelligence, and Misty Step as a spell-like ability usable once per short or long rest (or "Fey Step").
Halfling
Small, cheerful, practical creatures, halflings try to make friends with anybody. They usually don't have any greater goal beyond a simple, pleasant life. They get +2 Dexterity, they're Small sized, their Lucky trait lets them reroll various results of 1, they're resistant to fear effects and they can move through spaces occupied by creatures that are Medium-sized or bigger. Their two subraces are the Lightfoot and the Stout.
Lightfoots are sneaky even by Halfling standards, able to use Medium-sized or bigger creatures to hide behind and gaining +1 Charisma.
Stouts are rumored to have dwarf blood, and so they get +1 Constitution and identical poison protection.
Human
Humans are the versatile race once again. Either they get a +1 bonus to all ability scores, or they get +1 to any two ability scores they want, a free skill proficiency, and a free feat.
Dragonborn
Essentially, they are their 4e counterparts with vaguer backgrounds, dragonborn are still pretty close to what they were. +2 Strength, +1 Charisma, and choose one Chromatic or Metallic Dragon; they get a breath weapon shape, breath weapon damage, and damage resistance based on what they chose (Silver Dragonborn have conical breath weapons that do Cold damage and resist Cold damage themselves, Black Dragonborn have lines of Acid for breath weapons, etc).
Gnome
Crazy, hyper-energetic and insatiably curious, gnomes are also the only uncommon race in the corebook with full subraces, assuming the dragonborn's choice of dragon doesn't count. +2 Intelligence, small-sized, Darkvision, and advantage to any saving throw against magic that relies on Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma.
Forest Gnomes are the more mystical, nature-affiliated gnomes, gaining +1 Dexterity, having the Minor Illusion cantrip as a racial ability, and being able to speak with any natural animal that is Small or smaller. With Dragonlance supported, but the Kender race (thankfully) missing after playtest, these seem to hold up as the kender replacement.
Rock Gnomes are the iconic tinker gnomes, gaining +1 Constitution, being more adept at puzzling out magic items, alchemical objects and technological devices, and starting the game with a set of tinker's tools that let them cobble together small, harmless gizmos like clockwork toys, fire starters and music boxes. In the corebook, it's explicitly stated that these should be used for playing Tinker Gnomes if you're running a Dragonlance game.
Half-Elf
Half-Elves gain +2 Charisma, making them natural diplomats, but also get +1 to two other ability scores of their choice, are automatically proficient in two skills of their choice, as well as retaining the darkvision and resistances to charming and sleep of their elven ancestors. They can also grow beards, something that may have been in previous editions, but is directly addressed in this one.
Half-Orc
Big scary bruisers, half-orcs get +2 strength and +1 constitution, have darkvision, are automatically proficient in the Intimidation skill, are harder to kill than other races, and deal much nastier criticals with melee weapons. New design eliminates the culturally awkward standard of male orcs forcing themselves on human women, to the point of actually raising the idea that the race could be used for playing a half-dwarf, half-orc.
Tiefling
Following in the footsteps of 4e, with a unified (if still very variable) appearance and a tiefling racial backlore as "descendants of a cursed empire" rather than "spawn of a human and a fiend". +1 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, resistant to fire, darkvision and three warlock spells as racial abilities; the Thaumaturgy cantrip (level 1), Hellish Rebuke (1/day at level 3) and Darkness (1/day at level 5).
Aasimar
Added as the sample "create a race" to demonstrate the rules therefore in the DMG, the aasimar is built as a celestial counterpart to the tiefling; +1 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, Darkvision, resistance to necrotic and radiant damages, and the spell-like abilities Light (level 1), Lesser Restoration (1/day at level 3) and Daylight (1/day at level 5).
Classes
Iconic array of 2nd and 3rd edition classes, plus the Warlock.
Classes have a customization "path" option similar to Pathfinder, where player chooses which of an archetype of their class they want to follow - the Berserker Barbarian, the Evoker Wizard, the Wild Magic Sorcerer, the Beastmaster Ranger, etc. This archetype defines a lot of the special abilities that the class gets, and usually starts making itself felt on second or third level.
In a blast to the past, multiclassing requires a certain level of ability scores before a player can choose to multiclass. Much simpler than 2e's dual-classing mechanic, though; all of the core PHB classes only require a 13 in the necessary stat, and apart from the Monk, Paladin and Ranger (who need 13s in two stats) and the Fighter (requires either Strength or Dex), the classes only need one sufficiently high stat.
Barbarian
Still the melee powerhouse, still rages. Now gains armor from Con when not wearing armor, so you can cosplay Conan if you want. Also offers critical damage bonuses, the ability to survive anything that doesn't kill you outright at one hitpoint (with the DC going up until you get medical attention), and the usual barbarian super-speed and dodge bonuses
Has two archetypes - Berserker (standard bonuses to mental defense, causing fear, hitting back out of initiative order, etc.) and Totem Warrior, who is guided by spirits which grant him semi-magical abilities while raging based on the animal spirit he invokes (Eagle offers super-vision and the eventual ability to fly, Wolf helps you track and actually support your party as a pack hunter, Bear actually makes you a pretty good tank) and an overall mystical druidic flavour, including a few druid's rituals. Mix-and-matching totem animals by selecting different powers at different levels is technically allowed by the book, though it makes a point of noting that doing so is rare.
Bard
Still a jack of all trades, but a comprehensive regimen of buffs has made them positively terrifying. Now can routinely get spells from other classes' spell lists, plus some rogue skillmonkey powers, all on top of their own unique musical abilities. The ability to cherry pick spells is amazing, since each class has a few broken options. Swift quiver nets you four attacks at level 10, contagion immediately ruins any enemy you hit it with (permanent stun and nothing's immune to disease), animate dead gives you your own personal army, etc. Hilariously, this means that one of the most often-derided classes in the game is now one of the best picks for people more interested in breaking the game than playing it.
Archetypes are Lore, which is a standard bardic boost to their skillmonkey and caster powers, and Valor, which offers extra weapon profiencies, an extra attack, and combat-buffing, culminating in the ability to attack with a weapon and a spell on the same turn.
Cleric
It's a cleric, duh. Domains, domain spells, domain bonus proficiencies and once-per-rest abilities, all the common stuff. Still the best healer, with Life domain cleric being just a, erm, *insert witty pun about healing here* Former Turn Undead now became Channel Divinity, which has a number of uses - including turning undead. Domains grant additional ways to use Channel Divinity. Basic clerics are no longer so heavily-armoured like before, and have access to basic weapons only, so they don't make paladins look like copycats. Don't worry, War domain grant both Heavy Armor and martial weapons back.
Domains are archetypes for clerics, and are very numerous, so we won't bother listing them. They offer a lot of versatility, losing out to the wizard only because of a somewhat less-comprehensive spell list.
One of the two classes with a "villainous option" that only appears in the DMG - specifically, the necromancy-focused Death domain, which gives powers like enhanced ability at dealing necrotic damage. Hilariously, the PHB itelf acknowledges that death and its clerics aren't necessarily evil and lists multiple non-evil death gods in its various appendices.
Druid
Still here, not quite as eco-terrorist-y, and fully loosening most alignment restrictions. Beaten down from their heights of power to rest on about the same level of power as any spellcaster has always had.
Their archetypes are the Circle of the Land, which is used to make a caster Druid, with a number of cleric-style "domains" representing Druid's native land - like swamp, forest or even the Underdark, plus some passive resistances to poison, disease, fey-charms, soothing the aggression of natural creatures, etc. Meanwhile, the Circle of the Moon, creates a Druid focused on shapeshifting and fighting in animal forms, though they only get one roleplaying benefit, and it only happens when you learn how to turn into people at level 14.
Fighter
What 3.5 fighter should have been, fighters get their own unique goodies from sub-classes, plus the only real Healing Surge left in the game, have an ability boost/extra feat every few levels (ensuring that almost no build is too MAD for a properly leveled fighter, and directly allowing them to benefit from the beefy boosts to feats this edition), and gain crazy amounts of extra attacks that stack while multiclassing. Who's a glorified dip class now?
Archetypes include the Champion, which focuses quite heavily on the athletic aspects of being a fighter, offers some bonuses to critical hits, and gives some beefy fast healing at higher levels for a somewhat-boring but well-rounded choice, the Battle Master who gains access to various "martial maneuvers" powered by "superiority dice," plus several flavor abilities clearly intending to focus on the idea of an intellectual and artistic personality who also happens to be a muscular badass, and the Eldritch Knight, who, hilariously, is channeling the duskblade rather than its namesake prestige class, and is a great method to make a proper battle mage.
Monk
Uses dexterity for attack AND damage rolls at level one, cutting down on the class's infamous MAD, and now has a "Martial Arts" bonus that lets them deal the same scaling damage with all their weapons, not just their bare hands. As before, Monks have a resource called Ki, which they use on a number of abilities granted by their archetype. Open Palm is your classic kung-fu master monk, complete with the famous quivering palm save-or-die power, Shadow grants all sorts of stealth bonuses, explicitly turning the monk into a ninja (reinforced by the fact typical ninja weapons - like kama or nunchaks - are called "monk weapons" here), while Four Elements allows the monk to cast certain spells using Ki, making monk a re-flavoured psion and appealing to Avatar: The Last Airbender fans.
Paladin
Now has cooler flavor that finally makes them somethin more than gimped cleric and doesn't require mechanical restrictions, as mentioned above, so no "be Lawful Good or else be a Blackguard/sucky-ass fighter" crap. According to the leaked Oathbreaker Paladin, an Oathbreaker paladin must be Evil, but there's actually nothing saying that other Paladins can't be evil so long as they still uphold their Oath (although once you break your oath, you cannot redeem yourself while evil - apparently, even if you began as evil Vengeance paladin). Of course, justifying this on a fluff level ranges from easy (Vengeance) to ridiculous (Devotion), and the flavor of the default Oaths is clearly leaning towards either a Good (all) or Neutral (Ancients, Vengeance) alignment.
Smite now uses spell slots, and there is a number of Smite spells, allowing a paladin to burn his foes, hit them with thunder, or torment them for their sins on attack. Sadly, no ranged smites and almost no ranged spells. Their famed lay on hands ability is now a kind of pool they can draw on in discreet intervals. Paladin's Vow is now tied to his archetype or Oath - Devotion makes you a classic lawful good paladin, bent on honor and duty, but with somewhat more freedom, Ancients makes you a sort of elven knight, champion of light and life - imagine a stag-riding knight in green armour, with some druidic spells, while Vengeance makes you a typical inquisitor - his oath basically says "for greater good" and "by any means necessary", which is cool. Blackguards wish they were this cool.
Speaking of Blackguards, the "Oathbreaker Paladin" class branch, got slipped through the backdoor in the DMG, along with the Death Domain and some other goodies deemed too "evil" for PCs. DMs are presented with the option to immediately switch a paladin who dramatically breaks their oath to an Oathbreaker instead of "just" depowering them, too. It quite amply fills the Blackguard's former shoes as a fiend and undead-cavorting, black magic-wielding black knight type character class.
http://i.imgur.com/slrKm8D.jpg
Ranger
Archetypes include Hunter and Beastmaster. Hunters are Drizzt-style "backdoor fighters," with access to a few "fighting styles" that make them rough customers, eventually specializing in either big game hunting or cutting through hordes. Beastmaster gives you a bestial companion, which now behaves like a 4e summoned creature, requiring you to constantly remind it to attack every single round. According to RAW, if you ever get incapacitated your pet will just stand around waiting for a command as assassins stab you to death, though the "rulings not rules" focus of the game might help mitigate that unfortunate occurrence.
Rangers retain Favored Enemies, with a few social benefits included to make them less serial-killer-ish, and are pretty good at hiding (camouflage) and tracking things. Interesting new addition are druidic-flavored spells for arrows and attacks - like transforming your arrow into a hail of thorns, enchanting your quiver to produce ammo or summoning entangling vines from your weapon - most likely the remains of the Seeker, a 4e class created by splitting off the mystic aspects of the ranger and which had a similar "magical arrows and weapons" motif.
Rogue
Still the best skillmonkeys in the game, with some unique powers to boost their dice and reroll when they get unlucky, still have lots of dodgy-bastard powers, and still get backstabbing sneak attack dice. Also have some very-appreciated boosts towards mental defense and the ability to fight invisible enemies with their keen ears, which are fun expansions of the idea for a class that frankly needed a bit of a boost even in Pathfinder.
Archetypes are Thief (the standard model, with bonuses to actual stealing, the ability to use wands, and quick reflex powers), Assassin (for the sorts of rogues who are way too into killing dudes, with nasty ambush powers including the famed Death Attack at level 17 and social powers revolving around concealing your identity) and Arcane Trickster (the obligatory spellcasting off-shoot, with some fun powers for just fucking with people like a stealth video game character with your mage hand, culminating in the ability to literally steal spells from enemies' minds at level 17, which is hilarious even if it's temporary).
Sorcerer
Have access to much smaller spell selection than wizards (basically, they can't learn spells that are too "wizardy" and preparation-oriented, since they don't fit with their wild flavor). They get a lot of versatility in exchange via spontaneous casting and access to "sorcery points" (yeah, a derpy name), which they can expend on metamagic (something only sorcerers get now), on recovering spell slots, etc. Initial archetypes are Dragon Ancestry and Wild Magic. Dragon Ancestry grants you draconic features and powers like armor, breath-weapons, etc. as you level, while Wild Magic produces all sorts of random effects as you cast spells, and by random I mean RANDOM - from creating illusory butterflies, to dropping a fireball centered on yourself, to regenerating health rapidly. Awesome.
Warlock
These too get fewer spells than wizards, but warlocks get a few neat unique spells, notably the sweet-ass eldritch blast cantrip, as well as some domain spells from their archetypes - i.e. beings they made their pacts with: Fiend, Archfey or Great Old One. Yes. You can make a pact with awesome Cthulhu -- the big squidface even gets namedropped as a potential Great Old One in the PHB!
In addition to that, they get a certain pact boon - a spellbook with cantrips, a magic weapon (mostly useful to take advantage of some of the fun magical weapons that require a caster to use), or a familiar. Also, they have certain invocations/mini-feats, granting them normally unavailable spells, altering known spells, etc. Several of them allow you to cast specific regular spells at-will (effectively turning them into higher level cantrips).
Worth noting also is that with the exception of the warlocks' solitary 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells, all their spell slots are of the same level (capping at 5th) and regenerate every short rest, making them the best burst dungeon crawlers in the game.
Wizard
Knows a bag of holding worth of spells, can cast some spells without using up slots at higher levels, etc.
Archetypes are named after schools of magic and grant awesome bonuses when casting spells from those schools - like allowing an Evoker to shape a fireball so it doesn't hurt allies or granting an Abjurer a damage-absorbing shield which recharges as he casts lots of abjurations. All archetypes also get to know spells of their school for cheaper, making spellbook-scribing less of a money-sink.
Not as overwhelmingly powerful as they were in 3.5, but they still have more options than pretty much anyone else, and still get ridiculous at high levels with the right mindset. Simulacrum + wish can bypass the usual restrictions on both spells for free wishes and infinite simulacra, true polymorph allows you to turn your entire party into ancient dragons or pit fiends with no duration limit.
