Maneuvers

In the previous verson, fighters got access to cool combat maneuvers utilizing Expertise Dice. By expending Expertise Dice on a round-by-round basis, the fighter could add to his or her damage output, offset damage inflicted by foes, inflict damage on a miss, etc. Maneuvers give the fighter a lot of tactical options. In the latest iteration of the rules, maneuvers and Expertise Dice have been expanded to rogues. Good news for rogues, right? Well, maybe not...

• Sneak Attack has been nerfed worse than anything I've ever seen before. Remember how powerful it was in the previous version? Now it's just a conditional version of the fighter's Deadly Strike maneuver -- the maneuver that allows the fighter to use Expertise Dice to inflict additional damage. The rogue's Sneak Attack maneuver does the same thing, except the rogue must have advantage or the target must be adjacent to one of the rogue's allies. Players of rogues should be up in arms about this change; in my opinion, this is one of the worst aspects of the current playtest rules.
• Fighters and rogues share a lot maneuvers, to the point where I'm feeling that we've lost a lot of what makes each class special and distinct. The rogue is the one who really suffers here. Does the fighter really need access to Spring Attack and Tumbling Dodge?
• Fighter maneuvers like Volley and Whirlwind attack allow you to attack multiple foes by expending Expertise Dice. The fighter just keeps getting better.
• Expertise Dice now refresh at the end of your turn, not at beginning of your next turn. This may seem like a trivial change, but it's actually quite significant. Now, the player no longer needs to consider holding one or more Expertise Dice in reserve to use as reactions for countering enemy attacks. This will essentially eliminate "wasting" Expertise Dice that were held in reserve but were not needed.

Before turning to the next topic (spell-casters), I think it's worth pausing for a moment and considering just how badly rogues fare in this current iteration. The fighter trumps the rogue's signature combat ability and, all other things being equal, will have a better hit roll and wield higher-damaging weapons. The fighter also gets a second attack at sixth level. The rogue gets...a few more skills. Not good.