Clerics and Wizards

Good news to report for both of the D&D Next spellcasters. For clerics, Turn Undead resumes its rightful (in my opinion) place as a Channel Divinity power. The various deity templates each grant a couple of Channel Divinity options -- as well as different armor and weapon proficiencies, domain spells, and special abilities -- so clerics of different faiths will play quite differently. Clerics also receive expertise dice (now renamed "martial damage dice") and, ultimately, a flat damage bonus. All classes that engage in melee combat will receive martial damage dice and this additional martial damage bonus. Fighters and monks can spend martial damage dice to perform maneuvers (just as with expertise dice), but for clerics the martial damage dice can only be used to enhance damage rolls. This way, clerics don't get the fancy maneuvers of their martial companions (they do have spells, after all) but they don't fall behind in terms of raw damage output.

Another interesting change is that clerics and wizards now prepare spells the same way. Both classes prepare a number of spells equal to one plus their wizard or cleric level. This is unlike a strict Vancian system in which the spellcaster must choose exactly which spells he or she will prepare for a given day; if I prepared Knock but have no reason to cast it, I've essentially wasted that spell slot. In the current playtest rules, however, I could prepare, say, Magic Missile and Sleep. If I can cast two spells per day, I could cast each of them once, or either one of them twice. I like the flexibility.