The Starter Set will be available at Wizards Play Network stores this week, starting on July 3. That day will also see the release of the basic rules for D&D on the Dungeons & Dragons web site.

December 19, 2013 – Renton, WA – Wizards of the Coast today announced that the highly-anticipated new rules system for Dungeons & Dragons will release in summer 2014.

A Little Bit on D&D Next

After the last playtest packet, we're almost done with the classes, races, and other core elements of the game. We haven't shown off multiclassing yet, but it will be in the next packet.

For multiclassing, we're adopting a system similar to 3rd Edition's. Some of this will be old news to longtime readers, but I'm going to recap what we've mentioned before and then add in a few elements that are new.

In order to multiclass, you simply take a level in a new character class when you gain a level.
The math for attack bonuses, saving throws, and so on scales based on your overall character level, so you don't have to worry about accidentally breaking your character.
Multiclassing with spellcasting classes is somewhat similar. Your overall levels in classes that cast spells determines how many spells you can cast. Your levels in those individual classes determine which spells you can prepare. For instance, a 3rd-level mage/3rd-level cleric casts spells per day as a 6th-level character, but can choose to prepare spells available to a 3rd-level wizard or to a 3rd-level cleric. Luckily, our scaling spells ensure that you can still get the most bang for your spells.
What if you combine a fighter and a mage, or a caster class with one that isn't a caster? If you want to dive deeply into such a combination, we're designing a set of subclasses that cater directly to spellcasting. The eldritch knight is a fighter subclass that augments a fighter/mage combination. The warden subclass gives a ranger/druid the flavor and forms of that character class.
Our approach to low-level characters removes the abuses you can achieve by dipping into several classes by spreading out features over the first few levels.
For things such as weapon and armor proficiencies, we have multiclassing-specific rules to ensure that you gain some new proficiencies, but not all of them. You can't dip into fighter to gain all weapons and armor.
So, that's a basic overview of multiclassing. You'll see it in full in our next playtest packet.

In Summary

As you can see, our process is fairly complex and involves keeping several lines of design moving at once. At times, things can seem muddy or confused, but we've been keeping a careful eye on directing this entire process with our major goals intact. I'm confident that, with this plan in place, we can deliver on our two major goals for the game.

This is a long column, so here's a condensed version of the goals for abilities, feats, skills, and backgrounds that I discussed above:

All characters gain a +1 bonus to an ability score of their choice at various levels, depending on the class.
You can trade a +1 bonus to an ability score for a feat if your group uses feats.
In other words, feats are optional and don't appear in the basic game.
Skills are an optional system that your DM might want to use.
Skills are optional and don't appear in the basic game.
Backgrounds give out a combination of areas of knowledge, proficiencies with tools and objects, and special benefits.
An area of knowledge is a situational, +10 bonus to Intelligence checks.
A proficiency indicates you know how to use an item.
The unique benefits are social connections, tricks, and other abilities.

New D&D Next Playtest Content Available!