Ive heard from some of the playtesters that 3rd Edition requires miniatures – is that true?
No. For a substantial portion of the playtest period, the 3rd Edition manuscript included a fairly detailed combat system that encouraged the use of miniatures for determining facing and relative positioning. Those aspects have been somewhat toned down in the final manuscript. 3rd Edition will still support miniatures use far better than any previous version of D&D, but by no means are miniatures required to use the rules. The current set of rules is complete enough to support battles at the “skirmish level” – that is, conflicts where the number of opponents is limited to no more than few dozen. For battles larger than that, a dedicated wargaming system is going to be helpful. There are plans to develop such a system, compatible with 3rd Edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, at some point in the future. As more details are finalized, they will be made public.
