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[WotC_Trevor]

Hey guys. So before I get into this I want to point out that most of what I'm about to say, Mike or others here have already said, but I figured I'd come in and offer my clarifying points.

One of the first ideas behind Essentials was to change D&D in a way that was easier for new players to get at. This covers the marketing, repackaging, and simplifying some stuff that a lot of people here have touched on.

So this evolved into pulling out the rules and putting them in their own book, giving a small slice of 1-2 levels in the Starter Set/Red Box, a DM Kit with tokens and such, and a couple class/race books for players. With that basic idea, we also needed to make sure that we had something awesome to offer current players. And that's where the old classes/new builds thing comes into play.

And seriously, new builds is what I would liken the crunchy bits in the Essentials players books to. You've got the basic PH1 Fighter, you've got the battlerager, and then you'll have the Essentials fighter build. You have the Bow/Two weapon ranger, you have the beast ranger, and you have the Essentials ranger. The rules for playing the game don't change (beyond adding the rules updates into the compendium), and a party could easily have an Essentials build rogue right along side a Brawny Rogue from PH1 - that is, assuming the party wanted two melee strikers.

So there's my take on Essentials, and hopefully that mesh's with what you already know about it because... well... I'm really saying the same things that have already been said. As to rumors and speculation, this is the interwebz so I definitely expect to see people spinning up ideas of what they think Essentials is and isn't, but we'll be giving out more information as we get closer to the Essentials release. Next time will be a bit on the Compendium (as Mike pointed out) and once that's up we'll have more about the next tidbit.

Comments

	Thanks for the input! :)
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