D&D / RPG News for Friday, 6 August, 2010

[Morrus]

[title]Essentials Classes: Fighter (Slayer) Preview[/title]

The preview for the D&D Essentials Fighter (Slayer build) has appeared on WotC's website. It's a heavily armoured martial striker with barbarian-esque stances such as Unfettered Fury and Berserker's Charge.

[title]Gen Con Design & Development: Bill Slavicsek[/title]



Blog of Holding attended the Design & Development panel at Gen Con, which revealed the following tidbits courtesy of Bill Slavicsek:

• Bill Slavicsek confirms that Essentials will not be replacing the PHB 1. They will continue to print the core books as needed. (Slavicsek said the no-reprint rumors were untrue and seemed a little annoyed about the whole rumor.)
• The monsters in Essentials will be iconic d&d monsters, like goblins, orcs, giants, and trolls, but they won't be replacing current MM1 monsters, just adding new varieties of those monsters.
• Essentials won't have a slew of new feats, since there's kind of a sense that D&D <ACRONYM title="D&D 4th Edition">4e</ACRONYM> already has a bit too many feats.
• Some powers will be updated to make them slightly stronger/weaker with the essentials release. Example: Lightning Bolt will have a new keyword (evocation, which matters to essentials mages) and do half damage on a miss.
• Essentials will also be helping codify skill challenges, expanding on work already done in the Dungeon Masters Guide 2.
  

[title]D&D 3.5 News[/title]

• Races with Class: The Hound Archon Races with Class is back by popular demand, this time featuring a 20-level class for the hound archon, allowing players to progress beyond the normal hound archon and into a true paragon of virtue and holy vengeance.

[title]Gen Con Live Feed[/title]

Not at Gen Con? Experience it vicariously through the live video feed!