Miscellaneous Essentials Questions

I got my copy of HotFL last night and have a few questions and observations. First, three questions:

1. I could have sworn that I saw some preview material about an Essentials feat that gave a +1 bonus to speed, but it isn't in the book. Did I dream it?

2. I'm confused about Essentials Paragon Paths. What does an Essentials Thief (for example) get at levels 11-20 if they do not take the Thief PP? Note that by comparison the Essentials ED makes it obvious by describing the ED separately.

3. Is there any restriction at all about mixing Essentials stuff with older 4e material? For example, could a Thief take a Skill Power at level 2 instead of the powers defined in HotFL? Could a standard Rogue take one of the Thief level 2 utilities such as Agile Footwork?

Now the observations, mostly about the Thief:

1. I've spent the most time examining the Thief, and concluded that there is a significant power boost at low levels and when paired with a character that grants basic attacks, but I have doubts about the Thief's power at high levels. I see nothing that could generate Nova-style damage, and though I'm partial to predictable high damage myself, it seems odd.

2. Point #1 notwithstanding, I love what they have done with the Thief. Three things stand out for me: an extra trained skill and an Epic level skill bonus; beautiful CA-granting movement options, including an at-will climb speed!; and a huge leap in the ability of a Thief (relative to a standard Rogue) to operate solo.

3. Thief Tricks are awesome. I would go with Acrobat's and Tactical at the start, and then add Escape Artists's, Ambush and Sneak's, in that order.

4. It's finally possible to play a robust Rogue! No critical secondary ability score means you can push Con through the roof. Take a few of the new feats like Swift Recovery, and a Thief can bounce back from the few blows that actually land.

5. To anyone looking for something new, the Thief and Slayer offer the most. The Warpriest and Mage seem more like variations on a theme.

6. My next character will be an Essentials Thief. Now if I can just get one of my characters killed off "by accident".

7. Total times the word "Thief" appears in this post: 13.

Prestidigitalis said:

7. Total times the word "Thief" appears in this post: 13.

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Alas, I can't help with the questions, but I do tend to compulsively count things and I think you used the word "thief" 14 times in that post, not 13

Prestidigitalis said:

I got my copy of HotFL last night and have a few questions and observations. First, three questions:

1. I could have sworn that I saw some preview material about an Essentials feat that gave a +1 bonus to speed, but it isn't in the book. Did I dream it?

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Looks like. There's Eager Advantage, which will you give +4 speed for the first turn, and Heavy Armor Agility, which lets you ignore the speed penalty from Heavy Armor, but that's all I see.

Prestidigitalis said:

2. I'm confused about Essentials Paragon Paths. What does an Essentials Thief (for example) get at levels 11-20 if they do not take the Thief PP? Note that by comparison the Essentials ED makes it obvious by describing the ED separately.

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If you look at the list of paragon tier abilities on page 186, you'll see [master thief] by these (and "Master thief paragon path feature" in the write-up):
Level 11 Masterful Cunning, Masterful Action, Improve Backstab
Level 12 Fading retreat power
Level 16 Shadow Striker
Level 20 Thief's Advantage

If you take another Paragon Path instead, you lose those abilities and gain whatever your new PP offers instead. The other builds are written up the same way.

Prestidigitalis said:

3. Is there any restriction at all about mixing Essentials stuff with older 4e material? For example, could a Thief take a Skill Power at level 2 instead of the powers defined in HotFL? Could a standard Rogue take one of the Thief level 2 utilities such as Agile Footwork?

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There aren't any restrictions on mixing Essentials stuff with older material, so both of your examples are okay (and there are some non-obvious cases where this works -- for example, you can use standard Cleric prayers instead of the ones granted by your domain, and standard clerics can take the domain-affiliated prayers). What you can't do is use class features together; you can't give a Mage any of the standard wizard implement-specialist features, or a standard fighter the Knight's auras.

Prestidigitalis said:

3. Is there any restriction at all about mixing Essentials stuff with older 4e material? For example, could a Thief take a Skill Power at level 2 instead of the powers defined in HotFL? Could a standard Rogue take one of the Thief level 2 utilities such as Agile Footwork?

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I think you already know this, but I would also say that it's important to keep in mind that the Knight, Slayer and Thief can't take at-will, encounter or daily attack powers from the earlier Fighter and Rogue options. They don't get dailies at all, and they only get more instances of their own special once-per-encounter abilities at the appropriate levels (Power Strike / Backstab). Those are class features, not true encounter powers, so they couldn't be swapped for other encounter powers. Same goes for the at-will stances.

Utility powers, though, would be fine, as you speculated. Feel free to take any utility power tied to your class at the appropriate level, or a skill power if you prefer - that works just fine.

drothgery said:

If you look at the list of paragon tier abilities on page 186, you'll see [master thief] by these (and "Master thief paragon path feature" in the write-up):

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Yeah, it's obvious if you actually read all the words. I was too busy drooling.