Essentials characters in current adventures

[martialclasses]

Hi all,

I played several games in 4e but it was all very easy for me because I just kicked characters out of the CB and played.

I'm curious: Could you make a party of all Essentials character and then play through the Keep on the Shadowfell and/or Thunderspire Labyrinth?
Would these characters perform about as well, better, or worse than a comparable group of PHB 1/2/3 characters in the same situation?
Would the "lack of options" hamstring the Essentials group compared to a nerdily optimized group of "original" characters?

Please keep the answers civil here, I'm not interested in a big fight over Essentials and Wizards' business decisions - if these questions have been asked and answered elsewhere, please let me know where I can see the answers.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Hi, and welcome to ENWorld!

Now I haven't played an Essentials class so far, but I got the impression (both from having read the books and having seen some of them in action) that they're as effective as the PH classes, at least in the heroic tier. Many of the E-classes are more streamlined, easier to build and should be a bit faster in actual play.

That said, how well a party manages to get through the combat-heavy Keep on the Shadowfell depends more on teamwork and a good grasp of tactics IMO; KotS can be quite challenging (Irontooth, anyone?). I don't own the other H-series adventures, so I can't really comment on them.

Tl;dr: It shouldn't make a difference whether you've got Essentials classes, PH classes, or a mix of them. Teamwork and tactics matter.

 

[Pickles JG]

They would certainly cope with those modules - my players ran the pregens though them & they are not optimised or optimisers or very good at teamwork. I suspect essentials characters are not quite up to power with the most optimised PHB characters (or Rangers) but they are perfectly playable.

 

[Raunalyn]

I had an Essentials Knight in the party I ran through KotS, and he was quite effective in many parts of the module, especially in locking down the mobs of kobolds that were trying to squish the Wizard. But, I think that the person playing him was a good tactician, so I'm certain that his success was due to that. But, YMMV...

I haven't seen any of the other Essentials classes in action, but it would appear that they are just as effective in many ways.

 

[Dracomaxis]

I know this is a little late for your post, but I am running a party through those mods currently, and we have 3 essentials characters; half of the party. And honestly, I think I am going to have to say to the party; no more essentials, because these mods arn't made for the Mage with encounters with miss dmg, or the hunter that has an at-will slow. That is just my opinion now, it's only been one session, but those three characters, do more than 75% of the dmg in the fights, and two of them are controllers.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Do you keep in mind, that minions don´t die from misses? I don´t know if it is explicitely spelled out in those modules.

 

[WalterKovacs]

I ran a group all the way up to the end of the 4th module, and for the most part they were running PHB1 classes. [By the time we got to the end, we did have a barbarian in the party, and rogue multiclassed into sorceror, but otherwise we had a fighter, warlord and wizard throughout the life of the party].

Outside of a few situations (ussually brought on by the group triggering a second encounter before the first was done), it was pretty much a breeze. The Trollhaunt was especially bad with the Trolls having extremely low defenses. The only things that ever caused much problem were stuff with high defenses (the constructs in the labyrynth, and the stalagtyte monster in the troll haunt).

Basically, with the right tactics, it can be very easy even without all the new stuff that was introduced over time. [Although some of the time the group did benefit from stuff that was errata'd later, like the orb wizard or the warlord's daily attack that gives an attack bonus to all characters for a whole encounter, etc].

Then again, it can easily go in the opposite direction. I have been playing in a group that is being run through the same encounters. It has been updated (our group is oversized, and he has used some MM3 monsters and updated existing monsters using the rules). It's definitely been more challenging. We still don't end up with dead characters (very often, we did have one, plus some petrifications, but then again, even when I was running, we did end up with character death a couple times).

So, basically, the difficulty level was low already (Although it also gives out less treasure than it should), and the slightly increase in power level through items and feats over time, does sort of make the modules weaker than the average adventurer. Then again even if you left essential characters out of it, items and feats and powers from all the newer books are still available to PHB1 classes. The best solution is to fix the monsters and encounters.