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Introducing New Player to Epic Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7096107" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I think it is more fair to say that PHB3 is why there was Essentials. It is really mostly a heap of crap and adds little to 4e IMHO, though the hybrid rules are an exception (and there are some perfectly decent feats and various other individual elements). About the only GOOD thing it has is the Monk. Psionics could have just been left on the roadside dead for all it did for 4e, the implementation was sub-par, none of the psionic classes was memorable or much of a success. </p><p></p><p>The rest was equally meh. The Runepriest is a mass of highly trivial modifiers that are all gated by various obscure modal switches that don't exist for any clear thematic reason. Then its coupled with an almost-mandatory feat chain that actually manages to deprive you almost all feat choice, something even most of the highly feat-starved builds of other classes didn't manage to do. </p><p></p><p>The Seeker is abysmal. Filled with weak powers and based on a sort of forced concept that doesn't thematically gel. It COULD have been a decent class despite some thematic questionability, but they managed to totally botch it. </p><p></p><p>The PHB3 races aren't much better. Minotaurs are OK, but highly niche and mechanically highly channeled towards certain specific builds. Shardminds are maybe in some sense a cool idea, but at best they didn't follow up on it and at worst its just a very weird race with no real reason to exist. Which brings us to the Wilden, which is just kinda meh. Not quite picking up on the myths of the 'green man', and again hard pressed to justify itself. Githzerai is just more weirdness. It goes with the theme of the book at least, which is something. Its still a bit 'out there' as something to actually play in most campaigns. </p><p></p><p>The entire book felt a lot like the leftover dregs of stuff that wasn't really up to snuff but was needed for page filler to ballast the psionics stuff that was only justified by the fact that most earlier editions eventually tacked it on somewhere, so 4e was obliged to do likewise. </p><p></p><p>PHB3 really shouldn't ever have been published. Instead they should have come out with basically versions of HotFW, HotEC, and maybe done a niche book purely on psionics (with better classes), and then perhaps a Heroes of the Orient with monks and some fleshed out versions of the OA stuff they did in Dragon (which was pretty good, as was the Monk of course).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7096107, member: 82106"] I think it is more fair to say that PHB3 is why there was Essentials. It is really mostly a heap of crap and adds little to 4e IMHO, though the hybrid rules are an exception (and there are some perfectly decent feats and various other individual elements). About the only GOOD thing it has is the Monk. Psionics could have just been left on the roadside dead for all it did for 4e, the implementation was sub-par, none of the psionic classes was memorable or much of a success. The rest was equally meh. The Runepriest is a mass of highly trivial modifiers that are all gated by various obscure modal switches that don't exist for any clear thematic reason. Then its coupled with an almost-mandatory feat chain that actually manages to deprive you almost all feat choice, something even most of the highly feat-starved builds of other classes didn't manage to do. The Seeker is abysmal. Filled with weak powers and based on a sort of forced concept that doesn't thematically gel. It COULD have been a decent class despite some thematic questionability, but they managed to totally botch it. The PHB3 races aren't much better. Minotaurs are OK, but highly niche and mechanically highly channeled towards certain specific builds. Shardminds are maybe in some sense a cool idea, but at best they didn't follow up on it and at worst its just a very weird race with no real reason to exist. Which brings us to the Wilden, which is just kinda meh. Not quite picking up on the myths of the 'green man', and again hard pressed to justify itself. Githzerai is just more weirdness. It goes with the theme of the book at least, which is something. Its still a bit 'out there' as something to actually play in most campaigns. The entire book felt a lot like the leftover dregs of stuff that wasn't really up to snuff but was needed for page filler to ballast the psionics stuff that was only justified by the fact that most earlier editions eventually tacked it on somewhere, so 4e was obliged to do likewise. PHB3 really shouldn't ever have been published. Instead they should have come out with basically versions of HotFW, HotEC, and maybe done a niche book purely on psionics (with better classes), and then perhaps a Heroes of the Orient with monks and some fleshed out versions of the OA stuff they did in Dragon (which was pretty good, as was the Monk of course). [/QUOTE]
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