"Not 4.5" is coming soon. Thoughts?

[Dannyalcatraz]

But let's be fair - there have always been tables of gamers with inane rules or demands. Most reasonable gamers will flock together, and it is only an unfortunate few who might end up without other options than to deal with such tables.

I agree that if it becomes a real trend, it could be a problem, but I'm doubtful it is more than a few isolated cases from groups that likely have other issues, as well.

Too true. And like you, I hope its a minority trend.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Where does it say dailies are going away? I only saw the one example of a war cleric and I thought I saw a daily power in there?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

But does DDI actually replace expansion books? I had some trouble recently looking online for the basic rules that govern familiars and beast companions. Would you know where to quickly look them up?

Nope, It doesn't replace anything. A LOT of the text of the core books and a pretty decent amount of the text in the power books related to new features simply do not exist in DDI. But then DDI was never advertised as a replacement for anything. Its a good reference and for the most part during play you won't need to look up the rules for familiars or beast companions. If you do, well having some books handy is always a good idea.

DDI is a great reference and I find it a huge boon at the table, but I also have a shelf of books handy if I really really need to do some actual rules research. The warlock decides to cast his funky new daily power I'm not exactly sure what it does? I can just pop up the browser window and have it in 30 seconds, surely faster than going to the book and flipping pages and probably faster than passing a character sheet around. Also very handy when building adventures, etc. When new books come out, you really do still have to read them.

But what did we expect? DDI was never advertised as a replacement for anything, nor would it make a lot of sense for WotC to make their own books obsolete.

I'll agree with WalkingDad though, it would be NICE if you could get a PDF of the PHB with all the errata. Its not going to happen, but it sure would be nice. Having the changes in DDI and an update PDF is next best thing though. Not having any updates at all would be the least best.

 

[Scribble]

This is why I'm looking forward to the "Rules Compendium."

My guess is all the base rules, not found in the DDI, will be there.

 

[Festivus]

This is why I'm looking forward to the "Rules Compendium."

My guess is all the base rules, not found in the DDI, will be there.

So you could easily play 4E with that book and a DDI subscription? Sounds about right to me too... (oh, and the rules will include the errata).

 

[Runestar]

This is why I'm looking forward to the "Rules Compendium."

My guess is all the base rules, not found in the DDI, will be there.

I don't think there are enough rules confusions yet to merit a rules compendium. Even in the 3.5 version, the bulk of it was a reprinting/reclassification of the rules, with the odd errata sneaked in here and there. And they still didn't clarify whether the hydra attacks with all its heads on each AoO.

So far, most of the errata for 4e has gone towards rebalancing individual abilities. Unless wotc is still holding out on us?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

So you could easily play 4E with that book and a DDI subscription? Sounds about right to me too... (oh, and the rules will include the errata).

I think its hard to say exactly what the Compendium will have in it. Its sort of a puzzle. Presumably it doesn't have powers and feats as those are in the player books, presumably it doesn't have the core rules because those obviously need to be in SOME book. So what is it? I have to assume the above two suppositions are untrue, so doesn't that kind of leave us with "its all the other books rolled into one"? Hmmm. We'll see. I'm a little fuzzy on exactly how the DM side of Essentials is laid out.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I have preordered the Rules Compendium, but am unsure if I really need it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

presumably it doesn't have the core rules because those obviously need to be in SOME book.

Why can't the Rules Compendium be that book? Just because the 3E Rules Compendium was a gathering of rules published elsewhere doesn't mean this one must be. It could be exactly what it says it is: a place where all the major rules are presented. Nothing in that definition requires that everything in the book also have appeared elsewhere.

[Mandatory caveat: I have not seen or heard anything behind the scenes about this book. This is me guessing, just like everyone else. ]

 

[Vaeron]

At 320 pages, with no powers and no monsters, I think it's a safe bet the Rules Compendium will have most all, if not all, the various rules compiled in one place. It's hard to imagine what else they'd fill up all those pages with, even in trade paperback size.

The "Red Box" will probably contain a minimum amount of rules (it's only Levels 1 and 2, right?), I would guess on-par with the amount included in Keep on the Shadowfell. Enough to run a sample adventure or 2 for newbies, but not enough to give real in depth information about the game's workings. Making the Rules Compendium nice to have for us original 4e'ers and a must-buy for Essentials 4e'ers.