D&D 4E No more reprints of the 4E core books?

[MerricB]

Going by just the first three corebooks...doesn't Essentials change skills (stealth), change skill DC's, change the math behind monsters, change powers and drastically modify classes as seen in the previews... oh yeah and also get rid of warlords?

No. Stealth has already been changed (months and months ago), ditto with Skill DCs, the monster math has been changed as of MM3 (before Essentials).

All of those changes are already known by players and incorporated into their games - if they want to. Indeed, PH2 has the Stealth changes, DMG2 the skill DCs, etc.

Essentials haven't changed any of those things. It does provide a good time for the non-power updates to be reprinted in the Rules Compendium, though. (The hardcopy, not the DDi version).

The one thing Essentials does change (although it will be available to everyone via the Rule Updates) is the way Wizard Encounter powers work... they'll have their regular power and then gain a Miss effect.

Essentials *does* provide alternative builds for many of the core classes. Doesn't invalidate any of the old classes... and future books will have "essentials-style" classes and "PHB-style" classes in them. (Indeed, two takes on each class in each book).

Warlords aren't in the essentials books. So what? Neither was the bard.

Cheers!

 

[Thanlis]

It won't be funny when someone with a PHB1 Warlord/ PHB1 Fighter build/PHB1 Cleric/etc. character wants to get into a new game with a DM that doesn't have DDI or the Compendium.

Somehow worse than when someone with a PHB3 Runepriest wants to get into a new game with a DM that doesn't have PHB3 or DDI, huh?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

bring your books with you?

Just a little sidenote:

When you play 3.5 or pathfinder, you can´t really use your 3.0 ranger, because it changed hp, and got a lot more skills and features, you can´t play your bard without putting your extra 2 skillpoints into the extra performing skills, you can´t play the druid, because he now can summon animals sponatneously and wildernesslore and animal empathy are no skills anymore -->
You had to change your existing character, because rule elements changed which affected the build of your character...

when essentials come out, even though stelth rules were changed, you won´t have to change a single detail on your sheet. When your master uses newer monsters against you, no changes to your character etc.

also I want to throw in, that monster building rules/guidelines in 3.0 changed with MM2 already

 

[Atlemar]

I would pay cash money for a PHB1 that incorporated all the updates. I have a set of 30 hardcover books, and my own scheme for arranging it, and the one thing I hate most about Essentials is that it won't look nice on my bookshelf. I'll buy the Rules Compendium, but I'll stick it way down at the end where I won't have to look at it when I'm not using it.

What I really want is a "revised edition" of the book. Not of the game. Like how the book about soccer, "The Simplest Game," got a new chapter after every World Cup. Like how the Guiness Book and the Encyclopedia Brittanica get revised every year, updated with all the latest facts but not a new format or font. I want a 2011 Player's Handbook.

Maybe a 2011 Monster Manual, too.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

When I thought about what was needed, i came to the conclusion, that the better way could be to sell a complete martial book, with fighter, warlord, ranger and rogue up to mp 2 instead of a new PHB 1 and the same for arcane, divine and primal. Maybe something that would sell quite good.

 

[korjik]

You don't have to, because you already paid for updates through the insider erratas. This time, compared to 3.0/3.5, simply, has been step-by-step.




This is, indeed, just true.

Yup, it is a step up. Just like Vista was.

 

[Festivus]

Is this akin to a "fee" instead of a "new tax" that the government is fond of using.

I could see where they aren't ordering reprints because they have a warehouse of unsold core books (which could be the case), and they don't expect to sell out for the next several years. Why on earth would they order more reprints if they had 20,000 books in a warehouse somewhere and sold a few hundred a month? They won't need new books until a next edition might be ready to roll out, and the essentials books are probably something they can do in smaller print runs and turn around faster.

 

[Obryn]

I think this is possible - and have for a bit - but seriously, folks, it's a single-source anonymous rumor.

-O

 

[ggroy]

I could see where they aren't ordering reprints because they have a warehouse of unsold core books (which could be the case), and they don't expect to sell out for the next several years. Why on earth would they order more reprints if they had 20,000 books in a warehouse somewhere and sold a few hundred a month?

There's always the option of liquidating the old inventory, for a tax write-off of some sort.

A sign that something like this may be happening, is if large numbers of 4E PHB1 books start appearing in huge piles of 9 or 10 copies in the bargain section at bookstores like Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc ....

 

[Thanlis]

A sign that something like this may be happening, is if large numbers of 4E PHB1 books start appearing in huge piles of 9 or 10 copies in the bargain section at bookstores like Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc ....

That would have terrible optics, but would indeed be telling. I'd look for something more subtle, like a lot of PHB1s in Half-Price Books -- same effect, but less front and center.

... oh, god. WotC is gonna do the $5 PHB thing at Gencon again and everyone's going to freak out cause they've forgotten it happened last year.