D&D 4E Essential 4e: Heroes of the Forgotten Lands

[Fiery_Dragon]

What does the rogues weapon finesse do?

Use DEX instead of STR for melee basic attacks and damage, and gain +2 damage when using light blades, hand crossbows, shortbows and slings.

 

[Aegeri]

Use DEX instead of STR for melee basic attacks and damage, and gain +2 damage when using light blades, hand crossbows, shortbows and slings.

That is actually really sexy. The +2 damage wasn't something I was expecting and is a pretty solid bonus on top of the base effect.

 

[Psikus]

Use DEX instead of STR for melee basic attacks and damage, and gain +2 damage when using light blades, hand crossbows, shortbows and slings.

Wow! I was afraid that thieves would end up a bit weak next to slayers, but that extra damage certainly evens things out.

Are those defense feats all Feat bonuses, or are any untyped?

Superior Will is confirmed as a feat bonus, so it's extremely likely that all of them are typed, too. Besides, Great Fortitude, Iron Will and Lightning Reflexes are rewrites of existing feats, which also had a feat bonus.

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

WooHoo! There's one improvement for essentials!

What did you mean when you said school choice for Mages determined the Paragon Path? Are all mages forced into one path or can you still choose paths for Wizards? For that matter, Do essentials classes overall get to pick 4e PP's"

Sorry. To clarify, there is one Paragon Path for wizards presented here, the Enigmatic Mage. It says you can choose a PP from other D&D supplements.

The Enigmatic Mage PP gives you: 11th - Enigmatic Action, Enigmatic Encounter Power, Enigmatic Spellcasting (allows you to swap an prepared but unused daily spell for another unprepared daily spell) ; 12th - Enigmatic utility power; 16th - Enigmatic Spell Lore; 20 - Enigmatic Daily Power.

The 11th level Action and Encounter Power, the 12th level Utility Power and the 20th level Daily Power are all different based on your School of Magic.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Well, to be honest, I don't care whether it's 4.5 or not; all I care about is being offered a chance to play with the revised/updated rules. However, I want the "classic" versions of each class, because I feel the 'Essentials' subclasses are a bit too specialized for my taste.

I didn't get the books when they came out; a friend of mine did, however, and I read them. At that point I posted a slightly positive review on this forum but concluded that it wouldn't be what I and my group were looking for. Even if I had preferred 4E to 3E, I still would have wanted to wait for third printing or so because of errata. I didn't know that they wouldn't include errata in subsequent printings, because they wanted to sell the 'Deluxe' edition (75 euros -- which is around 100 bucks -- per book over here).

After a couple of years of playing PF RPG I would like to play and run 4E for a change. Maybe it was due to watching all those Chris Perkins videos? Maybe it was the hype around the 'Essentials'? All that aside, I'm amazed that I still cannot get the version of the rules I'd like to -- unless I'm willing to spend a week or two just updating the books with a black marker or pencil (a slight hyperbole, but you get my point). And I'm not really keen about paying 60-120 bucks a year for the online tools, because I only use books during gameplay (and I intend to keep it that way).

I mean... damn.

I also want updated prints. Really. When you look at my posts, you will see that i have statrd more than once, not to buy Core Books 1, because of the really obvious mistakes. I really feel with you, as PHB 1, MM 1 and DMG 1 won´t ever be on my purchase list.

That said, I think you should not run around and claim that essentials does things not promised and make false statements.

What essentials may offer you:
- Updated core rules at a cheap price: Core are the underlying mechanics, not the classes built on it. (Rules Compendium)
- An updated DM book. I will have to wait and see if DMG 2 will still be usefull after buying DM box. Could be possible.
- Info on the core world. More fluff.

The most annoying thing ATM for me is having nothing at hand to check during play. This will change after the purchase of RC and DMG and Monster Vault...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

That is actually really sexy. The +2 damage wasn't something I was expecting and is a pretty solid bonus on top of the base effect.

I rather had liked weapon talent bonus and weapon finesse level swapped... i really hate inherent +2 to hit at a single level increase

 

[UngeheuerLich]

something about staves having small property or existence of a heavy crossbow?

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

Ohhh that's an excellent point Scribble.

This also leads to another good question for the wonderful Dragon <3 How many feats are there in the book?

There are 64 Feats in the book. Of these, 7 are Armor or Shield Proficiencies, 11 are Divine Devotions, 3 are Implement Expertise, and 14 are Weapon Expertise feats.

Divine Devotions would generally be considered cleric feats, and look like:

Disciple of Freedom - Avandra belives in freedom...blah blah blah...Prereq CHA 13, Benefit: gain +5 feat bonus to checks made as part of an escape action, in addition you can save against immobilized, slowed or restrained at the start of your turn as well as the end of your turn (provided a save will end the effect).

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

I noticed in your list of expertise feats you didn't give one for polearms, flails or picks. Do these weapon groups just not have an associated expertise feat?

Polearm: Polearms are reach weapons mounted at the end of long hafts. All polearms have a second weapon group, such as axe or spear.

(No polearm expertise, guess you have to get it covered under the secondary weapon group)

That being said, the only polearm listed in this book is longspear.

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

something about staves having small property or existence of a heavy crossbow?

No luck.