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

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks for the new definitions of turn. I'm old-school enough that I remember when a turn was 10 minutes long, and I'd not noticed a new definition coming along. No wonder I was a little confused by the new terminology!

 

[Klaus]

Any word on Multiclassing?

I'm asking because the Knight, Slayer and Thief, with their reliance on Melee Basic Attacks, are prime classes for multiclassing:

- Slayer + Melee Training (Int) + Mage = old-school Fighter/Magic-User
- Knight + Melee Training (Wis) + Warpriest = paladin
- Thief + Melee Training (Int) + Mage = arcane trickster

In fact, with Melee Training you can build a perfect class for any race. Want a kickass eladrin warrior along the lines of Prince Nuada (from Hellboy II)? Just slap on Melee Training (Dex) and go to town with a spear, without needing to invest in Strength.

 

[Aegeri]

They have no multiclassing rules. Probably because they don't want other characters pinching their stuff and because they are so "self contained" as classes. I do believe though these classes can multiclass themselves to take another PP.

 

[Nork]

Essentials is 4E material, 4E has multiclassing rules. They can multiclass all they like, as they can take feats from any source they like, so long as they meet the pre-reqs.

That being said, the Slayer, Knight and Thief really only get utility powers, and multi-class feats generally only let you swap what you've got.

 

[SteveC]

My take on it after reading and playing the Gameday event is that if you were avoiding 4E because of what they did to the classes, particularly the martial ones, this may be the game for you.

The mage and warpriest definitely "feel" different and have far more options than the knight, slayer and thief. As an example, none of the martial classes have burst attacks, so multi-attack is exclusively the domain of the spellcasters (with the exception of cleave)--at least as far as I saw. Similarly, movement effects are much less common for martial characters, the occasional push or very minor slide.

Martial Essentials characters will be spending most of their time making basic melee attacks, and can do quite a bit of damage with them. I suspect players who want to do a lot of HP damage and not much else will love them. A slayer fighter is a good class for someone who's new to the game and just learning the ropes: they're kind of fire and forget. The slayer in the game I played in was handled by a younger player who had never seen 4E before and he attacked it with gusto.

All of that taken together means you didn't like the "sameness" of 4E classes, will probably be a very good thing. Essentials classes are quite different from each other based on their power source, that is for sure.

From my perspective, I'd happily play an Essentials game, but I would only play a spellcaster, since these new martial classes don't offer me the sort of thing I enjoy as a player. If the goal with the game is to draw in people who didn't like 4E, I think it's going to be pretty successful, providing they actually give it a look.

Just my thoughts...

--Steve

 

[Stilvan]

Thanks for the new definitions of turn. I'm old-school enough that I remember when a turn was 10 minutes long, and I'd not noticed a new definition coming along. No wonder I was a little confused by the new terminology!

I had the same question - and to give an example of win in the new rules compendium I decided to see if it was in the glossary. Started with 'Turn' which explained what a turn was and directed me to 'see also once per turn'. Which explained it like this:

'Some effects can occur only once per turn. When a creature uses such an effect, the creature can use the effect on each turn, not only on during its turn.'

Made perfect sense to me.

 

[nnms]

I started reading through the book itself and noticed the introduction is pretty good. While it doesn't have the complete combat rules, it certainly has lots of them. It's definitely enough for a new person to learn the game.

 

[Jack99]

Thanks for the new definitions of turn. I'm old-school enough that I remember when a turn was 10 minutes long, and I'd not noticed a new definition coming along. No wonder I was a little confused by the new terminology!

Just to be clear, its not a new definition. While it certainly is different than the 2e definition, the turn has been a part of 4e since the release of PHB1.

 

[nnms]

Just finished reading through the book. I really enjoyed reading it.

One thing else I noted is that the captions they added to every piece of art made me care about the art a lot more. I actively looked for the caption and then looked at the art with that in mind for every single picture. Just a small thing, but I thought it really increased the enjoyment of the art.

And that elf knight, Lyriel, on pages 76 & 125...

 

[Plane Sailing]

Just to be clear, its not a new definition. While it certainly is different than the 2e definition, the turn has been a part of 4e since the release of PHB1.

Sure; to clarify I was saying "new definition of turn (in the post 3e system)", the bit in the brackets was silent