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Get MM3. It has much more in the way of lore and fluff to help you transplant the monster to a different system and campaign.

Presumably Crothian means 9 monsters per level through level 12. Crude estimates based on my interpretation of Crothian's post: 12 levels of ~9 monsters: ~108 monsters 11 levels of ~4.5 monsters: ~50 monsters 7 levels of ~1.5 monsters: ~10 monsters Total: about 168 monsters, close to the given...

In this respect, the Runepriest reminds me of the Runethane from Arcana Unearthed/Evolved. That class also had the equivalent of thievery, to suggest its literally hands-on approach to magic, and their penchant for working magic with objects, sort of like the 4e artificer. Maybe it also helped...

I'm not surprised you decided to cut the hit points. For a party of 2-3 PCs, a standard monster probably has the "grind potential" of an elite monster facing 5 PCs, and presumably an elite monster against 2-3 might invite grind the same way a solo would against 5. I suspect this effect is part...

I haven't played a battlemind, but FWIW I think of them as Jedi knights (that actually wear armor). Psionics is the Force.

The Dungeon Master's Guide 2 includes rules and guidelines for creating companion characters: NPCs that can join the party temporarily or indefinitely. These rules are based explicitly on filling out the primary party roles, so you can create a defender companion or a controller companion, etc...

The fighter that appeared in the PHB1 is the first fighter I've ever wanted to play, but I'm glad that I'll have a simple class to hand to beginners. As I see it, WotC is not changing the fighter back to the way it was; they're adding the old style as another option. I like options.

I moved to San Francisco last year, and I assumed it would be a hotbed of gaming. For D&D Encounters, it turns out I have to travel across the bay to Berkeley or down the peninsula to the San Jose area. Sigh.

I agree with most of the advice you've already received, but I'd like to emphasize a few points. DDI is not necessary. As you figured, the Stealth errata is the one most likely to come up. The skill challenge DCs changed too, but HS1 already uses the new numbers. You can pattern your own skill...

wow, me too. Now I really want to see some monsters that have 123 for one recharge power and 456 for another, so they always get back one of them every round. Maybe on some kind of demon, emphasizing it's chaotic nature?

I am not familiar with the original Burning Wheel game, but my understanding is that the Mouse Guard RPG does simplify those rules substantially. Conflicts are the crunchiest part, but each round each side chooses a sequence of actions chosen from the same set of four (Attack, Defend, Feint...

My vote is for Mouse Guard. The book assumes no prior familiarity with RPGs, and the mechanics are very accessible. Everything a player needs to know is on the character sheet. The game also provides great hooks for roleplaying, by having each player define his or her character's Beliefs...

Well, we've only really seen the character-building side (and then, only a glance). I'll be curious to see more of the details. Will someone playing a fighter still need to track marks and the difference between Combat Superiority and Combat Challenge? Nevertheless, I do think that doing...

Everything starts with the new Red Box. It's $20, far cheaper than getting the core three for $105. If you like, consider the Red Box a second attempt at the starter set, backed up by the rest of the Essentials line.

Yes! I hope this is exactly what's going on with Essentials class design. I do wonder what ability-score-generation method Essentials will give to new players, and how Essentials will help new players select from a sea of feats. Also, I just wanted to say that I like that dwarves are now...

You've mixed speculation with fact. At the end of his Tuesday Countdown to Essentials article, Mearls stated that the changes to wizard encounter powers is the only Essentials change that will directly impact non-Essentials players, outside of the recent rules updates they were going to make...

I would wager yes. It would just be too silly to create a whole other dimension of categorization for powers. The new powers may have some keywords or riders that synergize best with the Essentials builds, but my guess is that they'll be available as options to existing builds, in the same way...

I'd wager that the new encounter powers will be balanced the same as existing encounter powers. If the new builds do remove daily powers, they could easily compensate via some new class feature. That approach would certainly be at least as easy as maintaining two kinds of encounter powers. It...

Well, we don't know yet that WotC will exactly replicate the power point mechanic for all classes. I don't think that's what Mearls means by "simpler" encounter powers: psionic at-will powers definitely aren't simpler. I think the PP system just demonstrated that they can deviate from the prior...

Why not go even simpler and just treat all the damage from ongoing damage as the result of a single attack, from the point of view of resistance? So if you take ongoing 5 fire damage and have resist 5 fire, you take no damage the first round but five damage thereafter, once the fire has...