The gnome, half-orc, druid, bard, and barbarian not being in the first 4E PHB was due to only one thing-- their already-planned-ahead production schedule for their upcoming books.
The first PH was released in the summer of '08, and they already knew the second PH was being released like 9 months later in the winter of '09. Between those two books, their first planned splatbook, Martial Power, was being released. It was for this reason that the first PH included 4 Martial power source classes, and only 2 Divine and Arcane... because they needed all four martial classes available at the top so that they could then support them all with the splatbook. Since they also knew the second PH was coming out in less than a year, they held back on the two classic Primal classes so that they could release all 4 of them at once to make a big splash with the second book. At that point, all that remained to be decided was whether or not to have the Bard be the second Arcane power source class. I imagine at that point they hadn't decided what role the Bard was going to be, but were pretty sure it wasn't going to be a Striker. Thus, they held the Bard back for PHII because they already had their two Leader classes, plus to give that second book more oomph as well.
At that point... since the Bard was being held back for PHII, they must have decided to hold back the Gnome too, seeing as how the Gnome was the quintessential Bard in 3.5 (what with its 'favored class' status.) And the same was said of the Half-Orc-- his favored class was the Barbarian, so since that class was being held back for PHII as well due to space reasons, moving the Half-Orc to support it also made all the sense in the world.
So this whole thing was done not to thumb the nose at players who liked those classical options, but merely because of their schedule of released the Martial Power splatbook PRIOR to Player's Handbook II. If that didn't happen, they wouldn't have needed to put all four Martial classes in the PH, and we might very well have seen the druid, bard, or barbarian included (and if so, the Gnome and Half-Orc to match.) WotC obviously didn't think holding off on these lesser-used options were going to be that bigt of an issue seeing as how they were all going to arrive in less than a year anyway. And for a game they thought was going to be played for 5+ years... the fact those few classical options weren't available right off the top was going to be a distant memory over the course of the game.
Of course, gamers being gamers... some people still cling to that perceived stab in the back like their lives depend on it.
The first PH was released in the summer of '08, and they already knew the second PH was being released like 9 months later in the winter of '09. Between those two books, their first planned splatbook, Martial Power, was being released. It was for this reason that the first PH included 4 Martial power source classes, and only 2 Divine and Arcane... because they needed all four martial classes available at the top so that they could then support them all with the splatbook. Since they also knew the second PH was coming out in less than a year, they held back on the two classic Primal classes so that they could release all 4 of them at once to make a big splash with the second book. At that point, all that remained to be decided was whether or not to have the Bard be the second Arcane power source class. I imagine at that point they hadn't decided what role the Bard was going to be, but were pretty sure it wasn't going to be a Striker. Thus, they held the Bard back for PHII because they already had their two Leader classes, plus to give that second book more oomph as well.
At that point... since the Bard was being held back for PHII, they must have decided to hold back the Gnome too, seeing as how the Gnome was the quintessential Bard in 3.5 (what with its 'favored class' status.) And the same was said of the Half-Orc-- his favored class was the Barbarian, so since that class was being held back for PHII as well due to space reasons, moving the Half-Orc to support it also made all the sense in the world.
So this whole thing was done not to thumb the nose at players who liked those classical options, but merely because of their schedule of released the Martial Power splatbook PRIOR to Player's Handbook II. If that didn't happen, they wouldn't have needed to put all four Martial classes in the PH, and we might very well have seen the druid, bard, or barbarian included (and if so, the Gnome and Half-Orc to match.) WotC obviously didn't think holding off on these lesser-used options were going to be that bigt of an issue seeing as how they were all going to arrive in less than a year anyway. And for a game they thought was going to be played for 5+ years... the fact those few classical options weren't available right off the top was going to be a distant memory over the course of the game.
Of course, gamers being gamers... some people still cling to that perceived stab in the back like their lives depend on it.
