Class Compendium Official Announcement

[Mercurius]

This is not anything like the same thing. I am part of that group that would like to see the PHB replrinted, in hardcover, with not only erratta, but also improvements to the classes to bring them up to PHBII and III levels.

Not that I ever expect it. Eratta, maybe.

I'll be waiting for your apology

I don't want to speak for TerraDave, but I think he means that the PHB would be "replaced" as in replaced by something else other than a new, revised PHB. And so we have Essentials, but rather than one PHB, revised, expanded, updated and errataed, we have Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, Rules Compendium, and Class Compendium. In other words, instead of one $35 hardcover we have four $20 digest books. $35 ---> $80. Good work, WotC

 

[Erdrick Dragin]

Excuse me, but am I the only one that can clearly see how blatantly obvious it is that this "Essentials" line they keep pushing is really "4.5e" in disguise? I mean...seriously.

Now we have the Core and the Essentials line? Why? What's the point? The only difference I see is that the Essentials line is easier to get newcomers to the fold, incorporates a lot of errata, and alters or adds a lot of new options and rules (both 3.5e methods). But...wasn't 4E D&D originally designed to bring newcomers to the fold and root out the old, stale customers?

Now we're going to see people running Core, Essentials, or a hybrid. How is this any different than a 3.0/3.5 line? It's the exact same thing. People ran 3.0, 3.5, or used elements of both.

I find it terribly insulting that WotC would expect someone like me to be stupid enough to fall for this. But then again, maybe they have statistics proving that there'll be enough idiots out there that will buy into this and fork over the cash.

What's next...we go from D&D 4E, to D&D Essentials, to D&D Streamlined, to D&D Automated?

 

[ggroy]

I find it terribly insulting that WotC would expect someone like me to be stupid enough to fall for this. But then again, maybe they have statistics proving that there'll be enough idiots out there that will buy into this and fork over the cash.

Welcome to Marketing/Advertising/PR 101.

An old quote attributed to Lincoln or PT Barnum.

"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time."

 

[Obryn]

Excuse me, but am I the only one that can clearly see how blatantly obvious it is that this "Essentials" line they keep pushing is really "4.5e" in disguise? I mean...seriously.

Well, no, you clearly have a singular and unique grasp on both truth and reality.

Now we're going to see people running Core, Essentials, or a hybrid. How is this any different than a 3.0/3.5 line? It's the exact same thing. People ran 3.0, 3.5, or used elements of both.

Well, I have to ask - have you actually looked at any of the books you're talking about? Or incorporated it into a game? I'm guessing no.

Essentials characters work seamlessly alongside "core" characters without burps or hiccups. The game rules, apart from the stream of updates which have evidently slowed, are identical. Saying that someone is running a "Core" only or "Essentials" only game is no different from restricting sourcebooks - say, running a "PHB3-only" game or a "No-PHB3 game." I'm running Dark Sun right now with a mix of Core and Essentials characters, and there have been zero problems.

The difference between this and a normal edition hop is twofold... (1) The exterior rules which describe how characters interact with the game-world are the same, unless you're ignoring all updates; and (2) Within certain limits, everything's mix-and-matchable. I couldn't make a 3.5 Fighter and take a single level of 3.0 Ranger. I couldn't make a 3.5 Cleric and take 3.0 Bull's Strength. I couldn't make a 3.0 Barbarian and take 3.5 Power Attack. On the other hand, I can make a Knight and take a core Fighter utlility power, or a PHB Fighter and take a feat from Heroes of the Fallen Lands.

How this new book will interact with everything else frankly remains to be seen.

I find it terribly insulting that WotC would expect someone like me to be stupid enough to fall for this.

Well, they had a DDI article which said, "Essentials is really all BS, so we don't expect Erdrick Dragin to fall for it." It was taken down after one day, though, once they realized they accidentally posted their internal meeting minutes.

But then again, maybe they have statistics proving that there'll be enough idiots out there that will buy into this and fork over the cash.

Oh, seriously! Who needs new feats and class builds that use non-standard advancement without treading on the toes of (or replacing) the existing classes, a fully updated encyclopedia of almost all the game rules set up for easy reference, and a nice box full of monsters and tokens? Dummy-heads, the lot of us- I mean, them! It's almost like people want to pay money to buy books which expand the game line and give them new ideas and options! How crazy is that?

-O

 

[Neverfate]

So they're reprinting the classes in PHB1 with the addition of Sneak Attack every turn and Miss Effects on Wizard Powers and this is some how an Essentials coup?

Essentials books notwithstanding, those changes were going to happen. 4.5 happened when they changed the stealth rules 3 times or so. This is 5.6.

Deal with it, posers.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

What's next...we go from D&D 4E, to D&D Essentials, to D&D Streamlined, to D&D Automated?

... Well, Neverwinter 4e WAS announced a little while ago, so 4e Automated comes out just after essentials, followed by 4e streamlined (which will cover rules for making your 4e game run as smoothly as your 4e videogame)

All joking aside, I like that they're trying to revise the rules, but I am in the group of people who would have rather bought a hardcover PHBrevised

 

[Scribble]

... Well, Neverwinter 4e WAS announced a little while ago, so 4e Automated comes out just after essentials, followed by 4e streamlined (which will cover rules for making your 4e game run as smoothly as your 4e videogame)

All joking aside, I like that they're trying to revise the rules, but I am in the group of people who would have rather bought a hardcover PHBrevised

I like that they're trying something new...

I don't know what it is about them, but they also just "feel nice" in my hands. Maybe the same reason I can't bring myself to buy regular paperbacks anymore, when the trade paperback is available...

But count me in the group that thinks they're about to start offering these things in some sort of ebook format, and that (partially) explains the size.

 

[lutecius]

One part of the news thing I found interesting was:

" feats that allow the original class builds and the new class builds to work together. It also features more feats, rituals, and rules for multiclassing."

Multiclassing with stuff like the Essential martial classes was something I had been wondering about, so that is definitely something new.

bummer. that means no essential mc rules before february. I was kind of hoping they'd be in HotFK.

it may also mean that they were not taken into account when designing the new classes

 

[abyssaldeath]

bummer. that means no essential mc rules before february. I was kind of hoping they'd be in HotFK.

it may also mean that they were not taken into account when designing the new classes

Well to be fair, multi-classing wasn't taken into account when the original classes were designed either. So, business as usual?

 

[Scribble]

it may also mean that they were not taken into account when designing the new classes

That's not necessarily true.

If the design of Essentials is to lead a new player into the game, Multi-Classing isn't really something you need in the beginning.

Learn to play one type of class/role before you branch off into mixing and matching others.

It does suck for us non newbies that we have to wait until February... But hey- it's not the worst thing ever.