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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 5516657" data-attributes="member: 996">Not only do the HotFL martial classes offer little support to their parent classes, but, by their very existance, they have the potential to divide future support between the sub-classes and the parent classes.  Because they use a novel structure, the attack powers that are such a substantial part of 4e builds are not open to them, and, likewise, any expansions to their corresponding options aren't open to the parent classes.Going forward, then, either the Essentials or 4e classes will recieve meaningful support - and participate in the inevitable power inflation that just happens with games like D&D.  So far - and it hasn't been very far - neither has received meaningful support (there was one dragon article that kicked some staff-oriented features to the HotFL classes, neither get anything singificant out of HoS).  So, you have an uncertain future for the martial power source.  Will the low-option, daililess classes receive more and more stances, feats, and weapon-specific features to choose from (each more potent than the last), or will they be left 'simple?'  Will their parent classes receive the same level of support going forward as those of other sources?  They're already behind - the wizard has recieved 4 new highly compatible builds, and has two more set to appear in HoS, for instance.  The same question doesn't plague the Cleric or Wizard - their sub-classes follow the 4e structure, and that compatibility means that support for either is support for both.We don't know what's going to happen.  But, Essentials has set the stage for a return to the high-powered casters and optionless fighters of yesteryear.  All that's needed is to just leave the 4e martial classes alone for a few years and let them fall behind the power curve.  One reason some of you are scratching your heads over this issue is because you're seeing misgivings about possible future directions indicated by specific addtions to the sysstem, and interpreting them as complaints about the current state of the game as a whole.  When someone expresses alarm at the stripping of dailies from the Fighter, they're not saying that they've been stripped from all fighters, but from the most recent, and, that could lead to all martial classes losing the parity with casters they enjoyed in 4e.  That designers have characterized Essentials as indicative of a 'new direction,' makes that seem all the more likely.You can absolutely have simple martial classes, complex overpowered classes, (part of the retro feel) and not play 4e.  That's easy.  I know that's not what you meant.  No, you can't have all three.  4e was a version of D&D that delivered a high degree of class balance.  Destroy that, and you can restore the feel of prior eds, including making some classes overly simplistic and other complex and highly abuseable.  But it's not the comparatively modern 4e version of D&D anymore.</blockquote>

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