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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7164022" data-attributes="member: 82106">I disagree with the categorization you've used.ONLY the softcover material is 'Essentials'. All the hardcover books which came after them (plus I guess BOVD which is admittedly not a hardcover, but its a pretty minor book too) may be 'influenced' by Essentials and often provide options for use WITH Essentials you cannot say that they ARE Essentials material. There's a lot in them that really doesn't relate to Essentials. Also, since the Wizard (Mage) really doesn't follow any specific design concept of Essentials and a LOT of later stuff is wizard options, that kinda means the impact of Essentials in any design sense is even more limited.Frankly I think 'core' 4e simply offered too many picky little options for players to have to sift through. Its not JUST that there are 1000's of feats and powers (actually 10's of thousands, but who's really counting) but it requires some real delving into the game to see how to accomplish a lot of builds. E-classes simply got it wrong by going too far in the other direction, where they did go too far as in Slayer. Some classes are not so bad, like the Warpriest stuff, which simply lacks enough options. In essence they simply went too far the other way, and even then failed to do so consistently (where is the simple wizard?). Post-Essentials material, while uneven, often hit a pretty decent middle point. The HotEC sorcerer variant is pretty nice for instance. Essentials was both too shallow and too big a set of changes. It abandoned 4e material that should have been extended, fuddled with things that worked fine, and changed things in ways that weren't really improvements for the most part. Where it DID improve, it was too much at the expense of what came before. In terms of playing them though, I would never try to draw a line. I think if you're working on some sort of 'heatbreaker' then you need to consider ALL the different things that 4e brought to the table, pick and choose, and then bend them to your needs.</blockquote>

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