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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 9435974" data-attributes="member: 7635">Its more of a side-grade than anything.Essentials basically has three elements to it. 1.) A crapton of errata for the game in general; 2.) A bunch of options that were functional upgrades to current material, and 3.) A whole slew of new options that still worked in the structure of 4e. The errata affected Original 4e and Essentials equally. Making Magic Missile an auto-hit power or fireball do damage on a miss (to emulate the older spells they were named for) did replace the 2008 printing, but so did basically the major re-write of chunks of Martial Power. Functional upgrades were things like the revised monsters in the Monster Vault not specifically replacing the goblins, giants, and dragons in the Monster Manual, but they were better balanced and more interesting than the formers even though they technically weren't the same monster. Finally, the Essentials-based subclasses (Slayer, Knight, Mage, Thief and Warpriest, for example) were presented as alternative ways to play their base class (FIghter, Wizard, Cleric, Rogue) but it strictly didn't remove the option from using the 2008 version of the classes (with the appropriate errata, see 1). The confusion of whether Essentials is 4.5 comes from the fact that WotC secretly hoped you would see it as 4.5, or at least, as a way to play 4e that was closer to classic D&D motifs than 4e had at that point. The Fighter and Rogue classes didn't need ADEU, wizard and cleric had domains and schools of magic, etc. It tried to thread the needle by saying "You like the 2008 version? These things work with it! You don't like the 2008 version? Try these OS style options instead!" If you felt it changed the game, its because WotC hoped you wouldn't notice it is "ze same game" but with an old school coat of paint and some QoL upgrades. Which ultimately made it an ingenious product: you could play it as 4.5 and ignore the older stuff, or play it as an expansion to the old stuff and both were valid. Too bad it didn't work sales-wise.</blockquote>

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