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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 5237978" data-attributes="member: 51942">There are 115 pages of errata.  That's less than half of the PHB.  However, it's not as easy to find relevant errata as you make out.  For powers it's easy, though not so much if you used multiple books to select from.  And of course, the powers have changed quite a bit, so which power you select depends on the errata too; and that means you end up needing to read pretty much all the errata pertaining to your class, and a bit of those pertaining to other options (paragon paths, that sort of thing).  All in all, I'd expect at least 15 pages of relevant errata for a normal  character, which is a huge amount - more if the character is from diverse sources, fewer at very low levels.  About 10 pages of that is pure combat and other general rule updates - not nothing, you know.  And the fast rate of update and unreliable book has other downsides too: in 3rd edition, most players in a campaign would know most relevant rules.  Many spellcasters would even instantly recognize each other's and the opponents spells; people knew what was going on and didn't need to look things up nor accidentally shoot each other in the foot.  Now, that's not the case.  People don't bother reading the books except to get a general idea anymore - the character builder supplies the specifics; nobody knows even the basic rules very well back-to-front, and few people know much about each others abilities.  People naturally figure out it's not worth knowing too many details since so much changes from year to year and so have stopped investing time figuring out rules except on a need to know basis, which happens during gameplay (slowing things down) or afterward (whoops...).On the other hand, it's hard to ignore the updates just the same - some updates are quite good and have a lot of impact; it's just hard to wade through it all.Until "4.5" comes out - whatever that may be - we'll just use the character builder to build all characters and accept the fact that the rules are pretty fuzzy overall - at least in the minds of the players (and DM), which is what matters.  If Essentials really turns out to be a cleaner, more stable 4e, that generally only has minor corrective errata, I'll jump on it.</blockquote>

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