NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 6067481" data-attributes="member: 87792">First, we have characters that can play together effortlessly.  It's a seamless game.I've no idea what the writers of Heroes of Shadow were thinking - almost every single class and option in that book is weak.  Of the core Essentials Martial classes, the Thief, Slayer, and Scout can very definitely keep up - and thief and scout are significantly more effective out of combat than the PHB rogue and ranger.  The Knight has two weaknesses that can be exploited and that are more obvious at high level (weak against pushes and against at-will teleporters) but is very effective the rest of the time.  The Hunter is better than his reputation and doesn't do badly when compared to the Warlock; it's simply that the Archer Ranger is possibly the most powerful class in the game.  (The Hunter is also one of the best out of combat classes and significantly better than the PHB Ranger).  The essentials druid has a problem in that their beast companion doesnt scale properly (and the warpriest had a problem until the PHB Cleric was utterly savaged by errata).You mean a brute wall and artillery?  This should probably be pointed out more but simple brutes, skirmishers, and artillery are all fairly plentiful - or you can use solos.  And for an inexperienced DM, 4e is a joy.Essentials has simpler spells and feats if you need them.  And the skills are simple enough.  Certainly simpler than either 3e skills or 2e Non Weapon Proficiencies.It falls behind unless you follow the well mapped path and give bonusses for picking by theme.  This isn't rocket science.  You put in packages "Pick these options (which are normally simple) and get this blanket bonus."  This isn't rocket science - it's part of the way warpriests and a lot of wargames work.  Pick to a preselected theme and you get a bonus to make up for that theme not being as strong normally.Which means "At a certain point simpler falls behind complex in raw power unless you take precautions to make sure it doesn't."  And you can do this by giving the narrow selections straightforward bonusses for picking packages.  This isn't rocket science.</blockquote>

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