Essentials Cleric

[fanboy2000]

Quick everyone, time to make with the rampant speculation so he can glare at his computer and be all "u mad".

Obviously, any attempt to "essentialize" the other classes will result in "spontaneous" combustion of your old books.

 

[Aegeri]

Mike, another question if you will:

The essentials classes gain extra class features as they level up, can the existing classes also get these new class features? Or are they a core part of what an essentials class is? Are they balanced against other classes that don't have them?

 

[Reigan]

Going forward, will new classes look like essential classes, the original classes or something completely different?

 

[Jack99]

That's what's going on here. It's easier to reference once table, rather than multiple tables, so stuff like feats that everyone gets are inserted into the class table.

Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Mearls.

 

[Shazbot79]

I am not at liberty to discuss that yet. Sorry!

This is CYA parlance for "yes".

 

[Baumi]

I'm a bit confused ... I thought that there are no dailies for the new sub-classes anymore.

 

[Aegeri]

I'm a bit confused ... I thought that there are no dailies for the new sub-classes anymore.

One of the variants may not use dailies, but they didn't actually say that none of them used daily powers. This is something silly that rapidly spread around with no basis in the actual truth.

 

[vagabundo]

wow. My internal 4e parser threw up a load of errors when I tried reading that article - looks like I'll have to try a previous version of the software, maybe even go back to v1.5. This is a good thing!

Anyway, I'm having a bit of trouble fitting this in with the rest of the classes ATM; 4e has institutionalised me!

Back to the reading the article.

FAKE EDIT: oh crap i just realised I might be tempted to buy the damn books now. I was happy to just get it through DDI...

 

[Jhaelen]

Old builds will be more flexible. The listed Warpriest seems to have all Encounter powers pre-chosen, determined by Domain

This.
as mentioned in the other thread, it reminds me a bit of 2e kits. It's a more specialized build with some features preselected and some features that are only available if you pick this 'kit'.

This 'kit' will also be better suited for beginning players:
The pre-selected features will make sure a pc continues to fill it's original role. It's an extension of the builds. It trades flexibility for a guarantee that the class's powers and features work well together.
A while ago someone mentioned, that creating a character was difficult without consulting one of the class guides on the CO boards. I don't agree with that notion, but apparently here's WotC's answer to these concerns.

Unless the kit-specific features are clearly better than the class features you can get otherwise, I don't see anyone who's fairly good at optimizing play one of them. Because if you know where to look, you'll always find options that will work even better than the pre-selected ones!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

A great article and very kind of mr. mearls to reply in this thread. I actually like where essentials will take the game, and i am glad i have waited to buy a lot of stuff to get into the game with this way.

The character builder will allow advanced players to create a very flexible class, kits are to get people into the game. With the amount of material released until now, it is too much to use books actually. Essentials will help a lot i guess. The ony thing that makes me sad is that strength will no be cleric essential attribute anymore. Lets see where it will lead us...