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<blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 5994277" data-attributes="member: 336">I somewhat disagree with this one, I don't find it problematic at all.&nbsp; We've been doing it since essentials came out without issue.&nbsp; YMMVThe essentials books cleaned up a lot.&nbsp; The problem is with the breadth of options, which can seem overwhelming.&nbsp; On the clean up side, for example, the &quot;Expertise&quot; feats kind of stopped being a feat tax with essentials because they were given additional options than a simple +1 to attacks per tier.&nbsp; Master-at-arms is a good example.In addition some powers introduced with essentials gave legacy characters more interesting options.&nbsp; Some of the Primal powers for the Ranger come to mind.&nbsp; By choosing these &quot;essentials&quot; options you get a slightly different flavor to your legacy classes.&nbsp; Root gate and Bridge of Roots come to mind.The &quot;essentials&quot; classes themselves work perfectly in line with the &quot;core&quot; classes and can be played side by side.&nbsp; We once had a group with a &quot;Core TWF Ranger&quot; and an &quot;Essentials Scout&quot; and neither seemed to overshadow the other.&nbsp; The scout was easier to play with a tighter subset of options, and the ranger was more complex with more options, but they both worked wonderfully as strikers.As a DM I would use the essentials monsters rather than those from MM1.&nbsp; Any monster that appeared in Monster Vault will have tighter &quot;math/mechanics&quot; than the same creature in MM1.&nbsp; That is the only &quot;problem&quot; I would see of mixing and matching.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have done it though and it doesn't &quot;break&quot; anything you just have to be mindful of the &quot;revised&quot; math that started with MM3.&nbsp; If possible adjust your MM1 monsters that way.&nbsp; Definitely use the &quot;revised&quot; DC numbers from Essentials, they are better balanced.If your son is more interested in fewer combats, KotS is probably not the adventure I'd recommend.&nbsp; KotS can serve as a wonderful &quot;underlying framework&quot; for set-piece combats, but the combats are too many, and some are repetitive (kobolds).&nbsp; In addition, I would work hard to give the adventure a much more &quot;detailed&quot; background.&nbsp; When I ran KotS, I made Kalarel, a half-elf female.&nbsp; I introduced her early in the adventure as her &quot;carriage&quot; was being attacked by the kobolds on the road.&nbsp; Enter the PCs.&nbsp; The PCs helped get rid of the kobolds, and she was &quot;grateful&quot;.&nbsp; She left and the PCs didn't think much about that until the inevitable betrayal by Ninaran, who I made Kalarel's boy toy.&nbsp; This was all background information that the players could find out if they did more investigation.&nbsp; It also allowed me to have a tighter hook to Thunderspire Labyrinth by having Kalarel be a former apprentice to Paldemar, and at odds with him due to her pursuit of power.&nbsp; I also expanded Sir Keegan's story a lot more so that there was some grounding to it.IMO, as it stands KotS is a &quot;poor&quot; dungeon crawl, but can serve as a very good kicker to a campaign if the DM works hard expanding it, and creating hooks between it and the other adventures in the series.&nbsp; I made many modifications that worked well for my group, but if I had run KotS right out of the box, it would have felt unsatisfying.&nbsp; YMMV</blockquote>

[QUOTE="D'karr, post: 5994277, member: 336"] I somewhat disagree with this one, I don't find it problematic at all. We've been doing it since essentials came out without issue. YMMV The essentials books cleaned up a lot. The problem is with the breadth of options, which can seem overwhelming. On the clean up side, for example, the "Expertise" feats kind of stopped being a feat tax with essentials because they were given additional options than a simple +1 to attacks per tier. [B][I]Master-at-arms[/I][/B] is a good example. In addition some powers introduced with essentials gave legacy characters more interesting options. Some of the Primal powers for the Ranger come to mind. By choosing these "essentials" options you get a slightly different flavor to your legacy classes. [B][I]Root gate[/I][/B] and [B][I]Bridge of Roots[/I][/B] come to mind. The "essentials" classes themselves work perfectly in line with the "core" classes and can be played side by side. We once had a group with a "Core TWF Ranger" and an "Essentials Scout" and neither seemed to overshadow the other. The scout was easier to play with a tighter subset of options, and the ranger was more complex with more options, but they both worked wonderfully as strikers. As a DM I would use the essentials monsters rather than those from MM1. Any monster that appeared in Monster Vault will have tighter "math/mechanics" than the same creature in MM1. That is the only "problem" I would see of mixing and matching. I have done it though and it doesn't "break" anything you just have to be mindful of the "revised" math that started with MM3. If possible adjust your MM1 monsters that way. Definitely use the "revised" DC numbers from Essentials, they are better balanced. If your son is more interested in fewer combats, KotS is probably not the adventure I'd recommend. KotS can serve as a wonderful "underlying framework" for set-piece combats, but the combats are too many, and some are repetitive (kobolds). In addition, I would work hard to give the adventure a much more "detailed" background. When I ran KotS, I made Kalarel, a half-elf female. I introduced her early in the adventure as her "carriage" was being attacked by the kobolds on the road. Enter the PCs. The PCs helped get rid of the kobolds, and she was "grateful". She left and the PCs didn't think much about that until the inevitable betrayal by Ninaran, who I made Kalarel's boy toy. This was all background information that the players could find out if they did more investigation. It also allowed me to have a tighter hook to Thunderspire Labyrinth by having Kalarel be a former apprentice to Paldemar, and at odds with him due to her pursuit of power. I also expanded Sir Keegan's story a lot more so that there was some grounding to it. IMO, as it stands KotS is a "poor" dungeon crawl, but can serve as a very good kicker to a campaign if the DM works hard expanding it, and creating hooks between it and the other adventures in the series. I made many modifications that worked well for my group, but if I had run KotS right out of the box, it would have felt unsatisfying. YMMV [/QUOTE]

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