Essentials has me hyped about D&D again

[buddhafrog]

After about a 25 year lapse, I started playing D&D again one year ago - one of my best decisions ever. I use D&D 4e in ESL classes and run seven games a week. At first, I loved 4e. But as the PC's leveled up and the power cards started increasing, I felt the joy of the new powers begin to decrease. The amount of focus my players spent determining which exact power to use far outweighed their in-combat roleplaying or even their tactical plans.

And then I played Pathfinder as a player and I loved it. I began thinking of making a switch to Pathfinder for my classes....

And then I began two Essentials games as the DM and I am back in love with D&D 4e - Essentials. All new games will be Essentials only.

We all like our own thing and that is more than cool - but for me, Essentials has really revitalized my desire to DM these games b/c:

• It presents players with less in-combat options and thus more story focus and a slightly faster feel
• It gives players as much or more leveling up options so that I at least feel a greater difference in how the characters are played (I felt that the standard 4e powers started to look very similiar - just the words describing the attack/damage were changed but the end results were essentially the same)
• A slightly increased emmersion b/c there are fewer "super powers" that players suddenly use, but rather a general type of fighting that is gradually improved upon

These all borrow from what I loved playing Pathfinder. I was really happy to see it in Essentials. I'm glad to still be able to use DDI to build my encounters and monsters.

I have changed two things that I feel are important to my game:

• I'm giving b/t 1~3 skill pts that players can add each round as I want them to feel they are more involved in that aspect of their characters' growth (loved that about Pathfinder).
• continued house-rule from 4e: healing surges work the same but I only grant 1~5 surges after a rest depending upon the quality of the rest (home/safe = 5, in the depths of a dungeon might mean only 1 or 2). We have slightly less encounters per day than recommended and this helps make it more deadly and adds a little more fear about taking damage (both things I also loved about Pathfinder)

So there you have it. Just my opinions. But if they above sounds interesting to you and you haven't tried Essentials, the books are cheap and I recommend you trying it. Now, I'm off to help my 3rd group roll up their new Essentials characters.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I also ended up really liking Essentials, but I saw it as just more options to add to the mix, which I was already pretty happy with. However, some of my players prefer a simpler character, so this was perfect for them. Later, I realized that sometimes simpler is what *I* want, too. So I found another reason to love it.

Also, Essentials really helped re-ignite my wife's interest in the game. She hated 3.x, and wasn't too keen on PF because it was too much of what she didn't like about 3rd. She would have been completely happy continuing with 2e + Player's Option (2.5?). The rest of us wanted to move on, so she got dragged kicking and screaming, which really ruined her enjoyment of the game, unfortunately.

When we switched to 4th, it helped a little with her desire to play, but it wasn't until Essentials came along that she really started becoming interested again. So, yet another reason for me to love it! (The couple that games together, stays together )

 

[webrunner]

And then I began two Essentials games as the DM and I am back in love with D&D 4e - Essentials. All new games will be Essentials only.

As awesome as Essentials can be, I would rethink "Essentials only". If someone wants to play a Goliath Warden or a Warforged Artificer or a Githzerai Monk, or whatever.. it'd be pretty annoying to be told NO. FIGHTER MAGE HEXBLADE RANGER ROGUE ONLY NO SPLAT BOOKS FINAL DESTINATION

I mean, it's not as if there's more bookkeeping for a classic wizard as it is a mage.

 

[Imaro]

Yeah, I really like essentials, and it almost brought me back to 4th edition... but then WotC cancelled the magic book and suddenly essentials really wasn't complete... felt a little like I got burned there, but you live and learn.

 

[mneme]

Glad you're having fun, but unless you're saying "only E martial classes", I don't see a point to Essentials-only (except, I guess, for "only material for which I have the book" control, which I don't agree with, but is pretty common). After all, an E-cleric is just as complicated in play as a pre-E cleric (and who cares about complication in the builder as long as the result is comparable?), and an E-mage's only "simplification" is not having rituals, which aren't a big complication, either.

 

[S'mon]

I do love Essentials, but for my next campaign I'm planning to allow PHB 1&2 for the added flexibility.

 

[Tony Vargas]

While the Mage is actually /more/ complicated than the wizard in terms of powers and selection - the Mage has both at-will & encounter cantrips, both encounters and dailies in his spellbook, as well as utilities, and an extra at will, giving him more choice than a wizard at chargen, level-up, and in play - it can still be quite simple to play. The reason is that its powers are much more forgiving of tactical error. There are more powers that only affect enemies, and that have effect and miss lines, meaning a poorly-targetted or poorly-timed power isn't a disaster for the Mage the way it can sometimes be for the Wizard.

The Warpriest, similarly, has more effect lines on its attacks (even at-wills), and a simpler attribute dependency (WIS is all you need), and only a single choice of Domain rather than many power choices as it levels up. So, while it has just as many power choices in play as a Cleric or other 4e character, it is easier in some ways.

While they're easier in that sense, those classes do not address the problem the OP claimed to have with players making power use decisions in play.


Some other things the OP said that didn't quite add up:

It presents players with less in-combat options and thus more story focus and a slightly faster feel

Well, players of martial classes have fewer options, yes.

It gives players as much or more leveling up options so that I at least feel a greater difference in how the characters are played

Well, for players who /aren't/ using martial classes, well, or Warpriests who just choose Domains... so, really, just the Mage, then.

(I felt that the standard 4e powers started to look very similiar - just the words describing the attack/damage were changed but the end results were essentially the same)

Nothing's really changed, there, for the Warpriest or Mage. For the Knight, Slayer and Rogue, there are virtually no powers to /be/ different - they do the same things their whole carreers.

A slightly increased emmersion b/c there are fewer "super powers" that players suddenly use, but rather a general type of fighting that is gradually improved upon

Again, true only of the Martial classes.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I find the essentials classes really help illustrate that different characters are different; it's one of my favorite parts about them.

I also find them pretty quick & easy. Even the Mage is simpler than a PHB wizard, since you can tightly focus on your school and forget about the rest.

I really do like Essentials.

 

[Aegeri]

No Tony, that's rather the entire point with regard to martial characters. To be honest the thing that confused me was this:

We have slightly less encounters per day than recommended and this helps make it more deadly and adds a little more fear about taking damage (both things I also loved about Pathfinder)

Combat in 4E is already very dangerous at low levels with the adjusted maths of MM3 and power design of heroic monsters being better. A level 8 elite owlbear can dismantle nearly any non-defender in one round. In fact I find my biggest problem with 4E is not enough surges anymore, because monster damage has eclipsed the amount of surges PCs have (especially squishier characters like strikers and controllers).

I really don't see the point of this and if I gave my PCs only a single surge after a rest, I'd TPK them trivially.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

It's worth noting that Essentials and APG-Pathfinder are both extraordinarily closer together then a lot of people take them to be. Though Essentials is wrapped in the 4e shell and APG-Pathfinder is wrapped in the 3.x shell, the philosophies behind both and the "problems" that both set out to solve - as well as the answers they use - are dramatically similar.