D&D 4E Is Essentials Compatible with Old School 4ed?

[DracoSuave]

It is not compatible in a couple of cases.

You cannot use some of the abilities of the new class builds with the old ones & vice versa, just like you can't use monk powers with fighters.

By the same token, I can't use the paladin's divine sanction with monk powers.

I wouldn't call that an incompatibility issue.

Some of the feats have been updated & this has not been input into character builder (grr) so if you use this tool you might want to make manual adjustments/add notes.

Heh

I do not think either of these are well expressed in the rules. You have to know which feats have been upgraded & yes they are feat tax feats but the upgrades compensate for that with a tax rebate- they give you choice & customisation back. The rules for varying even slightly from the essentials builds are mostly absent but played straight they work.

They're not absent; if you're given a choice of class powers with levels and types, you can choose from the entire gamut of class powers that are eligible, not merely what's in the essentials book.

That's not absent, it's just very simple and doesn't require a lot of text to explain.

It's totally compatible in play.

This.

So they are not 100% compatible.

I CANNOT USE POWER POINTS TO AUGMENT MY TWIN-STRIKE SO PSIONICS ARE NOT 100% COMPATIBLE WITH D&D4th EDITION

Seriously. That's pretty much what you're saying, except replace psionics with essentials.