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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gadget" data-source="post: 5333753" data-attributes="member: 23716">I'll try to answer your questions as best I can, but it may be that you or I are laboring under some misconceptions about a few things.I believe that while a lot of people play E6 to reduce the absolute reliance on Magic Items and doohickies as the game progresses toward higher levels, many people don't like the increased complexity and absolute wha whoo-ness that tend to rise with levels as well.  4E has curbed this somewhat by having a flatter power curve and moving much of the magical wha-whoo into rituals and having monsters (and most NPCs) use different rules than the PCs.  You don't have to worry about scry, buff, teleport in 4E (unless the DM specifically designs some monster/NPC/site that allows it.) Agreed.  Many people have suggested the built in tier system as a good point; i.e. "just play heroic tier".  Although, as mentioned above, 4E does go some way to obviate the need for E6 YMMV, of course.There is always that dichotomy between simplicity and ease of play with (perceived) depth and flexibility.  Also, everyone (well obviously not everyone, but most) wants or likes to have the "cookie" that leveling and obtaining new abilities and powers bring.  It has always been in the game in one form or another.  I sympathize that after a while it can become meaningless and repetitive though.  Well, as already mentioned, 4e does bring more of this to the table with it's flatter power curve.  1st level characters start out kicking tail and taking names gaining a couple of levels does not really seem to make as dramatic a difference in power (although it does give more options).I'm a little confused here.  You seem to have a tightly held opinion of what Essentials is and yet come here ask questions about it's suitability to E6?  It may be like 3.5 in that it is intended to rejuvenate and refresh the D&D line and change the direction a bit, but mechanically, it is very different from 3.5.  Essentials does not change or replace the 4e releases preceding it, other than the usual errata that 4e is known for (some of the more cynical may argue that some of the errata was made to facilitate Essentials, but that is neither here nor there).  In this sense it is no more a "4.5" than Arcane Power, Players Handbook III and the like were.   Well, I do think Essentials simplifies and eliminates many of these things for the martial classes (or presents them in a more flavorful and palatable manner).  Even the Cleric & Wizard builds presented therein have, IMHO,  been made more flavorful and playable with the domain and school system, despite still having the at will, encounter, daily system.   On the one hand, Essentials still goes up the level 30, so the "level grind", as you put it, is still there.  At some point, your character is still pretty much a Demi-god, and  4e realizes this and makes this more explicit with the tier system.  That said, it may be more suitable for E6 to those who prefer a reduction in complexity with certain classes; even the more complex mage & battle cleric builds have many options "built-in" for ease of play (though the player is free to swap out the pre-built options for pre-essentials options).  Well, One could still use feats, though feats, as you know, don't carry the same juice they did in 3e.  Some of the Essential feats are more broadly useful and scalable than base 4e feats are.  No doubt the 4e designers were initially mindful for the massive feat stacking bloat of late 3e and wanted to make certain it did not happen again.  There is also ability score increases (which would qualify for more feats).  But you are right when you say powers are where it's at in 4e.  Yet the use of a higher level power may not be as bad as it seems.  Sometimes the main difference is merely the [w] damage offered by higher level powers, while others grant more bonuses or inflict harsher conditions.  One could conceivably stop advancing yet still swap out powers for higher level ones, on a case by case bases, maybe with the [w] damage toned down.  It isn't like the difference between 1st level spells and 6th level spells of previous editions. Lastly, some Essentials characters get better or more use of class abilities when leveling up that may apply to E6.  The slayer fighter, for example, gets more uses of "power strike" as they level.  I can easily see a game that stops at level x still granting further uses of power strike for y xp.  Or the Battle Cleric gets a resurrection class ability at level x but you can gain this ability even though you stop advancing at level x - 2.</blockquote>

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