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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Redbadge" data-source="post: 5594936" data-attributes="member: 61463">Somehow, I missed this thread over the last few days. I just can't help myself from jumping in. I'll just repost something I said from a very similar thread. I make the point that the PHB3 is also an Essentials book, and is just as compatible with earlier material as HotFL and HotFK are."What part of essentials doesn't conform to the broader system or use the  full rules? Essentials has variant mechanics and additional rules only  to the extent that every expansion of the 4e system has. Let me provide an example from the very designer responsible for the  "essentials direction", Mike Mearls. When preparing for the Player's  Handbook 3, Mearls and the other designers noticed that the power  sources may not be differintiated enough, and thought that this might be  something that would be popular with players. Like many people recognize  that Heroes of Shadow is just one part of the larger "essentials  direction", it is easy to see that Player's Handbook 3 is also an  essentials book in all but name. Like essentials classes, psionic classes move away from the AEDU  structure, except instead of giving up dailies (in the case of martial  classes), psionic classes give up encounter powers (notwithstanding the  monk). Like essentials sources, which introduced the limited binder and  vampire, PHB3 introduced the similarly limited seeker and runepriest. Like essentials, which expanded the range of complexity for which the  player base could choose from, PHB3 provided a wider range of complexity  by introducing hybrid classes (which will be and have always intended  to be fully compatible with essentials classes). Like essentials sources, PHB3 provides very little support for ritual casting, and few mentions. Like essentials sources, the races in PHB3 introduced races with  variable ability scores to choose from. Like essentials, PHB3 saw a bit of power creep with the introduction of a  strictly better expertise (as well as superior implements for spell  casters). Like essentials, (some) PHB3 classes gain class features at levels other than 1. When PHB3 did really well and received a generally positive reaction from the 4e  fanbase, Mearls might have said to himself, "Man, if they like this,  they'll love what we've got coming up!" If they had released all of  essentials in  a blue hardback book and called it Player's Handbook 4,  we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. Understandably, WOTC figured the new players they so covet probably wouldn't be picking up something called Player's Handbook 4."</blockquote>

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