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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 5670517" data-attributes="member: 996">A lot of complaints about Essentials aren't well-articulated.  Part of it is that Essentials is cloaked in plausible denyability.  It's very officially and formally /not/ 4.5, for instance, even though it very clearly is 4.5 in some sense.  It's very officially and litteraly not 'replacing' PH1, but, it does cover some of the exact same character archetypes from the PH1 in mechanically novel ways, while little more than re-printing some, and ignoring others.  The 'support' complaint really speaks to the 'new direction,' of which Essentials was just the first shot accross the bow.  4e delivered class balance.  It gave us casters that weren't out of control and melee types who very nearly were - it finally put most traditional fantasy archetypes on nearly even footing in the game.  The 'new' direction, OTOH, puts modeling a vision of the archetype the class is being aimed at ahead of balancing it - either with other classes, or in terms of filling a role, to help the players keep the party balanced or the DM keep his encounters balanced.  That's not really a 'new' direction, it's what D&D always did prior to 4e.  But, the commitment to that new design philosophy means that older classes that don't fit into it - like Fighters 'who cast spells' (ie, have powers, even daily powers) - are going to have to fall by the wayside, eventually.  Be that by errata, lack of support as power inflation leaves them behind, banning from organized play, or simply ignoring them and hoping they go away.  What the 'lack of support' thing boils down to is not liking the new direction - because that's where future support is going to be headed.  It's like the 4e haters who go on about how '4e stifles RP' when what they really mean is that the rules just don't suck in quite the way they'd become accustomed to.  When people complain, they want to sound reasonable - most especially when they're not being reasonable.</blockquote>

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