Rule-of-Three: 02/28/2011

[Aulirophile]

New Expertise Feats give their increase at 11/21, old ones do it at 15/25. So for 8 out of 30 levels the old feats are behind to hit by 1 ( if you can take one, and ignoring for a moment that the new Expertise feats only apply to weapon or implement attacks not counting Staff Expertise, which hurts a ton of hybrid concepts). That is not "reasonable." It is just another reason to look at MID classes and go "Yeah, this is compared to other classes."

 

[aurance]

Awesome that they're making new material for the standard a-w/e/d format class builds. I'm not particularly fond of the Essentials style.

 

[Incenjucar]

Answer 2 is understandable. When house ruling works in the CB again, DMs who give the math fix feats away for free may not want to give away the Essentials versions, which can be rather strong.

Answer 3 is comforting.

Nemesis: Every single thing that WotC writes officially is going to have some measure of marketing behind it. They're not a mom and pop.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Nemesis: Every single thing that WotC writes officially is going to have some measure of marketing behind it. They're not a mom and pop.

Be that as it may, I don't have to like it, and I certainly have no obligation to welcome it, as some others seem so eager to.

I am of that generation; I resent being marketed to, and I am very aware of the both the psychology of advertising, and also the poignant failures of capitalism.

But that is neither here nor there. I have no wish to begin a debate on that topic. I merely point out that I prefer straight answers and honest talk to bafflegab and spin.

 

[Zaran]

Answer 2 is understandable. When house ruling works in the CB again, DMs who give the math fix feats away for free may not want to give away the Essentials versions, which can be rather strong.

Answer 3 is comforting.

Nemesis: Every single thing that WotC writes officially is going to have some measure of marketing behind it. They're not a mom and pop.

I don't like answer 2. If they want to cater to the guys who refuse to change their old feats they should just update the old feats to do the same thing as the new ones.

 

[JPL]

While we're on the subject . . . I actually have no problem with certain feats being phased out because the new ones are better --- not necessarily more powerful, just better written, more flavorful, whatever.

I totally understand the need to say, over and over, THIS IS NOT 4.5. NOTHING IS BEING REPLACED. There are too many question marks regarding the future of the game right now --- gotta avoid an edition war where possible.

So seriously, WotC --- Essentialize all of the remaining races. Do one at a time --- the crunch, the write-up (how does this race fit into Essentialand), maybe give us a nice spread of Essentialized feats like the dwarves got a few months back, and you got yourself a nice article. I mean, everyone pretty much liked what Essentials did to the races --- why stop halfway?

And speaking of stopping halfway --- there are some obvious gaps in the Essential ruleset right now. Frankly, I don't know if D&D as we know it will be around a year from now, so what's the holdup? Let's get the other virtues for the cavalier, and the other "seasons" for the sentinel, and maybe even some more specialist mages.

Finally, since I'm on a roll . . . that article on eladrin knights? That's the kind of stuff I like to see. Essentials seems to lend itself very nicely to very straightforward yet flavorful "alternate builds" like this. Why not find a few more promising race-class combos and see what works?

 

[ppaladin123]

While we're on the subject . . . I actually have no problem with certain feats being phased out because the new ones are better --- not necessarily more powerful, just better written, more flavorful, whatever.

I totally understand the need to say, over and over, THIS IS NOT 4.5. NOTHING IS BEING REPLACED. There are too many question marks regarding the future of the game right now --- gotta avoid an edition war where possible.

So seriously, WotC --- Essentialize all of the remaining races. Do one at a time --- the crunch, the write-up (how does this race fit into Essentialand), maybe give us a nice spread of Essentialized feats like the dwarves got a few months back, and you got yourself a nice article. I mean, everyone pretty much liked what Essentials did to the races --- why stop halfway?

And speaking of stopping halfway --- there are some obvious gaps in the Essential ruleset right now. Frankly, I don't know if D&D as we know it will be around a year from now, so what's the holdup? Let's get the other virtues for the cavalier, and the other "seasons" for the sentinel, and maybe even some more specialist mages.

Finally, since I'm on a roll . . . that article on eladrin knights? That's the kind of stuff I like to see. Essentials seems to lend itself very nicely to very straightforward yet flavorful "alternate builds" like this. Why not find a few more promising race-class combos and see what works?

In my perfect world they would also go back and make all warlock powers Con or Charisma like they did with the sorcerer-pact in Dark Sun. If they don't want to do that, they can at least give star pact warlocks the option for their at-will. And then maybe they can make the paladin's divine challenge Strength or Charisma-based too so that strength paladins don't get shafted on their mark enforcement mechanism. And maybe give battleminds that con-based melee basic attack that they were mysteriously denied. And give runepriests at-wills that scale at level 21 like those of every other class in the game

 

[BobTheNob]

The whole thing about not retiring feats (point 2) I understand their justification. But I simply hate having to filter out the crap in the CB.

Why not have a deprecation scheme? Mark feats as deprecated meaning they wont show up by default, but are still available for backward compatibility and can be selected because there is a "show deprecated feats" option

 

[I'm A Banana]

Allow me to be the first...

WHAT?! They are going to support pre-Essentials classes?! What about those of us who want Essentials classes?! WHAT WILL WE DO WITHOUT ONGOING OPTIONS AND SUPPORT?!!?! WHAT GIVES WOTC, WHAT IS THIS, 4.75 WHERE YOU GO BACK TO THE FAILED PLANS OF A PREVIOUS GENERATION OF THE GAME AND ATTEMPT TO WIN BACK THE PEOPLE WHO FAILED TO UPGRADE? Why not ditch them like the unEssential losers they clearly are, and support my favorite classes going forward?!!?!

....yeah, I can't really get behind it. I still don't get why people were concerned that there wouldn't be any more new fighter builds.

That said, I'm glad that there's still going to be more fighter builds.

(assuming they're not dropping the Essentials style like a hot potato in the meantime, a potentiality which I'm not too worried about, really)

 

[DracoSuave]

Be that as it may, I don't have to like it, and I certainly have no obligation to welcome it, as some others seem so eager to.

I am of that generation; I resent being marketed to, and I am very aware of the both the psychology of advertising, and also the poignant failures of capitalism.

But that is neither here nor there. I have no wish to begin a debate on that topic. I merely point out that I prefer straight answers and honest talk to bafflegab and spin.

Yes because gaming is so much better a hobby when the people who provide us the products we desire (a luxury, by the way, not a necessity) cannot afford to eat because 'capitalism is bad.'

Oh wait, that's not a good thing. That's absolutely horrible.

The whole thing about not retiring feats (point 2) I understand their justification. But I simply hate having to filter out the crap in the CB.

Why not have a deprecation scheme? Mark feats as deprecated meaning they wont show up by default, but are still available for backward compatibility and can be selected because there is a "show deprecated feats" option

Not everyone uses all the books, that's why. When you're in a situation where you have games that restrict the sources you can draw characters from (No Essentials in My Game!) then you can't very well have the tools go 'Welp, now you don't get to see all the choices!'

But it's not important, the character builder has to be a tool everyone can use, not just a tool for 'the guy who is using every source ever'.