Rules Missing from the Rules Compendium

[lancemoody]

I also read the compendium cover to cover and found it quite nicely done.

 

[Baz King]

artefacts. Nowhere to be seen. Very odd.

 

[Truename]

The Rules Compendium has every keyword to date, except for the new Essentials mage ones (Evocation, etc).

The big oversights I see are...

...lack of vehicle rules.
...lack of weapon properties like stout, brutal, and defensive.
...lack of ritual rules.

Vehicles are briefly covered on page 171 under the heading "Mounts and Vehicles." There isn't much more than a table of travel times per day and carrying capacity, though. Nothing about using vehicles in combat that I've seen.

Essentials mage keywords are listed on p112 in the Keywords section under the "Schools of Magic" heading--you must have missed it.

Other than rituals, the biggest missing piece seems to be item details and keywords. I don't think that's an oversight; I think we're going to see a significantly different approach to items in Essentials-style products, probably one that has a limited set of core rules (the ones in Rules Compendium) and then lots of exception-based design.

It's possible vehicles fall under this revamp of items; it would explain the lack of more information. (This is all speculation, of course.)

 

[TarionzCousin]

Exactly WHAT other boards do you hang out at?


I want to know which ones to avoid.

bow-chicka-wow-wow.com
chicka-chicka-bow-wow.com
bow-chicka-woo-woo.net.

...all the groovy places, daddy-o.

 

[tentfox]

Are rules for multi-classing and/or hybrid classes in the book?

On the topic of rituals, I have DMed a few games and my players NEVER bothered with rituals, and are generally considered too much work. Too many to choose from, too awkward to use and not overly worthwhile. The only ones I have seen cast are the raise dead and the remove curse(sic?) ones, and only from scrolls. I think the way it is being handled by battlepriest is probably for the best (this is just my opinion and I am sure groups out there love casting knock, etc).

On the topic of magic items and starting at higher level, I think the essentials DMG will have all that info. I do find it odd however that they leave out item properties and superior weapons; as a lot of builds are focused around them. Anyone care to speculate further? Masterwork armor I see as perfectly fine to just exist in the DMG, as the players do not need feats to use them and they should be very special.

 

[Quickleaf]

Hey, I'm curious, are forced march rules in the Rules Compendium?

It's something that was conspicuously absent from the DMG.

 

[Truename]

Are rules for multi-classing and/or hybrid classes in the book?

No. That's a pretty significant omission, now that you mention it.

 

[Colmarr]

... and since Essentials is complete with the products we see now

I don't think I've ever seen a citation for that assumption, which many people (including NewbieDM) seem to be making.

The fact that there are new options for essentials class builds in the latest Dragon suggest that at least some ongoing support/widening should be expected.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I don't think I've ever seen a citation for that assumption, which many people (including NewbieDM) seem to be making.

The fact that there are new options for essentials class builds in the latest Dragon suggest that at least some ongoing support/widening should be expected.

WotC stated flat out at the very start that there would never be anything but the 10 announced SKUs under the Essentials line. They might come out with follow on products that expand on Essentials content, but at least technically it won't be part of Essentials itself. That has a significant bearing on the RC because it pretty well dictates that we're not going to see an RC2 or something like that. We might well see some future variation of 4e that has an even more complete "RC" someday, but the implication of stuff being missing from the RC is that it isn't really going to be supported going forward in products that are based on Essentials, which sounds like ALL future 4e products.

Of course there is going to be ongoing support in DDI with added stuff for Essentials content. It is just not likely to include rituals, MCing, and Hybrids amongst other things. We might see some 'tie in' material that deals with how to use older and newer stuff together though. I suppose it is possible it might include something like MC feats for Essentials classes, but who knows?

 

[Zaran]

Does it have double weapon rules? I thought the whole reason for the Rules Compendium was to put in print the errata so I would stop asking them to update their books. It sounds to me that there are some updated rules that didn't make it.