Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Should I play 4e?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 7615256" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Essentials is not dumbed down (I hate that phrase) but it can feel excessively "pruned" if you're used to classic 4e. Thankfully, as others have noted, you can easily play an Essentials character in a party where all the other classes are "original style" and be pretty damn much the same. (I have heard some Essentials classes are more sensitive to the "falling slightly behind at very high level" issue, mostly since they feature far less feature-choice and thus less variability, but many have debated if this is relevant for most groups).</p><p></p><p>If you're thinking about running, <s>take me with you </s> frankly as long as you trust your players not to do anything exploitative, it </p><p>(almost) <em>doesn't matter</em> what classes they play. The game balance is really that robust. The only way in which it might matter is if the party makes an extremely synergistic party (such as one taking thorough advantage of vulnerability to Radiant damage, aka "Radiant Mafia," which may punch more than a bit above its weight.) Which is to say, it will only matter in that you might need to throw more dangerous stuff at then to threaten them. Teamwork is much more important than individual optimization and personal strategy.</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, despite not really caring for Essentials design much myself and emphatically *not* liking the cross-role subclasses (these are just personal opinions; the (sub)classes themselves are fine, they just offend my delicate sensibilities), I absolutely have to give Essentials credit for producing (what I consider) the literal first ever <strong>dirt simple</strong> caster: Elementalist Sorcerer. In structure it was designed like the Slayer Fighter, having a multi-use single "encounter" attack as opposed to many different attacks both daily and encounter. IMO no class before or since, not even the 3e Warlock, has truly hit that potential of "you want to be a mage, but hate bookkeeping and just want to kick ass wit fireballs? Here, have fun."</p><p></p><p></p><p>In general, this is the format that one of the upper-level Epic Destiny powers takes: once per day, when you die, instead do this gorram awesome thing. You usually got them in mid-Epic (24ish IIRC?) So this os where you're hobnobbing with gods, serving eviction notices on Cthulhu, and slaying demon princes--a pesky little thing like <em>death</em> is at best a speedbump.</p><p></p><p>Edit: and if you're looking to get together a 4e group for online play, do let me know. I've been really hankering for a 4e game for a while. Finding DMs can be tough sadly.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 7615256, member: 6790260"] Essentials is not dumbed down (I hate that phrase) but it can feel excessively "pruned" if you're used to classic 4e. Thankfully, as others have noted, you can easily play an Essentials character in a party where all the other classes are "original style" and be pretty damn much the same. (I have heard some Essentials classes are more sensitive to the "falling slightly behind at very high level" issue, mostly since they feature far less feature-choice and thus less variability, but many have debated if this is relevant for most groups). If you're thinking about running, [s]take me with you [/s] frankly as long as you trust your players not to do anything exploitative, it (almost) [i]doesn't matter[/I] what classes they play. The game balance is really that robust. The only way in which it might matter is if the party makes an extremely synergistic party (such as one taking thorough advantage of vulnerability to Radiant damage, aka "Radiant Mafia," which may punch more than a bit above its weight.) Which is to say, it will only matter in that you might need to throw more dangerous stuff at then to threaten them. Teamwork is much more important than individual optimization and personal strategy. Incidentally, despite not really caring for Essentials design much myself and emphatically *not* liking the cross-role subclasses (these are just personal opinions; the (sub)classes themselves are fine, they just offend my delicate sensibilities), I absolutely have to give Essentials credit for producing (what I consider) the literal first ever [B]dirt simple[/B] caster: Elementalist Sorcerer. In structure it was designed like the Slayer Fighter, having a multi-use single "encounter" attack as opposed to many different attacks both daily and encounter. IMO no class before or since, not even the 3e Warlock, has truly hit that potential of "you want to be a mage, but hate bookkeeping and just want to kick ass wit fireballs? Here, have fun." In general, this is the format that one of the upper-level Epic Destiny powers takes: once per day, when you die, instead do this gorram awesome thing. You usually got them in mid-Epic (24ish IIRC?) So this os where you're hobnobbing with gods, serving eviction notices on Cthulhu, and slaying demon princes--a pesky little thing like [I]death[/I] is at best a speedbump. Edit: and if you're looking to get together a 4e group for online play, do let me know. I've been really hankering for a 4e game for a while. Finding DMs can be tough sadly. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Should I play 4e?
Top