So, how many are avoiding Essentials?

[Neverfate]

This is not an attack in any way, but what do you mean by "customization" here? Do you mean inside the rules or outside them, in the areas of fluff/backstoreis/gameplay?

To me the classes, with only one PP per build and only one ED in the whole first book, offer far less customization than classic 4E. Fluff/backstoreis/gameplay seem to be the same to me.

My group has decided not to do essentials at all. There are some nice options, and some AMAZING feats, but it is not what we want to do and does not fit with our playstyle, which is a gestalt-type way of making characters.

So we decided to not go that route and hope WOTC goes back to classic 4E stuff soon.

Well, you have to figure, by the time an average character has a theme, magic items, boons, grandmaster training, additions and subtractions due to background and character "fluff" (something I give bonuses and penalties for); play just gets convoluted. I like my players to have every options as opposed to none. Essentials just makes baseline characters, before all the add-ons, simpler to got in with.

Also, are your players even avoiding new feats? I don't think they have to separate themselves that much from "Essentials". Some of the feats are a lot of fun.

Just as a general side note, I think once the new character builder goes online, a lot of people are going to end up with Essentials feats without even knowing it. I know a lot of players with the old CB that don't look at the "source" at the bottom of the description.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Just as a general side note, I think once the new character builder goes online, a lot of people are going to end up with Essentials feats without even knowing it. I know a lot of players with the old CB that don't look at the "source" at the bottom of the description.

No way, we won't be using online builder.

 

[Aegeri]

Some of the essentials feats, like the much improved feat tax feats (Expertise and various +will etc feats) are the way they should have always been done IMO. So I am actually quite happy about them and am very pleased at their presence.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

One of my players is insisting on being an Essentials fighter, but no one else is interested in switching.

I don't know what to do with the feat taxes. I suspect the campaign won't go into paragon, so it shouldn't be a problem, but if it does, I'll need some reasonable solution.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

4Ed hasn't really converted anyone in our group. We're really only playing because the new guy in the group is a cool dude...and the guy running the 3.5 game needed a break.

So there's one DM with some 4Ed books; add me as a non-convert who finds the game fun enough to play, but not to run...and who is also Mr. Librarian so I own a small stack...

Except there's nothing cool enough in Essentials to make ME buy, and the DM is taking a conservative approach- we aren't even using all of the PHBs and Powers books yet- so Essentials would seem to be an unlikely addition.

So we have only 2 4Ed buyers in the group; everyone else using CB...

Oh wait- the new online-only CB will kill that.

 

[Aegeri]

You shouldn't have to bother doing anything with them. They are good enough to take on their own and the benefits are worth the cost of needing to do so. I used to give expertise feats out for free and now I no longer do so. That's because they are worth taking on their own merits and so I just leave them to my players to pick up (Paragon is about the minimum they become required though).

It's really a problem that solves itself now. They just need to add more of them for weapliments, totems, flails and other missing weapon groups.

 

[Raikun]

Asking "Who is switching to/avoiding switching to Essentials?" is about the same as asking, "Who is switching to/not switching to Martial Power?"

Yep.

IMO, every table should have the Essentials Rules Compendium now, because it's the most current rules in book form (and laid out very neatly).

The Monster Vault pretty much replaced the MM1 here when designing encounters (it absolutely blows away the MM1 in monster balance).

And we treat the "Heroes" books as basicly the PHB4.

It's all 4e D&D...I don't see it as a "switching over", it's all just various content for the exact same game.

 

[FireLance]

Essentials is a far bigger change than Martial power was.

This is probably worthy of a thread in itself, but it seems to me that there are people who think that Essentials is an addition to "classic" 4E and there are people who think that Essentials is a replacement for "classic" 4E.

For those in the former group, Essentials is just another bunch of options. The operative verb is not "switching", but "adopting".

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

We're using the new feats, and I have an essentials Cleric in one game. While he's absurdly survivable, he's kinda boring. I miss my Battle Cleric.

I would run an Essentials Thief in a heartbeat, though.

Brad

 

[mikeloop86]

I am personally avoiding Essentials like the plague. Wootsie's not making it to easy on CB users to do this from what I hear (item restrictions are implemented by default, and must be worked around to bypass), but I don't use the CB anyway.