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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5396783" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, it is more complicated than that. Essentials as WotC defines it is 10 SKUs only, ever. This includes the RC, DM's Kit, MV, HotF* (2 books), and a couple other things. Now, it appears that GOING FORWARD they are going to retain the Essentials 6x9 trade paperback format for at least some books. They won't be branded Essentials though, just '4e' (presumably, they could have some NEW branding, but I doubt it). This would include things like the new Heroes of Shadow book. Which game elements (classic 4e or Essentials) they are compatible with (both, classic, or Essentials) we don't really know. Presumably they WILL support Essentials classes, but we don't know for sure.4e isn't being made obsolete, true. OTOH if you have only PHB1-3 etc and you buy HoS you MAY not get anything much you can use if it only allows Essentials classes to take the presented options. Mechanically everything is all compatible, but there is a bit of a question there as far as what set of books you'll need in order to use it. In essence this isn't really different from needing PHB2 to get much out of Primal Power for example, but since the Essentials stuff overlaps a lot with the PHB1/2 stuff it could be a bit awkward when your PHB1 owning guy wants to use HoS to build a Necromancer and there's no mechanics for that because the HoS mechanics only work with the Essentials Mage. Hopefully this won't be the case, but we'll see.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 5396783, member: 82106"] Well, it is more complicated than that. Essentials as WotC defines it is 10 SKUs only, ever. This includes the RC, DM's Kit, MV, HotF* (2 books), and a couple other things. Now, it appears that GOING FORWARD they are going to retain the Essentials 6x9 trade paperback format for at least some books. They won't be branded Essentials though, just '4e' (presumably, they could have some NEW branding, but I doubt it). This would include things like the new Heroes of Shadow book. Which game elements (classic 4e or Essentials) they are compatible with (both, classic, or Essentials) we don't really know. Presumably they WILL support Essentials classes, but we don't know for sure. 4e isn't being made obsolete, true. OTOH if you have only PHB1-3 etc and you buy HoS you MAY not get anything much you can use if it only allows Essentials classes to take the presented options. Mechanically everything is all compatible, but there is a bit of a question there as far as what set of books you'll need in order to use it. In essence this isn't really different from needing PHB2 to get much out of Primal Power for example, but since the Essentials stuff overlaps a lot with the PHB1/2 stuff it could be a bit awkward when your PHB1 owning guy wants to use HoS to build a Necromancer and there's no mechanics for that because the HoS mechanics only work with the Essentials Mage. Hopefully this won't be the case, but we'll see. [/QUOTE]

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