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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
What was the big difference between 4e and "essentials"?
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<blockquote data-quote="MwaO" data-source="post: 7451236" data-attributes="member: 12749"><p>I think one of the basic issues is that WotC's had a very complex relationship with the power of multi-attacking and stacking bonuses for a very long time. But I think Essentials introduced 3 basic concepts new to 4e that were self-destructive:</p><p>Single basic attack attackers — ideally, a striker takes out an at-level standard with about 4 hits, no matter what level they are. Monsters gain 8 hp per level, so damage per standard action attack then needs to increase at about 2 hp per level. This is easiest to achieve by doing 2 attacks per round that then do 1 hp extra per level. And because most Essentials strikers didn't get encounter attack powers, they couldn't fix any issues by poaching other powers.</p><p></p><p>Using Expertise/Defense feats as design space without then clearing out all the garbage elements that allowed a +1/2/3 to hit or defenses via weird bonuses. That did two things — allowed excessive stacking on defenses *and* made getting 2-3 feats by 11th level essential. When most PCs only have 7 feats and every PC is taking 2-3 feats, it makes most builds boring in the area of most play.</p><p></p><p>Having Mearls do the Essentials Hybrids, which basically gave most of the benefits of being an Essentials class in many cases, but without the downsides. And just bizarre valuations of hybrid talent options.</p><p></p><p>--------</p><p></p><p>i.e. in combo, Essential Strikers generally stopped working in low Paragon, people playing other versions of 4e got duplicate math fixes that stacked, and a couple of Essentials classes became nearly strictly better as hybrids than playing the actual base class.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MwaO, post: 7451236, member: 12749"] I think one of the basic issues is that WotC's had a very complex relationship with the power of multi-attacking and stacking bonuses for a very long time. But I think Essentials introduced 3 basic concepts new to 4e that were self-destructive: Single basic attack attackers — ideally, a striker takes out an at-level standard with about 4 hits, no matter what level they are. Monsters gain 8 hp per level, so damage per standard action attack then needs to increase at about 2 hp per level. This is easiest to achieve by doing 2 attacks per round that then do 1 hp extra per level. And because most Essentials strikers didn't get encounter attack powers, they couldn't fix any issues by poaching other powers. Using Expertise/Defense feats as design space without then clearing out all the garbage elements that allowed a +1/2/3 to hit or defenses via weird bonuses. That did two things — allowed excessive stacking on defenses *and* made getting 2-3 feats by 11th level essential. When most PCs only have 7 feats and every PC is taking 2-3 feats, it makes most builds boring in the area of most play. Having Mearls do the Essentials Hybrids, which basically gave most of the benefits of being an Essentials class in many cases, but without the downsides. And just bizarre valuations of hybrid talent options. -------- i.e. in combo, Essential Strikers generally stopped working in low Paragon, people playing other versions of 4e got duplicate math fixes that stacked, and a couple of Essentials classes became nearly strictly better as hybrids than playing the actual base class. [/QUOTE]
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What was the big difference between 4e and "essentials"?
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