What's changed?

[Obryn]

Wow, sounds like they've really made a mess of things

Damon_Tor generally spends 90% of his posts nowadays complaining about Essentials. I'd take his opinions with a giant mountain of salt.

I think he's pretty far off in his assessments of Knights, Cavaliers, Warpriests, and Sentinels. I pretty much agree with AbdulAlhazred on all counts, but will add that Sun Warpriests in particular are quite good in the Leadership department. Sentinels have some Striker mixed in with their Leader, but their pet is a deceptively powerful Leader tool... They provide a serious, constant buff to allies, and generally give the Sentinel free access to use their healing surges.

I think the Knight is straight-up weaker than a good ol' Fighter even if the Fighter is limited to PHB1, whereas a Cavalier is more potent than a PHB1-only Paladin on account of actually being designed intelligently. But, a well-built Chaladin using Divine Power options can eat the Cavalier's lunch, too. Both the Knight and the Cav do their jobs okay, but neither is overpowering.

I'll agree that the Mage's school features are generally better than the Wizard's implement features, though.

-O

 

[Mengu]

In general, if making a leader, use O4e, 4eE leaders blow. If making a defender, use a 4eE defender, they are hands-down superior. Strikers and Controllers can go either way; though the mage is better than the wizard in basically any situation, the hunter is a pretty sucky controller (but deals decent damage for one)

I also disagree with these sweeping generalizations. Warpriest is a perfectly fine leader, with access to a decent bit of the basic cleric support. Have not seen a Sentinel in action yet, so can't speak for that. There is very little if any performance difference between old defenders and essentials defenders. I think the classic Fighter is still one of the best designed classes since the beginning of 4e. I'd still play an Orb (Imposition or Deception) or Tome of Binding wizard since they can do something the mage can't, mage specialization just opens different doors. And Hunter is a pretty awesome controller, compared to say a Seeker. While they lack the typical daily powers of controllers, their utilities can add a nice bit of boost to their control, and they play their secondary striker role very well. All they need at the moment is a power swap feat, which should be coming in the next couple months.

 

[ourchair]

This is rapidly becoming a discussion of build efficiencies and power levels and less a discussion of whether or not you can still play 4E the way you always did before Essentials.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'll segue back on topic...

Wizard encounter powers have been retconned with miss effects, and many wizard powers have been significantly tweaked (eg. magic missile auto-hits... G).

DCs changed, scaling according to level. Aid Another is synched to this system and it also has the potential of giving -1 penalty on a failed check.

Rapier is a normal melée weapon now.

Humans can choose Heroic Effort instead of bonus at-will.

Much if this is covered here: Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Changes Coming in Essentials)

 

[DEFCON 1]

So, I stopped paying attention to rules changes and updates around the time that the Essentials came out. I also cancelled my CB subscription before it turned into a pile of steaming crap.

But now it's possible that I might be getting into a new gaming group, in which case I'll need to update myself on the changes, and so wanted to know what I should look-up in order to catch-up.

Just scan the ENWorld threads for the past six months. You'll see every change highlighted and argued about ad nauseum.

Or just not worry about them whatsoever and ignore them, since as a PC you'll probably never actually deal with 95% of them anyway.

 

[pauljathome]

Wow, sounds like they've really made a mess of things

I think that it is fair to say that there is NOT universal agreement on Damon_Tors summary.

For example, I think that mages and wizards are very balanced.

And personally I'd play an old style Paladin before an Epaladin unless I wanted the mount.

 

[Kzach]

Heh, as it turns out the group I might be joining only uses PHB 1 & 2 and Martial Power. That's it. Heck, I know more about 4e than they do!

Which is kinda depressing. There are so many options I'd like to use that go beyond 1 & 2 :/

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I can very well follow their reasoning on limiting the available material... but actually limiting to PHB1 and 2 and only martial power seems a little bit biased...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Cheer up! Maybe they'll let you play a gnome vampire!

 

[Dice4Hire]

4E is quite robust and can still be played very well with only the PHBI. IMO.

IMO (Just saying ti twice so the flamers might see it )

PHBI and II and MPI is a bit unbalanced, but there are a lot of good options in there.