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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 5746835" data-attributes="member: 6680772">Got my first chance to play an Essentials Knight tonight, and greatly enjoyed it.  For me personally, it hit the Goldilocks space of just the right amount of options and variety.  In Classic D&D/AD&D, I tended to avoid playing fighters because it seemed like other classes had more options.  I enjoyed the greater variety of options in Core 4e, but also tended to suffer from analysis paralysis when considering my powers, especially as levels got higher.  In the end, instead of finding the best power for a given situation, I would try to plan my moves so that I could basically run through my powers in some hierarchy I'd create, usually based on damage, or on to-hit if the enemies had high AC.  Or just spam one non-AC attacking power if that was a weakness.With my Knight, however, having basic attacks as my main power really freed me up to look at the battle from the perspective of what I wanted to accomplish, rather than what power I wanted to use.  The Defender Aura and Battle Guardian powers provided some guidance, and then the stances and encounter powers provided variety and flexibility.  This was all there in Core 4e as well, I think, but it just felt more streamlined with the Knight.Also, the Knight really fit well with the character concept I wanted: an Anglo-Saxon thane (in Eberron!).   I wanted a one-man shieldwall, standing between the monsters and squishy folk shouting "YOUUU SHALL NOT PAAASSSS!!!!" and the Knight gave it to me almost perfectly in the way I wanted.  Of course, as Tony Vargas and Quickleaf indicate, part of this was the DM's unfamiliarity with the Knight.  Essentials isn't coming out in Japan here until next year, and while many players have English versions of the Essentials books, this was the first time they saw the Knight in action.  The DM did space out the bad guys in the optimal way to avoid me locking down more than one or two at a time, but he was sometimes perplexed when I set up next to the big bad guy, hit him with Glowering Threat, and Opportunity Attacked him every time he went after someone else.  In the end, he'd end up focusing on me.  Mission accomplished.  We'll see how he adjusts in future games.I also think playing the Knight has opened up the whole of the game to me.  Previously, looking at options such as the charge, or the bull rush, I'd see "melee basic attack" and just forget about it.  It always seemed the better bet to just utilize a power, even an at-will.  But the Knight is like a love letter to the melee basic attack.  Now rereading the rules, every time I saw "melee basic attack" the ideas started popping.  Even when I'd used up my encounters, and with no dailies, I didn't feel like I'd shot my wad.  My character, and his strategies and tactics, didn't really change from the beginning of the encounter to the end.Great design.  Great fun.</blockquote>

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