D&D 4 and D&D Essentials: should I?

[Reis Tahlen]

Hello folks!

Since there is no more french translation for D&D 4 books, I began searching the catalogue for original books, and I discovered... Essentials!

The thing is, I don't reaaaaally understand what it is about. Is it a rules update of the 4th ? Following the reviews of "Heroes of....", it seems there is a HUGE class change with Essentials.

As we don't have any rule problem and my players enjoy our sessions, my question is: is it necessary to have "Essentials"? Is it compatible with the core rules and the "Power" books? It seems the "Heroes..." books cover only core classes and races, what about all the others, such as psionics? Can I have in my group a DD4 Fighter AND an Essentials Fighter if one style suits better to each players?

Thank you!

[Tengu_temp]

Essentials are compatible with normal 4e, but they're separate games with different focuses - normal 4e focuses on making all classes equally interesting to play with multiple combat options, Essentials focus on the oldschool feeling where non-casters were very simple and pretty much only auto-attacked. Yeah, I'm not really a fan of Essentials, though they that game does have some good feats you can scavenge for normal 4e.

[Kurald Galain]

As we don't have any rule problem and my players enjoy our sessions, my question is: is it necessary to have "Essentials"?
Obviously not. You can play the entire game using just the PHB1 and one Monster book, nothing else is necessary.
So since it's not necessary, how much does it add? That depends on how interested you are in a "new variant" to e.g. a rogue. There are no new archetypes that aren't already supported in earlier books. The books contain few feats (albeit very powerful ones), very few items (which are reprints), and very little support for paragon or epic tier.


Is it compatible with the core rules and the "Power" books?
That depends on your definition of the word "compatible". For example, a 4.4 fighter cannot use most 4.0 fighter powers, and neither can a 4.0 fighter use most 4.4 fighter powers. On the other hand, almost all wizard powers are interchangeable.


It seems the "Heroes..." books cover only core classes and races, what about all the others, such as psionics?
There's four classes in HOFL (fighter, cleric, wizard, thief), four more in HOFK (ranger, paladin, warlock, druid), and that's it. The books contain no material for any other classes.


Can I have in my group a DD4 Fighter AND an Essentials Fighter if one style suits better to each players?Mostly yes, but you may run into some balance issues.

[DeltaEmil]

Essentials is just 4th edition with easier leveling, by removing most stuff in the normal line. It's compatible and more or less balanced with normal 4th edition. And what Tengu_temp said.

I personally like Essentials. Especially the Slayer class.

[Raistlin82]

Essentials are compatible with normal 4e, but they're separate games with different focuses - normal 4e focuses on making all classes equally interesting to play with multiple combat options, Essentials focus on the oldschool feeling where non-casters were very simple and pretty much only auto-attacked. Yeah, I'm not really a fan of Essentials, though they that game does have some good feats you can scavenge for normal 4e.
This.

At first sight, Essentials might look like a failed attempt at mixing 4E rules with "old school" feel, to make both 1/2nd Edition and 4E fans happy, and failing miserably.

Sadly, it's much more than that. It's a way to brutally and exagerately simplify 4E (which didn't really need it to start with), and make D&D a more "basic" and "child-oriented" game. The new, obnoxious online-only Character Builder illustrates this quite well.

Like Tengu, I keep playing 4E, and just acknowledge Essentials as any other additional manual with new feats and powers to pick from...