Errata?

[Powerdork]

So I bought a bunch of books off of DriveThruRPG to play with my pal in Wisconsin, but I know this is the game where errata makes the most difference; after all, the designers knew what they wanted from this one and tuned and retuned everything to get there. But where's the actual errata? All I can find is a PDF called 'updates' that provides such helpful summaries as:


Thirsting Tendrils
Page 137: This power’s damage has been increased.

(Increased to what? This is a fairly popular 'update'.)

Patron’s Favor, roll of 6 (paragon path feature)
Page 141: Now deals extra damage instead of increasing die category.

(How much extra damage?)

Alertness
Page 193: The feat’s Benefit entry was revised so you can’t be surprised instead of preventing you from granting combat advantage for being surprised.

(That one is useable, at least, since it shows intent tangibly; writing up some rules text that fits the condition is easy. Still, this is presented in the past tense.)

Great Fortitude
Page 203: The feat no longer has paragon tier (11th level) as prerequisite. The feat now scales with level.

(Scales how? Rhetorical question on this one, it's your tier. The update doesn't actually explain that.)

[RedMage125]

The errata might still be available on an archived version of the WotC site. It's free, so it's not piracy to download it or share it with other people.

[Highfeather]

Sadly, the actual errata document is like that. So the WoTC website won't help. I just use a combination of the books, an (unofficial) online compendium and the errata document. All three have errors, but if you've spent enough time with them you can easily figure out the correct course of action. The main issue resides in things that were updated in the 'Class Compendium'. Which are basically the Dragon articles that changed the PHB classes and powers to fit the Essentials format with flavour text and all... but they also snuck some errata in there.

It's a shame the errata document is vague. In most cases you have to compare the compendium version with the original published version, and if the difference matches what is said in the errata document, the compendium version is likely correct. It's a mess.

[Kurald Galain]

For any errata since the release of HOFL, the errata almost universally means the item/feat/power was reprinted, and you should use the version from the latest book. I think the PDFs are still for sale on e.g. drivethrurpg?

For earlier errata, or anything that wasn't reprinted: search the WOTC site via archive.org, and you may be able to find earlier versions of the errata document that did contain the actual errata.

HTH.

[RedMage125]

I know factually that there exists a pdf document with all the final errata for all of the 4e books in one big document, because I have it on my computer at home. It's out there, somewhere. And errata was all openly relased by WotC for free, so it's not illegal to share it.

[Highfeather]

I know factually that there exists a pdf document with all the final errata for all of the 4e books in one big document, because I have it on my computer at home. It's out there, somewhere. And errata was all openly relased by WotC for free, so it's not illegal to share it.

It is that exact final errata document that has all these issues from what I recall. Since the powers weren't shown in that document, you get vague stuff like "damage was increased" without having any idea what the new damage roll should be.

[RedMage125]

It is that exact final errata document that has all these issues from what I recall. Since the powers weren't shown in that document, you get vague stuff like "damage was increased" without having any idea what the new damage roll should be.

I recall the errata document saying what those things were. But you needed the book on hand to be able to make sense of it. I don't specifically recall any "damage was increased" without specific mention of what the increase WAS, however.

[masteraleph]

Regarding the Class Compendium- here are links to the pdfs (they do exist, they're just hard to find):

Wizard (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/401_Wizard.pdf)
Scoundrel Rogue (http://wizards.com/dnd/files/400_Playtest_Rogue.pdf)
Cleric (https://web.archive.org/web/20131126110318/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/399_CC_Cleric.pdf)
Fighter (https://web.archive.org/web/20130613002210/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/CC_Fighter.pdf)
Warlord (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/CC_Warlord.pdf)
Warlock (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/warlock_updates.pdf)

[Excession]

I think these are the various errata documents:

UpdateCompiled.pdf (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwAa__0tV1slUWNKQWZqcGRZMkE), which is the big one of everything before essentials.
UpdateNov2010.pdf (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwAa__0tV1slMVM5cmh4SUM0Vms)
UpdateDNDessentials.pdf (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwAa__0tV1slOUVHUTRQQmQ5eXM)

There is some overlap between the second two; one might replace the other completely.