thecasualoblivion's page

So this essentials line may be a "closed system"? Meaning some stuff comes out and then no more? If so then I am interested as a DM. One thing as a DM a hate is the ever increasing number of Races/Classes. Gone are days of a Dwarf, a Human, and an Elf walking into a bar as standard. We now have a Squirrel, a Fishman, and Small Intelligent Piece of Lint (SIPL to his friends). As a DM I have real issues crafting a campaign world when nearly everything on the planet is "core" and both sentient and a PC possible race! (crazed rant, sorry).

Essenitals seems, from what I have read above, to be the big reset button I was looking for as a DM. Now I don't have to look like a DM-dictator by saying that Sentient Catfood Can race does not fit in my campaign world and not have players quote "EVERYTHING is core". I can say "if it's not ESSENTIAL" it's not in" :)

I am assuming that the two Player Essential's will be the only ones or will there be more?

Cheers,
S.

Moderately closed, I think is a safe assumption. There might be more down the road, but it will be a drop in the bucket compared to base 4E.

Downloaded it hours ago, though the download is far from smooth. I highly recommend downloading .Net 3.5 SP directly from Microsoft before downloading the Char Builder.

Its only to level 3 right now(darn Beta), and Barbarian isn't included it only has Dragon issues up to 367 in the system. Barbarian is issue 368. They have said that they plan on adding newer Dragon issues and Martial Power to the Character Builder before the full launch early next year.

That being said, its nice to use. I've already created 23 characters with it.

I don't think the issue is as much incompatiibility as it is untidiness. The rules aren't 100% compatible, but they're close, so running things side by side doesn't make the game come crashing down, but there will be inevitable potholes and minor crashes. I imagine there are some substantial system exploits for optimizers when combining editions, and a lot of the more interesting 3.5E character options don't compare as well to the powered up Pathfinder core(like Warlock, for example) as they do to 3.5E core.

It all depends on if the system running smoothly is important to you, and how much bumps and crashes bother you.