So, today has a preview of the Essentials Cleric, and it is interesting stuff.
Presentation
Here is the very first thing I notice - the class write-up is complete. One of the complaints about the PHB was that you needed to flip through a few places to look at exactly how to build your character - one section included the advancement chart, plus the class entry itself that covered HP, proficiencies, etc. Which probably saved a good bit of space - but definitely lost some points on user-friendliness.
In the preview? We've got a classic level advancement chart for the class. Which both provides a bit of an old-school feel, while also making it easier for newcomers to see how it all works.
There is also clearer language in the presentation. Just compare the stat blocks:
PHB Cleric wrote:
CLASS TRAITS
Role: Leader. You lead by shielding allies with your prayers, healing, and using powers that improve your allies’ attacks.
Power Source: Divine. You have been invested with the authority to wield divine power on behalf of a deity, faith, or philosophy.
Key Abilities: Wisdom, Strength, Charisma
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail.
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple ranged.
Implement: Holy Symbol
Bonus to Defense: +2 Will.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12+ Constitution Score.
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges per Day: 7+ Constitution Modifier.
Trained Skills: Religion. From the class skills list below, choose 3 more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Arcana (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Religion (Int).
Build Options: Battle Cleric, Devoted Cleric, Shielding Cleric.
Class features: Channel Divinity, Healer's Lore, Healing Word, Ritual Casting.
Essentials Cleric wrote:
CLASS TRAITS
Hit Points: You start with hit points equal to 12 + your Constitution score. You gain 5 hit points each time you gain a level.
Bonus to Defenses: +1 to Fortitude, +1 to Will
Healing Surges per Day: 7 + your Constitution modifier
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail; light shield, heavy shield
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple ranged
Implement Proficiencies: Holy symbols
Class Skills: Arcana (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Religion (Int)
So, they slimmed down the class traits to just the core stuff - role, power-source and such get their own paragraphs beforehand, as they explain the class in detail. Builds and class features are detailed afterwards, or in the actual level advancement table. The stat block just has the key mechanical elements.
Meanwhile, the listing of hit points is in much plainer language - which might take up a bit more space, but I imagine will be very helpful to new players.
Finally, class skills don't have any auto-trained, just a full list, which probably avoids some minor confusion arising from seeing religion on the PHB cleric's list twice.
So, simply in terms of presentation? Several little touches that make everything cleaner and more accessible. That's pretty much what I expecting.
Mechanics
What I wasn't expecting, as much, was the mechanical changes. Of note - different bonuses to defenses, and proficiency in shields.
Now, there already exists classes whose different builds might change such things - the Monk has different defense bonuses depending on build, and the warlord has builds with different armor proficiencies.
But it usually isn't laid out in the statblock - which is when I realized the statblock wasn't under the 'Cleric' entry, but the 'Warpriest' entry. So again - taking up more space, in order to keep each entry self-sufficient.
So, going beyond the stat blocks alone, what mechanical changes do we see? No ritual casting. Instead, the cleric gets access to Holy Cleansing at level 4, and Resurrection at level 8. (Which I expect are the equivalent of rituals to remove diseases/afflictions and raise the dead.)
Perhaps more of note is that you choose a domain, and that determines most of your powers for you. How absolutely, we don't know, but it looks like At-Will and Encounter powers are tied to your domain.
Finally, on a smaller note - note that the warpriest, here, is wisdom and con-based. I suspect they will be avoiding any classes having two primary ability scores, and instead always have one primary score plus options for secondary scores.
The preview also hints that we'll see the races get the expanded ability score options many have been predicting. (So Dwarves might be +2 Con, and choice of +2 Wis or +2 Str.) We'll probably see errata at the same time to bring the PHB races up to date - I expect that's the most major change that will hit alongside Essentials.
Between the two of those, however, it should be even easier to just go with any race/class combo and feel like it works, without as much need to fret over optimization. 4E has been pretty good about this so far, but not perfect, and I'm certainly glad to see this approach in something that will be introducing people to the game.
Conclusions:
So from all of this, the class looks entirely compatible with the current rules - which is to say, I see nothing to indicate that an Essentials Cleric and a PHB Cleric, at the same table, won't seem perfectly balanced with each other.
However, it also brings into question what they mean by the class being a new 'build'. In some ways, it is - it has many of the same features of the PHB cleric, and presumably plays very similarly. However, unlike most existing builds, I don't see much room to mix and match pieces. You are either playing an Essentials Cleric, or a PHB Cleric.
That isn't a bad thing, mind you. And I suspect the use of secondary titles like 'Warpriest' are specifically there to help make this clear, and address some concerns about the confusion of multiple sources of Clerics. Instead, Jon plays a Cleric from the PHB, and his friend Jack plays a Warpriest from Essentials.
Anyway, we'll see - this certainly doesn't show us everything, and I'm still making some general assumptions about what it all means. But it is an interesting preview, and at least for me, makes Essentials seems very promising indeed.
