| Matthew Koelbl |
They also posted the Warlord last month as well.
For both it and the fighter, the changes are relatively minor - formatting to present it in the Essentials layout, along with a handful of errata that tends to be more clarification than anything else.
One element of note that did get changed was the oft-contentious power Come and Get It - no longer does it drag people in automatically, but the fighter instead makes an attack against their Will to trick them into drawing close and getting smacked.
Also posted today was the Class Compendium update on feats. This was quite anticipated because it promised to deliver more interchangeability between Essentials and earlier content... and it did, but not quite to the extent I would have liked.
Via feats, Fighters and Rogues can trade an encounter power for a use of Power Strike/Backstab, and vice versa. (And fighters can then pick up the specialization for power strike.) Mages can trade Arcane Implement Mastery for access to a School of Magic, and then gain the later benefits of that school via feat as well. Clerics can do the same, trading Healer's Lore for a domain (and then more feats for later benefits of the domain.)
Overall, I was hoping for more. More ability to multiclass in and out of specific Essentials builds. More ability to get access to some of the actual class features of those builds, or trade some features for a daily power or the like.
As it is, options remain limited. Which perhaps is necessary to retain balance, and I do get that, but... still. Now, we are supposed to be seeing some more info on hybrid rules (possibly in May?) which might address some of these concerns. So we'll see!
| Jeremy Mac Donald |
Personally I'm pretty happy to see this even though I've not delved into the details. I was becoming pretty unhappy that there never seemed to be any more 'errata' on the classes to help improve them. It was starting to feel a little like 3.5 where WotC put something out but never looked at it again to account for the fact that the game itself was evolving. Ultimately what I want is a game where all the options are kept, so far as is possible, up to date and current. New is interesting and I understand that new is critical in selling books but, especially for subscribers, the real goal, IMO, is to keep the game as a whole running smoothly. Here they are doing that and this pleases me even when I don't necessarily agree with every individual choice of theirs.