This is D&D 4e trimmed down – somewhat. It’s meant for new players to come into the game, and, from what I’ve read, it seems that some of the more complex areas are getting removed in the Essentials line. This shouldn’t affect our existing characters, except for one area: Wizard encounter powers now have some effect on a miss. The example Mike gives is Burning Hands, which will now deal half damage on a miss. Nothing else changes about the spell, but this should make Adam pretty happy.

The really interesting bit that Mike reveals is that the Fighter in the Essentials line is not exactly the fighter we’ve been playing with; it’s an alternative take on the fighter. Indeed, it might not have any daily powers at all! Information is still pretty sketchy, but this does raise one point I really have to think about: Does this mean we’ll have fighter powers that only one version of the fighter can take, or is it just the base progression of abilities that is changing?

The possibility that new powers published in the Essentials line won’t be available to existing characters does worry me. I don’t mind that the base class might have a different take on it – and I really like that the Wizard encounter powers now have “Miss” effects, but if most of the new material in the Essentials line is irrelevant to my existing characters – all right, the characters of my players – then it won’t have the cross-over appeal that I thought it might have.