List of the Esentials line

[Stryke]

Can someone give me a list of the books in the essentials line in 4th edition

[KillianHawkeye]

I could, but it would just be the result of me going to browse WotC's product page, which you can do just as easily yourself.

[Kurald Galain]

Can someone give me a list of the books in the essentials line in 4th edition

• HOFL
• HOFK
• Heroes of Shadow
• Sword and Spell
• Champions of the Heroic Tier
• Mordenkainen's Vault
• Monster vault
• RuleCom
• DM kit

[DontEatRawHagis]

Do you want the boxes too?

Red Box, Monster Vault ...

[Project_Mayhem]

Is heroes of Shadow another character class book?

[Kurald Galain]

Is heroes of Shadow another character class book?

It will contain no new classes, but have new builds for e.g. the paladin (blackguard) and the wizard (necromancer). These follow the same structure as the builds in HOFL/HOFK.

[Project_Mayhem]

Ah, cool. Didn't know that. My very-obviously-evil drow warlock might have benefited from that

[Reverent-One]

• HOFL
• HOFK
  
• Heroes of Shadow
• Sword and Spell
• Champions of the Heroic Tier
• Mordenkainen's Vault
• Monster vault
• RuleCom
• DM kit

Fixed that for you.

[Project_Mayhem]

They not making those ones?

[Kurald Galain]

They not making those ones?

They're not making what, warlock builds? Yes, there is a new warlock build for 4.4 in HOFK, and it will likely have some added options in the sequel book Heroes Of Shadow.

[Project_Mayhem]

Ah, my bad - I was responding to Reverent-Ones lineouts.

I have HOFK, and am playing the feylock hexblade in the rifftracks dnd encounters game my mates running. Its awesome. The chaosgary place has a themepark.

[Reverent-One]

They not making those ones?

They aren't part of the Essential's line.

[Project_Mayhem]

ahhh. Bugger. Our DM gets free stuff from wizards while we play by their rules. Which means no non essentials material

[Reverent-One]

ahhh. Bugger. Our DM gets free stuff from wizards while we play by their rules. Which means no non essentials material

You're playing D&D Encounters then? The current season of it ends February 2, which is before any the books I crossed out come out. I'm sure the next season of it will allow (if not require) those later books. WoTC wants to give people more incentive to buy their material.

[Kurald Galain]

ahhh. Bugger. Our DM gets free stuff from wizards while we play by their rules. Which means no non essentials material

Ah, but all of the books I mentioned above are for 4.4. For example, WOTC's preview of Sword and Spell states "Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell provides new character options for Dungeons & Dragons Essentials players".

Wanna bet that buying those books (once they're out) is precisely what WOTC wants you to do, and that they'll therefore include them in your "free stuff" list?

[Reverent-One]

Ah, but all of the books I mentioned above are for 4.4. For example, WOTC's preview of Sword and Spell states "Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell provides new character options for Dungeons & Dragons Essentials players".

No, they're not Essentials. The Essential's books are listed as "An Essential D&D Game Supplement" and the covers very obviously say "Essentials", meanwhile books like Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, Heroes of Shadow, and Sword and Spell are listed as "D&D Game Supplement" and neither of the two that have covers shown use the same type of cover the Essentials books do.

[KillianHawkeye]

I think Kurald's point is that, even though they're not listed as being Essentials products, they are in the same style (which differs from the standard 4E style). Take from that what you may.

[Reverent-One]

I think Kurald's point is that, even though they're not listed as being Essentials products, they are in the same style (which differs from the standard 4E style). Take from that what you may.

He's free to have whatever opinion on their style that he wants, but for the question of if they are part of the Essentials line or not, the answer is still objectively no.

[MeeposFire]

Yea essentials is just 10 items and several of those are tokens and dungeons tiles.

Some other books are coming out with the same style as that is the direction D&D i going right now and they are going to have new stuff for essentials classes to of course. They always make new stuff for new classes. These are not essentials book though you can say that they are influenced by essentials (which they told us before essentials came out).

[KillianHawkeye]

It's still important to understand the distinction if, like me, you are only interested in non-Essentials products. So I will most likely not be purchasing Heroes of Shadow when it comes out, since it is an "Essentials-type" product.

[Kurald Galain]

It's still important to understand the distinction if, like me, you are only interested in non-Essentials products. So I will most likely not be purchasing Heroes of Shadow when it comes out, since it is an "Essentials-type" product.

New term to the rescue!

"Essentials" refers to all products with the word "essentials" on the cover. There's ten of them for now, possibly more in the future, and not counting the Dragon columns with the same name but unrelated content.

"4.4" refers to all products that follow the design philosophy first shown in the HOFL book. This includes five of the ten products in the former category (the Red Box is not fully compatible, and for the sets of tiles and dice it's really not relevant) as well as what I listed near the top of the thread. This probably includes every future D&D book until fifth edition.

[Reverent-One]

"4.4" refers to all products that follow the design philosophy first shown in the HOFL book. This includes five of the ten products in the former category (the Red Box is not fully compatible, and for the sets of tiles and dice it's really not relevant) as well as what I listed near the top of the thread. This probably includes every future D&D book until fifth edition.

Or until they change their design philosophy on something again, as they've already done several times thus far. As I've said before, there's little point to just making a distinction between pre- and post-essentials material, as they've messed with the system since day 1 and will probably continue to do so.

I propose that instead of making pointless distinctions just so you can make up a new term that evokes 3.0/3.5 imagery, we just call it 4e. Crazy idea, I know.