I made my first Essentials character...

[Matt James]

Well, I've tinkering around with several and have flipped through the books-- but today I created a level 5 mage named Eruantien-- which is "Matthew" in Tolkein :p

Overall I am very satisfied with it and think Essentials has some strong alternate options for players. In many regards he will be easier to run and there is somewhat less to track. I might get pummeled, but I actually like the CB layout as well. It will be fun to play around with him in a game. I'm curious to see what others think.

[Steelfiredragon]

I want to see the new layout myself, hopefully in december I can get the money to get it again.

my hardrive got farced with a bunch of trojon.virus whatever and my CB is lost in the capital wasteland, likely sitting Threedog's radio booth.. hahahaha oh wait thats not funny...... had all my cd's ripped to that too..... gone.... with the wind...... why am I trying to be funny.


anyway, don't tell anyone, but I like some of the essential classes better than the core ones anyway.

fells like you get more per level than just an encounter/utility/daily power..... and pargaon abilties.....

[ERJHolton]

The good thing about the new Character Builder is that there is no installer to worry about. As long as you're using a Silverlight-capable operating system, it's accessible.

@Matt: Are you referring to the CB character sheet layout or the Essentials one? The main functional thing I don't like about the new layouts is that they don't "show the work" with the maths, but from an aesthetic and layout point of view, the Character Builder layout is quite pleasing.

[Steelfiredragon]

so no more download?? or is it a download that we just need a browswer to use?

[ERJHolton]

Rather than try to ineloquently explain, I'll just post a link to the FAQ:

http://wizards.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wizards.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1556

[Steelfiredragon]

herolab here I come....

[Nai_Calus]

I've found the online CB to be nearly intolerable to use, unfortunately.

I'll give it that it does make actually reading Essentials classes less of a headache. I can make up my own fluff, and slogging through what feels like a novel for just a few levels of powers turns me massively off the Essentials books. I just want to see what the powers do so I can make my selections. I can take it from there.

I'm also not at all a fan of either character sheet style. Not having the math irks me, and it feels like there's too much wasted space. Also no option to not have a portrait in the likely event that you don't like any of the ones available.

I dunno. Thief looks OK but doesn't feel like it's doing anything especially cool that my Monk isn't already doing, and part of why I kind of like it is because it reminds me of my Monk, who's the easiest class in the multiverse to refluff anyway. (Mine knees people in the groin, slaps them, whacks them with her purse and hits them with her textbooks. It's kind of like Urban Arcana, but with more acid and crack.)

[ERJHolton]

I can understand WotC being leery about custom portraits as it opens up a great big can of copyright-related worms.

I also agree that the web CB is a lot less usable than the "Classic" character builder. It's harder to read, there's less summary information available as you browse, there's no way to make sure that the programmers have implemented the calculations correctly.

[Lvl]

I agree. I want them to show the work on the sheets. I have enough problems with the Core sheets. I'm not a math person. Still, I have no problem with advancement in books. I'm in the minority there among gaming. I love nWoD.