4e Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands

My FLGS managed to sell me Heroes of the Fallen Lands yesterday, and I'm thrilled for two reasons. (1) I feel better about buying books from my FLGS instead of Amazon, and (2) Hey, it's pretty cool.

For starters, the big question... "Is this 4.5?" I read this as, "Are these new books similar to the transition from 3e to 3.5?" I'd have to answer with a resounding "NO."

The main feature of an edition shift is a reprinting and replacement of the core options of a game, I think. In 3e, we had a lot of classes and prestige classes. In 3.5, every class and prestige class was reprinted and modified; every spell was redone; and minis larger than Medium size all changed base sizes. And then there's weapon size, Power attack, etc... My 3.5 Fighter could not take a one-level dip into 3.0 Ranger to pick up Two-Weapon Fighting, and my 3.5 Wizard could not decide to prepare 3.0 Haste.

While HotFL certainly contains new rules updates, rule changes are nothing new or particularly noteworthy to 4e players by now. More to the point, there's no way in which I, personally, could play or run 4e using just Essentials characters. It feels like a complete game, but I'd rather have a "normal" 4e Fighter or Rogue any day. (Or, heck, a PHB cleric, for that matter.) About the only class that looks like a strict upgrade is the Wizard (Mage) - honestly a good thing, IMO.

Will this replace my PHB? Not any time too soon. While the new builds are interesting and have some nostalgia value, I'm not sure a Knight, Slayer, or Thief could keep my interest as opposed to PHB Fighters and Rogues. I also think the Warpriest is a bit dull in comparison to normal Clerics; they don't really have any implement powers to speak of, and they're very specific to Kord and Pelor.

About the biggest change, I'd say, are the feats. Finally, we have equity between pure Implements and so-called "Weapliments." Ever since 4e was released, Weapon/Implements like the Staff and Dagger have had a perk that pure implements didn't - they worked with Weapon Focus. Weapon Focus may be boring, but it's tough to pass up an unconditional +1/+2/+3 to damage, particularly when we're talking about Close and Area spells. Even the most control-centric controller wants a chance to do more damage, and Weapliments were a simple way to increase their power.

Now, with Essentials, (1) There's an Implement Focus feat which only applies to Implement attacks; and (2) Weapon Focus only works for Weapon attacks. I'm a bit worried this will screw over the Swordmage and other weapliment wielders, but I'm confident that feats in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms will help, with its hexblade class. (I'm not 100% on this, though - given the simpler classes, I could see them getting only Weapon powers like the Cleric did.)

Anyway, it's a nice book full of interesting options, and I think it will make for some pretty neat characters.