Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 tpkurilla Jul 15, 2011 13:09:06	Hi guys, I've been waiting patiently, figuring that it would be taken care of...but, alas, perhaps I need to bring it up before it will be addressed. When I build an Essentials character, Rogue (Thief), I only have a list of 10 races to choose from.  Even if I choose "Customize", and deselect my original race, my choice is still restricted. Why are the races for Essentials characters restricted? Shouldn't I just be able to choose any race? Is there some setting somewhere that removes my choices...and perhaps I can change that? Looking forward to finding out if I've just been missing the boat. Thanks in advance, -Thomas
#2 MalakLightfoot Jul 15, 2011 16:11:06	Hi guys, I've been waiting patiently, figuring that it would be taken care of...but, alas, perhaps I need to bring it up before it will be addressed. When I build an Essentials character, Rogue (Thief), I only have a list of 10 races to choose from.  Even if I choose "Customize", and deselect my original race, my choice is still restricted. Why are the races for Essentials characters restricted? Shouldn't I just be able to choose any race? Is there some setting somewhere that removes my choices...and perhaps I can change that? Looking forward to finding out if I've just been missing the boat. Thanks in advance, -Thomas Do not use the NEW button. Do not use the current season of Encounters as your campaign. These will restrict you to options that are found in Essentials ONLY. If you want an option, any option, that exists outside of Essentials, you need to use the CUSTOM button, and either the Custom, Forgotten Realms or Eberron campaign options. This will give you unrestricted access to all of the game material, including Essentials. You will need to remake your character with the Custom button and one of the aforementioned campaigns. Once you have selected your campaign and begun to select your class, there is no way to go back and change it. edit: And, no, it is not a bug, it is intentional that the NEW button, and the Encounters and Quick Essentials campaigns restrict your options. It is good that you came here to ask about it, because it is not something that they intend to "fix."
#3 kenjoon Jul 16, 2011 21:59:29	Hi guys, I've been waiting patiently, figuring that it would be taken care of...but, alas, perhaps I need to bring it up before it will be addressed. When I build an Essentials character, Rogue (Thief), I only have a list of 10 races to choose from.  Even if I choose "Customize", and deselect my original race, my choice is still restricted. Why are the races for Essentials characters restricted? Shouldn't I just be able to choose any race? Is there some setting somewhere that removes my choices...and perhaps I can change that? Looking forward to finding out if I've just been missing the boat. Thanks in advance, -Thomas Do not use the NEW button. Do not use the current season of Encounters as your campaign. These will restrict you to options that are found in Essentials ONLY. If you want an option, any option, that exists outside of Essentials, you need to use the CUSTOM button, and either the Custom, Forgotten Realms or Eberron campaign options. This will give you unrestricted access to all of the game material, including Essentials. You will need to remake your character with the Custom button and one of the aforementioned campaigns. Once you have selected your campaign and begun to select your class, there is no way to go back and change it. edit: And, no, it is not a bug, it is intentional that the NEW button, and the Encounters and Quick Essentials campaigns restrict your options. It is good that you came here to ask about it, because it is not something that they intend to "fix." I wish they would sticky this or some similar answer.  Answering this same stupid question about "missing content" every few days is getting really old.
#4 tpkurilla Jul 18, 2011 11:32:26	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked.
#5 MalakLightfoot Jul 18, 2011 11:46:28	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question isn't stupid. The fact that the question needs to be asked so often is stupid. The NEW button on the entry screen needs to go away, and the Essentials only option should be a selectable campaign, like Dark Sun or Home.
#6 tpkurilla Jul 18, 2011 11:59:08	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question isn't stupid. The fact that the question needs to be asked so often is stupid. The NEW button on the entry screen needs to go away, and the Essentials only option should be a selectable campaign, like Dark Sun or Home. That definitely makes sense.  Seems so sensible and easy that it isn't likely to happen. Thanks again, Malak.
#7 salla Jul 18, 2011 12:01:22	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question isn't stupid. The fact that the question needs to be asked so often is stupid. The NEW button on the entry screen needs to go away, and the Essentials only option should be a selectable campaign, like Dark Sun or Home. Or, people could actually read the screen ...
#8 kenjoon Jul 18, 2011 12:09:20	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question isn't stupid. The fact that the question needs to be asked so often is stupid. The NEW button on the entry screen needs to go away, and the Essentials only option should be a selectable campaign, like Dark Sun or Home. Or, people could actually read the screen ... That's laughable.
#9 kenjoon Jul 18, 2011 12:15:08	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question comes in many different varients depending on what you were trying to do.  "Why is content X missing from the builder?" or "I can't find item X that I got last week in my session, what am I doing wrong?" Having to answer what amounts to "the same question" every week and sometimes more often based on the "same root cause" (the stupid "new" button in the builder that needs to DIE!).  I apologize if you read it as "the exact same question" which it is not, but many questions engendered by the same cause.
#10 tiornys Jul 21, 2011 14:04:24	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question isn't stupid. The fact that the question needs to be asked so often is stupid. The NEW button on the entry screen needs to go away, and the Essentials only option should be a selectable campaign, like Dark Sun or Home. Or, people could actually read the screen ... The Dark Legacy of Evard Campaign button gives relevant details.  But there's nothing about "Build a Quick D&D Essentials Character" that suggests I will be restricted to Essentials ONLY for ALL character options. "New" is the wrong label for that button.  And there should be a way to enable classic content on an existing character.  But these are old, known complaints. t~
#11 MrHotter Jul 26, 2011 14:47:47	I actually went back a few weeks in the forum to see if there were any other stupid people asking this stupid question. Since I did not see this question posed in the last few weeks, I figured it was not a stupid question.  My apologies. In any case, I do appreciate getting an answer to the question that I asked. The question isn't stupid. The fact that the question needs to be asked so often is stupid. The NEW button on the entry screen needs to go away, and the Essentials only option should be a selectable campaign, like Dark Sun or Home. Or, people could actually read the screen ... The Dark Legacy of Evard Campaign button gives relevant details.  But there's nothing about "Build a Quick D&D Essentials Character" that suggests I will be restricted to Essentials ONLY for ALL character options. "New" is the wrong label for that button.  And there should be a way to enable classic content on an existing character.  But these are old, known complaints. t~ Yea, that was a question I had as well. I created two characters with essentials only, but was going to allow themes in my campaign. Looks like I'll just re-create them. Luckily the character with a lot of info in her management page was already made without the essentials only option. I could have sworn I've seen a way to change what source marterials to use under options, but I guess I'm thinking of the old version.
#12 BrannonB Aug 07, 2011 17:30:45	Or, people could actually read the screen ... But clearly people don't, and expecting your customers to adjust to the way you want to present the product is the worst sort of business-wrecking hubris. Brannon
#13 Grazel Aug 09, 2011 12:31:19	Yes I find the 'new' button a bit misleading and have to remind myself to click on 'custom' instead. I agree it should be either 'New' or 'Load' and have the Essentials-only option one of the selected types like 'Home', 'Dark Sun', and the encounters options.
#14 thewok Aug 09, 2011 13:30:19	Agreed. I've started making all my characters via the Custom button just because there was one season of Encounters where my character (made via the Encounters option) got a piece of loot from an encounter that did not appear in the Essentials books and, thus, did not appear for me in the Character Builder.  In order to get the item on my character sheet, I had to rebuild the character using Custom, which I've been doing ever since. So, two things, really: - Make the start screen of the builder have two buttons ("New" and "Load") since D&D encounters appears under Custom anyway, there doesn't need to be another option to get there. - Make sure that any loot given during an Encounters session can be accessed by the limited Encounters functionality of the Builder.
#15 doug_lampert Aug 09, 2011 14:52:48	Or, people could actually read the screen ... But clearly people don't, and expecting your customers to adjust to the way you want to present the product is the worst sort of business-wrecking hubris. Actually, I'd guess that many or most people DO. But as others have pointed out the description on that screen does not say that you'll be permanently restricted to a small subset of the rules. People can go back, start over, read carefully, and still make the exact same mistake again because there is NOTHING on that page that tells you that "new" won't be able to accept legal items acquired in play or choose feats when the character levels up which should be available. So they may well be reading everything they can, and still be getting it wrong. But if they're not reading? So what! It's perfectly reasonable to not read the full directions. If the labels on the buttons are pointless and misleading then why are they there? If they are not pointless and misleading then why does "new" not access the main tool for creating a new character? If I want a new character I should be able to click on "new" without having to first read a bunch of directions and discover that to be usable I should have clicked on "custom".  And if I need to read a bunch of directions prior to pressing the button then it approaches certainty that the whole thing would have worked better if command line driven rather than GUI with buttons.
#16 ogrigsby Aug 10, 2011 10:57:24	I sort of had the inverse problem. I wanted to use the generator to make a character for an Encounters game I'm going to on Wednesday, I read the info on the Encounters homepage that suggested I could use the generator to do so, but looking first at the generator only saw the option for "Essentials" and "Custom".  It was only after some digging and reading that I was able to put together that "Essentials" was a ruleset/book and Encounters used the Essentials rules. True, it's all there for me to read and figure out, but I think most everyone's point is that the generator could use a little extra information and clarity.
#17 Grazel Aug 10, 2011 11:26:16	I sort of had the inverse problem. I wanted to use the generator to make a character for an Encounters game I'm going to on Wednesday, I read the info on the Encounters homepage that suggested I could use the generator to do so, but looking first at the generator only saw the option for "Essentials" and "Custom".  It was only after some digging and reading that I was able to put together that "Essentials" was a ruleset/book and Encounters used the Essentials rules. True, it's all there for me to read and figure out, but I think most everyone's point is that the generator could use a little extra information and clarity. Actually if you go under Custom the top option is "Neverwinter Encounters" which gives all the allowed options for the Encounters section. Essentials includes Heroes of Shadow but the Neverwinter Encounters season doesn't allow that book, only Fallen Lands, Forgotten kingdoms, and Neverwinter Campaign Setting.
#18 ogrigsby Aug 10, 2011 12:20:38	Actually if you go under Custom the top option is "Neverwinter Encounters" which gives all the allowed options for the Encounters section. Essentials includes Heroes of Shadow but the Neverwinter Encounters season doesn't allow that book, only Fallen Lands, Forgotten kingdoms, and Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Thanks. Yes, I actually just noticed that a few minutes after posting. Don't think it was there a few days ago (probably because they're starting the new season). And really, only goes to reinforcing everyone's point that the main page could use some clarity.
#19 Grazel Aug 10, 2011 12:24:40	Actually if you go under Custom the top option is "Neverwinter Encounters" which gives all the allowed options for the Encounters section. Essentials includes Heroes of Shadow but the Neverwinter Encounters season doesn't allow that book, only Fallen Lands, Forgotten kingdoms, and Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Thanks. Yes, I actually just noticed that a few minutes after posting. Don't think it was there a few days ago (probably because they're starting the new season). And really, only goes to reinforcing everyone's point that the main page could use some clarity. Yes, they just added that in yesterday around mid-day (pacific time). Not much lead time for the new season of Encounters and would have been nice a week earlier so it could be used for the Game Day.
#20 pruano Aug 11, 2011 6:15:46	I sort of had the inverse problem. I wanted to use the generator to make a character for an Encounters game I'm going to on Wednesday, I read the info on the Encounters homepage that suggested I could use the generator to do so, but looking first at the generator only saw the option for "Essentials" and "Custom".  It was only after some digging and reading that I was able to put together that "Essentials" was a ruleset/book and Encounters used the Essentials rules. True, it's all there for me to read and figure out, but I think most everyone's point is that the generator could use a little extra information and clarity. Actually if you go under Custom the top option is "Neverwinter Encounters" which gives all the allowed options for the Encounters section. Essentials includes Heroes of Shadow but the Neverwinter Encounters season doesn't allow that book, only Fallen Lands, Forgotten kingdoms, and Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Which is why Custom and New should be merged, and the options be filed in one screen only. Old, oft-requested gui change that keeps being ignored despite continuous questions that are derived from this usability error.
#21 rotf_group Aug 12, 2011 17:07:43	My question is more or less related, but deals with class, and why Character Builder is apparently restricting it.... Regardless of what I select---Custom Homebrew, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun....  I can't seem to select things like "Cleric" (Dark Sun notwithstanding) or "Fighter" (something that *should* be in DS).  The only options available seem to be the Essentials variants.  This doesn't appear to be the case with Paladin, however; I see Paladin, Paladin (Cavalier), and Paladin (Blackguard).  Fighter only lists Knight, Weaponmaster, and Slayer, and Cleric only lists Templar and Warpriest.  ...Aren't these just Essentials variants, or is one of the variants equivalent to the default PHB class? If none of them *are* equivalent, why can one play a core PHB Paladin, but only an Essentials Cleric or Fighter?  Is there an option to remove these choices somewhere?  Or am I just completely missing something? EDIT:  After much digging, both here and in the CB, I figured it out.  Certainly not intuitively presented.  Here's what to pick if you're trying to build a character of the original PHB-flavored classes, in the event it's helpful to others: Fighter (Weaponmaster) Cleric (Templar) Rogue (Scoundrel) Wizard (Arcanist) Warlord (Marshal)
#22 pruano Aug 12, 2011 18:03:06	If none of them *are* equivalent, why can one play a core PHB Paladin, but only an Essentials Cleric or Fighter?  Is there an option to remove these choices somewhere?  Or am I just completely missing something? Yes, you are missing something, the PHB1 classes have been renamed and underwent a couple of changes Warlord -> Marshall Fighter -> Weaponmaster Cleric -> Templar Rogue -> Scoundrel Wizard -> Arcanist
#23 rotf_group Aug 12, 2011 18:14:29	The links were nice to look over, but yeah, found the notations within CB as well, as per the Edit. I guess what I still don't understand is, why the need for the name change?  We couldn't just call them "Fighter", "Cleric", etc. and just update the stats within CB?  I gotta ask, because the classes covered by the 2nd Essentials book still have their original, unmodified names--Paladin, Ranger, etc.
#24 MalakLightfoot Aug 13, 2011 1:00:14	The links were nice to look over, but yeah, found the notations within CB as well, as per the Edit. I guess what I still don't understand is, why the need for the name change?  We couldn't just call them "Fighter", "Cleric", etc. and just update the stats within CB?  I gotta ask, because the classes covered by the 2nd Essentials book still have their original, unmodified names--Paladin, Ranger, etc. It allows them to create elements intended to work with all Fighters, elements intended to work with just the Knight, elements intended to work with just the Slayer and elements intended to work with just the Weaponmaster. I expect the Paladin, Ranger, Warlock and Druid to receive a similar renaming eventually (or not, they have gotten a ton of backlash from folks who don't understand the change).
#25 kenjoon Aug 13, 2011 8:02:13	The links were nice to look over, but yeah, found the notations within CB as well, as per the Edit. I guess what I still don't understand is, why the need for the name change?  We couldn't just call them "Fighter", "Cleric", etc. and just update the stats within CB?  I gotta ask, because the classes covered by the 2nd Essentials book still have their original, unmodified names--Paladin, Ranger, etc. There is no answer to this other than speculation.  Most of the speculation centers around feat requirements using the "sub-class" name instead of the parent class.  This would allow the following two feats to exist side by side: Melee Training (Stat) Effect: Use (Stat) in place of Strength for Melee Basic Attacks. Requirement: Templar, Weaponmaster, Arcanist, Scoundrel, Templar, (and all other non-essential classes)  Melee Training (Stat) Effect: Use (Stat) in place of Strength for your attack bonus when making Melee Basic Attacks and half (Stat) (rounded down) for damage.