[RPG] How compatible are D&D 4E core and essentials in terms of hybrid characters

character-creationdnd-4emulti-classing

I know that in terms of actually running a campaign that they can go side by side very well, with one side doing some things honestly better than the other like the monster vault…However, a person in my group is wishing to hybrid character builds for essentials into a core class, specifically Hybrid Blackguard (Dragon Magazine 400) and Fey Pact Warlock. Before anyone says it, I am aware the danger of including Dragon Magazines in my campaigns but I have managed it in the past, however the question I have mainly is CAN you hybrid an essential with a core class in the first place as they seem to be two seperate sets in some cases and if there is no major rule stating you can or can't if I allowed it could their be major ramifications?

I am most likely going to allow this character regardless sine the player I know very well isn't a min/maxer or a slayer and more of a character idea guy so I trust him not to go to out of control with it, but I would still like to know for the future.

Best Answer

They integrate as well as any other hybrid1. There are no rules forbidding the combination, and the fact of published hybrids of essentials and dragon-only class hybrids (both for the original and essentials executioner assassin) existing suggests this same conclusion.

The literature supports this conclusion, with the hybrid handbook making no distinction between "essentials/nonessentials" save for the actual hybrid options themselves.

Fey pact warlock and executioner is actually a published build called the Eladrin Eldritch Executioner which provides:

  • Play a melee character who emphazises wits over brawn
  • Be stealthy and have at-will invisibility/hiding from early paragon onwards
  • Be a capable addition to the party for skill challenges of a social, information gathering, or infiltration variety.
  • Have very solid single target DPR at all teirs of play (reaching about 150 at-will DPR, by 30).
  • Get to make a lot of OAs by using stealth offensively (at least 1 most rounds, unless fighting solos) and be a Warlord's best friend.

Nothing here looks particularly objectionable, as the hybrid seems to be a way of gaming stealth, rather than flopping over more than one role.

1 Mostly really horribly and worth ignoring, but with a few decent combinations.

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