Dungeons & Dragons Essentials

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Dungeons and Dragons Essentials was a marketing scheme during the last few years of 4e's life, the basic idea was to abandon the AEDU System of core 4e and replace it with a new, simplified class design, which is what Essentials essentially is, a design philosophy where a class will have largely gain new options via the "gain X at level N" paradigm used in 3rd and later 5th edition, instead of the pool of powers 4e classes had used so far. Essentials flopped, Grognards weren't any more likely to pick them up due to keeping the video game esque combat present in 4e, while people who liked 4e hated how constriced these classes became. Once it was pretty obvious everyone didn't like it, Wizards of the Coast did the correct thing and never released another book, at least that's how it should have went down, NOPE Wizards then starts cancelling more and more core 4e material, like the Nentir Vale gazetteer. Dragon Magazine focused Purely on Essentials content and organized play would only allow Essentials classes, and so Essentials signed the death certificate of 4th edition, killing 4e's surprisingly good sales and allowing Pathfinder to surpass it. Essentials came out first with the Player's Handbook equivalent; "Heroes of the Fallen Lands" and "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom", Later books included "Heroes of The Elemental Chaos/Feywild/Shadow", there is an ever tiny difference between HotFL/FK classes and later classes. Each Essentials class bent the rules of the AEDU system, generally martial characters focused on At Wills, Stances and Encounter powers, while casters would gain new spells every so often

Heroes of the Forgottan Kingdom\Fallen Lands

These two books introduced the Mage, Warpriest, Knight, Thief, Slayer, Sentinel, Cavalier, Hunter, Scout and Hexblade;

Mage:

• At 1st level they gained Cantrips, spells and their 1st subclass feature, as they level up, they gain more utility, Encounter and Daily powers to put in their spell book, speaking about that, a Mage's spell book was a rather peculiar thing, after an Extended Rest, a mage could whip through their spell book and swap Encounters, Dailies and Utilities just like a core Wizard, their exclusive Paragon Path, the Enigmatic Mage, lets them swap Daily Utility powers

Warpriest:

• Gains channel Divinity, then for the rest of the Warpriest's career, you only get Daily powers that mimic classic Cleric shenanigans, with your At Will powers gained via your Domain choice

Knight:

Thief:

Slayer:

• Variant Fighter that shits out damage, focuses on a Encounter power called Power Attack, can trade uses of Power Attack for Fighter powers

Cavalier:

Sentinel:

• Variant Druid that losses Wild Shape and lets you gain an Animal Companion, gaining spells and additional uses of a Encounter power "Combined Attack"

Hunter:

• The Hunter is a archery focused Ranger

Scout:

• A Two weapon fighting Ranger, they gain class features that give them a "Pathfinder/Guider" vibe.

Hexblade:

• The Hexblade gives you two At Wills, one base power (Eldritch Bolt, basically Eldritch Blast but lacks the feat support of EB) and one subclass focused, as well as a pact Encounter power, you slowly gain more powers of the Encounter and Daily variety, noted for being not quite as shitty as most other Essentials classes.

Essentials Splat Material

These books introduced the Elementalist, Protector, Skald, Witch, Berserker, Sha'ir, Assassin, Binder, Blackguard and Bladesinger.

Elementalist:

Protector:

Skald:

Witch:

Sha'ir:

Executioner:

Binder:

Blackguard:

Bladesinger: