Level Up (A5E) Backgrounds Check

[TheHand]

So I know that officially, if you're mixing race/heritage creation elements of A5E and O5e, you more or less want to do all of 1 or all of the other (at least when it comes to heritages/cultures/backgrounds vs race/backgrounds).

However, has anyone tried using an A5E heritage/culture with an O5E Background and granting the character +1 in 2 ability scores (since O5e gives us ability score bonuses via race and A5E gives us ability score bonuses via Background).

How theoretically balanced/broken would this be?

 

[Dragongrief]

If all characters are using backgrounds from the same rule set (A5E or O5E), there shouldn't be any issue with under/over-powered.

The main concern I can think of is there is at least one O5E background that makes the supply rules irrelevant. Obviously if you don't use those rules, or noone takes that background, it doesn't matter.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

just taking a quick look at some of the backgrounds both a5e/o5e share, i think you'd either be the same or slightly worse off (aside from outlander, outlander would break a lot as dragon mentioned). they seem to be about the same power level, except that a5e backgrounds give you ways to leverage your background for extra benefits. the one exception i found on a quick check was the cultist background. that one sort of just tells you to get bent. but yeah, i don't really see a reason to run an o5e background instead of an a5e background. you can STEAL SOMEONE'S LIFE as a charlatan. that's SUPERVILLAIN material, good lord.

 

[TheHand]

Thanks for the thoughtful responses! I'm planning on trying a A5E take on Witchlight, which has some very module-specific backgrounds. Also I've been watching the Dragonlance playtests and what they've been doing with backgrounds, so it got me thinking.