New Backgrounds/Specialities

[Baileyborough]

I absolutely love the Backgrounds in Next - especially the fact that they're primarily Role Play effects rather than mechanical. Specialities are pretty cool too, but the ones we've seen thus far... I'd like to see more.

So, which backgrounds (& specs) would you like to see? What would they entail?

 

[Bow_Seat]

I'd like to see a bit of a changed survivor specialty. I particularly love the diehard feats, because I think that they are thematically cool. I'd love to see a specialty that is built around or includes those feats and I think that survivor is the perfect one to include it. If the diehard feats were in another specialty I would be just as pleased, but I would think that the two specialties would begin stepping on each others toes.

Also from the pa pvp podcasts 2 and 3 it was very clear that you are free to create your own backgrounds with your DM. Since backgrounds universally give 3 skills and a minor, non-trivial bonus it's not really going to throw game balance by making up your own.

 

[DogBackward]

I was trying to work out a pair of Ranger type characters for a pregen adventure, so I worked up the Hunter and Woodsman background. (I never use "suggested equipment", so I didn't bother to work those out.)

Hunter
Skills - Spot, Stealth, Survival
Trait - Hunter's Lodge
On the edges of civilization, loosely organized groups of hunters and rangers keep watch on the wildlands. You have contacts among these hunters, and you can rest at the lodges scattered across the lands. Occasionally, you will find other hunters staying at a lodge, and you can seek information about the local terrain and wildlife. More often, any given lodge will be empty... but you can still expect to find shelter and basic supplies set aside for hunters in need, including a few simple weapons and rations meant to keep for long periods of time.

Woodsman
Skills - Geographic Lore, Natural Lore, Survival
Trait - Wilderness Guide
You have traveled the lands in and around your home extensively, and have learned the trails and paths well. Choose a specific area, usually the region surrounding your home and the nearby towns and terrain. You know this area well, and can always find your way to a specific town or landmark, and easily avoid the everyday dangers of the area. In addition, you can guide others through the area, making a living by keeping travelers safe.

 

[Texicles]

A "Warden" background would be nice to see. Standard bushcraft stuff really.
Skills: Survival, Natural Lore and choose one: (Geographical Lore, Spot, Animal Handling or Stealth)

EDIT: Ignore this ^. DogBackward beat me to it, and much more elegantly.


Medicine (Wo)Man would be another. I'd prefer the term Healer, but that's been used for a specialty title.
Skills: Professional Lore, Insight and choose one: Magical Lore or Natural Lore


Just spitballing real quick.

 

[kerleth]

Dogbackward's Woodsman and Hunter are spot on. They allow a character to excel in a wilderness setting while still tying them into the world in a social aspect, something that seems to be part of the design for backgrounds. I would like to see the soldiers military rank featured changed to a more generic "brothers in arms" so that you don't have to have to worry about whether your character was a captain or a colonel and what that means about the ability. I'm really liking how backgrounds are replacing the idea of class skills, which was something the groups I played with ignored in favor of interesting characters anyways.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Something for a court functionary or bureaucrat --both short of noble titles but related to a medieval or imperial government, might make good bases for a background.

I also think there is room for merchants, traders, and the like outside the "artisan" background--for a character with no particular crafting of his own, but nevertheless in the town or merchant class. Sailing also fits in this group.

Looking on the darker side, serf, slave, etc. is unexplored, though these would have some overlap, albeit with different traits. Even a game that didn't use them directly as written might use the background for "family captured by nefarious group and made to work in the mines" backgrounds.

 

[The Shadow]

Something for a court functionary or bureaucrat --both short of noble titles but related to a medieval or imperial government, might make good bases for a background.

Hmm, similar skills to Noble, but with different suggested equipment, and a trait called something like, "Lost the Paperwork"?

I also think there is room for merchants, traders, and the like outside the "artisan" background--for a character with no particular crafting of his own, but nevertheless in the town or merchant class. Sailing also fits in this group.

Sure. Travelling merchants should get Geographical Lore, I'd say.

Looking on the darker side, serf, slave, etc. is unexplored, though these would have some overlap, albeit with different traits. Even a game that didn't use them directly as written might use the background for "family captured by nefarious group and made to work in the mines" backgrounds.

Arguably, many Commoners *are* serfs already. Yes, the fluff says they own their house and land, but that's easily changed. Only thing is, you have to explain what the PC is doing off their land. (That's a story-creating detail right there.)

Slave... Skills like, hm, Professional Lore (they had to know some sort of trade to serve their master), Bluff, and Insight? I'm trying to imagine what trait they could possibly have.

 

[Stormonu]

Pirate and Horselord (as in Ghengis Khan's horsemen)

 

[Bow_Seat]

Slave... Skills like, hm, Professional Lore (they had to know some sort of trade to serve their master), Bluff, and Insight? I'm trying to imagine what trait they could possibly have.

They could be able to get jobs working for any lord. In the same way that one of the backgrounds can get you into a keep to get a meeting with a local lord, maybe the slave background could get you in to the keep but this time from the kitchens or servants quarters.

Or if you don't want to have to go into service then maybe your history as a slave allows you to seamlessly blend in with the staff so that you can just sneak in to places.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Or if you don't want to have to go into service then maybe your history as a slave allows you to seamlessly blend in with the staff so that you can just sneak in to places.

This is the fuzzy idea I had in the back of my mind with the "prisoner" bit. It was important to these characters in their background years that they know how to not call attention to themselves. It's not so much "sneak" as a kind of bluff/sneak hybrid.

Maybe the trait is called "Not the Tallest Blade of Grass."