Release Date for S4 Player's Guide?

[kalani]

(Disclaimer: Lasers are not guaranteed, and may be disallowed by the DM at your table at her discretion. Expect table variation. Not valid with races from the Elemental Evil Player's Guide or on alternate Tuesdays during Lent. Void where prohibited, and possibly even where allowed. "Screw You" is a registered trademark of Pauper's Ego Trips, LLC.)

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Pauper

lol, love it.

FYI, "Soon with freaking lasers" is an "official" response from the campaign staff. We came up with this a few months prior to the DMs Guild announcement (when something really important was about to drop). We jokingly created this meme as an official response. Hasn't been used since then, but I thought I would dust it off lol

 

[Scorpienne]

And, in a sense, ain't no big deal that it's not out yet. We can freely rebuild til 4. Play whatever event is going on now, and rebuild when it comes out.

p

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

And, in a sense, ain't no big deal that it's not out yet. We can freely rebuild til 4. Play whatever event is going on now, and rebuild when it comes out.

p

Except you can't change Story Origin, which means that your character can't use the CoS Story Origin.

 

[Pauper]

Except you can't change Story Origin, which means that your character can't use the CoS Story Origin.

True, but as far as we know, that doesn't prevent the character from using anything CoS-specific, such as the background, once the new ALPG is out.

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Pauper

 

[kalani]

True, but as far as we know, that doesn't prevent the character from using anything CoS-specific, such as the background, once the new ALPG is out.

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Pauper

Actually it does. Only characters with the CoS story origin would be able to use the new "Haunted" background, or any other season-4 specific rules option, for the same reason that only ToD characters can use the Background options in Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Cult Infiltrator, Dragon Scholar), and EE / RoD characters are the only ones who can use the Mulmaster and Hillsfar backgrounds respectively.

Unless it is retroactively added to all story origins - expect something like the following for season 4:

Curse of Strahd (Story Origin)
- Players Handbook (except rolled stats/equipment)
- D&D Basic Rules (except rolled stats/equipment)
- Curse of Strahd Appendix ?? (where I assume the Haunted Background will be listed)
- ?? Other rules source (if any).

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

True, but as far as we know, that doesn't prevent the character from using anything CoS-specific, such as the background, once the new ALPG is out.

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Pauper

I guess that you could hedge your bet by creating a character under the assumption of the CoS Story Origin will be PHB + SCAG + Haunted One.

 

[kalani]

That would work, but you couldn't legally play that character until after the ALPG came out (so it is kind of moot except for playtesting and research purposes)

 

[Pauper]

Actually it does. Only characters with the CoS story origin would be able to use the new "Haunted" background,

That's interesting, but kind of irrelevant, as the rules for customizing backgrounds allow you to replace any feature with any other feature.

So you'd create a character with the Urchin background, and then when the Season 4 ALPG is released, retrain your Urchin background to instead have every feature from the Haunted One background.

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Pauper

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

That's interesting, but kind of irrelevant, as the rules for customizing backgrounds allow you to replace any feature with any other feature.

So you'd create a character with the Urchin background, and then when the Season 4 ALPG is released, retrain your Urchin background to instead have every feature from the Haunted One background.

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Pauper

No, because the background has to be one of your Story Origin's Player Options for you to be able to use components of it when customizing your background.

 

[Pauper]

No, because the background has to be one of your Story Origin's Player Options for you to be able to use components of it when customizing your background.

I'm not sure that's true -- the FAQ says to follow the rules in the Player's Handbook, which then says this:

"To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one..."

The admins could clarify that to confirm that you can only choose a background feature from one enabled by your Allowed Rules, just as they've clarified rules regarding starting equipment that differ from the rules in the Player's Handbook.

As I understand it, the phrase 'any other one' effectively means 'any other AL-legal background feature', not 'any other background feature in a background available to your Story Origin', though I could see where the latter interpretation would be defensible.

This level of parsing the rule is likely pointless, though, because anyone who would honestly be concerned about falling foul of such a rule could simply wait until the Season 4 ALPG is released and create the character using that Story Origin.

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Pauper