D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal: Feats/Backgrounds/Species

[Zeromaru X]

Sorry I have news for you:

Despite the dozens(?) of posts you make here, the cat is squarely back in the bag.

Unless you are talking about Schrodinger's cat.

 

[Horwath]

They want to move away from species/race so what should they have chosen instead if not backgrounds?

nothing really.
Tasha version with floating starting ASIs was good enough, why backtrack on it?

also starting skills; reduce every class number of skills by 2 and merge that into background features.
that would be +1 skill for bard and ranger and +2 skills for rogues.

then you have background:

1: ASI; +2/+1 or +1/+1/+1
2. pick 4 skills
3. pick a feat

OFC, there can be examples of backgrounds in PHB as guidelines, but default background should be Custom.

 

[Iosue]

I initially viewed the introduction of Feats into backgrounds with dismay, as I very much liked that Feats were opt-in in the 2014 rules. I don't like Feats, and I did like how simple character generation was in 2014. It felt like a step back to the super-involved chargen of 3e and 4e.

I am somewhat mollified to hear in the video that pure ASIs are still included in the game, so that you can opt-out of Feats as part of character advancement if you want to. They just wanted to beef up the backgrounds with mechanical weight instead of the more nebulous ribbons of 2014 Backgrounds. And I can live with that.

In the Gen Con TV retrospective on 5e, Mike Mearls made a very astute observation that I think needs to be considered when looking at their decisions for the 2024 PHB. And that was, while its said that most players only buy PHBs, in actuality the vast majority of players don't buy anything. The show up for a game, borrow someone's PHB to make a character, and that's it.

Everything I've seen about the PHB indicates that, while we who buy all the core books and lovingly pour over each page will still get all that we want and need, the design seems very much geared towards those who won't own the books, but rather will be making only periodic reference to it at the table. The Rules Glossary is one example of this. The Character Class and Subclass summary page is another. And I think moving the Custom Background rules to the DMG is yet another.

For regular players, Custom Backgrounds are virtually a fait accompli, but for a new or casual player, devoting the PHB's limited space to only the provided Backgrounds makes things clearer and more straightforward. And not only would making a Custom Background generally have to involve the DM anyway, but creating Custom Backgrounds for one's own homebrew is also something DMs will likely like to do. Seen from that lens, rather than the Player vs. DM power dynamics that are a favorite topic of forums like this, putting Custom Backgrounds in the DMG make eminent sense.

 

[Parmandur]

I initially viewed the introduction of Feats into backgrounds with dismay, as I very much liked that Feats were opt-in in the 2014 rules. I don't like Feats, and I did like how simple character generation was in 2014. It felt like a step back to the super-involved chargen of 3e and 4e.

I am somewhat mollified to hear in the video that pure ASIs are still included in the game, so that you can opt-out of Feats as part of character advancement if you want to. They just wanted to beef up the backgrounds with mechanical weight instead of the more nebulous ribbons of 2014 Backgrounds. And I can live with that.

In the Gen Con TV retrospective on 5e, Mike Mearls made a very astute observation that I think needs to be considered when looking at their decisions for the 2024 PHB. And that was, while its said that most players only buy PHBs, in actuality the vast majority of players don't buy anything. The show up for a game, borrow someone's PHB to make a character, and that's it.

Everything I've seen about the PHB indicates that, while we who buy all the core books and lovingly pour over each page will still get all that we want and need, the design seems very much geared towards those who won't own the books, but rather will be making only periodic reference to it at the table. The Rules Glossary is one example of this. The Character Class and Subclass summary page is another. And I think moving the Custom Background rules to the DMG is yet another.

For regular players, Custom Backgrounds are virtually a fait accompli, but for a new or casual player, devoting the PHB's limited space to only the provided Backgrounds makes things clearer and more straightforward. And not only would making a Custom Background generally have to involve the DM anyway, but creating Custom Backgrounds for one's own homebrew is also something DMs will likely like to do. Seen from that lens, rather than the Player vs. DM power dynamics that are a favorite topic of forums like this, putting Custom Backgrounds in the DMG make eminent sense.

Well stated, I agree across the board.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I am somewhat mollified to hear in the video that pure ASIs are still included in the game, so that you can opt-out of Feats as part of character advancement if you want to. They just wanted to beef up the backgrounds with mechanical weight instead of the more nebulous ribbons of 2014 Backgrounds. And I can live with that.

Yes -- material we've seen so far has suggested that in the absence of other feats, you can let each character be Tough (extra HP) or Skilled (extra proficiencies) at level 1 and use +2 ASI after that.

For regular players, Custom Backgrounds are virtually a fait accompli, but for a new or casual player, devoting the PHB's limited space to only the provided Backgrounds makes things clearer and more straightforward.

This has not been my experience: in most games, most players take a PHB background and work with it. Custom backgrounds are (roughly) less than 1 in 4, even though they are presented as default and not requireing DM approval in the PHB 2014.

My sense is that they've been moved to the DMG because not enough people were using and innovating with them. (Online tools have changed a lot in the past decade, and my guess is that that urges conformity, though I do not know if that's the case).

 

[Iosue]

This has not been my experience: in most games, most players take a PHB background and work with it. Custom backgrounds are (roughly) less than 1 in 4, even though they are presented as default and not requireing DM approval in the PHB 2014.

My experience as well. Perhaps what I should say is that, the people who will generally want to use a Custom Background are experienced players who have the books, while they are generally not going to be used by new or casual players. Particularly those who are borrowing a book.

 

[Fortunate16]

So having listened to all the videos from yesterday and looking through the background art, I’ve figured out 15 of the 16 backgrounds:

Acolyte
Artisan
Charlatan
Criminal
Entertainer
Farmer
Guard
Guide
Hermit
Merchant
Noble
Sage
Sailor
Solider
Wayfarer

Whatever background is missing has to be AFTER Sage in alphabetic order. We saw one page of backgrounds and it shows 4 backgrounds, and those backgrounds are Hermit, Merchant, Noble, and Sage.

Sailor, Solider, and Wayfarer are the only three backgrounds after Sage, so there has to be one more here to match the four backgrounds per page.

You can also see what the art is in the Origins video around 8:50. It’s a large room with a black rock that has glowing writing on it and a bunch of desks. So my guess is the missing background is “Teacher” or “Student.”

It's probably Urchin

 

[Fortunate16]

So having listened to all the videos from yesterday and looking through the background art, I’ve figured out 15 of the 16 backgrounds:

Acolyte
Artisan
Charlatan
Criminal
Entertainer
Farmer
Guard
Guide
Hermit
Merchant
Noble
Sage
Sailor
Solider
Wayfarer

Whatever background is missing has to be AFTER Sage in alphabetic order. We saw one page of backgrounds and it shows 4 backgrounds, and those backgrounds are Hermit, Merchant, Noble, and Sage.

Sailor, Solider, and Wayfarer are the only three backgrounds after Sage, so there has to be one more here to match the four backgrounds per page.

You can also see what the art is in the Origins video around 8:50. It’s a large room with a black rock that has glowing writing on it and a bunch of desks. So my guess is the missing background is “Teacher” or “Student.”

It's probably Urchin

 

[Parmandur]

It's probably Urchin

Wayfarer is Urchin renamed.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

i find it hilarious they said they didn't want to replicate the stat distribution limitations of species and then immediately went into how they basically did just that anyways, granted maybe with a little more leeway in it, but like, after tasha's floating for so long it's by comparason putting restrictions back onto the system rather than removing them.

i would've liked if they'd split the difference between species or background providing your potential ASI placement and had two stat choices given from each.

The whole thing is absurd top to bottom.

We got one group worried about
Genetic contributions to stats. Then people will be mad that environment played a role.

Neither bother me at all. Half could come
From each but then it’s not optimal?