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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5098108" data-attributes="member: 82106">My point is that backgrounds exist for the purpose of fleshing out a character's background, not for purposes of min/maxing. So what is the point of making different backgrounds not equivalent? The point of the background bonus is not to send the players shopping for the mechanically best one. Its to reward the players for bothering to pick one at all and then to give them some hints about which background might be cool and appropriate for their character, or even maybe they'll see something totally different from what they thought they wanted to do and make a more interesting character out of it. If they are going to min/max anyway, then at least divorce that from the story aspect of the background.I don't really disagree with you that most of the backgrounds are pretty close to the same in terms of utility. Your argument about Born Under a Bad Sign is perfectly good. Its just why even create the situation where this whole question arises in the first place? Its not necessary. Sticking to PHB2 style background bonuses solves the problem and in no way negatively affects the utility of the background system, IMHO.</blockquote>