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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 5100259" data-attributes="member: 78547">First off, I don't take kindly to 3rd grade level insult slinging, so how about you knock that off.  We're adults here, and shouldn't have to resort to calling people "interweb weenies" when you didn't even pay attention to what my post said.A) Yeah, sorry, I said Forgotten Realms instead of Scales of War.  I didn't have Character Builder in front of me at the time, so thanks for the correction.B) In my original post I was going with the assumption that the player was using CON as a dump stat (meaning an 8 or 10) and then attaching their HP increase to their primary stat (we can assume about an 18 starting stat on average, since 16 and 20 seem to be rarer).  Assuming that their build had CON at 10 and their primary stat at 18 the background benefit increases their HP total at level 1 by 8, which is higher than the 5 HP that Toughness gives in Heroic.Now, you mentioned that the background doesn't scale with level, while Toughness does, but this is flat out wrong.  When you increase your HP determining stat your HP goes up, which means that it scales according to stat increases.  In the case of your primary stat, which you should be upping at every opportunity, it will be a 21 by the time you hit 11th level (assuming you started with 18).  This gives a net increase of 10 HP compared to using CON (it's net of +10 because CON will raise at 11th level to 11, which is 10 points lower than 21).  Here, the background is equivalent to Toughness at level 11, but scales up to +12 by the end of Paragon due to the increases at 14th and 18th level.At Epic your primary stat will be at 24 whereas CON will be at a 12, which is a net increase of +12 HP.  This is lower than the +15 that Toughness gives at Epic, but this is the only time it doesn't meet or exceed the bonus that Toughness gives.  Additionally, you get another 2 stat increases at 24th and 28th level, as well as a possible +2 due to an Epic Destiny.  This means that your final bonus could be as high as +14 or +16, the latter of which actually exceeds Toughness.So, as demonstrated, this background has about equal parity with the Toughness feat, which basically means it can be used to replace it in a way that the standard PHB2 style backgrounds do not.(Note: the above math was the exact reason that my party's Rogue didn't take Toughness, and instead got the DM to let him the Auspicious Birth background, so it's not as if this is a crazy theoretical scenario)C) Surges have absolutely nothing to do with this discussion, so I have no idea why you're bringing it in.  I was only comparing the efficacy of the Toughness feat to the backgrounds that allow you to change your HP stat for characters that aren't raising CON a lot.  Since they're not raising CON regardless of what background or feats they take, surges have no place in this discussion.</blockquote>

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