D&D (2024) Backgrounds

[Evaniel]

As an example, I was writing up a barbarian. I want a bonus to strength and probably dex or con. But then I look at the backgrounds and ... ugh. Aritisan? Entertainer? Why do those have strength and dex? Okay, looking further down the list and it's sailor and soldier. Soldier has savage attacker which I'm not really fond of because it's more rolls than I want to deal with. That and I don't really see him as the follow orders military type. Sailor? Well I guess I could see a Viking Berserker type, but then Tavern Brawler? I guess I can see if that is ever useful. Oh, and yay. I get Acrobatics.

In another example I was converting over a paladin. I would really like the magic initiate for cleric because I'm turning out to be the healer of the group and healing word would really help and it fits my backstory. Except ... ugh again. I can only bump to intelligence, wisdom, charisma.

What if I want to play against type? Like with my paladin, he was raised with the expectation that one day he would be a cleric and carry on the family tradition. But it was always a bad fit so he rebelled and became a paladin. As much as I'm not overly concerned about min/maxing, a 15 strength is required for plate armor.

So if you get lucky (which would have been awesome feat for my barbarian) it works. But most of the time? It's just too limiting.

In any case if anyone else wants a quick reference

Spoiler: Feat Table

Background	Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha	Feat	Skill 1	Skill 2	Tool
Acolyte				X	X	X	Magic Initiate (Cleric)	Insight	Religion	Calligrapher’s Supplies
Artisan	X	X		X			Crafter	Investigation	Persuasion	Choose one kind of Artisan’s Tools
Charlatan		X	X			X	Skilled	Deception	Sleight of Hand	Forgery Kit
Criminal		X	X	X			Alert	Sleight of Hand	Stealth	Thieves’ Tools
Entertainer	X	X				X	Musician	Acrobatics	Performance	Choose one kind of Musical Instrument
Farmer	X		X		X		Tough	Animal Handling	Nature	Carpenter’s Tools
Guard	X			X	X		Alert	Athletics	Perception	Choose one kind of Gaming Set
Guide		X	X		X		Magic Initiate (Druid)	Stealth	Survival	Cartographer’s Tools
Hermit			X		X	X	Healer	Medicine	Religion	Herbalism Kit
Merchant			X	X		X	Lucky	Animal Handling	Persuasion	Navigator’s Tools
Noble	X			X		X	Skilled	History	Persuasion	Choose one kind of Gaming Set
Sage			X	X	X		Magic Initiate (Wizard)	Arcana	History	Calligrapher’s Supplies
Sailor	X	X			X		Tavern Brawler	Acrobatics	Perception	Navigator’s Tools
Scribe		X		X	X		Skilled	Investigation	Perception	Calligrapher’s Supplies
Soldier	X	X	X				Savage Attacker	Athletics	Intimidation	Choose one kind of Gaming Set
Wayfarer		X				X	Lucky	Insight	Stealth	Thieves’ Tools

A million times this. The natural fit for a Barbarian is probably Guide, which is the closest thing to Outlander in this version. And it's a terrible fit: no Strength bump and Magic Initiate may not work for someone who doesn't want magic as part of their character. Do you want your Fighter to have come up as a local Zhent thug? Too bad, because Criminal is no longer a decent option. It's a weird set of design choices that can't have been playtested.

 

[SkidAce]

Personally I think they should have just gotten rid of backgrounds. The idea of extra customization outside of class and species is a good one, we just don't need the background chassis. Especially because there's no "soft" benefit of a background like there was in the 2014 version.

I use backgrounds like Aspects in Fate, if your background is "Castle Engineer" then you can use your prof. bonus with any skill checks you can reasonably tie it to. It hasn't been abused yet.

 

[MarkB]

It's okay if it doesn't work now, they'll patch it later? I see.

It's not a patch, it's the rest of the rules. You literally have only part of the ruleset right now.

Really, anyone who was following the previews released over the past several weeks could see this coming. I was originally going to start a D&D 2024 game pretty much the moment I got my PHB, but it became clear within the first couple of weeks in August that the PHB now consists of only the explicitly player-facing rules, and anyone who wants to actually run a game would be well advised to wait until they have the DMG as well.

 

[overgeeked]

I use backgrounds like Aspects in Fate, if your background is "Castle Engineer" then you can use your prof. bonus with any skill checks you can reasonably tie it to. It hasn't been abused yet.

Yep. Either that or advantage. Race, background, and class could easily work this way and you’d he able to remove dozens of pages of redundant rules.

 

[Oofta]

A million times this. The natural fit for a Barbarian is probably Guide, which is the closest thing to Outlander in this version. And it's a terrible fit: no Strength bump and Magic Initiate may not work for someone who doesn't want magic as part of their character. Do you want your Fighter to have come up as a local Zhent thug? Too bad, because Criminal is no longer a decent option. It's a weird set of design choices that can't have been playtested.

They could tweak it, separate ability scores completely and then give you a few options for feats as an example. But at a certain point we might as well just fully customize backgrounds. Then throw in minor benefits here and there like @SkidAce mentions but I would call that a backstory and it needs no mechanical backing.

There's no perfect option. They made the decision that custom backgrounds are optional rules and optional rules belong in the DMG. Like I said I'll just allow custom backgrounds.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It's going to be interesting to see how much of the hand-wringing in this (and some other threads) will be rendered immediately moot on October 29th...

 

[Horwath]

They could tweak it, separate ability scores completely and then give you a few options for feats as an example. But at a certain point we might as well just fully customize backgrounds. Then throw in minor benefits here and there like @SkidAce mentions but I would call that a backstory and it needs no mechanical backing.

There's no perfect option. They made the decision that custom backgrounds are optional rules and optional rules belong in the DMG. Like I said I'll just allow custom backgrounds.

this.

backgrounds should give no mechanical bonuses whatsoever,
it should be a guideline for new players how to make roleplay anchors for their characters and can mostly be ignored by experienced players.

ASIs can be and should be merged in generating ability scores.
all now "origin" feats need to become general feats with +1 ASI.
then everyone gets one feat at 1st level.
limit point buy to 16, the with a feat that is 17

pointbuy: 16pts

8: 0pts
10: 1pt
12: 2pts
14: 3pts
16: 5pts

 

[TerraDave]

I thought I liked these beefed up backgrounds, but now that I have started to see attempts to use them in char gen, I am having doubts. (And seen one bit of rage, but I don't think it was just the backgrounds, though it was mostly the backgrounds).

For this round will probably stick with them as written, but this may be the only time.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

For this round will probably stick with them as written, but this may be the only time.

We just made about 16 characters for the new campaign that only use those backgrounds. And not a single person complained. Veteran players and new players alike.
Indeed it sparked their imagination.