Characters of War up at Wizards

[half-dragon dragon]

I think people are misreading the warsmith background. It only says you can cast creation rituals as if you had the ritual caster feat. It doesn't mention anything about automatically knowing said rituals.

So basically its worth only part of a feat, and thus seems fairly in line with what backgrounds should give.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

The Auspicious Birth and Born under a Bad Sign backgrounds allow a character to substitute their highest stat for Con when determining starting HP. This would give my Con: 10 Int: 20 Wizard another 10 HP, along with the attendant +5 to bloodied and +2.5 to surges.

No. You gain the 10 hit points (and +5 to bloodied), but no extra surges. The background says to use your highest ability for starting hit points only. You still use Con to calculate number of healing surges and Str/Con for Fort defense.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

No. You gain the 10 hit points (and +5 to bloodied), but no extra surges. The background says to use your highest ability for starting hit points only. You still use Con to calculate number of healing surges and Str/Con for Fort defense.

HP: +10
Bloodied: +5
Amount of hit points gained when you take a healing surge: +2.5

No. of extra surge: +0

 

[Hellzon]

To me, the problem isn't what they're worth. Every character gets them. The problem is that some are significant combat advantages and some aren't. I'd prefer more siloing.

This. Assuming they're balanced vs each other (which is up for debate), they're OK.

Also, noone's reacted to the +2 to saves one yet?

Edit: Nice background inspiration even without the bonuses, too.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

HP: +10
Bloodied: +5
Amount of hit points gained when you take a healing surge: +2.5

No. of extra surge: +0

Roger. I read it as an increase to number of surges, which in hindsight, makes no sense.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Perfect balance is an imposibility, so every new supplement or article brings with it a fairly good chance of some sort of power creep. Luckily it's incredibly easy to ignore if you don't like it.

I think it is a kind of power creep, but it is to be applied to all characters. This leaves the inter-party balance intact, and the benefits are minor in the span of the average adventuring day.

In short, it creates a new baseline, but it doesn't have the unbalancing effects of introducing a new spell more powerful then any other spell of its level (which would only affect spellcasters).

The one thing I don't like is the +3 bonus to some skills. I think it risks "breaking" the math, since it stacks with other bonuses. I'd prefer reducing it to +2.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Well, power issues aside, something I dislike is that they strongy encourage playing against your role. Not that that's inherently bad - but let's see:

E.g. Travelling Missionary gives you an extra language, Religion as class skill and a +2 bonus to Religion. And it's a good background for clerics who already have Religion as class skill.

These skill-centric backgrounds actually encourage you to take a background not fitting your class to get the most out of it.

Worse, if you try to play a straight up character and select a background first, then select a class modelling the background well (like Travelling Missionary as background and cleric as class), you fell like you've "wasted" part of your background.

Now, I understand that it's not a real power issue (since you don't get extra skills, just more choice), but it just feels weird.

Same for similar backgrounds, like Magic Scholar, Silent Hunter, Explorer/Guide, Con Artist, Cloistered Priest and some others.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Saben]

To be honest, I don't like the idea of making background too linked to rules. If players can justify why their background would justify a particular rule (from that list) I'm happy to let them use it.

The Missionary isn't a waste at all, in my opinion, but some bonuses are. In those cases I'll allow different bonuses that still fit the background. Even allowing skill swaps as appropriate.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

These skill-centric backgrounds actually encourage you to take a background not fitting your class to get the most out of it.

Yeah, that bothered me a bit too. I think I would have been happy with simpler backgrounds:

i) One for each skill that adds it to your class list

Devout Upbringing: Add Religion to your class list.
Shady Friends: Add Streetwise to your class list.
Active: Add Athletics to your class list.

The end effect of all of these is "add another skill to your class list." It's a bit more customization. No numerical bonuses to skills to screw up the math.

ii) Something for people that are happy with their class list

Multilingual: You know one extra language.
Militia: proficiency with a single simple or martial weapon. Maybe only from a list of common militia weapons.

 

[Enaloindir]

What I don't like is that these backgrounds turn humans into eladrins for selecting their additional skill: just pick a background which grants you the skill you want...

- Enaloindir