D&D 5E Customizing Backgrounds Core Rule - Public Service Announcement

[Bacon Bits]

In case you failed to notice, none of the mechanical abilities are representative of what the background is actually supposed to be. A brewer should be good at brewing, because that's what those words mean. This "brewer" has, not only a complete inability to brew anything, but influence within high society as a result of their noble birth. (Which they don't actually have, because they weren't actually born noble. But people are still inclined to think well of them, because of their noble birth, as a brewer.)

It's a direct violation of the central premise behind any role-playing system: that the rules of the game reflect the reality of the game world. None of these abilities reflect anything about what it means to be a brewer.

Honestly, the Brewer you describe sounds like a member of the Teamsters union under mafia rule. I don't see why a Dwarven guild of brewers might not eventually rise to a political position, which might then see corruption from the mafia. You're a "Brewer," except you're actually an organized criminal whose benefit of Position of Privilege is entirely due to overwhelming corruption and the threat of reprisal.

 

[Salthorae]

You're a "Brewer," except you're actually an organized criminal whose benefit of Position of Privilege is entirely due to overwhelming corruption and the threat of reprisal.

Perfect...

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Honestly, the Brewer you describe sounds like a member of the Teamsters union under mafia rule. I don't see why a Dwarven guild of brewers might not eventually rise to a political position, which might then see corruption from the mafia. You're a "Brewer," except you're actually an organized criminal whose benefit of Position of Privilege is entirely due to overwhelming corruption and the threat of reprisal.

And honestly, that sounds great, but it isn't something you can try to sneak into a DM's setting without their permission. If they aren't going for it, then invoking RAW isn't going to convince them.

 

[Arilyn]

Good point. Re-reading it (I didn’t even recall using that word), I can see how it might be taken as antagonistic to DMs, though that’s not the intent (I’m a DM as often or more than a player, and I have my own restrictions and house rules).



I‘m not sure a background can even be too strong if you’re just using the options given and not creating new background features. (Though some of the variant ones in later books like Ghosts of Saltmarsh really irritate me because they don't follow the rules and do things like give you two features and 1 skill. The PHB background pattern is solid, don’t mess with it.)

Lets take one of the players in my current group. She’s playing a fighter who is an honorable assassin, with nimbleness and rogue-like abilities. Conceptually, she went with the Faction Agent from SCAG, because that’s what she is. But to customize it for the character concept she took Stealth and Thieves’ Tools. She’s a variant human, and all four of the other skills she picked (including Perception) were already on the fighter‘s class list.

So there is an example of (unintentionally) choosing to customize to get the “power options”. What does this do for the character’s power level over sticking with default Faction Agent choices? Not much. The character wears medium armor to avoid a Stealth penalty from it, rather than heavy. The ability to occasionally not suck at Stealth is likely a net loss compared to having an AC 3 points less than they otherwise would. As far as Thieves’ Tools, 100 sessions in and I’m not sure when the last time it was used was (if at all). The reason? Because the party’s rogue has Expertise in it and so the fighter never needs to use it. I suppose the ability to make use of it if the rogue is out of commission is a benefit to the party and a chance to shine...but overpowered? No.

The thing is, tools, languages, and background features aren’t a power boost, and about the only skill that is is Perception, which literally half of the PHB classes get on their class list. So the only power issue that can arise from background customization (as long as you keep it to the PHB principles and don’t make features that grant actual power increases or change the number of skills and tools/languages granted), is that the 6 classes that don’t have Perception on their class skill list have the option to take it anyway. Is that really anything near overpowered? I can’t see how. You could completely remove class skill restrictions (which is virtually what customizing backgrounds ends up doing) and it would have almost zero effect on game balance.

Absolutely. I was narrowing in on the feature part of the background, like getting room and board for free or being member of a guild. It can be hard to come up with new features, as they do very little. It's easy to come up with features that are better, without meaning to.

In terms of skills and proficiencies, it makes no difference what combination players choose.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Honestly, the Brewer you describe sounds like a member of the Teamsters union under mafia rule. I don't see why a Dwarven guild of brewers might not eventually rise to a political position, which might then see corruption from the mafia. You're a "Brewer," except you're actually an organized criminal whose benefit of Position of Privilege is entirely due to overwhelming corruption and the threat of reprisal.

Had enough of Dwarves talking with Scottish accents?

Try brewer-mafia Dwarves with old-timey gangland accents!

"Da King Undah da Mountain wants a word wi' youse…"

"... or you'll be sleep'n wi' da' Cave-Fishers, see..."

 

[Bacon Bits]

And honestly, that sounds great, but it isn't something you can try to sneak into a DM's setting without their permission. If they aren't going for it, then invoking RAW isn't going to convince them.

The whole point is that the game assumes that the DM will outline whatever exceptions to the basic rules are going to be used for character creation. I think it's absolutely reasonable to assume that every DM can be expected say, "With the exception of these changes, variants, and options, generate your character following the rules in the PHB." In fact, I think it's unreasonable for a DM to do otherwise. And the point being made here is that under those conditions where you just follow the rules in the PHB, you're allowed to customize your background.

Yes, under this situation, you technically still need the DM's permission. They still get to review your character. But you technically need the DM's permission to do everything.

You can't play a human without the DM's permission.
You can't play a fighter without the DM's permission.
You can't roll a single die without the DM's permission.
You can't play D&D without the DM's permission.

They're the referee. That's what that means.

"But you need permission," is just not a meaningful counter argument.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Had enough of Dwarves talking with Scottish accents?

Try brewer-mafia Dwarves with old-timey gangland accents!

"Da King Undah da Mountain wants a word wi' youse…"

"... or you'll be sleep'n wi' da' Cave-Fishers, see..."

"Leave the crossbow. Take the stonebread."

"How am I funny? What, am I an elf now? Do I amuse you?"

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Yes, under this situation, you technically still need the DM's permission. But you technically need the DM's permission to do everything.

According to RAW, you don't need the DM's permission to customize your own background. It's the one thing in the entire game where you could (theoretically) show up with any combination of proficiencies and powers that you want, and the DM is supposed to just take it. Because that one section of rules is poorly written, and inconsistent with everything else in the book.

It's one of those cases where the RAW really should be ignored, and the rules for inventing your own Backgrounds should be put right next to the rules for inventing your own spells and feats, with the intention that they actually be used.

 

[Phazonfish]

The whole point is that the game assumes that the DM will outline whatever exceptions to the basic rules are going to be used for character creation. I think it's absolutely reasonable to assume that every DM can be expected say, "With the exception of these changes, variants, and options, generate your character following the rules in the PHB." In fact, I think it's unreasonable for a DM to do otherwise. And the point being made here is that under those conditions where you just follow the rules in the PHB, you're allowed to customize your background.

Yes, under this situation, you technically still need the DM's permission. They still get to review your character. But you technically need the DM's permission to do everything.

You can't play a human without the DM's permission.
You can't play a fighter without the DM's permission.
You can't roll a single die without the DM's permission.
You can't play D&D without the DM's permission.

They're the referee. That's what that means.

"But you need permission," is just not a meaningful counter argument.

This. If this thread was "PSA: Humans are core" people would be like "Yeah, and...?" But since it is something that seems like it should be a variant, people are responding with the equivalent of "So you are trying to sneak/force a standard human character into your game without specifically asking your DM if humans exist in their setting?"

 

[Charlaquin]

If I had my way, this paragraph in the rules would be in glowing text and emit a beckoning melody whenever you turned to Chapter 4. As it is, many players, even including long-time players, seem to have no idea about it's existence.

Customizing a Background
You might want to tweak some of the features of a
background so it better fits your character or the
campaign setting. To customize a background, you
can replace one feature with any other one, choose any
two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies
or languages from the sample backgrounds. You can
either use the equipment package from your background
or spend coin on gear as described in chapter 5. (If
you spend coin, you can’t also take the equipment
package suggested for your class.) Finally, choose two
personality traits, one ideal, one bond, and one flaw.
If you can’t find a feature that matches your desired
background, work with your DM to create one.

Unlike gnomes, half-elfs, feats, and multiclassing, this isn't called out as an optional rule. It's as core as hill dwarves and ability checks. You are in no way bound to the skill, tool, or language choices of a chosen background. This means that every single PC is entitled to 2 skills of their choice from the entire skill list, and a combination of any 2 languages and/or tools.

We don't really have a long list of stickies I could ask to have this added to, but maybe if I remember I'll bump it once a year or something for new players.

Yep. The way I frame it to my players is that you get any 2 skills, and a total of 2 between any standard languages and tool proficiencies. The backgrounds listed are just examples of thematic combinations. For Background Features, pick one from any of the example backgrounds, and for starting equipment take the equipment from the background your feature comes from.