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Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?
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<blockquote data-quote="Kurotowa" data-source="post: 9286049" data-attributes="member: 27957"><p>Early on, I was excited for 5e Backgrounds. "Heck yeah, they're a third axis of character customization, along with race and class. That's great." But as time went on I grew less enamored with them. The unique Features were poorly defined and almost never came up in play. I'd find myself either shopping for the Background that had the Skill package I wanted, and come up with a way to justify it after the fact, or taking a Background for the flavor value and having extraneous Skill or Tool proficiencies that didn't really fit. They grew to feel more confining than inspiring.</p><p></p><p>Of course, the truth is that we were never meant to be straightjacketed by the published Backgrounds. Right there on PHB p125 it says you can customize the Background if you want. But that's a "Mother may I?" design, and may people (including me) fell into the habit of trying to jam in an existing Background rather than tweak an existing one.</p><p></p><p>So I'm totally fine with the Revised playtest setup where the Features are removed, making a custom Background the expectation rather than an exception. Admittedly I've only been mocking up test characters so far, but it's been nice to be able to just pick the traits I want rather than having to shop around for the pre-built package that comes closest to it. I don't think the loss of the Background Features is anything I'll miss, or that couldn't be achieved through roleplay and Skill use nine times out of ten.</p><p></p><p>ETA: And it's not like you're losing the Background unique trait. You're just getting to pick a Background Feat instead of a Background Feature. And those are so much better. Your Acolyte can have Magic Initiate (Cleric) to show a minor amount of divine magic investment, or Healer for training in the medical field, or Tough if you're in the temple guard career path. That's just plain better, IMO.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kurotowa, post: 9286049, member: 27957"] Early on, I was excited for 5e Backgrounds. "Heck yeah, they're a third axis of character customization, along with race and class. That's great." But as time went on I grew less enamored with them. The unique Features were poorly defined and almost never came up in play. I'd find myself either shopping for the Background that had the Skill package I wanted, and come up with a way to justify it after the fact, or taking a Background for the flavor value and having extraneous Skill or Tool proficiencies that didn't really fit. They grew to feel more confining than inspiring. Of course, the truth is that we were never meant to be straightjacketed by the published Backgrounds. Right there on PHB p125 it says you can customize the Background if you want. But that's a "Mother may I?" design, and may people (including me) fell into the habit of trying to jam in an existing Background rather than tweak an existing one. So I'm totally fine with the Revised playtest setup where the Features are removed, making a custom Background the expectation rather than an exception. Admittedly I've only been mocking up test characters so far, but it's been nice to be able to just pick the traits I want rather than having to shop around for the pre-built package that comes closest to it. I don't think the loss of the Background Features is anything I'll miss, or that couldn't be achieved through roleplay and Skill use nine times out of ten. ETA: And it's not like you're losing the Background unique trait. You're just getting to pick a Background Feat instead of a Background Feature. And those are so much better. Your Acolyte can have Magic Initiate (Cleric) to show a minor amount of divine magic investment, or Healer for training in the medical field, or Tough if you're in the temple guard career path. That's just plain better, IMO. [/QUOTE]
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