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<blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 6499940" data-attributes="member: 23484">I believe it -- it's an excellent question! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue&nbsp; &nbsp; :P"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /> Ah, I see what you are saying. When you look at ch 1, the order for choosing things is race-class-background. That is, even though (from the character's view) the background is &quot;prior&quot; to the class, it is chosen after the class. That avoids your specific issue -- you've already chosen your class skills by the time you choose your background skills. That doesn't eliminate all starting duplications, of course, but it does answer your specific concern. Similarly, racial proficiencies are prior to class ones, which doesn't mean that you get free choice in your class skills, but that (for example) all elf rangers have Perception and three of the others from the list.Once you've chosen them you choose a background, where the exception to the rule exists, and where there's a mechanism for substituting other skills in a custom background. So yes, in a way there is free choice, but it comes at the level of customizing backgrounds, not from class skills. And all that falls under the &quot;narrow&quot; reading. The problem comes later, when (e.g.) you multi class into rogue and already have proficiency in thieves' tools. Does that grant a &quot;free&quot; tool proficiency? It doesn't with weapons or armours, but many (with the &quot;broad&quot; reading) want it to for tools.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kobold Stew, post: 6499940, member: 23484"] I believe it -- it's an excellent question! :P Ah, I see what you are saying. When you look at ch 1, the order for choosing things is race-class-background. That is, even though (from the character's view) the background is "prior" to the class, it is chosen after the class. That avoids your specific issue -- you've already chosen your class skills by the time you choose your background skills. That doesn't eliminate all starting duplications, of course, but it does answer your specific concern. Similarly, racial proficiencies are prior to class ones, which doesn't mean that you get free choice in your class skills, but that (for example) all elf rangers have Perception and three of the others from the list. Once you've chosen them you choose a background, where the exception to the rule exists, and where there's a mechanism for substituting other skills in a custom background. So yes, in a way there is free choice, but it comes at the level of customizing backgrounds, not from class skills. And all that falls under the "narrow" reading. The problem comes later, when (e.g.) you multi class into rogue and already have proficiency in thieves' tools. Does that grant a "free" tool proficiency? It doesn't with weapons or armours, but many (with the "broad" reading) want it to for tools. [/QUOTE]

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