D&D (2024) Is anyone going to use the new 2024 backgrounds?

[Corinnguard]

You could easily customize any of those for 2024, but honestly I would just use the Level Up backgrounds (which exist for each of those) in your WotC 5e game. All the details are available at the A5e Tools site.

Some of the questions he posed would be better served by a particular Level Up culture than a Level Up background.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Except a sailor on a Longboat is not climbing rigging at all, and neither is a sailor on many of the Spelljammers or a dozen other examples I would use that background for. Further, I don't know what the 3 skills for a sailor are, but it is a safe bet I could come up with an example that would have warrented other skills or other feats.

Also strength is the ability typically used for climbing checks, not dexterity.

Rollibar, the ships mage in the Drizzt novels for example is a sailor, and if I was his apprentice the magic intitate and +2 intelligence ASI would be right on point (maybe with strength as the +1 for climbing rigging or maybe a +1 Wisdom for the time I spent looking at nautical charts), but without Intelligence and Magic Initiate I can't do that. No other 2024 background would remotely match the backstory for that character and the Sailor abilities would not generally match the backstory.

As for Scholar, it is not one of the 2024 backgrounds, so that is not a good example to use. If you want to build a scholar you need to use an older background.

Are you anticipating being forced to only use the 2024 backgrounds in a future game? Because if not, you've got a whole universe of possibility to play with.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Some of the questions he posed would be better served by a particular Level Up culture than a Level Up background.

Fair enough. I know what I'd do...

 

[ECMO3]

Are you anticipating being forced to only use the 2024 backgrounds in a future game? Because if not, you've got a whole universe of possibility to play with.

Yes as a matter of fact it is a point of discussion in one of the games we are playing now (and a rather contentious one).

I would agree that if not forced then there is no issue.

 

[tetrasodium]

Backgrounds provide the extra mechanics you mention in the first sentance, but not the story part you mention in the second.

Your backstory is what actually defines in story termsp who your character was before they go out and adventure, and the backstory would do this whether or not they had a background.

Further backgrounds, as they are, restrict the backstory elements. What if my father weas an adventurer and I was born into the adventurer life (not a farmer, or a soldier, or a sailor but an adventurer)? What if my character was a serf on an elemental plane? What if I was born as part of an Orc war tribe?




No I am not. I am talking about backstory, which is almost entirely in the purview of the player and is very restricted if you say only these backgrounds are available. That is before you start considering mechanics.

Have you considered talking to your GM? It's right there in a couple places on page33. I mean that's not all too different from the lase decade of GM advice.

 

[ECMO3]

It sounds like you want backgrounds to provide no mechanical benefit to the character. That nothing the character learns as an acolyte, a soldier or as a sailor goes on to help them mechanically as a member of a particular class. You might as well make a character class into a background.

I think mechanical benefit should be part of the story, not part of a cookie cutter background selected from a menu.

Really the best option is to say: pick three abilities and add +1 or two abilities and add +2/+1 and then pick an origin feat, two skill proficiencies and 1 tool proficiency and come up with a story of how you got here including the influences that led to those bonuses.

So yes - I am a Sailor with a +2 Charisma and a +1 Intelligence, the Musician feat. Nature, Animal Handling and Smiths tool proficiency and here is why .........

 

[ECMO3]

You could easily customize any of those for 2024, but honestly I would just use the Level Up backgrounds (which exist for each of those) in your WotC 5e game. All the details are available at the A5e Tools site.

Not really. RAW, based on the article I linked you can use a legacy 5E background and since custom background is one of those then yes technically you could.

But the 16 backgrounds in the 2024 PHB are according to the article pretty specific. You would have to go way "off script" to use one of those backgrounds and have it tied to the backstories I described above.

 

[Corinnguard]

I think mechanical benefit should be part of the story, not part of a cookie cutter background selected from a menu.

Okay. No cookie cutter background, just the customize background option for everyone then. That way everyone will be required to think about what background they want their character to have.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Ok. I will bite. What is the 2024 background for raised as an adventurer? What is the background for raised in an Orc war tribe? What is the background for raised as a slave of Fire Elementals in the City of Brass? What is the background for created as an experiment by an evil Wizard? What is the background for say raised as a male in a royal house in Menzobarrenzen, like Drizzt Dourden? How about a background as someone born in a Hive Mind that escaped?

Any of them.

 

[Xeviat]

I'll give them a try, but I'd probably let people shift the ability scores if they really needed to.