Prompted by this video from Treantmonk, I’m starting this thread about the background system. I’ve seen a lot of complaints, but I think it might be pretty great: with the limited selection of backgrounds, players have to make much more constrained choices than they did before, balancing skills, a feat, a tool, and adjustable abilities (and this in turn rolls into the choice for species, since if a background doesn’t have the feat you want, you can get it by being human).
My takeaway, based on what we’ve seen, is this: making the PHB background system work will add challenges to players who want to optimize, and require greater understanding of the rules and how they interact, than a custom background that lets you take anything you want.
There’s a lot more to think about in terms of pros and cons now, balancing four features, which I like. Examples:
Criminal. Chris suggests the Criminal is his top pick background for rogues. Fair enough: they get the Alert feat (which he ranks highly) and Dex and Con. So rogue scores high two of the features. The skills you get are on-point for rogue, which in my view makes it a wash – you’re not getting anything interesting outside of what is already possible for a rogue. And he doesn’t mention the tool (Thieves’ tools), which rogues get anyways.
[[Aside: I haven’t heard anyone talk about being able to trade redundant features, and so I’m assuming that’s the cost of doing business; sometimes being on-point will lead to redundancies, and that’s part of the calculation you’re making.]]
So a Criminal Rogue makes sense, and the background is great for ability scores and feat, adequate for skills, and bad for tool.
Entertainer. Similarly, he thinks the Entertainer is good for a Bard or Paladin. Let’s start with the bard. Musician is Chris’s favorite origin feat, and Cha and Dex work for a bard. Acrobatics and Performance are skills a bard would get anyway, and who needs three more instruments? It’s the same prioritization as before: the background is great for ability scores and feat, adequate for skills, and bad for tool.
Paladin comes off better: Abilities can be Cha and Str (or Dex); Musician is effective. The Paladin would not normally have access to Acrobatics and Performance, and one of those (Acrobatics) is always useful, even for a low-dex character. And the Paladin can now play instruments as an added ability. For me, then, the Paladin does better here: the background is great for ability scores and feat, good for skills, and good for tool.
What do you prioritize? So when thinking of backgrounds, we might start with any of these four variables. It’s reasonable to start looking at the ability scores – does the background let you get a 16 or 17 in your main ability, whatever it’s going to be? Many will want Con or Dex as well, so backgrounds without either of those might get chosen less (Acolyte, Guard and Noble).
After that, though, it’s not obvious the feat will always be the next choice. If you want Magic Initiate (Wizard) to get Shield or Find Familiar, you need to end up with proficiency in Arcana and History and Calligrapher’s tools, and no bonus to Dex or Str. That might mean that you choose to be human, so you can prioritize skills and ability scores and still get the wizard spell. Even a tool might be determinative: A trickster cleric might want proficiency in thieves’ tools, which means choosing Wayfarer (which has a Wis bonus) or Criminal (which doesn’t).
Thinking about the background system and making it work for individual character concepts is adding real constraints, which will make for some fun and interesting choices if we want it to. It also points, in my view, to the greatest strength of Humans in the 2024 game: the ability to choose a second origin feat (the one you want), and prioritize other features when choosing backgrounds.
My takeaway, based on what we’ve seen, is this: making the PHB background system work will add challenges to players who want to optimize, and require greater understanding of the rules and how they interact, than a custom background that lets you take anything you want.
There’s a lot more to think about in terms of pros and cons now, balancing four features, which I like. Examples:
Criminal. Chris suggests the Criminal is his top pick background for rogues. Fair enough: they get the Alert feat (which he ranks highly) and Dex and Con. So rogue scores high two of the features. The skills you get are on-point for rogue, which in my view makes it a wash – you’re not getting anything interesting outside of what is already possible for a rogue. And he doesn’t mention the tool (Thieves’ tools), which rogues get anyways.
[[Aside: I haven’t heard anyone talk about being able to trade redundant features, and so I’m assuming that’s the cost of doing business; sometimes being on-point will lead to redundancies, and that’s part of the calculation you’re making.]]
So a Criminal Rogue makes sense, and the background is great for ability scores and feat, adequate for skills, and bad for tool.
Entertainer. Similarly, he thinks the Entertainer is good for a Bard or Paladin. Let’s start with the bard. Musician is Chris’s favorite origin feat, and Cha and Dex work for a bard. Acrobatics and Performance are skills a bard would get anyway, and who needs three more instruments? It’s the same prioritization as before: the background is great for ability scores and feat, adequate for skills, and bad for tool.
Paladin comes off better: Abilities can be Cha and Str (or Dex); Musician is effective. The Paladin would not normally have access to Acrobatics and Performance, and one of those (Acrobatics) is always useful, even for a low-dex character. And the Paladin can now play instruments as an added ability. For me, then, the Paladin does better here: the background is great for ability scores and feat, good for skills, and good for tool.
What do you prioritize? So when thinking of backgrounds, we might start with any of these four variables. It’s reasonable to start looking at the ability scores – does the background let you get a 16 or 17 in your main ability, whatever it’s going to be? Many will want Con or Dex as well, so backgrounds without either of those might get chosen less (Acolyte, Guard and Noble).
After that, though, it’s not obvious the feat will always be the next choice. If you want Magic Initiate (Wizard) to get Shield or Find Familiar, you need to end up with proficiency in Arcana and History and Calligrapher’s tools, and no bonus to Dex or Str. That might mean that you choose to be human, so you can prioritize skills and ability scores and still get the wizard spell. Even a tool might be determinative: A trickster cleric might want proficiency in thieves’ tools, which means choosing Wayfarer (which has a Wis bonus) or Criminal (which doesn’t).
Thinking about the background system and making it work for individual character concepts is adding real constraints, which will make for some fun and interesting choices if we want it to. It also points, in my view, to the greatest strength of Humans in the 2024 game: the ability to choose a second origin feat (the one you want), and prioritize other features when choosing backgrounds.
