D&D General Mixed Background

[Benjamin Olson]

You say that like it's not something players are supposed to be doing anyway.

The idea that players can just show up and do and present whatever they want for their characters because "the books say I can" and the DM has to allow it no questions asked... has never been a habit that the designers nor any DM would have ever wanted to actually promote.

Players are meant to talk with their DM and the DM is meant to talk with their players about how the characters and game are going to run? Oh darn. Whatever shall we do?

In 5e Classic, outside of helping absolute beginners pick one, I never once had a conversation about the mechanical choice of background with a player as their DM, or with a DM as a player, and that was just dandy with me. Had plenty of conversations about narrative background, but whether the mechancal choice (with its 2 skills, 2 tools or languages, never to be used special feature, and equipment pack) was tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy was up to the player and that was just fine.

Just because I can and should talk to my DM about my character before playing doesn't mean I want to ask DM permission to pick a name for my character not in the game's official list of suggested games, nor as DM do I want to have to field 40 Discord messages about whether it's okay if the character has tawny gray eyes, is slightly short for their race, etc. Players being empowered to make some independent decisions is better for everyone involved. I know it's a bummer to those DMs who should actually just write a novel that players have an inkling of a say. Probably also to people who just love sessions zero so much that they want them to stretch into countless hours of negotiating minutia. I don't think most people are in those categories.

But you say this as if it was something you weren't already doing in 5e Classic games. Friend, you can just give your players a modicum of autonomy, or your DM a modicum of a break from having to weigh in on every character decision when they already have a whole world to create. You can not haggle over every little thing about the character and the game runs just fine. Everyone can still have fun. And people who are introverts, as well as people who waver between multiple character concepts before their first session, have less stress.

 

[DEFCON 1]

But you say this as if it was something you weren't already doing in 5e Classic games. Friend, you can just give your players a modicum of autonomy, or your DM a modicum of a break from having to weigh in on every character decision when they already have a whole world to create.

If you want to give your players a modicum of autonomy, that's perfectly fine! But don't then complain that the book is written in such a way that they are stuck with a background they don't want because there's no "custom option" and you as the DM don't want to help them because you "need a break" from weighing in on character decisions.

It is impossible for WotC to write rules that are going to satisfy all 100% of players and DMs. They are occasionally going to put things in that a DM or a player won't like or won't want to use. Which means either those players and DMs deal with it and play unhappily... or they decide to get off their duffs and actually work a little bit to make the game turn out the way they want. If it's me... I make the changes I want to the game to make the game the way I want it. Because the whole 'Lazy DM' trope... while cute... is not something everyone should really be taking to heart with every single facet of their game.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It is impossible for WotC to write rules that are going to satisfy all 100% of players and DMs. They are occasionally going to put things in that a DM or a player won't like or won't want to use. Which means either those players and DMs deal with it and play unhappily... or they decide to get off their duffs and actually work a little bit to make the game turn out the way they want. If it's me... I make the changes I want to the game to make the game the way I want it. Because the whole 'Lazy DM' trope... while cute... is not something everyone should really be taking to heart with every single facet of their game.

Sure, but defaults matter. I don't avoid making many changes to core rules because I'm lazy or because I don't think I can balance design changes, I'd happily rewrite anything and everything. I was up half the night last night dreaming up a complete overhaul of the 5e skills system, and I'm pretty happy with it, but will probably never implement it at a 5e table unless I'm inviting people specifically for a playtest. I avoid changing rules because every change to the defaults people are familiar with is another thing they have to know and we all have to discuss. Not wanting to have to issue everyone a 30 page supplement of my house rules or whatever is not a laziness issue, it's a reasonableness issue. It is an issue of not playing with a whole lot of people who want a homework assignment for a game that's already a huge time commitment. If I just played one home game with one group I'd happily evolve the game into whatever, but, like many people, I play with a variety of other people who in turn play with multiple groups and so I am highly invested in the default options not sucking. Even if I took the time to get everything I disliked changed and got all my groups to agree on the changes, I've spent enough time as a classroom teacher to know that communicating things clearly is hard, and someone's going to forget them no matter how clearly or repeatedly you communicate them. And while I myself have a good memory for rules I'd doubtlessly mess them up if I was running multiple campaigns with different rules. Default options thus matter even when they are utterly trivial to change. Most people playing the game are not obsessives like me who spend hours arguing about this sort of thing on ENWorld; most people have pretty limited bandwidth for house rules. Basically unless the house rule is so ubiquitous that people don't even know it's not the default, is entirely a DM side thing players don't need to understand, or is a particular change requested by a player that only directly effects their character, I avoid it.

Lack of default support for custom backgrounds in 2024 5e is a garbage move, chosen either out of foolishness or avarice. It just sucks, with no upside whatsoever. I seriously doubt there was a large number of people clamoring for the change, so "can't please everyone" arguments are moot. The game is a little bit worse for it for people actually invested in the default rules, and for those who aren't it makes no difference.

Hopefully eventually custom backgrounds become one of those "so ubiquitous people don't even know its not the default" things in 2024 5e that I can just quietly let take hold at all my tables without sucking up anyone's bandwidth, but until that happens it will just be another way that this edition is a needless downgrade from 2014.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Get your DM's approval. Take two backgrounds. Pick one skill from each and the Feat you like best (if Human, consider taking both of them). Get stat bonuses in any of the stats either increases. Call it by both names, such as Farmer/Soldier. Take cash for equipment and buy the items from either backgrounds list that you want to have. You are done.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Lack of default support for custom backgrounds in 2024 5e is a garbage move, chosen either out of foolishness or avarice. It just sucks, with no upside whatsoever. I seriously doubt there was a large number of people clamoring for the change, so "can't please everyone" arguments are moot.

It doesn't matter how large or how small the number of people were that may or may not have liked the changed. So the "can't please everyone" argument is NOT 'moot'. YOU don't like the change and you think that what... 99% of the D&D populace agrees with you? Fine. Well, unfortunately for you the change DID happen. We cannot go back. So your two options now are to either still change it anyway and just deal with the hardships that cause you... or not change it and instead just complain about it while insulting the designers for being either fools or greedy.

But if foolishness and avarice are the only two reasons you can come up with for why they did what they did, then it's not that surprising WotC decided they didn't need to take your opinion on the matter. When someone insults (general) you or thinks you're an idiot, one is usually not inclined to take their opinions seriously.

 

[Voadam]

I hadn't seen the customization in the default 2014 rules (I wouldn't have asked otherwise).

Page 125 in the 2014 PH

So for a mixed background go with a mix of appropriate skills and maybe a tool proficiencies.

Your soldier farmer concept could, 2014 rules, start with a soldier background and swap knowledge nature for intimidation and maybe farming tools for the gaming set.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

But if foolishness and avarice are the only two reasons you can come up with for why they did what they did, then it's not that surprising WotC decided they didn't need to take your opinion on the matter. When someone insults (general) you or thinks you're an idiot, one is usually not inclined to take their opinions seriously.

If you are a business and the person calling your decision dumb or greedy has spent the prior half decade or so buying nearly all your products it might be advantageous to suck it up and listen to them.

Well, unfortunately for you the change DID happen. We cannot go back.

I think on this particular pretty minor issue likely we can go back. The next rules supplement can have rules for custom races and/or tables can ubiquitously houserule this very obvious thing to houserule (the pattern for constructing backgrounds is dead simple, actually easier than 5e which had the special ability). We'll see how things shake out as more veteran 5e tables switch over in the coming years. The culture of actual play very well may develop in favor of custom backgrounds.

But you're right, in general we can't go back to 2014 5e Classic, my preferred system, being the ubiquitous most common system one can always easily find a table for and which new players flock to. 2024 New 5e is here to stay for the length of its run.

So your two options now are to either still change it anyway and just deal with the hardships that cause you... or not change it and instead just complain about it while insulting the designers for being either fools or greedy.

I choose both. Having had to slog through a new PHB riddled with unnecessary, sometimes arbitrary changes, with major changes hiding under familiar names, and buried in a sea of slight wording changes, I'm damned well going to both play the system I worked to learn and complain about the things I don't like about it. And while I certainly don't put every change I dislike down to avarice or incompetence, when the shoe occasionally fits I might mention such things. To be clear I don't ascribe either to any individual designers (the "avarice" wouldn't even be to their own benefit), but rather to the collective entity of WotC. A team, working with deadlines, tunnel vision, and corporate meddling, can make mistakes and be less than the sum of its parts.

Heck, for this particular change I suppose it now occurs to me that there is a third possible explanation of "it just didn't fit neatly enough into the formating or layout of the backgrounds section. Things happen for manifold silly reasons on a big group project.

I'm just going to mention at this point that I felt like you were grasping at straws to justify a pretty objectively bad change from the beginning of this exchange, and now that you've shifted rhetorical goalposts to making this about defending the honor of WotC designers or whatever, I feel like its run it's course. Have a nice day.

 

[Clint_L]

Here's the 2024 rules:

Creating a Background​

A character’s background represents what the character did prior to becoming an adventurer. Creating a unique background or customizing an existing one from the Player’s Handbook can reflect the particular theme of your campaign or elements of your world. You can also create a background to help a player craft the story they have in mind for their character.

This section describes, step by step, how you can create backgrounds like the ones in the Player’s Handbook, tailored for your world and the heroes in it.

1. Choose three abilities that seem appropriate for the background:

• Strength or Dexterity. These abilities are ideal for a background involving physical exertion.
• Constitution. This ability is ideal for a background that involves endurance or long hours of activity.
• Intelligence or Wisdom. One or both abilities are ideal for a background that focuses on cerebral or spiritual matters.
• Charisma. This ability is ideal for a background that involves performance or social interaction.

2.Choose one feat from the Origin category. See the Player’s Handbook for examples of Origin feats.

3. Choose two skills appropriate for the background. There needn’t be a relationship between the skill proficiencies a background grants and the ability scores it increases.

4. Choose one tool used in the practice of the background or often associated with it.

5. Assemble a package of equipment worth 50 GP (including unspent gold). Don’t include Martial weapons or armor, as characters get them from their class choices.