Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
On meaningless restrictions
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7913980" data-attributes="member: 6677017"><p>You can already by core RAW effectively take any starting skills you want in almost every instance.</p><p></p><p>1) Background skills are officially just suggestions. By RAW you need DM permission to play a half-elf, but you don't need DM permission to take any 2 skills you want (and otherwise customize every part of your background other than making up a new background Feature). If you don't have Perception, it's because there were at least 2 other skills not on your class skill list you wanted more.</p><p></p><p>2) Class skills lists are rather generous. Really, the only ways they should be a problem at all is if you are ignoring RAW on #1, or you are making a character that is taking all skills that are weird for their class. I suppose if you were leveling dipping at 1st for mechanical reasons and your class concept was based more on your second class, that might possibly come up.</p><p></p><p>You can almost always just pick the starting skills you want from the whole list, without looking at the class list, and then go back and look at the class list and see that your build is valid. I have never seen a character not get exactly the skills they want RAW. So sure, maybe that's a reason to remove the rule--since it basically almost never comes up. I expect it's there to help new players.</p><p></p><p>So I see about 2 situations where there is an actual limitation. If you aren't playing by RAW and can't pick whatever skills you want for your background (way too many people miss that rule for some reason--it seems like more people miss it than know it!), or if you are mechanically dipping first level in a class themed completely incompatibly with you character concept.</p><p></p><p>So here's a challenge for anyone: Think of 5 or 10 character concepts you or a friend might want to play who wasn't <em>trying</em> to make this not work, write down which starting skills you want them to have, and then crack open the book and see how many of those characters aren't completely legal already. I'm guessing that you'll get all legal options unless you are intentionally trying to make a non-legal character (and depending on your memory of the books, you might still make a legal character when you're trying not to!)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 7913980, member: 6677017"] You can already by core RAW effectively take any starting skills you want in almost every instance. 1) Background skills are officially just suggestions. By RAW you need DM permission to play a half-elf, but you don't need DM permission to take any 2 skills you want (and otherwise customize every part of your background other than making up a new background Feature). If you don't have Perception, it's because there were at least 2 other skills not on your class skill list you wanted more. 2) Class skills lists are rather generous. Really, the only ways they should be a problem at all is if you are ignoring RAW on #1, or you are making a character that is taking all skills that are weird for their class. I suppose if you were leveling dipping at 1st for mechanical reasons and your class concept was based more on your second class, that might possibly come up. You can almost always just pick the starting skills you want from the whole list, without looking at the class list, and then go back and look at the class list and see that your build is valid. I have never seen a character not get exactly the skills they want RAW. So sure, maybe that's a reason to remove the rule--since it basically almost never comes up. I expect it's there to help new players. So I see about 2 situations where there is an actual limitation. If you aren't playing by RAW and can't pick whatever skills you want for your background (way too many people miss that rule for some reason--it seems like more people miss it than know it!), or if you are mechanically dipping first level in a class themed completely incompatibly with you character concept. So here's a challenge for anyone: Think of 5 or 10 character concepts you or a friend might want to play who wasn't [I]trying[/I] to make this not work, write down which starting skills you want them to have, and then crack open the book and see how many of those characters aren't completely legal already. I'm guessing that you'll get all legal options unless you are intentionally trying to make a non-legal character (and depending on your memory of the books, you might still make a legal character when you're trying not to!) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
On meaningless restrictions
Top