[Playtest 2] Background names and flavor seem wrong

[Grimmjow]

Not in any D&D setting that has ever been published with the Dungeons & Dragons logo.

No I'm pretty sure he's right. The reason NPCs usually don't get a level is because they haven't gone adventuring in order to earn the level. If your playing a character with the knight background, he should be level 1. He may know how to fight, and he may have been doing it for a while, but that doesn't mean that he has delved into dungeons and come back out alive the way he would have if he had become a knight through adventurer.

 

[Transformer]

Some suggestions on changes I would make would be Priest becoming Priest Acolyte, Thief becoming Street Rat, Knight becoming Knight's Squire, and Artisan becoming Artisan's Apprentice.

I can see why Street Rat/Guttersnipe is more of a background than Thief, and why it might be a bit much to allow a 1st level character to have Full-On Knight as his background.

But I don't see how Priest Acolyte and Artisan Apprentice are more background-y than Priest and Artisan. They're just demotions. The standard suggestion should be "my character worked as an artisan before he became an adventurer" or "my character was the priest [of a small country parish] before he became an adventurer," and if people want their character to have never made it past the training stage, then they can decide on that.

Could you have a Wizard Thug, or a Rogue Priest for example?

Of course!

Your Wizard used to be a mean-spirited gang leader. The local band of ne're do wells that used to raid the docks, shake people down at night, fight for their turf, and raid the homes of local noblemen, found it useful to keep a full-blown magic user around. You were right up with the top dog, poised to take his place when the opportunity presented itself, when some very powerful people started to take notice of your little gang wars. Things got too hot, and you skipped town for greener pastures, started raiding dungeons with a group of goody-two-shoes. You never knew philanthropy could be so profitable, but hey, whatever keeps your creature comforts flowing.

You used to be a priest. A nice little parson of a nice little parish. Your people liked you. They prayed to Pelor every night and came to church because of your sermons. But you just couldn't shake your past living on the streets. You'd sneak out at night and raid homes. Shops. You'd pickpocket people on the street just for the hell of it, just for the thrill, just to prove you could still do it. And you couldn't take it. The hypocrisy. The lies. You believed in the gods. You wanted to be a good man. But you couldn't stop.

One day a family came to you crying their eyes out because they'd been evicted from their land, and even the few family heirlooms they could've sold to scrape by had been stolen that night. You'd fenced those heirlooms to a drifter that morning. That was it. You announced that you were resigning from the parish and appointed a successor, a much better man than you. If you couldn't make it good as a priest, then dammit, you were going to help people as the scoundrel you were. You found some "good" people who could use you. Who could pay you. You helped them clear out a few dungeons.

You still send some money back to the parish whenever you can.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

It takes a lot of training and experience to obtain knighthood.

Alternatively, it takes someone willing to bop you on the shoulders with a sword and call you a knight.

I'm thinking, here of Ser Lancel Lannister.

I also know (knew, really) a guy, in real life, who is a Knight of Malta (I forget the story of how he got it; something about being related to a Cardinal, somewhere, I think). No formal training, but he's a knight, all the same.

Also, I don't think Sir Elton John or Sir Paul McCartney have much in the way of martial training ...

 

[Yora]

Based on the abilities and description, a priest is merely someone who works in a religious institution and is not part of the cleaning staff. Acolyte might be a bit more "correct", but it would work perfectly well for ordinary monks or the assistants of a cleric.

 

[Li Shenron]

It takes a lot of training and experience to obtain knighthood. A knight would have levels. A background is something you should be prior to obtaining levels. Otherwise it's not a background.

Going by the name, a "background" should be both what you were and what you still are when you are not adventuring ("in the background"), even after having class levels. I think it would work better this way because you aren't losing what you learned for your background, in fact your skill bonuses from background will improve later, suggesting that you are still living e.g. as an Artisan in the downtime.

However the current description does not mention this, and focuses only on what you were before.

I am still ok with pretty much all the backgrounds presented, except maybe charlatan and spy, which don't convince me fully.

I think someone could be a knight before (or without ever) having class levels. After all it doesn't matter because all PCs have class levels, and so do important NPCs... everybody else, who cares?

 

[DogBackward]

OP: So, does your desktop "background" only show the files you used to have access to? A background isn't just what's in your past... it's a framework, it's what's behind who you are and what you're about. It's what lies behind the bits and pieces, giving you an overall view of what you're supposed to be seeing.

Honestly, people are putting far too much emphasis on a word that, in the end, amounts to just a catchy way of saying "This is your place in the world." As opposed to your class, which represents what you can do, but not who you are.

 

[GX.Sigma]

My major question is how cross pollinating they are in relation to the different Classes. Could you have a Wizard Thug, or a Rogue Priest for example?

Of course you could. That sounds awesome. How is that a problem?

It takes a lot of training and experience to obtain knighthood. A knight would have levels. A background is something you should be prior to obtaining levels. Otherwise it's not a background.

Maybe the Knight training is how you got to level 1.