TwoHeadsBarking
First Post
I think the PHB2 backgrounds are a little more powerful, actually. Not because of the numbers, but because of the flexibility. The Kingdom of Jade bonus of +1 Insight, +2 social Bluff measures very well against a PHB2 +2 Bluff, but what if you don't care about Bluff? What if you wanted Stealth, or Perception? Then clearly the PHB2 is the way to go, especially since instead of getting +2 to a skill you can add it to your class list. This is huge. I'd love to get Stealth or Perception as class skills, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm less than impressed with the option to learn another language, though.
Regardless, I'm not against the PHB2 backgrounds because of balance. I'm against them because, as you said, they're generic. Also, right now any Dauntonian has a little something in common with all Dauntonians. If we replaced our current backgrounds with choose-your-own PHB2 ones, that's not going to remain the case.
That being said, I like the idea of characters from non-defined Far Lands having +2 to an appropriate skill (maybe not requiring a proposal, either). I just don't think any character from a currently defined area should have a PHB2-esque background, and I worry that if we give Far-Landers a choice of where they get their +2, we're going to see a disproportionately large amount of them. But perhaps that's not a bad thing.
Edit: I take back that last part about the worrying. I now doubt it would be anything resembling a problem.
Regardless, I'm not against the PHB2 backgrounds because of balance. I'm against them because, as you said, they're generic. Also, right now any Dauntonian has a little something in common with all Dauntonians. If we replaced our current backgrounds with choose-your-own PHB2 ones, that's not going to remain the case.
That being said, I like the idea of characters from non-defined Far Lands having +2 to an appropriate skill (maybe not requiring a proposal, either). I just don't think any character from a currently defined area should have a PHB2-esque background, and I worry that if we give Far-Landers a choice of where they get their +2, we're going to see a disproportionately large amount of them. But perhaps that's not a bad thing.
Edit: I take back that last part about the worrying. I now doubt it would be anything resembling a problem.
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