starting HP

[jbear]

It's a bit strange Scales of War Backgrounds can be used in LFR...

However, you can rest assured my cleric, invoker and my druid are from Impiltur and my wizard and my swordmage from Thay

 

[korjik]

Meh.

People put way too much importance on Constitution. In 3rd edition, 4 points of constitution could mean a swing of half your entire hitpoint total. In 4th, it's four hitpoints.

It's not that big a deal outside of level 1.

It is also two surges. Oddly enough, that is half your hit points in healing.

Technically, it all depends on how the surges work out in play. The ranger in my game could have half the surges and generally still not run out before the fighter and the cleric. On the other hand, the cleric with two less surges would always be the limit on the adventuring day.

 

[Herschel]

Yep, Impiltur and Thay give you a chance to not have to get M.A.D. and still have a playable character. My Genasi Assault Swordmage wouldn't have functioned very well without it early on, for example, and without them, there becomes a big disparity in melee builds. Con still gives you much needed surges, but when you're short points to spend you do have options.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I despise those 2 backgrounds and despise that they are allowed in LFR.

I am also not a fan of backgrounds, magical items or feats that allow one ability score to fulfill the role of others. That way lies char-op madness.

I do not allow backgrounds in my games for those reasons. If they added flavorful additions, they would be cooler, but the majority just choosing them for mechanical reasons does not suit me well.

 

[Mengu]

I do not allow backgrounds in my games for those reasons. If they added flavorful additions, they would be cooler, but the majority just choosing them for mechanical reasons does not suit me well.

I really don't mind the basic access to skill training or +2 to a skill of your choice, and then write the reason for that into your background approach. It's a mild enough benefit and can be a decent enough tool for why your wizard is trained in thievery, or why your half-orc has +2 diplomacy.

I'm not too fond of choosing a background for the benefit though, such as those that give resistances, hit points, initiative bonus, etc. But in the grand scheme of things, if they are allowed in a game, it's really not all that different than starting out with an extra half a feat for everyone, so really if you think of them as half feats instead of backgrounds, they are not something to necessarily shun.

 

[Aegeri]

I am also not a fan of backgrounds, magical items or feats that allow one ability score to fulfill the role of others. That way lies char-op madness.

I do not allow backgrounds in my games for those reasons. If they added flavorful additions, they would be cooler, but the majority just choosing them for mechanical reasons does not suit me well.

Basic backgrounds are like this actually. Just a small boost to something but largely flavor. It's the original Scales of War and FR backgrounds that are out of whack balance wise with the rest of the backgrounds system. I only permit Eberron and PoL general backgrounds - not Scales of War and FR.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I really don't mind the basic access to skill training or +2 to a skill of your choice, and then write the reason for that into your background approach. It's a mild enough benefit and can be a decent enough tool for why your wizard is trained in thievery, or why your half-orc has +2 diplomacy.

I'm not too fond of choosing a background for the benefit though, such as those that give resistances, hit points, initiative bonus, etc. But in the grand scheme of things, if they are allowed in a game, it's really not all that different than starting out with an extra half a feat for everyone, so really if you think of them as half feats instead of backgrounds, they are not something to necessarily shun.

I figure if a wizard wants thievery, a simple feat choice will do it for them. No need to open that can of worms.

If trying to get some mechanical benefit causes all int-based characters to be from Thay (to quote an example above) then it is a problem.

A feat choice is far preferable, to my way of thinking.

And BTW, the troublesome ones are not duplicated by a feat at all, much less a half-feat.

 

[Aulirophile]

I figure if a wizard wants thievery, a simple feat choice will do it for them. No need to open that can of worms.

If trying to get some mechanical benefit causes all int-based characters to be from Thay (to quote an example above) then it is a problem.

A feat choice is far preferable, to my way of thinking.

And BTW, the troublesome ones are not duplicated by a feat at all, much less a half-feat.

Toughness. About twice as good as Born Under a Bad Sign for most characters. So about half a feat. Improved Initiative. 4x as good. Rolling twice on a specific knowledge check? Half a feat. While there isn't a feat for every knowledge skill, the ones that do have such a feat also have some other ancillary bonus, so. Barring the resistance one, which is not the only source of resists in the game and resists don't stack, think that covers it.

I don't personally think of any of the backgrounds as "overpowered". They are all pretty fluffy imo, sure they give a mechanical benefit, but what doesn't? And feat slots are precious, even half a feat is nice to have.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Not all backgrounds are equal in power, e.g. Windrise Ports is superunique and powerful/broken if you know what you do.

Some of the FR backgrounds are more powerful than what is suggested by the guidelines for backgrounds in PHB2.

But this "imbalance" is true for feats, powers, races, classes, PPs and EDs - pretty much everything in 4E that is related to player choices.

As long as there are some choices that are meaningful (choices among several good options) that's not a problem but once you can only "choose" one good thing among garbage there is something wrong. Sadly, WotC has released a lot of garbage.

Back to the HP and the related backgrounds. I think there is nothing wrong that they exist. The Thay background will give you a maximum of 10 HP (the difference between CON 10 and INT 20 [I assume no one puts an 8 in CON]). You're still missing the additional surges = more HP a day.

 

[Jhaelen]

Some of the FR backgrounds are more powerful than what is suggested by the guidelines for backgrounds in PHB2.

Exactly. So, the solution is simple: Just ban all of the non-standard backgrounds. All of the core ones are fine (yeah, I know, everything is core, blablabla... - still won't convince me to allow the broken garbage from the FR setting ).