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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Strip Background out of subclass
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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6179070" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>I have no idea... One year ago Backgrounds were a major part of 5e, we had this Race+Class+Background+Specialty setup and I think it was fine, a lot of people liked this structure. There has always been discussion on what Background means in narrative terms, WotC designers intended it mostly as "what you were before picking up the adventuring life", personally I preferred the "what you are when not adventuring (and how you make your living)" (which IMO fit very well with the mechanic), but both basically represent you <strong>role in society</strong>. However there were people wanting race or type of society (most commonly barbarian) to be represented by Background, so that some backgrounds would represent your whole society of origin instead of your role in it.</p><p></p><p>Either way, currently Backgrounds are very-slightly less important than before when skills were mandatory and Backgrounds were the main source of skills. Lores are mandatory but IMHO they tend to be ignored by some players, at least in the sense that tends to be used less proactively than physical skills. Proficiencies are more interesting, but you really get very few from Backgrounds.</p><p></p><p>IMHO the real reason for introducing backgrounds into the game was not really because the game needed a mechanic to represent your "life before adventuring" or "life when not adventuring". Narratively, it could always be done by those who wish, no rules needed, and only a few players really need mechanical benefits (don't get mislead by how many people say they love Backgrounds with mechanical benefits... of course almost all of us like such system once you have it, but before we had it only a minority of groups even thought they needed one). Instead, IMHO the Backgrounds were introduced mostly as a "delivery mechanic for skills" to allow more freedom in character creation (because unlike 3e it wasn't hard to get skills unusual for your class), inluding some options for "slight multiclassing" (e.g. nobody's playing a Rogue so I'll be a Fighter or Wizard or else with Thief background and I can disable traps).</p><p></p><p>Now they are a "delivery mechanic for lores and non-weapon proficiencies" but class also gives them, while OTOH subclasses have become one of the most important delivery method for both narrative and mechanical features, and also to dial character complexity... I think the problem you're pointing out is very real, but I am afraid it's starting to be late for re-thinking everything again. Overall, the edition is steered by wanting to be as inclusive as possible, so we have different cases of methods which overlap in terms of what they represent narratively and what they deliver mechanically...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 6179070, member: 1465"] I have no idea... One year ago Backgrounds were a major part of 5e, we had this Race+Class+Background+Specialty setup and I think it was fine, a lot of people liked this structure. There has always been discussion on what Background means in narrative terms, WotC designers intended it mostly as "what you were before picking up the adventuring life", personally I preferred the "what you are when not adventuring (and how you make your living)" (which IMO fit very well with the mechanic), but both basically represent you [B]role in society[/B]. However there were people wanting race or type of society (most commonly barbarian) to be represented by Background, so that some backgrounds would represent your whole society of origin instead of your role in it. Either way, currently Backgrounds are very-slightly less important than before when skills were mandatory and Backgrounds were the main source of skills. Lores are mandatory but IMHO they tend to be ignored by some players, at least in the sense that tends to be used less proactively than physical skills. Proficiencies are more interesting, but you really get very few from Backgrounds. IMHO the real reason for introducing backgrounds into the game was not really because the game needed a mechanic to represent your "life before adventuring" or "life when not adventuring". Narratively, it could always be done by those who wish, no rules needed, and only a few players really need mechanical benefits (don't get mislead by how many people say they love Backgrounds with mechanical benefits... of course almost all of us like such system once you have it, but before we had it only a minority of groups even thought they needed one). Instead, IMHO the Backgrounds were introduced mostly as a "delivery mechanic for skills" to allow more freedom in character creation (because unlike 3e it wasn't hard to get skills unusual for your class), inluding some options for "slight multiclassing" (e.g. nobody's playing a Rogue so I'll be a Fighter or Wizard or else with Thief background and I can disable traps). Now they are a "delivery mechanic for lores and non-weapon proficiencies" but class also gives them, while OTOH subclasses have become one of the most important delivery method for both narrative and mechanical features, and also to dial character complexity... I think the problem you're pointing out is very real, but I am afraid it's starting to be late for re-thinking everything again. Overall, the edition is steered by wanting to be as inclusive as possible, so we have different cases of methods which overlap in terms of what they represent narratively and what they deliver mechanically... [/QUOTE]
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