Level Up (A5E) Voidrunner: Clone background

[Nephilim00]

I’m a little confused. A character is born a clone. Why is that a background, not a heritage? It could be added to any heritage by making the rapid healing feature into a heritage gift.

 

[Selganor]

But then a Cloned Heritage wouldn't have a Hertiage gift besides Rapid Healing which would probably change the basic Heritage implying there are things in a Heritage that can't be reproduced by cloning

 

[W'rkncacnter]

if you cast clone on a creature and then kill it, is the resulting clone a different heritage? no?

there you go.

 

[Morrus]

I’m a little confused. A character is born a clone. Why is that a background, not a heritage?

Because you could be a clone of any heritage. A clone of a human is still a human.

 

[Nephilim00]

Because you could be a clone of any heritage. A clone of a human is still a human.

I suggested making clone a gift of any heritage.

 

[Nephilim00]

The way it is now you can’t be a clone and an academy grad, or anything else that happens to a person’s life since birth.

 

[Morrus]

I suggested making clone a gift of any heritage.

Yes, I saw.

 

[Selganor]

The way it is now you can’t be a clone and an academy grad, or anything else that happens to a person’s life since birth.

Exactly. You are out the cloning tank short enough that the cellular regeneration (as shown with "Fast Healing") is still active.

If you got cloned before the original attended Academy you'd probably still could be called a clone but you'd have the Academy Graduate background instead of the Clone Background.

As written "Clone" is for those "relatively fresh out of the tank" characters who had no real other background to fall back to.
The instilled memories are represented by the skills/proficiencies but your source might be the one who still is on the records of the Academy (or other Background) if at all (those memories might just be fabrications)

Turning "fast healing" into a generic Heritage Gift (that any Heritage could take) would limit the "uniqueness" of a character's heritage only to the traits that everyone of that heritage has.

For example, a cloned Grey couldn't have "Improved Telekinesis" or "Telekinetic Shield", they'd just have the basic Telekinesis (which isn't much more than the Mage Hand cantrip). This would also lock them out of their paragon gifts since both options require one of the normal Gifts (which they wouldn't have since this is the clone's "Fast Healing")

If you want to include a clone's Fast Healing into another Heritage you'd have to tinker a bit more with the Heritage (either losing something else or adding some "Weakness"), so "just give this as a heritage gift option" is not really viable.

 

[Waller]

The way it is now you can’t be a clone and an academy grad, or anything else that happens to a person’s life since birth.

And if you're an academy grad, you can't be a farmer or anything else that happens to a person’s life since birth. Everyone is more than one thing. A background is not everything somebody was, just the main thing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Exactly. You are out the cloning tank short enough that the cellular regeneration (as shown with "Fast Healing") is still active.

If you got cloned before the original attended Academy you'd probably still could be called a clone but you'd have the Academy Graduate background instead of the Clone Background.

As written "Clone" is for those "relatively fresh out of the tank" characters who had no real other background to fall back to.
The instilled memories are represented by the skills/proficiencies but your source might be the one who still is on the records of the Academy (or other Background) if at all (those memories might just be fabrications)

Turning "fast healing" into a generic Heritage Gift (that any Heritage could take) would limit the "uniqueness" of a character's heritage only to the traits that everyone of that heritage has.

For example, a cloned Grey couldn't have "Improved Telekinesis" or "Telekinetic Shield", they'd just have the basic Telekinesis (which isn't much more than the Mage Hand cantrip). This would also lock them out of their paragon gifts since both options require one of the normal Gifts (which they wouldn't have since this is the clone's "Fast Healing")

If you want to include a clone's Fast Healing into another Heritage you'd have to tinker a bit more with the Heritage (either losing something else or adding some "Weakness"), so "just give this as a heritage gift option" is not really viable.

When I see these things and want something that fits in a different mechanical (not that I have a problem with the Clone background as it is), I just homebrew. It is IME pretty easy to make a new heritage gift, culture, background, feat, or any other smallish mechanical widget.