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<blockquote data-quote="FoxWander" data-source="post: 1081617" data-attributes="member: 1356">Just to throw in my 2 pence...Based strictly on the way the game was designed- yes, you wasted the points. D20 D&amp;D really has no place for &quot;background&quot; or &quot;flavor&quot; skills. The skill points you earn as a character class are just that- the things you learned as a character class. AS far as the game is concerned, your wizard knew nothing until he was apprenticed to a mage. And that's exactly what those 2 pts + Int bonus are supposed to reflect. Just look at all the Iconic characters and template examples in the Class section to see this in action- not one of them has ANY point spent on a &quot;background&quot; skill.Does this make characters that are one-dimensional and built solely for surviving a typical adventure- yes. But unfortunately that's what the rules are designed for-&nbsp; Creating an effective &quot;Heroic character&quot;. Now, that being said, I think it's a shame there isn't some kind of system in the rules for having an effective, realistic background for characters. At least 2e had an obscure, hidden table that you could use to randomly roll up a &quot;background skill&quot;. I think freebie background or culture ranks are a great idea and I personally have house rules that allow them. But it really should be something that's in the core rules somehow. Otherwise if you have to move and take your character into another campaign you might get a DM that says- &quot;There's no 'background skills' in the rules. Erase those points.&quot; And then all the flavor is gone from your character and your left with just a stat block.I'd talk to your DM about some freebie background points or something. Because as others have said- if your not playing in a game that supports your rich background, then you're just handicapping your character. And hey- if he won't give you the freebie points. Put what you spent into more &quot;useful&quot; skills and then write- &quot;Former profession: Farmer (4 ranks)&quot; on your sheet anyway. Since it'll probably never come up anyway, then at least you can see it on your sheet and be satisfied that you created a real character rather than a collection of stats. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="FoxWander, post: 1081617, member: 1356"] [b]Just to throw in my 2 pence...[/b] Based strictly on the way the game was designed- yes, you wasted the points. D20 D&D really has no place for "background" or "flavor" skills. The skill points you earn as a character class are just that- the things you learned [I]as a character class[/I]. AS far as the game is concerned, your wizard knew nothing until he was apprenticed to a mage. And that's exactly what those 2 pts + Int bonus are supposed to reflect. Just look at all the Iconic characters and template examples in the Class section to see this in action- not one of them has ANY point spent on a "background" skill. Does this make characters that are one-dimensional and built solely for surviving a typical adventure- yes. But unfortunately that's what the rules are designed for- Creating an effective "Heroic character". Now, that being said, I think it's a shame there isn't some kind of system in the rules for having an effective, realistic background for characters. At least 2e had an obscure, hidden table that you could use to randomly roll up a "background skill". I think freebie background or culture ranks are a great idea and I personally have house rules that allow them. But it really should be something that's in the core rules somehow. Otherwise if you have to move and take your character into another campaign you might get a DM that says- "There's no 'background skills' in the rules. Erase those points." And then all the flavor is gone from your character and your left with just a stat block. I'd talk to your DM about some freebie background points or something. Because as others have said- if your not playing in a game that supports your rich background, then you're just handicapping your character. And hey- if he won't give you the freebie points. Put what you spent into more "useful" skills and then write- "Former profession: Farmer (4 ranks)" on your sheet anyway. Since it'll probably never come up anyway, then at least you can see it on your sheet and be satisfied that you created a real character rather than a collection of stats. ;) [/QUOTE]

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