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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyICE" data-source="post: 6023474" data-attributes="member: 6684526">Oh?  Counterpoint.I want to make a Rogue who became a Rogue out of a desire for revenge.  See, she was a singer with the voice of an angel, who was in strong demand.  The nobles would pay to see her performances, the local bardic college had her on as a teacher and example for students.  Then a crazed fan slashed her face with a knife when he thought she had rejected him.  Her voice was unaffected, but the wound scarred terribly.  And suddenly the nobles went elsewhere.  The bardic college didn't invite her back.  One of the bards offered the opinion that "maybe you can perform with a mask... it's so distracting."Infuriated, she sought revenge.  She spent the money she had accumulated searching out a mentor, rejecting many who simply wanted her gold and would teach her nothing.  Until she finally found a crusty old thief who had the fastest knifework she had ever seen, a bit of a temper, and didn't give two figs for her gold.  He wanted to know why she would seek him out, and when she explained he stroked his chin, and looked her over, and said "You'll do."  18 months of brutal training later, he judged her fit to begin.  Over the next 6 months the local nobility had a string of disasters.  Homes burned.  Horses threw their owners.  Nobles found their purses missing when they ventured out.  And the local bardic college?  The teachers were given a subtle poison that destroyed their voice boxes, rendering their speech harsh and raspy.  This ex-singer was finally caught by a wizard, hired by the nobility to track down the source of their troubles.  She was slated to be executed, but a last minute intervention saved her.  The kingdom's spymaster could see a use for someone like her, so another woman was executed in her place (illusion magic used to give her face the distinctive scar).  Now she serves the spymaster, carrying out his goals, although she's hardly his instrument.Now this is a semi-interesting backstory at least, and kicks the crap out of "grew up on the streets, started thieving because I was hungry, read Oliver Twist for details."  Yet in 3E, I take a knock if I want this character.  Her perform skill will never be that great if she dumps charisma (and honestly, she has the personality of a razor blade) and she'll be missing out on a good skill.That's bad.  That's awful.  You are punishing a person who put work into a backstory.  You might say "the punishment isn't much."  It doesn't matter.  Ideally, you should reward players who put the time and effort into crafting a backstory.  Minimally, you should at least be neutral to the entire deal.  The skill system in 3E actively attacks it.  The dumb farmboy (int 8) who puts points into animal handling gives up one of his two skills (assuming he's human) to do so.  If he puts more points into Profession: Farmer, he gives them both up.  The system PUNISHES him for attempting to actually create his character using it.  This is horrible, and D&D should never return to it.  4E I have to make things up on the fly, but that's fine.  I've let people who played an instrument and had Int as their main skill do perform as an Int check (remembering the music and playing it perfectly).  I've described it as a mechanically flawless piece of music when they succeed, while a charisma-based bard creates a piece that stirs the audience and moves them (even if he misses a few fingerings compared to the int-based performer).  Sure, I have to make this ruling on the fly and the system does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to let me do this, but at least it doesn't actively stand in the way of people who are trying to make an interesting background.  Ideally 5E would actually encourage roleplaying with its backgrounds and skills, but at the least it better not backslide into a system that discourages it.</blockquote>

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