D&D (2024) Why aren't you using 5e 2024?

[Scribe]

And here's the crux of the matter: Are these things inherent to the people who end up in these backgrounds or are they the result of change over time?

No, its your occupation.

An Orc Farmer, is not an Orc Noble. These are different occupations, which provide different experiences as part of the education, training, or 'work' that they do.

Shovel rocks all day, every day, for a month. Just one month, and invite your Scribe buddy over to do your job for a week, while you go practice your penmanship.

The Scribe is going to be in for a world of hurt as his body is not attuned to that physical labour.

People erroneously get bent out of shape over something that is insanely obvious.

 

[Parmandur]

Then why tie them to the ability scores in the first place!

Obviously, to help new players make effective characters by following narrative tropes: that'swhybthe PHB says "if you have another 5E book already, juat choose whicher ASI and Feat you want" it'sabout new players. Crawford said that people wanted more limitations than the Tasha's style they tried in the UA, and the more limited (but not really) ASI choices seem to fit the bill, since they can be changed easily.

Even without customizing Baclgrounds, however, and using the Standard Array (yuck, but it is an option besides normal rolling...and just last week my wife seriously, no joke, rolled the Standard Array in character generation, so...) and following rhe PHB's guidance to go ahead and start at Level 4...a Human Farmer Wizard with the Skilled Feat plus Keen Mind at 5th is a very effective Wizard with 16 Intelligence who will have a couple Intelligence based Skill Expertises...so much for Classism.

 

[CleverNickName]

"Formative" suggests that, yeah, that a noble developed the unfortunately named "intelligence" by traditional learning that, say, a hermit wouldn't have.

And "most formative" suggests that a noble developed many things in their past, but only one will be emphasized for the character's origin story. It suggests that characters have more than one formative experience in their past...so maybe others can be added later as different things come to light.

Gained strength from an ASI? "Didn't I tell you my father was a stonemason? Yeah, I spent most of my teenage years helping him haul stones from the quarry."

Gained proficiency in Constitution saves from the Resilient feat? "I was one of those babies that was always sick. I guess by the time I had hit puberty, I had survived dozens of different viruses and infections...now I rarely even catch a cold."

 

[mamba]

Also, classism of the backgrounds obviously is an issue, and something I pointed out the moment I learned of how they worked. And unlike with the species, where different abilities due wildly different biology make quite a bit sense and offence requires reading the species as allegory to human ethnicities, here no such allegorical interpretation is needed; it is just plain "classism is true and justified in D&D" embedded in the rules. Aristocrats truly are smarter and more charming than the dumb and ugly peasants!

A farmer or blacksmith is probably stronger than a scribe, that is just the natural result of their respective way to work. A noble does not have a higher IQ or charisma, but chances are they are more educated and more polished than the average peasant, so it does make sense that those stats are boosted because of their background.

Whether that is better or worse than stats being affected by the species, so a halfling on average is weaker than a goliath or orc, is another matter...

 

[ezo]

Then why tie them to the ability scores in the first place!

They shouldn't be tied to anything, nor should we even have them IMO.

1. Some people feel species ASI is "in poor taste".
2. Others fee that background ASI is forced and in some cases, nonsensical.
3. Next they will be tied directly to class (which is where they end up basically 95% of the time).
4. Finally they will be removed and just increase the standard array, point-buy, and even dice rolling could be changed to 5d6 drop 2.

 

[Parmandur]

Whether that is better or worse than stats being affected by the species, so a halfling on average is weaker than a goliath or orc, is another matter...

I would say way better, particularly since the number of DMs who will feel cool about offering a custom Background will probavly be greater than those who felt comfortable with modifying 2024 Races.

 

[mamba]

I would say way better, particularly since the number of DMs who will feel cool about offering a custom Background will probavly be greater than those who felt comfortable with modifying 2024 Races.

That is a purely gamist perspective… also, all it would take for the race is floating ASIs (Tasha’s)

 

[Parmandur]

That is a purely gamist perspective… also, all it would take for the race is floating ASIs (Tasha’s)

People apparently didn't want purely floating ASIs in the UA, bit they are still half-floating.

And yes, it is a game. The Background aSIs are a game element, and one thst is obviously and easily fungible. 2024 Rave did not present as fungible the same way (though in reality it was, hence Tasha's approach).

 

[abirdcall]

People in general don't power game that much, so I'm sure there will be plenty of Farmer Wizards in actual play, same as there were for any Race/Class combo in 2014.

For me it is a feature that if a PC is a farmer wizard they will stand out as someone different as there aren't many of them (and there should be more sage wizards than farmer wizards).

This is the background having a real effect on the game that supports the character's identity.

 

[Parmandur]

For me it is a feature that if a PC is a farmer wizard they will stand out as someone different as there aren't many of them (and there should be more sage wizards than farmer wizards).

This is the background having a real effect on the game that supports the character's identity.

Having sat down and gamed it out...it really isn't even at anybsort of serious disadvantage, juat takes a tiny bit of planning.