Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 9793068" data-attributes="member: 6803643">The issue is that they don't want that in their backstory, but they want the features otherwise. I don't think that's unreasonable, but I also don't think the features are so dwarfing of the competition that it's not worth taking Acolyte or whatnot instead. The nice thing with tying 1st Level ASIs to Backgrounds is that it helps guide players during ability score assignment so that it naturally flows from the character they want to play. It's a tool to help you go from the character in your mind to something statted out on the sheets.I don't think the intention is to run it the other way and choose your background based on the best ASI / Skill / Feat layout for your chosen species and class. But it's totally okay to do that too – it's just that if you're doing that and aren't happy with the options available, you may be the target audience for custom background building. Now whether that should have been in the PHB or the DMG, that's a separate debate. I think customizing anything with house rules should be DM-facing, but there are legit arguments to make for putting the Custom tools in the PHB too. WotC took the former approach this time, but the latter approach back in 2014 (when the Background carried less heft).</blockquote>