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| Customizing a Background http://forums.paradigmconcepts.com/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=2995 |
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| Author: | deluge [ Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:24 am ] |
| Post subject: | Customizing a Background |
So I just want to clarify the section on Customizing a Background. I like the fact that you are able to customise backgrounds. I think it gives players the ability to create the background that they really want to have. But I wanted to clarify a few things. The Campaign Sourcebook says - "You may want to modify a background, so it better fits your character concept. You may replace your background feature with another, replace a skill, replace a tool/weapon proficiency, or replace literacy with an additional language." To be clear, does this mean you can - Replace your Background Feature with another (Background Feature) Replace a Skill (with another Skill) Replace a Tool/Weapon Proficiency (with another Tool/Weapon Preficiency) Replace Literacy with an Additional Language And not that you can replace one of these with a different sort of thing. In other words, you cannot replace a Skill with a Tool/Weapon proficiency or a Language. That is what I want to clarify. That it is only a like for like replacement. |
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| Author: | val Holryn [ Fri Feb 22, 2019 8:45 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Customizing a Background |
You have to stay within each “category” as I understand it. For example: You can’t drop a skill and pick up another background feature. You can’t trade in your proficiency with a weapon to take proficiency with the skill Perception. PS-That said: we’re getting down into the nitty gritty of a character. As a GM I never audit a character sheet, unless some player really forces me to by making outrageous claims. I encourage everyone to scrupulously follow the rules ... but if somehow you accidentally become literate through the loss of proficiency in gambling tools (cards/dice) I’ll probably never notice it as a GM (or care much if I do). |
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| Author: | Taffy [ Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Customizing a Background |
To further muddy the waters the campaign guide says to customize the background as per the SRD which states Customizing a Background You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds |
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| Author: | deluge [ Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Customizing a Background |
Yeah. That does muddy the waters. One part of my thinking says that since there is a statement on this in the Campaign Sourcebook, that would override what is written in the 5E SRD because it is specific to the Arcanis Campaign. The SRD statement seems to equate Tool Proficiencies with Languages. The Arcanis Campaign Sourcebook has included some Weapon Proficiencies as Background choices (Bodyguard,Veteran) which no PHB 5E Backgrounds did. And the Campaign Sourcebook seems to equate these Weapong Proficiencies with Tool Proficiencies. These are good ones to swap out in a Background, because any Fighter type character will have Simple and Martial proficiencies already. Maybe this is the reason that the Arcanis Campaign Sourcebook made its statement different to the one in the SRD - because the options available have slightly changed. The way I look at it (which is just IMHO), whether from SRD or Campaign Sourcebook, Features are Features and can only be traded as Features. Skills are Skills and can only be traded as Skills. Then the other bits (Tool Proficiencies/Weapon Proficiencies and Languages/Literacy) are where I am not sure. Would it be legal to trade a Language for a Weapon Proficiency? It would take some pretty fancy rationalisation in the explanation of the Background. I’d stick to Language for Language/Literacy and Tool/Weapon proficiency for Tool/Weapon proficiency. And even then I’d leave the Weapon proficiencies to Veteran/Bodyguard and so on rather than give a character one when he has the Former Slave Background (for example). |
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| Author: | val Holryn [ Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Customizing a Background |
Generally I think more specific documents true more general ones. I would go off of the Campaign Book rather than the SRD. Again, that said, its not like the other way is "mysteriously adding +2" to your attacks rolls and save DCs... |
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