I’m tired of so many backgrounds, like those found in Forgotten Realms (where all divine folks come from Impiltur and all wizards/swordmages from Thay), Scales of War, Eberron, and so on. Many of these are backdoor “feats” which are unbalanced and campaign-distorting.
In my campaign (which isn’t set in any published world), I’m just going to stick with the first three options for backgrounds (and call these the “standard benefits”):
- Gain a +2 bonus with an associated skill, OR
- Add an associated skill to your list of class skills, OR
- Learn one associated language.
Any backgrounds which don’t meet that will not be available to players for free. If they want a specific non-standard benefit, they’re welcome to use a feat slot to get it:
Advantageous Background
Heroic Tier Feat
Benefit: Choose one of your backgrounds. You gain the non-standard benefit listed for that background, or your choice of one of the standard benefits.
You can take this feat only once.
Note: This actually allows someone to gain benefits from two backgrounds. That’s okay, I don’t mind that — for the cost of a feat.
Otherwise, I fear out-of-control background creep. It already seems to be happening, and that’s not cool by me. This way I don’t have to check over each background individually as written and approve or disapprove it arbitrarily; it’s just a set template. Does it fit the above list of standard benefits? Then take it. If not, then don’t.
Tags: 4e