Deme
2015-06-29, 06:46 PM
Ok, so I'll be starting a 5e game soon for some players who have not played 5e; some have played DnD in the past, particularly the player relevant to the discussion right now, who played some when she was a kid. And she's coming into the game with a specific idea of what she wants her character to be able to do in mind, and I'd like to help her do that.
What she'd like to be able to do is talk to animals, or otherwise have an animal-y focus. Now, conveniently, there's a racial ability for the Forest Gnome that lets you talk to small animals, and I figure that'd do the trick...Except she's got a half-elf in mind. So, it's either point her to the spell list, or try to cook up something a little custom, which I'm not above doing.
What I'd like to do is find a place (one available to a 1st-level character, so in the race or background or such) where I could sub that ability in, replacing whatever could be there; the half-elf doesn't seem to have a really solid "This is an equivalent-feeling racial ability" to me (though if you'd recommend one to replace, that'd do), so I was thinking of offering it to her as a custom background ability.
Does that seem like a reasonable thing to do? I don't think she cares about it being too little, as background abilities go, but would it be too much? I don't really have my head wrapped around the sort of things that'd work.
What she'd like to be able to do is talk to animals, or otherwise have an animal-y focus. Now, conveniently, there's a racial ability for the Forest Gnome that lets you talk to small animals, and I figure that'd do the trick...Except she's got a half-elf in mind. So, it's either point her to the spell list, or try to cook up something a little custom, which I'm not above doing.
What I'd like to do is find a place (one available to a 1st-level character, so in the race or background or such) where I could sub that ability in, replacing whatever could be there; the half-elf doesn't seem to have a really solid "This is an equivalent-feeling racial ability" to me (though if you'd recommend one to replace, that'd do), so I was thinking of offering it to her as a custom background ability.
Does that seem like a reasonable thing to do? I don't think she cares about it being too little, as background abilities go, but would it be too much? I don't really have my head wrapped around the sort of things that'd work.