Backgrounds

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey Playground,

I'm making up some custom backgrounds because while the ones in the PHB are effective, they leave me very meh. I love the ones in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, so now I'm creating them custom for my settings. I want to give the players something that allows them to connect to the setting. Instead of, "I was a shopkeeper," they can say, "I was a shopkeeper in the Union of Khourathi, and as a result of the deals my lord made during the Secession War, I have a strange boon." But my question to you fine folks is about the power level of those backgrounds. I'm trying to balance them (roughly) against each other and the GGtR ones.

Note that these do not have associated spell lists. Please don't worry about the worldbuilding fluff - I'm strictly interested in whether any of these are a "must-have" option.

Here's a couple of them:

Background: Product of a Golden Age

The Sovereignty have made enormous cultural strides in their time. Their work in philosophy, healing, commerce, and debate have made them light years ahead of many other cultures on the planet. You might have studied one of these fields during your education while spending your time on the practice field training for the Great Games.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose one of Arcana, History, Medicine, Nature, and one of Acrobatics, Athletics, Stealth and Survival.

Choose either a tool proficiency or weapon proficiency as detailed below:

Tool Proficiences: Choose either an herbalism kit, navigator's tools or see weapon proficiencies, below.
Weapon Proficiencies: Choose three weapons; you are now proficient with them, or see tool proficiencies, above.
Equipment: A book on a topic of your choice, either one set of tools you are proficient with or one weapon you are proficient with, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 25 gp

Feature: Diverse Education
Your meandering education touched on magic as well; you know two cantrips from any spell list.

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Background: Khourathi Citizen

The magelords of Union of the Khourathi made a number of questionable deals during the Secession War, and their effects still linger. The bonds of fealty their serfs swore also made them party to these deals. Anyone who was born into fealty to a magelord who made such a pact bears some small mark, common to the fealty of that magelord. For example, Highlord Baelis' serfs all have curious birthmarks in the shape of a feather as a memento of his deal with a powerful celestial. Lord Sirath's serfs all have one eye where the iris is purple.

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, History
Tool Proficiencies: Tinker's tools
Languages: One of your choice
Equipment: The sigil of your magelord, tinker's tools, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 5 gp

Feature: Legacy of the Secession War
You have a single warlock invocation. This invocation must not have any prerequisites attached nor require the use of a warlock spell slot, even if you meet those prerequisites or spell slots. However, your magelord can tap you to fulfill some of his responsibilities under his deal. Occasionally, the entity which holds your magelord's deal may show up and require a small service of you. The exact nature of the service is left up to the DM.

[DeTess]

Are these supposed to be balanced wih the PHB options? because both these backgrounds have features that are far better than the ones in the PHB. The background feature is generally a ribbon feature, like being able to scavenge your own rations or being allowed in most libraries, not raw power features that get close to some of the better feats out there. If I was a in a game with these backgrounds and the PHB backgrounds, I'd take one of these two irrespective of which class I'd be playing.

[nickl_2000]

When making new backgrounds keep in mind that the "ribbon" feature (or background feature) should never contribute to combat. If it does, then you are going against the expectation of a background.

They generally help a little bit in the Social or Exploration tiers of the game, and even then in a minor way that just allows you to avoid a skill check and automatically succeed.

[Sparky McDibben]

So I'm trying to balance these against each other and the ones in the Guildmaster's Guide, because as I said, the PHB ones leave me a little meh (for more on that, see below).

The Guildmaster's Guide allows you to add spells to your spell list, which can result in Paladins and Rangers with cantrips, wizards who can cast death ward, etc. I view that as adding to combat, in a somewhat indirect fashion. As far as the ribbon abilities, from what I've seen, they all allow you to just ignore fiddly bookkeeping bits (Outlander allows you to ignore food and water, Sailor means you get free nautical passages, etc). And that's great - if you hate fiddly book-keeping bits. Personally, I love fiddly book-keeping bits (I play a lot of Battletech), and I love games that give you a lot of options to reach the conceptual space you're going for. So I chucked out the GGtR spell list ideas and added in some crazy stuff.

So yes, the options presented are more powerful than the PHB options, by design. But are they inherently more powerful than being an actual cop (Azorius), moving at double speed out of combat (Golgari), or just straight up refusing to pay for stuff (Rakdos)? All the while having significantly expanded options for combat and utility spells? I didn't think so, but that's why I ask the Playground!

As far as the first background, you get two more cantrips! Everybody takes minor illusion and some kind of damage cantrip anyway, so all this really does is broaden your access to new material. If you don't get cantrips, now you can snag a couple that might really set off your abilities (champion fighter, paladin, etc).

As far as the warlock invocation goes, yes, it is quite powerful. Your options are:

At will mage armor, speak with animals, detect magic, false life, disguise self, or silent image.
Proficiency in Deception and Persuasion
Seeing in darkness out to 120 feet
Reading all writing
Riding along in someone else's head.

With the exception of mage armor and false life, none of these are good at stopping/mitigating or causing damage. None of them are particularly game-breaking, unless maybe you had an entire party choose this background and go with Devil's Sight. But they do augment the capabilities of a PC.

So I guess view this as me trying to take backgrounds in a different direction and plug the PCs more directly into the world. Still, back to the drawing board!

[Sparky McDibben]

And also thank you for the feedback!!!

[JNAProductions]

There's nothing inherently WRONG with making more powerful backgrounds-it just needs to be stated that you aren't balancing towards the core system's balance point, that's all.

[Sparky McDibben]

Yep, I get it. But I also need to get better at making them, and both of these lack polish. :)