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Cyclops08
2020-05-09, 11:29 AM
This is a farmer or a hand that grew up in the back country raising crops.
His skills are Animal Handling and, Choice of another wizard list skill?
One extra language - learned at the university. Proficient with Farm Tools.

This would be the local 4-H kid who did good, went to a university and came back a wizard. as a bonus he would be able to call various farm animals as a familiar, like a chicken, pig or a cow (though they disappear when killed, and you can't eat them).

this was actually inspired by this thread:
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?611951-What-can-I-do-with-a-pet-chicken

To be honest, I really just want to see a new familiar deliver a touch attack

JNAProductions
2020-05-09, 11:34 AM
What's the background feature? Because the ability to summon a familiar as a background feature is significantly too good.

Cyclops08
2020-05-09, 12:14 PM
What's the background feature? Because the ability to summon a familiar as a background feature is significantly too good.
Hmmm. How about the ability to get a free meal and lodging in your home area. IF you chop some wood.

JNAProductions
2020-05-09, 12:18 PM
Hmmm. How about the ability to get a free meal and lodging in your home area. IF you chop some wood.

That'd be absolutely fine. But it's basically worse Rustic Hospitality.

Bear in mind, any two skills, any two tools/languages, and any existing background feature is allowed by RAW. Now, some DMs might look at you funny if your Shelter of the Faithful learned Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Thieves' Tools, and Disguise Kit, but nothing in the rules disallows it.

And, as an explanation, Rustic Hospitality plus Farming Tools, a Language of choice, Animal Handling, and a Wizard skill feels fine. Your explanation makes sense (in some worlds-not all will have public wizard schools) and I fail to see anything game-breaking about that skill combo.

sandmote
2020-05-09, 03:48 PM
To be honest, I really just want to see a new familiar deliver a touch attack If this is the goal, just ask the DM to allow a different familiar. This doesn't even require a new stat block; just say "I want to call it a chihuahua but I'll use the rat stat block." Alternatively, anything of tiny size and 0 CR can be made weak enough for both a ~unique stat block and without being stronger than existing familiars (by which I mean the owl). To be unbalanced it would need a 60 foot fly speed, flyby, and to be amphibious. anything weaker is fine.

sengmeng
2020-05-09, 05:47 PM
Wait, owls are amphibious?

DracoDei
2020-05-09, 08:03 PM
I think "Local boy dun good." works better. "Yokel" doesn't sounds to uneducated to be a wizard, regardless of personality, how they speak, etc.

sandmote
2020-05-09, 08:13 PM
Wait, owls are amphibious? I realize this is tongue in cheek, but I'll clarify my point anyway.

Sure, the owl in unbalanced compared to everything else available by RAW, but to be unbalanced compared to the RAW options (which include the owl) the added option would basically need to be an owl++. Hence my example:


To be unbalanced it would need a 60 foot fly speed, flyby, and to be amphibious.

Greywander
2020-05-11, 06:19 PM
This kind of just sounds like a modified Folk Hero background. One of the nice things about how backgrounds work is that it's often not necessary to create an entirely new background, you can just mix and match to make a custom background. All you need is:

Two skill.
Two tools OR two languages OR one tool and one language.
A background feature (e.g. Rustic Hospitality).
A set of equipment.

Generally, the only time you need to create a whole new background is if you want a background feature that doesn't exist, or you want an equipment list that doesn't exist. Background features are also usually ribbons, and don't give you a mechanical benefit (though see the Ravnica backgrounds adding spells to your list). Something like being able to summon more kinds of animals with Find Familiar is probably fine, but you shouldn't allow it to give you a stronger familiar, nor should it give you the Find Familiar spell for free.

For what you want to do, I think the best option is to just use a modified Folk Hero background (which is what I'm doing with my character, actually), and just ask the DM to let you summon other animals for a familiar. It shouldn't be a problem to refluff an existing stat block for a familiar into a similar animal, but the DM might let you stat up the animal yourself as long as it's in line with the other familiars. I'm not sure what you'd do for a chicken if you're just refluffing; they can fly, but not as quickly as a hawk or as silently as an owl, and they're certainly not capable of mimicry like a raven.

DracoDei
2020-05-11, 09:52 PM
I'm not sure what you'd do for a chicken if you're just refluffing; they can fly, but not as quickly as a hawk or as silently as an owl, and they're certainly not capable of mimicry like a raven.
I have quoted the italicized portion so I won't be quoting you out of context. I'm now going to proceed to do more than refluff.

I think it was Odin who had a chariot that was pulled by two goats. Every evening he would cook the goats, being careful not to break any of the bones while cooking or eating. The next morning they would be alive again. Then someone he was eating with broke one of the bones, and there-after that goat walked with a limp because it didn't heal completely straight.

So a chicken familiar having a similar benefit (although one would have to be very careful about the bones bit if you kept it, what with chicken bones being much more breakable*), where it comes back without spending (significant) casting time, spell slot, or material components if killed by its master during a long rest could be flavorful. If you want to increase the power level you could say that it returns at full health (instead of only healing the killing stroke/neck-snap from its master), or even clears any long-lasting debuffs it might have. If you want to keep the power level lower, you can just have it be "Hey, free dinner!".
*Even cutting a chicken's throat without an significant risk of nicking the vertibrae might or might not be a bit tricky, at least if the chicken wasn't fully cooperative.

If you downgrade the flight to "May move X feet horizontally for every Y feet it descends, and doesn't take falling damage." then this would probably be a reasonable compromise, at least at low level. At higher levels... well, I'd have it scale up to "clears all negative conditions upon returning from death." even if you didn't start it with that, and might even have the meat cause anyone who ate Z fraction of it recover an additional hit-die during that long rest. Not familiar* with the familiar rules for 5e, so I don't know how much having an otherwise weak familiar would need to be compensated.
*Joke not intended, but welcome since it decided to show up.

sandmote
2020-05-12, 12:18 AM
Had a minute; wrote this:


Chicken
Tiny beast, unalighned

Armor Class 11
Hit Points 1 (1d4-1)
Speed 30 ft., fly 20 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
4 (-3) 12 (+1) 9 (-1) 3 (-4) 10 (+0) 7 (-2)

Skills intimidation +0, perception +2
Senses passive Perception 10
Languages --
Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Cocky. The chicken has advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Actions
Peck. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 1 piercing damage

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 1 slashing damage

Pun fully intended.


Not familiar* with the familiar rules for 5e, so I don't know how much having an otherwise weak familiar would need to be compensated. You'd just limit its use in combat, same as any RAW option beside the owl.

DracoDei
2020-05-12, 12:28 AM
Pretty sure that should be Tiny, not Small?

I still like my idea of eating it every day thematically, but that might be more of a Divine thing, rather than Arcane...

Lvl 2 Expert
2020-05-12, 03:40 AM
I think this is fine as a custom background, written for one specific character. The expanded familiar list in particular works only for characters who get to pick a familiar, which makes it rather situational in the grand scheme of things.

The standard way of handling this type of character in 5e would be to either give it an actual full on local farmhand background, maybe with proficiency in animal handling, athletics, land vehicles and one musical instrument (or farmer's tools, even though they're not a standard listed tool set), or give it a scholar/college boy background. The first option would be encouraged because as a wizard you already get plenty of scholar-like features. But there's nothing wrong with deviating from that.



And yes, a chicken would probably be tiny. Assuming a medium creature is +- 6 feet tall and 160 pounds a small creature would be 3 feet tall and 20 pounds while a tiny creature is 1'6" and 2.5 pounds. So small is more like a swan. Something like a large fighting **** or a modern meat breed would be an edge case, but your typical medieval farm chicken is probably tiny. This actually works better with the damage you've given it, since small creatures usually do 1d4 damage while tiny ones like ravens typically do 1.

sandmote
2020-05-12, 12:31 PM
Pretty sure that should be Tiny, not Small?

And yes, a chicken would probably be tiny. Yep, thanks for catching the typo.



I still like my idea of eating it every day thematically, but that might be more of a Divine thing, rather than Arcane...
A forage domain or a feat for this might work well. I think it would still be a modifier to a chicken, goat, ect. stat block.