Quote Originally Posted by Ashdate View Post
So... make sitting in town valuable. Not "make a Profession check to gain a meager amount of gold" valuable, I mean "holding up in town for a week grants the party their level in temporary hit points and an action point" valuable.
Ars Magica wizards usually gain power far faster by sitting in their lab studying than by adventuring so this can be done (the more recent editions may have changed this some).

I'd be a lot happier if 4th edition healing surges recovered 1/week rather than all overnight and were the only non-encounter resource (that feels a lot more like toughing through a moderately nasty cut or bruise to me). But, yeah, you can provide carrots as well as sticks. If you could TRAIN in skills and languages, even if it were VERY SLOW, that would be one way to make a carrot.

Backgrounds are mostly things you can in theory learn in the current playtest, but there aren't any rules for getting more, maybe if you spend three years apprenticed to an X you add a background as an X.