As a DM I have been asking to customize a players background. They want to be a Social Studies Teacher, so they are saying since they study cultures and behaviors of people they should get....
Skill Insight
2 languages
and.... the ability to cast true strike as a bonus action.
I don't see the connection between a Social Studies Teacher and True Strike. Also, background features are typically useful for social or exploration encounters, rather than combat, and changing the casting time of a spell is usually a bad idea. It sounds like they just want to cheese the system and get advantage on one attack every round.
Looking at the list of backgrounds, perhaps the Anthropologist from Tomb of Annihilation might be a good place to start, or customise the Sage background to give them Insight instead of Arcana.
That you study behavior and cultures does not mean you have an ‘advantage’ on combat. If you want to give her a feat that fits more properly than i would let it be something like +2 on persuasion checks to studied cultures.
No way on true strike. per PHB on customizing backgrounds:
You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds. You can either use the equipment package from your background or spend coin on gear as described in chapter 5. (If you spend coin, you can’t also take the equipment package suggested for your class.) Finally, choose two personality traits, one ideal, one bond, and one flaw. If you can’t find a feature that matches your desired background, work with your DM to create one.
So, you get 2 skills. And either 2 languages, or two tools, or one of each. Nothing about spells. There might be some racial swaps that could give you spells. But they would just give you a spell, not change existing spells.
Granted, true strike as written is terrible. But that’s a different issue.
As a DM I have been asking to customize a players background. They want to be a Social Studies Teacher, so they are saying since they study cultures and behaviors of people they should get....
Skill Insight
2 languages
and.... the ability to cast true strike as a bonus action.
Any thoughts?
LOL no
About the only cantrip I can think of that might be vaguely appropriate for that background would be spare the dying, with the idea being you've studied the death rituals of different cultures yadda yadda yadda. But true strike, much less a boosted version of it? No chance
Tell them if that's what they want, they can pick a race/lineage that gives them a Feat and use it on Metamagic Adept, to Quicken it if they really want to cast true strike as a bonus action
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The only way you should allow True Strike to be cast as a bonus action would be to change it to be a 1st level spell, so that the PC has a limited number of uses of it per day; otherwise you have a character who will always have advantage on their first attack roll each round.
As a DM I have been asking to customize a players background. They want to be a Social Studies Teacher, so they are saying since they study cultures and behaviors of people they should get....
Skill Insight
2 languages
and.... the ability to cast true strike as a bonus action.
Any thoughts?
I don't see the connection between a Social Studies Teacher and True Strike. Also, background features are typically useful for social or exploration encounters, rather than combat, and changing the casting time of a spell is usually a bad idea. It sounds like they just want to cheese the system and get advantage on one attack every round.
Looking at the list of backgrounds, perhaps the Anthropologist from Tomb of Annihilation might be a good place to start, or customise the Sage background to give them Insight instead of Arcana.
That you study behavior and cultures does not mean you have an ‘advantage’ on combat. If you want to give her a feat that fits more properly than i would let it be something like +2 on persuasion checks to studied cultures.
No way on true strike.
per PHB on customizing backgrounds:
You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds. You can either use the equipment package from your background or spend coin on gear as described in chapter 5. (If you spend coin, you can’t also take the equipment package suggested for your class.) Finally, choose two personality traits, one ideal, one bond, and one flaw. If you can’t find a feature that matches your desired background, work with your DM to create one.
So, you get 2 skills. And either 2 languages, or two tools, or one of each. Nothing about spells.
There might be some racial swaps that could give you spells. But they would just give you a spell, not change existing spells.
Granted, true strike as written is terrible. But that’s a different issue.
LOL no
About the only cantrip I can think of that might be vaguely appropriate for that background would be spare the dying, with the idea being you've studied the death rituals of different cultures yadda yadda yadda. But true strike, much less a boosted version of it? No chance
Tell them if that's what they want, they can pick a race/lineage that gives them a Feat and use it on Metamagic Adept, to Quicken it if they really want to cast true strike as a bonus action
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The only way you should allow True Strike to be cast as a bonus action would be to change it to be a 1st level spell, so that the PC has a limited number of uses of it per day; otherwise you have a character who will always have advantage on their first attack roll each round.