I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
dont worry about min maxing and build yo8ur character towards a theme and concept
I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
Your best option? Pick up the 5e PHB, the original one, used. Make your PC using that book, using paper and pencil.
I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
dont worry about min maxing and build yo8ur character towards a theme and concept
Even without min maxing it's still very limiting. And often times backgrounds don't fit whith character ideas.
I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
Welcome welcome brother brother, to 2024 D&D. Where you don’t play the game as if your characters life depends on surviving, it’s about having fun.
If you want customization, try homebrewing. Where you do the job no one else can. Or wants to.
For the pleasure of a subscription you too can share in your knowledge of D&D, and realize just how little you truly know.
Welcome brother or sister or entity to 2024 D&D, you get what you get, and we expect you to have fun no matter the cost.
The backgrounds are a shorthand for people who don't want to bother to create a custom version, which will almost certainly be available in the DMG, for advanced players. The vast majority of 5e players of today are newbs, and that number is going to increase. Ease of play trumps customization in the PHB, the only problem is we don't have the DMG, but that's only for a couple of months.
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DM for life by choice, biggest fan of D&D specifically.
I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
Your best option for now is to follow the instructions in the new PHB regarding using older backgrounds (it's a sidebar you can find at Chapter 2>Create Your Character>Adjust Ability Scores). If you make everything else under 2024 rules and use an older (or custom) background, you will have a prompt on the Abilities portion of the DDB character builder to choose your stat bonuses. Then, once the character is made, go into the Features and Traits tab (same box as Actions, Spells, Inventory, and more) and click the Feats sub-tab. There should be a Manage Feats button that allows you to add an origin feat.
Is this a pain? Sure, but it's fairly clear that rules for custom backgrounds will be in the DMG which makes sense since the DM will need to be heavily involved in this process. It's part of why getting the books months apart is irritating - it's going to cause these kinds of problems since we don't actually have all the rules yet.
They said they wanted to decouple stuff from the races. They ended up making it worse by forcing three factors into one selection (stats, feat, and skills). I don't see how this made it out of play testing.
But hey, you can go to homebrew and create custom back grounds. Too bad there is no input that allows you to specify the three stats that are associated with the background.
now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc
You really, really, really aren't
Backgrounds that offer an INT boost for your wizard: Acolyte (also extra spells via Magic Initiate Cleric), Artisan (also DEX), Criminal (also DEX or CON, and the new Alert feat which should be very useful for wizards), Guard (also Alert), Merchant (also CON, and Lucky), Noble (which comes with a raft of useful proficiencies), Sage (also CON and Magic Initiate Wizard) and Scribe (DEX and Skilled)
Wizards can be merchants. Rogues can be scribes. Clerics can be guides. None of those are "suboptimal"
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Active characters:
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
They said they wanted to decouple stuff from the races. They ended up making it worse by forcing three factors into one selection (stats, feat, and skills). I don't see how this made it out of play testing.
But hey, you can go to homebrew and create custom back grounds. Too bad there is no input that allows you to specify the three stats that are associated with the background.
yep. really hoping dndbeyond lets us do the new custom backgrounds. I've learned to homebrew just about anything, but it's always nice when it's built in already.
And, obviously, it would have been nice to not have to _wait_ for the dmg.
now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc
You really, really, really aren't
Backgrounds that offer an INT boost for your wizard: Acolyte (also extra spells via Magic Initiate Cleric), Artisan (also DEX), Criminal (also DEX or CON, and the new Alert feat which should be very useful for wizards), Guard (also Alert), Merchant (also CON, and Lucky), Noble (which comes with a raft of useful proficiencies), Sage (also CON and Magic Initiate Wizard) and Scribe (DEX and Skilled)
Wizards can be merchants. Rogues can be scribes. Clerics can be guides. None of those are "suboptimal"
You're not wrong; I'll concede that I was more characterizing how it felt being hemmed in by the choices. Hyperbole and whatnot. But, yes; I also made a list of the backgrounds that allowed increasing intelligence. They did not initially sound appealing, and I got frustrated.
Ultimately, I couldn't just pick the skills + origin feat + score increases that I felt best suited my concept. Period.
After Tasha's, I could pretty much just make the character I wanted. Now the default rules of the game _again_ force me into certain veins. If I want something outside of that, I'm going to be--unnecessarily--somewhat worse at doing the niche my character will fill. I'm sure sure that doesn't bother everyone else as much as it bothers me, and that's fine.
However, I feel it would have been simple to accommodate me and others who are like-minded. Set the default as players getting to choose skills + origin feat + score increases and call it what you want. New player? Uncomfortable just making those decisions? Here's all of the pre-set backgrounds. Space and complexity work against a book of rules this size, but it really doesn't seem like that would take more than a single extra paragraph. Whatever. We'll see what the DMG provides.
I find their to be two issues I have with the 2024 Background rules:
1/ I don’t think there are enough options provided in the Players Handbook. Instead of 16, there should have been 20+ and there should have been more optimised choices for some Classes. As it stands, I feel some Cjasses will always gravitate to certain Backgrounds and players who prefer to be different will not tend to have good choices.
2/ The Backgrounds aren’t really Backgrounds anymore. Not in the 2014 sense anyway. They provide a short blurb and don’t have any inspiration towards personality, ideals, flaws or motivations. Indeed, you could customise any of the given Backgrounds provided by simply renaming them something else and it would make no difference whatsoever. All the Backgrounds are now is a series of Quick Builds that can be used in lieu of any upcoming customisable Background Rules. Essentially, there is no narrative use of these Backgrounds any more.
I find their to be two issues I have with the 2024 Background rules:
1/ I don’t think there are enough options provided in the Players Handbook. Instead of 16, there should have been 20+ and there should have been more optimised choices for some Classes. As it stands, I feel some Cjasses will always gravitate to certain Backgrounds and players who prefer to be different will not tend to have good choices.
2/ The Backgrounds aren’t really Backgrounds anymore. Not in the 2014 sense anyway. They provide a short blurb and do t have any inspiration towards personality, ideals, flaws or motivations. Indeed, you could customise any of the given Backgrounds provided by simply renaming them something else a d it would make difference whatsoever. All the Backgrounds are now is a series of Quick Builds that can be used in lieu of any upcoming customisable Background Rules. Essentially, there is no narrative use of these Backgrounds any more.
I'll definitely echo that second point. I mean, it's funny they do seem to want the game to be more ROLE play, building a character and all...and then they remove the character inspiration bits from the backgrounds.
Having some good personality traits, bonds, ideas and flaws all there as inspiration for how this character may view the world was always a good bit to me, and helped me get a feel for characters. Now it's like "Welp, he's a scribe", and yeah I've got imagination I can come up with some cool stuff for that, but it is nice to have a little more help with it.
1. The Races and Backgrounds SHOULD have specific ability scores, feats, and skills tied to them. Otherwise, what the hell is the pt of any of them, if they are just essentially skins. If they all give the same thing, or even if they all give the same TYPE of bonuses, in the same amounts, what they hell good are they? I dislike the moving of AIS from Races, but at least they tied specific ones to specific backgrounds as that at least make each background slightly, different. But really, the ASI should be with Races, and they should be different..some maybe giving 3 or 5 or even 8 bonuses while providing different features, negatives, and other pieces that make each separate and unique.
In the goal to make everyone feel "special" they just made everything feel the same. Which is pretty terrible design in my mind.
1. The Races and Backgrounds SHOULD have specific ability scores, feats, and skills tied to them. Otherwise, what the hell is the pt of any of them, if they are just essentially skins. If they all give the same thing, or even if they all give the same TYPE of bonuses, in the same amounts, what they hell good are they? I dislike the moving of AIS from Races, but at least they tied specific ones to specific backgrounds as that at least make each background slightly, different. But really, the ASI should be with Races, and they should be different..some maybe giving 3 or 5 or even 8 bonuses while providing different features, negatives, and other pieces that make each separate and unique.
In the goal to make everyone feel "special" they just made everything feel the same. Which is pretty terrible design in my mind.
I disagree, at least regarding ability bonuses tied to species. It made sense back in the day when all orcs were primitive barbarians and all elves were forest dwelling tree huggers. But I never liked how that pigeon-holed class/species combinations. It prevented choice.
Times have moved on. Fantasy as a genre has moved on. If I want my orc to have spent their early life studying at a temple library or my elf to have spent their early career as a prisoner forced to fight in gladiatorial arenas, I can.
So it makes sense that ability bonuses and origin feats have moved to backgrounds, and that species abilities are more tied to their biology rather than forcing a specific culture on them.
However I do agree that now there's a class/background pigeon-holing instead! To me, this is an improvement but still a limitation on choice. Perhaps it would have been better if there were a lot more background choices (and feats) that mixed it up a bit. Or if "homebrewing" was explicitly allowed, e.g a sentence that said "speak to your DM if you want a bespoke background that makes sense for a different combination of ability bonuses and feat".
Until then...guess we have to wait until homebrewing of these 2024 backgrounds is enabled (course, can do it now if playing pen and paper!)
I just made a 2024 character. You can select custom background and build it exactly how you'd like it to be including name, flavor text, language and proficiency sets, and unique background perks. I did have to add my origin feat manually.
I have advised all of my characters to do this. I agree the background rules in the new PHB are just too restrictive.
I find their to be two issues I have with the 2024 Background rules:
1/ I don’t think there are enough options provided in the Players Handbook. Instead of 16, there should have been 20+ and there should have been more optimised choices for some Classes. As it stands, I feel some Cjasses will always gravitate to certain Backgrounds and players who prefer to be different will not tend to have good choices.
2/ The Backgrounds aren’t really Backgrounds anymore. Not in the 2014 sense anyway. They provide a short blurb and do t have any inspiration towards personality, ideals, flaws or motivations. Indeed, you could customise any of the given Backgrounds provided by simply renaming them something else a d it would make difference whatsoever. All the Backgrounds are now is a series of Quick Builds that can be used in lieu of any upcoming customisable Background Rules. Essentially, there is no narrative use of these Backgrounds any more.
Maybe...they could have just said:
"
Choose 2 ability scores to improve by +2/+1 or 3 ability scores to improve by +1. Then choose an origin feat.
Ideally, consider a background that justifies your choices. Some DMs may want to approve your choices, so always check first.
Here are some sample backgrounds...
"
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I guess I'm really just venting, but I'm so disappointed in the 2024 background mechanics.
I understand that it's logical to tie ability score increases and origin feats and skill proficiencies to backgrounds. It makes a ton of sense. But after being freed from racial/species pigeonholing (with Tasha's), now I'm back to... wizards are scribes, rogues are criminals, clerics are acolytes, etc. Sure, you can go against that grain; I'm sure plenty will. Whether it has a big impact at your table or not, though, your character will not be as good at their role as those who don't go with the flow.
The larger point I want to make here is this: I was really looking forward making my first new character in the 2024 rules. And suddenly I'm back to fretting as I weigh the plusses and minuses of this background over that background. Same as I used to have to do with species. Back then, I'd wonder what it would be like to play a species and would never quite be able to because the mechanics would have held my character back.
It should have been fun to make the new character. New rules! New abilities! Lots of stuff to inspire character creation! Instead, I got mired in the mechanics. Really wish they had just let players choose the origin feats and ability score increases they wanted, and have the backgrounds just provide the skills. I cannot fathom why they chose to transport the species issue to backgrounds. And I say that as someone who is absolutely going to play in the 2024 rules and happily pays WotC money for their products.
And YES, I'm assuming the DMG will have rules for custom backgrounds (optional or otherwise), but that's definitely not the book they belong in. I just wanted to make a character, guys. Now I've got this bitter experience to kick things off after months upon years of anticipation.
I’m with you. I was disappointed that they went away from custom as the default of UA1.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I really think this is just so they can sell more books with and includes 11 new backgrounds with 5 new origin feats.
And honestly I think a good portion of us are just going to houserule away backgrounds.
dont worry about min maxing and build yo8ur character towards a theme and concept
Your best option? Pick up the 5e PHB, the original one, used. Make your PC using that book, using paper and pencil.
Even without min maxing it's still very limiting. And often times backgrounds don't fit whith character ideas.
Welcome welcome brother brother, to 2024 D&D. Where you don’t play the game as if your characters life depends on surviving, it’s about having fun.
If you want customization, try homebrewing. Where you do the job no one else can. Or wants to.
For the pleasure of a subscription you too can share in your knowledge of D&D, and realize just how little you truly know.
Welcome brother or sister or entity to 2024 D&D, you get what you get, and we expect you to have fun no matter the cost.
The backgrounds are a shorthand for people who don't want to bother to create a custom version, which will almost certainly be available in the DMG, for advanced players. The vast majority of 5e players of today are newbs, and that number is going to increase. Ease of play trumps customization in the PHB, the only problem is we don't have the DMG, but that's only for a couple of months.
DM for life by choice, biggest fan of D&D specifically.
Your best option for now is to follow the instructions in the new PHB regarding using older backgrounds (it's a sidebar you can find at Chapter 2>Create Your Character>Adjust Ability Scores). If you make everything else under 2024 rules and use an older (or custom) background, you will have a prompt on the Abilities portion of the DDB character builder to choose your stat bonuses. Then, once the character is made, go into the Features and Traits tab (same box as Actions, Spells, Inventory, and more) and click the Feats sub-tab. There should be a Manage Feats button that allows you to add an origin feat.
Is this a pain? Sure, but it's fairly clear that rules for custom backgrounds will be in the DMG which makes sense since the DM will need to be heavily involved in this process. It's part of why getting the books months apart is irritating - it's going to cause these kinds of problems since we don't actually have all the rules yet.
This may sound unhinged to you, but I would just use 2014/expanded backgrounds or the custom background feature
They said they wanted to decouple stuff from the races. They ended up making it worse by forcing three factors into one selection (stats, feat, and skills). I don't see how this made it out of play testing.
But hey, you can go to homebrew and create custom back grounds. Too bad there is no input that allows you to specify the three stats that are associated with the background.
You really, really, really aren't
Backgrounds that offer an INT boost for your wizard: Acolyte (also extra spells via Magic Initiate Cleric), Artisan (also DEX), Criminal (also DEX or CON, and the new Alert feat which should be very useful for wizards), Guard (also Alert), Merchant (also CON, and Lucky), Noble (which comes with a raft of useful proficiencies), Sage (also CON and Magic Initiate Wizard) and Scribe (DEX and Skilled)
Wizards can be merchants. Rogues can be scribes. Clerics can be guides. None of those are "suboptimal"
Active characters:
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
yep. really hoping dndbeyond lets us do the new custom backgrounds.
I've learned to homebrew just about anything, but it's always nice when it's built in already.
And, obviously, it would have been nice to not have to _wait_ for the dmg.
You're not wrong; I'll concede that I was more characterizing how it felt being hemmed in by the choices. Hyperbole and whatnot. But, yes; I also made a list of the backgrounds that allowed increasing intelligence. They did not initially sound appealing, and I got frustrated.
Ultimately, I couldn't just pick the skills + origin feat + score increases that I felt best suited my concept. Period.
After Tasha's, I could pretty much just make the character I wanted. Now the default rules of the game _again_ force me into certain veins. If I want something outside of that, I'm going to be--unnecessarily--somewhat worse at doing the niche my character will fill. I'm sure sure that doesn't bother everyone else as much as it bothers me, and that's fine.
However, I feel it would have been simple to accommodate me and others who are like-minded. Set the default as players getting to choose skills + origin feat + score increases and call it what you want. New player? Uncomfortable just making those decisions? Here's all of the pre-set backgrounds. Space and complexity work against a book of rules this size, but it really doesn't seem like that would take more than a single extra paragraph. Whatever. We'll see what the DMG provides.
I find their to be two issues I have with the 2024 Background rules:
1/ I don’t think there are enough options provided in the Players Handbook. Instead of 16, there should have been 20+ and there should have been more optimised choices for some Classes. As it stands, I feel some Cjasses will always gravitate to certain Backgrounds and players who prefer to be different will not tend to have good choices.
2/ The Backgrounds aren’t really Backgrounds anymore. Not in the 2014 sense anyway. They provide a short blurb and don’t have any inspiration towards personality, ideals, flaws or motivations. Indeed, you could customise any of the given Backgrounds provided by simply renaming them something else and it would make no difference whatsoever. All the Backgrounds are now is a series of Quick Builds that can be used in lieu of any upcoming customisable Background Rules. Essentially, there is no narrative use of these Backgrounds any more.
I'll definitely echo that second point.
I mean, it's funny they do seem to want the game to be more ROLE play, building a character and all...and then they remove the character inspiration bits from the backgrounds.
Having some good personality traits, bonds, ideas and flaws all there as inspiration for how this character may view the world was always a good bit to me, and helped me get a feel for characters.
Now it's like "Welp, he's a scribe", and yeah I've got imagination I can come up with some cool stuff for that, but it is nice to have a little more help with it.
1. The Races and Backgrounds SHOULD have specific ability scores, feats, and skills tied to them. Otherwise, what the hell is the pt of any of them, if they are just essentially skins. If they all give the same thing, or even if they all give the same TYPE of bonuses, in the same amounts, what they hell good are they? I dislike the moving of AIS from Races, but at least they tied specific ones to specific backgrounds as that at least make each background slightly, different. But really, the ASI should be with Races, and they should be different..some maybe giving 3 or 5 or even 8 bonuses while providing different features, negatives, and other pieces that make each separate and unique.
In the goal to make everyone feel "special" they just made everything feel the same. Which is pretty terrible design in my mind.
I disagree, at least regarding ability bonuses tied to species. It made sense back in the day when all orcs were primitive barbarians and all elves were forest dwelling tree huggers. But I never liked how that pigeon-holed class/species combinations. It prevented choice.
Times have moved on. Fantasy as a genre has moved on. If I want my orc to have spent their early life studying at a temple library or my elf to have spent their early career as a prisoner forced to fight in gladiatorial arenas, I can.
So it makes sense that ability bonuses and origin feats have moved to backgrounds, and that species abilities are more tied to their biology rather than forcing a specific culture on them.
However I do agree that now there's a class/background pigeon-holing instead! To me, this is an improvement but still a limitation on choice. Perhaps it would have been better if there were a lot more background choices (and feats) that mixed it up a bit. Or if "homebrewing" was explicitly allowed, e.g a sentence that said "speak to your DM if you want a bespoke background that makes sense for a different combination of ability bonuses and feat".
Until then...guess we have to wait until homebrewing of these 2024 backgrounds is enabled (course, can do it now if playing pen and paper!)
I just made a 2024 character. You can select custom background and build it exactly how you'd like it to be including name, flavor text, language and proficiency sets, and unique background perks. I did have to add my origin feat manually.
I have advised all of my characters to do this. I agree the background rules in the new PHB are just too restrictive.
Maybe...they could have just said:
"
Choose 2 ability scores to improve by +2/+1 or 3 ability scores to improve by +1. Then choose an origin feat.
Ideally, consider a background that justifies your choices. Some DMs may want to approve your choices, so always check first.
Here are some sample backgrounds...
"