Hello, I haven't played AL for a long time and am looking to pick it back up again. It does seem some rules have changed in the past ~2 years and I need some help understanding some details of the character creation here.
I want to play an eladrin so that locks in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes as my PHB+1 choice.
1: I wish to create a custom background to reflect my character's backstory of an envoy from the Feywild sent to explore the material plane. According to the FAQ, I can select any background feature but can't make custom features. My thought was that the Far Traveler description from SCAG would be very appropriate, but is that restricted because it would be considered another +1 resource? Even if it's just a background feature? (If so, I suppose the Noble background feature would work for a similar effect. This seems unlikely to be an issue because these features are so roleplay-based???)
2: Looking at the player's guide now, I see that it says you can select a faction only if you use the "Safe Haven" feature from the Faction Agent background. My memory of what Adventurer's League used to be like was that everyone picked a faction because they offered benefits and there was no reason not to. Is this still the case for the overall AL experience? Are factions now expected to be chosen at character creation, not picked up later? It seems like this means that, effectively, nobody will have a unique background feature because we will all just be faction agents...
3: I see in the FAQ document that: "You may reskin your race (playing a rare elf subrace, for example) if you choose, but have the traits of a normally available subrace (high elf, etc.); the character creation process doesn’t change. Your DM may disallow this if they feel it inappropriate." This made me think that perhaps I could describe my character as eladrin but just use the racial traits of a High Elf and open myself up to the option of using a non-PHB source for spells or subclasses. In your experience, do you think this would be acceptable at most DM's tables? It seems a little cheesy to describe yourself as an actual available race but not use those racial traits, but eladrin and high elves are closely related and mechanically it doesn't unbalance anything. I don't want to cause conflicts.
Hello, I haven't played AL for a long time and am looking to pick it back up again. It does seem some rules have changed in the past ~2 years and I need some help understanding some details of the character creation here.
I want to play an eladrin so that locks in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes as my PHB+1 choice.
1: I wish to create a custom background to reflect my character's backstory of an envoy from the Feywild sent to explore the material plane. According to the FAQ, I can select any background feature but can't make custom features. My thought was that the Far Traveler description from SCAG would be very appropriate, but is that restricted because it would be considered another +1 resource? Even if it's just a background feature? (If so, I suppose the Noble background feature would work for a similar effect. This seems unlikely to be an issue because these features are so roleplay-based???)
2: Looking at the player's guide now, I see that it says you can select a faction only if you use the "Safe Haven" feature from the Faction Agent background. My memory of what Adventurer's League used to be like was that everyone picked a faction because they offered benefits and there was no reason not to. Is this still the case for the overall AL experience? Are factions now expected to be chosen at character creation, not picked up later? It seems like this means that, effectively, nobody will have a unique background feature because we will all just be faction agents...
3: I see in the FAQ document that: "You may reskin your race (playing a rare elf subrace, for example) if you choose, but have the traits of a normally available subrace (high elf, etc.); the character creation process doesn’t change. Your DM may disallow this if they feel it inappropriate." This made me think that perhaps I could describe my character as eladrin but just use the racial traits of a High Elf and open myself up to the option of using a non-PHB source for spells or subclasses. In your experience, do you think this would be acceptable at most DM's tables? It seems a little cheesy to describe yourself as an actual available race but not use those racial traits, but eladrin and high elves are closely related and mechanically it doesn't unbalance anything. I don't want to cause conflicts.
1) Yes MToF would be your +1 for the race choice. This does limit all your other significant character choices to PHB.
2) Custom backgrounds are allowed and you can choose a background feature from the allowed sources for character creation without affecting your +1.
3) Factions were changed in season 8,9. They went almost completely out of use in season 8 since they offered no benefits though if you wanted to be Lawful Evil you still needed to choose either Zhentarim or Lord's Alliance as your faction. Belonging to any faction was changed to require the Safe Haven background feature. In season 9, starting at level 5, belonging to a faction offers some benefits in terms of access to a free ring of protection (or something else for official factions). However, you still need to take the Safe Haven feature. One interesting aspect of this though is that you are allowed to create a custom faction if you like. In your case you could create an Eladrin far traveler/scout faction of Eladrin who go out into the world to collect information or something similar - whatever fits your character concept. It is purely roleplaying so it doesn't mechanically affect anything. However, membership in any faction still requires the Safe Haven background feature.
You can join a faction at any time. You can leave a faction though you lose any faction benefits (which may not matter if you have better magic items anyway - I'd suggest just reading the page on faction stuff since it isn't that long).
4) I don't see any issues with mechanically playing as a high elf but considering your self part of eladrin society from a role play perspective. If you think about it every race will have substantial variation between individuals and your character might be just mechanically more like a high elf than eladrin. All the AL DMs I have played with wouldn't have an issue with it as long as you explain it. "I'm an Eladrin but my abilities are more like a high elf". At worst you might need to cite the "reskinning" rules in the AL FAQ.
It might be but backgrounds of any type don't affect your +1. You can even use custom ones. So other than wanting to look up the original text for the Safe Haven feature, it doesn't really matter where it was published. (However, if you want to look it up, the Faction Agent background and Safe Haven feature are on pg 147 of SCAG).
P.S. One clarification ... you still have to choose the background feature from the allowed AL sources ... you can't pull it from anywhere even with a custom background.
Hello, I haven't played AL for a long time and am looking to pick it back up again. It does seem some rules have changed in the past ~2 years and I need some help understanding some details of the character creation here.
I want to play an eladrin so that locks in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes as my PHB+1 choice.
1: I wish to create a custom background to reflect my character's backstory of an envoy from the Feywild sent to explore the material plane. According to the FAQ, I can select any background feature but can't make custom features. My thought was that the Far Traveler description from SCAG would be very appropriate, but is that restricted because it would be considered another +1 resource? Even if it's just a background feature? (If so, I suppose the Noble background feature would work for a similar effect. This seems unlikely to be an issue because these features are so roleplay-based???)
2: Looking at the player's guide now, I see that it says you can select a faction only if you use the "Safe Haven" feature from the Faction Agent background. My memory of what Adventurer's League used to be like was that everyone picked a faction because they offered benefits and there was no reason not to. Is this still the case for the overall AL experience? Are factions now expected to be chosen at character creation, not picked up later? It seems like this means that, effectively, nobody will have a unique background feature because we will all just be faction agents...
3: I see in the FAQ document that: "You may reskin your race (playing a rare elf subrace, for example) if you choose, but have the traits of a normally available subrace (high elf, etc.); the character creation process doesn’t change. Your DM may disallow this if they feel it inappropriate."
This made me think that perhaps I could describe my character as eladrin but just use the racial traits of a High Elf and open myself up to the option of using a non-PHB source for spells or subclasses. In your experience, do you think this would be acceptable at most DM's tables? It seems a little cheesy to describe yourself as an actual available race but not use those racial traits, but eladrin and high elves are closely related and mechanically it doesn't unbalance anything. I don't want to cause conflicts.
1) Yes MToF would be your +1 for the race choice. This does limit all your other significant character choices to PHB.
2) Custom backgrounds are allowed and you can choose a background feature from the allowed sources for character creation without affecting your +1.
3) Factions were changed in season 8,9. They went almost completely out of use in season 8 since they offered no benefits though if you wanted to be Lawful Evil you still needed to choose either Zhentarim or Lord's Alliance as your faction. Belonging to any faction was changed to require the Safe Haven background feature. In season 9, starting at level 5, belonging to a faction offers some benefits in terms of access to a free ring of protection (or something else for official factions). However, you still need to take the Safe Haven feature. One interesting aspect of this though is that you are allowed to create a custom faction if you like. In your case you could create an Eladrin far traveler/scout faction of Eladrin who go out into the world to collect information or something similar - whatever fits your character concept. It is purely roleplaying so it doesn't mechanically affect anything. However, membership in any faction still requires the Safe Haven background feature.
You can join a faction at any time. You can leave a faction though you lose any faction benefits (which may not matter if you have better magic items anyway - I'd suggest just reading the page on faction stuff since it isn't that long).
4) I don't see any issues with mechanically playing as a high elf but considering your self part of eladrin society from a role play perspective. If you think about it every race will have substantial variation between individuals and your character might be just mechanically more like a high elf than eladrin. All the AL DMs I have played with wouldn't have an issue with it as long as you explain it. "I'm an Eladrin but my abilities are more like a high elf". At worst you might need to cite the "reskinning" rules in the AL FAQ.
Good luck and have fun! :)
Isn't Faction Agent in "Sword Coast"?
It might be but backgrounds of any type don't affect your +1. You can even use custom ones. So other than wanting to look up the original text for the Safe Haven feature, it doesn't really matter where it was published. (However, if you want to look it up, the Faction Agent background and Safe Haven feature are on pg 147 of SCAG).
P.S. One clarification ... you still have to choose the background feature from the allowed AL sources ... you can't pull it from anywhere even with a custom background.
Didn't know that. Thanks!