Looking through the level one feats in the playtest I can not help, but to notice most of them are reduced in effect to a certain degree. All except magic initate (though you could argue the now power source lists in a nerf), which is generally better as it allows spell slot use.
I wonder if this is more of the issue this design team has in regards to mechanics outside of use a spell slot?
Feats are a fun game balance aspect that helps flesh otherwise bad stat rolls, and gives the Player/DM a chance to balance out a character. Most feats are decently balanced in 5E and are useful to players to better explain their back stories. I personally refuse to just take a feat based solely on it has great stats or gives me a powerful spell. My feat choice is purely based on my characters motivation, desire, and backstory.
Take for instance my character grew up playing in the nearby forest he was the son of a peasant that was very curious about the world around him. He was teased mercilessly by the various fey until he grew from the experience and felt a bond with these mischievous pixies and sprites. That is why he has Fey Touched, add a point to int/wis/cha and you learned how the fey can Misty Step after witnessing the trick so many times.
To me this is the bread and butter of feats and why I thought the addition of them were simply a genius idea. I am not sure how to roll that fully into a level 1 feat, so that is a bit of a harder sell to me. But to me the story tops this odd endeavor people have to make the most powerful character in the land.... Such a bland idea to me.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Near as I can tell, though, you do not simply get to choose the feat of your choice per se. You get the feat attached to the background that you choose. To get Tavern Brawler at 1st, you have to be a sailor. Urchins cannot thus start as tavern brawlers. They are merely lucky... so lucky they have to grow up on the streets. Such luck!
You also get the ability score mods attached to your background, meaning there is going to be a greater tie between certain backgrounds and specific classes. There are even specific languages tied to backgrounds... so much for getting away from stereotyping! Soldiers all know Goblin???? Does every war involve Goblins now or something? Every sailor knows primordial? What???? Urchins learn Common Sign Language????? Who wrote this? Labourers all learn Dwarvish..... No stereotyping here... nothing to see.... move along....
That is not what is in the playtesting UA... they explicitely state, that the samples are just something you could come up with or change however you wish... the basis is, create your own background and call it whatever you like.
Near as I can tell, though, you do not simply get to choose the feat of your choice per se. You get the feat attached to the background that you choose. To get Tavern Brawler at 1st, you have to be a sailor. Urchins cannot thus start as tavern brawlers. They are merely lucky... so lucky they have to grow up on the streets. Such luck!
You also get the ability score mods attached to your background, meaning there is going to be a greater tie between certain backgrounds and specific classes. There are even specific languages tied to backgrounds... so much for getting away from stereotyping! Soldiers all know Goblin???? Does every war involve Goblins now or something? Every sailor knows primordial? What???? Urchins learn Common Sign Language????? Who wrote this? Labourers all learn Dwarvish..... No stereotyping here... nothing to see.... move along....
That is not what is in the playtesting UA... they explicitely state, that the samples are just something you could come up with or change however you wish... the basis is, create your own background and call it whatever you like.
You can, but the 'samples' are a pretty extensive list. There are already rules for custom backgrounds. How many players use those now? How many DM's simply allow them?
The difference is, that custom backgrounds are now the default method and not optional like before.
They are all default, and the whole section starts with "Build your own".
Further they write
SAMPLE BACKGROUNDS Here is a collection of sample Backgrounds that you can choose from when making a character. These Backgrounds were built using the rules in the “Build Your Background” section, and each of them contains story-oriented details that are meant inspire you as you think of your character’s backstory.
The feats are reduced in power because every character gets one at level.
It's still OP.
What is overpowered?
Even as reduced power '1st level' feats, it is an additional power boost right off the bat. There are also questions as to whether the feats supersede the regular feats list or are in addition to (even though many have the same names but different effects), what happens with variant Humans....
Character Races. These are the Race options being considered for the Player’s Handbook — all with updated design.
So, variant humans are gone.
Feats. Every 1st-level Feat mentioned herein appears in the “Feats” section, which contains both new and revised Feats.
So, every feat with the same name is revised, the old one is gone.
Power Level. The character options you read here might be more or less powerful than options in the Player’s Handbook (2014). If a design survives playtesting, we adjust its power to the desirable level before official publication. This means an option could be more or less powerful in its final form.
The feats are reduced in power because every character gets one at level.
It's still OP.
What is overpowered?
Even as reduced power '1st level' feats, it is an additional power boost right off the bat. There are also questions as to whether the feats supersede the regular feats list or are in addition to (even though many have the same names but different effects), what happens with variant Humans....
Character Races. These are the Race options being considered for the Player’s Handbook — all with updated design.
So, variant humans are gone.
Feats. Every 1st-level Feat mentioned herein appears in the “Feats” section, which contains both new and revised Feats.
So, every feat with the same name is revised, the old one is gone.
Power Level. The character options you read here might be more or less powerful than options in the Player’s Handbook (2014). If a design survives playtesting, we adjust its power to the desirable level before official publication. This means an option could be more or less powerful in its final form.
And yet, it is supposedly backwardly compatible, which would mean these are additional, not replacements. Assuming they mean what they say....
These are Character Origins, so may or may not impact later aspects of character development. These are specifically described as "level 1 feats," which implies there is either a separate list of non-level 1 feats or no feats at all past level 1.
Backwards compatible does not mean that it fits like a glove. Especially, when the PHB will be completely replaced.
And JC says in the accompanying video, that there will be feats with requirements past level 1, hence the name level 1 feats.
The feats are reduced in power because every character gets one at level.
It's still OP.
What is overpowered?
Even as reduced power '1st level' feats, it is an additional power boost right off the bat. There are also questions as to whether the feats supersede the regular feats list or are in addition to (even though many have the same names but different effects), what happens with variant Humans....
Character Races. These are the Race options being considered for the Player’s Handbook — all with updated design.
So, variant humans are gone.
Feats. Every 1st-level Feat mentioned herein appears in the “Feats” section, which contains both new and revised Feats.
So, every feat with the same name is revised, the old one is gone.
Power Level. The character options you read here might be more or less powerful than options in the Player’s Handbook (2014). If a design survives playtesting, we adjust its power to the desirable level before official publication. This means an option could be more or less powerful in its final form.
And yet, it is supposedly backwardly compatible, which would mean these are additional, not replacements. Assuming they mean what they say....
These are Character Origins, so may or may not impact later aspects of character development. These are specifically described as "level 1 feats," which implies there is either a separate list of non-level 1 feats or no feats at all past level 1.
…Watch the goddamn video. We all know if you haven't, and your opinion holds a lot less weight if you start complaining about things that were already answered in the very information-dense video accompaniment to this drop.
Personally I only like about half the changes in One D&D and only plan to purchase the new book in ‘24 for research purposes (not gameplay); I have been very outspoken in the past regarding my suspicions about Crawford’s decision making capabilities; and I wouldn’t trust Todd Kenreck as far as I can throw a Buick (he seems smarmy). But the fact that other stronger feats (including all the half feats) will be higher level feats was in fact covered in the video.
No Dungeon Master in the history of D&D has ever allowed a character to study and obtain a tool proficiency during downtime. Primarily because no DM in the history of D&D has ever allowed a character to do anything meaningful with a tool proficiency that isn't thieves' tools proficiency. It drives me up the goddamn wall that DMs are so awful about letting players use their tools to do cool things. But anyways. Let me address this in particular.
You can, but the 'samples' are a pretty extensive list. There are already rules for custom backgrounds. How many players use those now? How many DM's simply allow them? If two players both want sailor backgrounds, doesn't the mere existence of the sailor background example imply not only should they choose that, but moreover that they should both choose that?
And the feats are still tied to backgrounds, rather than every PC starting with a feat independent of background. This at least implies that the feat should be tied to the background somehow.
No. No, this is not true, and furthermore this strikes me as a malicious bad-faith deliberate misreading of the OPT document.
The existing rules for custom backgrounds are bad. They leave the custom background character at a distinct disadvantage to the rest of the party for no good goddamn reason. Furthermore, two players who are making sailors for the same game are not obligated to "choose the 'Sailor' background". That is a damn dirty lie and an utter misinterpretation of the document. Yes, one of those players may want to play something very similar to the sample Sailor background, but perhaps the other Sailor was the ship's carpenter or sawbones, eh? Maybe they were the quartermaster or helmsman? All of those are still Sailors, and none of them would be built anything like the Sailor in the OPT document.
The 'Sailor' background as given is for a bare basic rating whose job is to haul lines and carry stuff, the nameless rankless rowdies you can find by the literal boatload in any port. If both players want that background, then A.) why is that bad? and B.) why can't either of them tweak it? Maybe the one is making more of a brute and decides his Sailor favors Strength over Dexterity and is Tough rather than a chair-swinging tavern brawler. Hell, maybe their Sailor is a pirate who favors Intimidation and Savage Attacker over Acrobatics and Tavern Brawler. Maybe they all speak Infernal rather than Primordial because their captain is a tiefling who learned the tongue of devils to better intimidate and manipulate her marks and they all wanted to be in on the ruse.
You're deeply missing the point, and have been doing so consistently enough I'm starting to read it as deliberate sabotage rather than misunderstanding. Stahppit.
Since we're talking about feats I'd like to ask for opinions on a suggestion I plan to make given the opportunity.
Humans in the test document get a bonus feat, by default the feat is the new Skilled feat.
I find that a little too 'meh' I was thinking of recommending Prodigy (the human-specific feat originally printed in Xanathar's) for the slot instead for some enhanced identity and flavor.
So instead of Skilled (3 feats) you get 1 skill, 1 tool, 1 language and Expertise in 1 skill you have proficiency in.
I'm reading the playtest over a few times, racking my brain to try and see how one can interpret it as saying that feats are locked to specific backgrounds. I really cannot make the words say or imply that.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Note that the feature is something that a good DM can use as a major plot point, explaining how they get to certain destinations, even playing up the old connections with the ship's crew and/or captain. It is not a mere 'feat,' but a real consequence of having that background. Other alternative features would be the Pirate variant , Marine, Smuggler , or again, something completely custom.
And going custom, can take a different feature, so you could have an oceanic researcher or treasure diver with the sage's researcher feature but the water vehicle proficiency and athletics or such...
I get the feeling you have not looked at the current rules much at all.
The current rules are changing because nobody ever used those Ribbon features of the 5e backgrounds. If your game did, then you're in the 1% and that's awesome, but you gotta understand that for most dnd games it's a useless thing to have.
It is starting to sound like you didn't watch the video - the existence of a sample background doesn't imply that a player should do anything with it. In fact, it's explicitly stated in the video that the reason they put the backgrounds in was to show how you should customize the background to your character. A person's being a sailor should already be a plot point if they want it to, and the playtest gives actual options for making diverse sailors instead of the singular one you seem so focused on.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
When you need to, you can secure free passage on a sailing ship for yourself and your adventuring companions. You might sail on the ship you served on, or another ship you have good relations with (perhaps one captained by a former crewmate). Because you’re calling in a favor, you can’t be certain of a schedule or route that will meet your every need. Your Dungeon Master will determine how long it takes to get where you need to go. In return for your free passage, you and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage.
Note that the feature is something that a good DM can use as a major plot point, explaining how they get to certain destinations, even playing up the old connections with the ship's crew and/or captain. It is not a mere 'feat,' but a real consequence of having that background. Other alternative features would be the Pirate variant , Marine, Smuggler , or again, something completely custom.
And going custom, can take a different feature, so you could have an oceanic researcher or treasure diver with the sage's researcher feature but the water vehicle proficiency and athletics or such...
I get the feeling you have not looked at the current rules much at all.
You're missing some required text from the sample Sailor. Here, let me provide it for you:
"Thus far, you’ve spent most of your days living the life of a seafarer, wind at your back and decks swaying beneath your feet, as you sailed toward your next adventure. You’ve perched on barstools in more ports of call than you can remember, faced down mighty storms, and swapped stories with the folk who live beneath the waves."
See? This text here? This is not an optional part of doing a 1DD background. I would contend that a DM that does not require the player to define their background is a DM that is not making sufficient use of the new tools. Your background needs a name, and it needs a description. Someone who looks at your background and only your background should know exactly what your background is, and a list of mechanical benefits with no fluff attached does not meet that goal. The mechanical function of the background is not the only thing provided in the sample, and it is not the only necessary thing. The "fluff" is not fluff. It is a requirement, and should be considered as such.
This is what I mean when I say junk like the Sailor's Ship's Passage feature is pointless. A character that is defined as "A Sailor" is presumed to know ships, ship people, and to've served on ships in the past. Everything Ship's Passage provides is ALREADY INHERENTLY ASSUMED TO BE THE CASE when you say "I'm a sailor by trade". A good DM does not need the background feature's permission to allow a self-defined Sailor to negotiate for passage for themselves and their party. That is something 'A Good DM' should already be taking into account when the party allows their sailor to take the lead on situations like that. Ship's Passage, as a "feature" merely says "you can do the things someone with your job would be expected to do." That is not, and I would argue it never has been, acceptable to treat as some special unique snowflake feature.
I've looked at the current rules enough to know that Custom Background requires you to give up any/all background equipment from not taking a standard background, which is bizarre and pointless. And when you get into the realm of crafting from-scratch 'background features', that's called homebrew and it's beyond the scope of the current playtest document. Yes, I can homebrew whatever I damn well feel like provided I'm willing to wrestle with DDB's eminently frustrating and unintuitive background homebrewer, but that means nothing when discussing the core rules of the game as proposed in the current 1DD OPT document.
In R5e, you cannot make an oceanic researcher or a treasure diver without asking the DM for special largesse to do so. You can only make a Sailor. Not a helmsman, not a quartermaster, not a sawbones, not a disgraced captain - you can ONLY make a bog-standard sail rat nameless rankless rating. For anything else the book demands you ask the DM for special permission, and the book also discourages the DM from giving that permission.
I've looked at the current rules enough to know that Custom Background requires you to give up any/all background equipment from not taking a standard background, which is bizarre and pointless.
I don't want to get into the discussion at large, but I do want to point out that this isn't true at all. You 100% get to take background equipment when you customize your background.
That is bloody flavour text with NO weight to it at all. What have you had for DM's? And you are saying "This stuff is assumed when you say your background was a sailor, so there should not need to be any rules confirming it."
Now apply that to anything else in the game. That you cast cleric spells should be assumed when you say you are a cleric, so why does the game need anything to confirm that? Why does the game need rules at all? Can simply RP everything.
Everything in the game is subject to the DM's permission, by the way.
Edit: and again Custom is currently the first background listed in the character creator, so it is already highlighted.
Flavor text with no weight to it?
Well boy howdy hoo, guess what? So is the "Ship's Passage" background feature of the standard Sailor background. It says "you MIGHT be able to book passage if your DM permits it, and your DM will decide if you can, what it costs, how long it takes, and which ship you get." That sure sounds like a feature that simply politely suggests your DM let you do a thing if your DM is feeling charitable, rather than an ability you can invoke with concrete weight to it.
As for casting aspersions on my DMs/DMing, please kindly don't. The DM for Star is why I don't give a rat about background features; that DM has said "you're an archaeologist and historian, you'd know..." more times than I can remember in the game. He's also said "you're a rich merchant girl from Villamoi, you'd know..." and "you're an artificer with, like, a dozen tool proficiencies, you'd know..." The DM for Grave of Saints does not need me to invoke a mother-may-I background feature to remind him my character exists in the world and would know things; he just lets me know what my gal would know regardless of whether I have a special feature that tells me I should. By your reading of things, I shouldn't ever have known Rich Villamoi Girl things or Artificer things because I don't have a background feature that explicitly informs the DM I'm supposed to know the sorts of things a rich girl from Villamoi would know, or that an artificer would know.
I don't want to get into the discussion at large, but I do want to point out that this isn't true at all. You 100% get to take background equipment when you customize your background.
Sadly, backgrounds in DDB are fixed in iron. To customize a background you have to use the Create Custom background feature to clone and then tweak it, and the CCB feature completely disallows/turns off any sort of background equipment. You can manually add gear later, sure, but per the 'Rules' of DDB, any form of customized background sacrifices all background equipment. It sucks, but it's also the reality we're stuck with.
1. There is no mention of any kind of vehicle proficiency of any kind in the document or the Glossary. So I'd refrain from holding Vehicle (water) up as an example just yet.
2. The Sailor feature, much like all other features, is mechanically non-existent and always has been. Allow me to explain.
"When you need to, you can secure free passage on a sailing ship for yourself and your adventuring companions". The only difference here between the character with this feature and without this feature is that one doesn't have to pay. It in no way guarantees the presence of a ship or that it is going the direction the characters need it to. "Because you’re calling in a favor, you can’t be certain of a schedule or route that will meet your every need." This includes the destinaton. "In return for your free passage, you and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage." This essentially means you 'free passage' isn't even free, and since the other companions do not have to be sailors, they could have offered their services in lieu of coin anyway!
So if you parse apart this word salad,The Sailor features says "If you want to get on a boat and go to a location decided on by the DM you can either pay with coin or services if the story and the DM allow it".
That option is not there because you took a feature. That option is on the table because the DM was willing to let you use a ship to travel and would have been there regardless of whether you had that feature or not. Now it's possible that when you pulled into the desert city of a landlocked nation and asked to book passage on a ship the DM was inspired to create a sandship that rides over desert waves like that scene in Moon Knight or maybe it had been there the whole time and this was how you discovered it. You'll never knoooowwww...
Now if you wanted that Feature to have actual bite, some real mechanics, and an actual effect on the game and gameplay, I would recommend taking what you thought that Feature actually did and create a FEAT out of it that would be appropriate for a level 1 (coincidentally, the subject of this thread) There are quite a few Sample Feats provided in the document to give you an idea of what powerlevel you should be aiming for.
In fact that right there, to me anyway, is the greatest part about the creation of the level 1 feat. it has set a standard level of power that can be applied to any character concept to do literally anything your imagination wanted! In other threads I've commented that you could have a feat called Elf-blooded turn a human into a half elf using a mechanism that is simple and very much within the words of the rules and intent of the rules (again, my opinion). But, and I'm sorry, but trying to convince me that something with this much potential is somehow inferior to Background Features that mostly amount to nothing but a ribbon flavor text is just a fools errand.
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Looking through the level one feats in the playtest I can not help, but to notice most of them are reduced in effect to a certain degree. All except magic initate (though you could argue the now power source lists in a nerf), which is generally better as it allows spell slot use.
I wonder if this is more of the issue this design team has in regards to mechanics outside of use a spell slot?
The feats are reduced in power because every character gets one at level.
It's still OP.
Feats are a fun game balance aspect that helps flesh otherwise bad stat rolls, and gives the Player/DM a chance to balance out a character. Most feats are decently balanced in 5E and are useful to players to better explain their back stories. I personally refuse to just take a feat based solely on it has great stats or gives me a powerful spell. My feat choice is purely based on my characters motivation, desire, and backstory.
Take for instance my character grew up playing in the nearby forest he was the son of a peasant that was very curious about the world around him. He was teased mercilessly by the various fey until he grew from the experience and felt a bond with these mischievous pixies and sprites. That is why he has Fey Touched, add a point to int/wis/cha and you learned how the fey can Misty Step after witnessing the trick so many times.
To me this is the bread and butter of feats and why I thought the addition of them were simply a genius idea. I am not sure how to roll that fully into a level 1 feat, so that is a bit of a harder sell to me. But to me the story tops this odd endeavor people have to make the most powerful character in the land.... Such a bland idea to me.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
I can smack someone with a chair for 1d8+str with tavern brawler. If that's not a buff, I don't know what one is.
That is not what is in the playtesting UA... they explicitely state, that the samples are just something you could come up with or change however you wish... the basis is, create your own background and call it whatever you like.
The difference is, that custom backgrounds are now the default method and not optional like before.
They are all default, and the whole section starts with "Build your own".
Further they write
SAMPLE BACKGROUNDS
Here is a collection of sample Backgrounds that
you can choose from when making a character.
These Backgrounds were built using the rules in
the “Build Your Background” section, and each
of them contains story-oriented details that are
meant inspire you as you think of your
character’s backstory.
What is overpowered?
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
Character Races.
These are the Race options being considered for the Player’s Handbook — all with updated design.
So, variant humans are gone.
Feats.
Every 1st-level Feat mentioned herein appears in the “Feats” section, which contains both new and revised Feats.
So, every feat with the same name is revised, the old one is gone.
Power Level.
The character options you read here might be more or less powerful than options in the Player’s Handbook (2014). If a design survives playtesting, we adjust its power to the desirable level before official publication. This means an option could be more or less powerful in its final form.
Backwards compatible does not mean that it fits like a glove. Especially, when the PHB will be completely replaced.
And JC says in the accompanying video, that there will be feats with requirements past level 1, hence the name level 1 feats.
Ahem….
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOQ_Exh0DmY)
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Personally I only like about half the changes in One D&D and only plan to purchase the new book in ‘24 for research purposes (not gameplay); I have been very outspoken in the past regarding my suspicions about Crawford’s decision making capabilities; and I wouldn’t trust Todd Kenreck as far as I can throw a Buick (he seems smarmy). But the fact that other stronger feats (including all the half feats) will be higher level feats was in fact covered in the video.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
No Dungeon Master in the history of D&D has ever allowed a character to study and obtain a tool proficiency during downtime. Primarily because no DM in the history of D&D has ever allowed a character to do anything meaningful with a tool proficiency that isn't thieves' tools proficiency. It drives me up the goddamn wall that DMs are so awful about letting players use their tools to do cool things. But anyways. Let me address this in particular.
No. No, this is not true, and furthermore this strikes me as a malicious bad-faith deliberate misreading of the OPT document.
The existing rules for custom backgrounds are bad. They leave the custom background character at a distinct disadvantage to the rest of the party for no good goddamn reason. Furthermore, two players who are making sailors for the same game are not obligated to "choose the 'Sailor' background". That is a damn dirty lie and an utter misinterpretation of the document. Yes, one of those players may want to play something very similar to the sample Sailor background, but perhaps the other Sailor was the ship's carpenter or sawbones, eh? Maybe they were the quartermaster or helmsman? All of those are still Sailors, and none of them would be built anything like the Sailor in the OPT document.
The 'Sailor' background as given is for a bare basic rating whose job is to haul lines and carry stuff, the nameless rankless rowdies you can find by the literal boatload in any port. If both players want that background, then A.) why is that bad? and B.) why can't either of them tweak it? Maybe the one is making more of a brute and decides his Sailor favors Strength over Dexterity and is Tough rather than a chair-swinging tavern brawler. Hell, maybe their Sailor is a pirate who favors Intimidation and Savage Attacker over Acrobatics and Tavern Brawler. Maybe they all speak Infernal rather than Primordial because their captain is a tiefling who learned the tongue of devils to better intimidate and manipulate her marks and they all wanted to be in on the ruse.
You're deeply missing the point, and have been doing so consistently enough I'm starting to read it as deliberate sabotage rather than misunderstanding. Stahppit.
Please do not contact or message me.
Since we're talking about feats I'd like to ask for opinions on a suggestion I plan to make given the opportunity.
Humans in the test document get a bonus feat, by default the feat is the new Skilled feat.
I find that a little too 'meh' I was thinking of recommending Prodigy (the human-specific feat originally printed in Xanathar's) for the slot instead for some enhanced identity and flavor.
So instead of Skilled (3 feats) you get 1 skill, 1 tool, 1 language and Expertise in 1 skill you have proficiency in.
Am I off my rocker here?
I'm reading the playtest over a few times, racking my brain to try and see how one can interpret it as saying that feats are locked to specific backgrounds. I really cannot make the words say or imply that.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
The current rules are changing because nobody ever used those Ribbon features of the 5e backgrounds. If your game did, then you're in the 1% and that's awesome, but you gotta understand that for most dnd games it's a useless thing to have.
It is starting to sound like you didn't watch the video - the existence of a sample background doesn't imply that a player should do anything with it. In fact, it's explicitly stated in the video that the reason they put the backgrounds in was to show how you should customize the background to your character. A person's being a sailor should already be a plot point if they want it to, and the playtest gives actual options for making diverse sailors instead of the singular one you seem so focused on.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
You're missing some required text from the sample Sailor. Here, let me provide it for you:
"Thus far, you’ve spent most of your days living the life of a seafarer, wind at your back and decks swaying beneath your feet, as you sailed toward your next adventure. You’ve perched on barstools in more ports of call than you can remember, faced down mighty storms, and swapped stories with the folk who live beneath the waves."
See? This text here? This is not an optional part of doing a 1DD background. I would contend that a DM that does not require the player to define their background is a DM that is not making sufficient use of the new tools. Your background needs a name, and it needs a description. Someone who looks at your background and only your background should know exactly what your background is, and a list of mechanical benefits with no fluff attached does not meet that goal. The mechanical function of the background is not the only thing provided in the sample, and it is not the only necessary thing. The "fluff" is not fluff. It is a requirement, and should be considered as such.
This is what I mean when I say junk like the Sailor's Ship's Passage feature is pointless. A character that is defined as "A Sailor" is presumed to know ships, ship people, and to've served on ships in the past. Everything Ship's Passage provides is ALREADY INHERENTLY ASSUMED TO BE THE CASE when you say "I'm a sailor by trade". A good DM does not need the background feature's permission to allow a self-defined Sailor to negotiate for passage for themselves and their party. That is something 'A Good DM' should already be taking into account when the party allows their sailor to take the lead on situations like that. Ship's Passage, as a "feature" merely says "you can do the things someone with your job would be expected to do." That is not, and I would argue it never has been, acceptable to treat as some special unique snowflake feature.
I've looked at the current rules enough to know that Custom Background requires you to give up any/all background equipment from not taking a standard background, which is bizarre and pointless. And when you get into the realm of crafting from-scratch 'background features', that's called homebrew and it's beyond the scope of the current playtest document. Yes, I can homebrew whatever I damn well feel like provided I'm willing to wrestle with DDB's eminently frustrating and unintuitive background homebrewer, but that means nothing when discussing the core rules of the game as proposed in the current 1DD OPT document.
In R5e, you cannot make an oceanic researcher or a treasure diver without asking the DM for special largesse to do so. You can only make a Sailor. Not a helmsman, not a quartermaster, not a sawbones, not a disgraced captain - you can ONLY make a bog-standard sail rat nameless rankless rating. For anything else the book demands you ask the DM for special permission, and the book also discourages the DM from giving that permission.
Why is that the case?
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I don't want to get into the discussion at large, but I do want to point out that this isn't true at all. You 100% get to take background equipment when you customize your background.
Flavor text with no weight to it?
Well boy howdy hoo, guess what? So is the "Ship's Passage" background feature of the standard Sailor background. It says "you MIGHT be able to book passage if your DM permits it, and your DM will decide if you can, what it costs, how long it takes, and which ship you get." That sure sounds like a feature that simply politely suggests your DM let you do a thing if your DM is feeling charitable, rather than an ability you can invoke with concrete weight to it.
As for casting aspersions on my DMs/DMing, please kindly don't. The DM for Star is why I don't give a rat about background features; that DM has said "you're an archaeologist and historian, you'd know..." more times than I can remember in the game. He's also said "you're a rich merchant girl from Villamoi, you'd know..." and "you're an artificer with, like, a dozen tool proficiencies, you'd know..." The DM for Grave of Saints does not need me to invoke a mother-may-I background feature to remind him my character exists in the world and would know things; he just lets me know what my gal would know regardless of whether I have a special feature that tells me I should. By your reading of things, I shouldn't ever have known Rich Villamoi Girl things or Artificer things because I don't have a background feature that explicitly informs the DM I'm supposed to know the sorts of things a rich girl from Villamoi would know, or that an artificer would know.
And you're accusing us of insanity?
Sadly, backgrounds in DDB are fixed in iron. To customize a background you have to use the Create Custom background feature to clone and then tweak it, and the CCB feature completely disallows/turns off any sort of background equipment. You can manually add gear later, sure, but per the 'Rules' of DDB, any form of customized background sacrifices all background equipment. It sucks, but it's also the reality we're stuck with.
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Two things I would like to point out.
1. There is no mention of any kind of vehicle proficiency of any kind in the document or the Glossary. So I'd refrain from holding Vehicle (water) up as an example just yet.
2. The Sailor feature, much like all other features, is mechanically non-existent and always has been. Allow me to explain.
"When you need to, you can secure free passage on a sailing ship for yourself and your adventuring companions". The only difference here between the character with this feature and without this feature is that one doesn't have to pay. It in no way guarantees the presence of a ship or that it is going the direction the characters need it to. "Because you’re calling in a favor, you can’t be certain of a schedule or route that will meet your every need." This includes the destinaton. "In return for your free passage, you and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage." This essentially means you 'free passage' isn't even free, and since the other companions do not have to be sailors, they could have offered their services in lieu of coin anyway!
So if you parse apart this word salad,The Sailor features says "If you want to get on a boat and go to a location decided on by the DM you can either pay with coin or services if the story and the DM allow it".
That option is not there because you took a feature. That option is on the table because the DM was willing to let you use a ship to travel and would have been there regardless of whether you had that feature or not. Now it's possible that when you pulled into the desert city of a landlocked nation and asked to book passage on a ship the DM was inspired to create a sandship that rides over desert waves like that scene in Moon Knight or maybe it had been there the whole time and this was how you discovered it. You'll never knoooowwww...
Now if you wanted that Feature to have actual bite, some real mechanics, and an actual effect on the game and gameplay, I would recommend taking what you thought that Feature actually did and create a FEAT out of it that would be appropriate for a level 1 (coincidentally, the subject of this thread) There are quite a few Sample Feats provided in the document to give you an idea of what powerlevel you should be aiming for.
In fact that right there, to me anyway, is the greatest part about the creation of the level 1 feat. it has set a standard level of power that can be applied to any character concept to do literally anything your imagination wanted! In other threads I've commented that you could have a feat called Elf-blooded turn a human into a half elf using a mechanism that is simple and very much within the words of the rules and intent of the rules (again, my opinion). But, and I'm sorry, but trying to convince me that something with this much potential is somehow inferior to Background Features that mostly amount to nothing but a ribbon flavor text is just a fools errand.