All the characteristics look very well picked, I'm not sure about the primary and secondary skill proficiencies. My personal opinion is take the first three, add Perception or Insight to the list and have those be your starting skill options. To me it does not serve any good purpose to force them to have two different sets of skills both from a simplicity aspect and it feels strangely limiting. My reasoning behind Perception and Insight is they are both wisdom based, which is in line with religious groups (ie clerics/druids). For someone that is supposed to follow the church's commandments they would not be encouraged to think for themselves too much (Int).
But still a very good background with a lot of flexibility in how it could be played out. You could even fit this into a concept of a druidic assassin, taking care of those that purposefully damage the environments (Earth Liberation Front type actions). I think this background is well worth the time you have put into it.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Backgrounds are the easiest things in the game to balance. Why? Because the Player's Handbook says that each background grants two skill proficiencies, two in any combination of tool proficiencies and languages, and one minor feature.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
First, you have too many skill proficiencies and languages. As pointed out by Matthias_von_Schwarzwald, backgrounds are fairly formulaic. And your background breaks that formula quite a bit. Also considering the nature of your background, I'd forgo languages altogether similar to the Criminal background and focus on two tool proficiencies. With thieves’ tools being what you automatically get with a choice between either poisoner's kit or disguise kit. Because an assassin will always have to deal with locks and/or traps, whereas the style of an assassin may differ between focusing on damage or infiltration to best assist in their shady endeavors. But you'd only get thieves’ tools in your equipment, with the rest being gained through contacts via your background feature which I'll go into next. And in regards to your feature, I'd just grab the Faction Agent (SCAG) feature as it combines the Acolyte and Criminal backgrounds more or less and that is basically what your background is. Of course, you'd still want to flavor it to be more religious in tone but the mechanics roughly should be the same. And you'd also want to add a code-book to the equipment like a Faction Agent gets since you receive encoded messages and will need an in-game way of deciphering said codes.
As for skills, you have to keep in mind that the nature of your background essentially gives you a target to "take care" of. So any investigation you'd have to do should either be nonexistent or kept to a bare minimum, therefore you'd want to have skills that focus on dealing with targets most effectively. For example stealth is good for someone who picks up poisoner's kit since it allows for the smoothest (and quickest) operation possible. Whereas deception be good for helping someone using disguise kit to infiltrate a location. With perception being an option as it's a great skill in general and would benefit any kind of assassin. Or alternatively you can allow players to tailor the background even further to their needs like the Faction Agent does by allowing them to choose one Cha, Wis or Dex based skill most appropriate to their characters.
I'd remove the kit from equipment. Background equipment is different than class equipment and even getting thieves’ tools is pushing it for what backgrounds usually give out. As I said in my previous post, you'd get your other tools via your feature by using your contacts to procure such shady equipment. Which would either work out as you straight up buying them or doing a favor or two to be rewarded such equipment. Because those tools range from 15 to 50 gp in value and should be treated as such.
Hi folks
This is my first attempt at a homebrew background and I would love some feedback on it.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/backgrounds/4156-church-assassin
All the characteristics look very well picked, I'm not sure about the primary and secondary skill proficiencies. My personal opinion is take the first three, add Perception or Insight to the list and have those be your starting skill options. To me it does not serve any good purpose to force them to have two different sets of skills both from a simplicity aspect and it feels strangely limiting. My reasoning behind Perception and Insight is they are both wisdom based, which is in line with religious groups (ie clerics/druids). For someone that is supposed to follow the church's commandments they would not be encouraged to think for themselves too much (Int).
But still a very good background with a lot of flexibility in how it could be played out. You could even fit this into a concept of a druidic assassin, taking care of those that purposefully damage the environments (Earth Liberation Front type actions). I think this background is well worth the time you have put into it.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Backgrounds are the easiest things in the game to balance. Why? Because the Player's Handbook says that each background grants two skill proficiencies, two in any combination of tool proficiencies and languages, and one minor feature.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
First, you have too many skill proficiencies and languages. As pointed out by Matthias_von_Schwarzwald, backgrounds are fairly formulaic. And your background breaks that formula quite a bit. Also considering the nature of your background, I'd forgo languages altogether similar to the Criminal background and focus on two tool proficiencies. With thieves’ tools being what you automatically get with a choice between either poisoner's kit or disguise kit. Because an assassin will always have to deal with locks and/or traps, whereas the style of an assassin may differ between focusing on damage or infiltration to best assist in their shady endeavors. But you'd only get thieves’ tools in your equipment, with the rest being gained through contacts via your background feature which I'll go into next. And in regards to your feature, I'd just grab the Faction Agent (SCAG) feature as it combines the Acolyte and Criminal backgrounds more or less and that is basically what your background is. Of course, you'd still want to flavor it to be more religious in tone but the mechanics roughly should be the same. And you'd also want to add a code-book to the equipment like a Faction Agent gets since you receive encoded messages and will need an in-game way of deciphering said codes.
As for skills, you have to keep in mind that the nature of your background essentially gives you a target to "take care" of. So any investigation you'd have to do should either be nonexistent or kept to a bare minimum, therefore you'd want to have skills that focus on dealing with targets most effectively. For example stealth is good for someone who picks up poisoner's kit since it allows for the smoothest (and quickest) operation possible. Whereas deception be good for helping someone using disguise kit to infiltrate a location. With perception being an option as it's a great skill in general and would benefit any kind of assassin. Or alternatively you can allow players to tailor the background even further to their needs like the Faction Agent does by allowing them to choose one Cha, Wis or Dex based skill most appropriate to their characters.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/backgrounds/4244-church-assassin
updated with recommendations taken into consideration.
I'd remove the kit from equipment. Background equipment is different than class equipment and even getting thieves’ tools is pushing it for what backgrounds usually give out. As I said in my previous post, you'd get your other tools via your feature by using your contacts to procure such shady equipment. Which would either work out as you straight up buying them or doing a favor or two to be rewarded such equipment. Because those tools range from 15 to 50 gp in value and should be treated as such.
I did consider that but decided that since the character is sponsored by the church it isn't unreasonable to start with one of those kits.