Hello, just a simple question. I'm playing with the idea to use the soldier background for my character, but what exactly is the purpose of the following:
Feature: Specialty
During your time as a soldier, you had a specific role to play in your unit or army. Roll a d8 or choose from the options in the table below to determine your role
It doesn't seem to have any meaningful purpose, so is it just for flavor or what exactly is its purpose? I’m sorry, but i don’t understand it.
Thanks for taking your time to read and i wish you all a nice day^^
It doesn't serve a mechanical purpose, just part of your background. It isn't the only background to do this. The criminal has a similar chart. There are a few subclasses and races with non-mechanical features on a chart, too.
It's generally flavor, but it can help form your backstory. Additionally, your DM may then use some elements of that in the game.
For example, perhaps you are a low officer, but one of the few survivors of a battle, you may know some of the local nobles or other officers in garrisons.
If you were an enlisted soldier, maybe you were in it because you believed in a cause, you could also be more salt of the earth and like giving "leaders" a hard time until they demonstrate leadership. Just a couple of basic examples :)
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I made a hill dwarf forge cleric who was a soldier and I ended up going with the quartermaster option on that list. It made sense for my backstory since he had started out as a stone mason working under his father before he was conscripted into the army. His expertise in masonry helped him to have a knack for identifying strong defensive positions and it turned out that knack worked well for identifying strong armor as well. He was trained as a smith in the army and eventually took over for the quartermaster general and was issued a warrant to become an officer. The only mechanical bearing that the quartermaster option from the soldier list might bring to my character is that he might prefer the +1 AC instead of the +1 magic weapon option that forge cleric affords at level 1.
The only mechanical bearing that the quartermaster option from the soldier list might bring to my character is that he might prefer the +1 AC instead of the +1 magic weapon option that forge cleric affords at level 1.
Not necessarily. That gives your DM the option to skip having you roll checks to determine the quality or type of Armor, for example, or recognizing aspects of an enemy based on it's armor configuration. Just because there are no numerical values or spelled out written advantages, doesn't mean there aren't any.
The only mechanical bearing that the quartermaster option from the soldier list might bring to my character is that he might prefer the +1 AC instead of the +1 magic weapon option that forge cleric affords at level 1.
Not necessarily. That gives your DM the option to skip having you roll checks to determine the quality or type of Armor, for example, or recognizing aspects of an enemy based on it's armor configuration. Just because there are no numerical values or spelled out written advantages, doesn't mean there aren't any.
I kind of does mean that there aren't any. No mechanical advantages or weaknesses are attached to that specialisation. A DM is always free to invent reasons to grant advantages on the fly no matter what, when, where, why or how. Giving the DM a vague reason to do so does not count as a mechanical benefit of the background.
The only mechanical bearing that the quartermaster option from the soldier list might bring to my character is that he might prefer the +1 AC instead of the +1 magic weapon option that forge cleric affords at level 1.
Not necessarily. That gives your DM the option to skip having you roll checks to determine the quality or type of Armor, for example, or recognizing aspects of an enemy based on it's armor configuration. Just because there are no numerical values or spelled out written advantages, doesn't mean there aren't any.
Except that the reason why he has that "ability" isn't because he was a quartermaster, and thus it isn't tied to the list. In fact, he got the position of quartermaster because of his "ability". I'll grant you the fact that a DM could grant advantages based on the list, even if I wouldn't count that as a mechanical but a RP benefit.
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Hello, just a simple question. I'm playing with the idea to use the soldier background for my character, but what exactly is the purpose of the following:
It doesn't seem to have any meaningful purpose, so is it just for flavor or what exactly is its purpose? I’m sorry, but i don’t understand it.
Thanks for taking your time to read and i wish you all a nice day^^
It doesn't serve a mechanical purpose, just part of your background. It isn't the only background to do this. The criminal has a similar chart. There are a few subclasses and races with non-mechanical features on a chart, too.
It's generally flavor, but it can help form your backstory. Additionally, your DM may then use some elements of that in the game.
For example, perhaps you are a low officer, but one of the few survivors of a battle, you may know some of the local nobles or other officers in garrisons.
If you were an enlisted soldier, maybe you were in it because you believed in a cause, you could also be more salt of the earth and like giving "leaders" a hard time until they demonstrate leadership. Just a couple of basic examples :)
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I made a hill dwarf forge cleric who was a soldier and I ended up going with the quartermaster option on that list. It made sense for my backstory since he had started out as a stone mason working under his father before he was conscripted into the army. His expertise in masonry helped him to have a knack for identifying strong defensive positions and it turned out that knack worked well for identifying strong armor as well. He was trained as a smith in the army and eventually took over for the quartermaster general and was issued a warrant to become an officer. The only mechanical bearing that the quartermaster option from the soldier list might bring to my character is that he might prefer the +1 AC instead of the +1 magic weapon option that forge cleric affords at level 1.
Not necessarily. That gives your DM the option to skip having you roll checks to determine the quality or type of Armor, for example, or recognizing aspects of an enemy based on it's armor configuration. Just because there are no numerical values or spelled out written advantages, doesn't mean there aren't any.
I kind of does mean that there aren't any. No mechanical advantages or weaknesses are attached to that specialisation. A DM is always free to invent reasons to grant advantages on the fly no matter what, when, where, why or how. Giving the DM a vague reason to do so does not count as a mechanical benefit of the background.
Except that the reason why he has that "ability" isn't because he was a quartermaster, and thus it isn't tied to the list. In fact, he got the position of quartermaster because of his "ability". I'll grant you the fact that a DM could grant advantages based on the list, even if I wouldn't count that as a mechanical but a RP benefit.