Are DnD Backgrounds better for ability score increases?

[@RangerSierra11]

It’s incredible they made the same mistake again.

[@kurtoogle4576]

The DMG will have rules for building custom backgrounds. I imagine many home games will simply "unhook" ability scores from backgrounds, classes, or races.

[@vampirelogan]

Yeah that was my plan. The background is a suggestion of your stat bumps but I want players to be able to min max without compromising their RP if they like that.

[@NateJones10]

The background change makes less sense than the species being tied to ability modifiers. Now we have a tropes tied to the backgrounds instead and the species are all more variants of humans instead of different SPECIES altogether.

[@Naren25]

Not really. What you do makes you who you are. Rather than being born that way, you actually work for your Strength, or Dexterity or whatever.

[@pintspeasants3231]

@@Naren25 Curious if you've ever looked at the average player in the NBA...

[@Naren25]

@@pintspeasants3231 I can guarantee that all the players in the NBA are the same species

[@pintspeasants3231]

@@Naren25 Are you saying you don't see race? Cuz I heard that as of about 3-4 years ago, that means you're invalidating people's racial identities and lived experiences and that makes you racist. You're not a racist... are you?

[@pintspeasants3231]

@@Naren25 Are you saying you can't see race? Cuz as of about 4-5 years ago, that now means you're invalidating their racial identity and lived experience--that means you're r a c i s t. Surely you're not that, are you?

[@jarydf]

They let you choose your own then try to tie it to something else just as problematic. They did not need to do this at all.

[@hikerchris7164]

I like it simply because being an orc shouldn't make it harder to become a wizard compared to an elf. But a farmer would have a harder time becoming a wizard compared to a sage

[@alexanderdawson-fink4764]

Well, I'm pretty sure that elves generally were closer with the weave (and orcs and dwarves were kinda not) historically. Certain races had a better relationship with the weave, just like certain races generally were stronger/ healthier or hardier/ more religious

[@Naren25]

100% As a subsistence farmer, you probably grew up illiterate, and working from a young age. Real hard to become a wizard from there

[@joncarroll2040]

Tell that to Ged from the Earthsea books (technically he was a blacksmith but still...)

[@armorclasshero2103]

​@@joncarroll2040 blacksmiths were incredibly wealthy and respected middle class...

[@OlieB]

is there good reason why it's not class based? or background but free form like tasha's?? because yeah it's a lot of shoehorning either way with race or background. and I want my characters to have had a mid life crisis and gone from merchant to barbarian damn it!

[@joncarroll2040]

The nice thing with the backgrounds is that the ability bonuses are a lot broader than the old racial bonuses were so there is a lot of room for different characters to come from different backgrounds. The big issue is really the feats as they tend to push certain backgrounds towards certain classes. My thought is that I will just uncouple specific backgrounds from specific feats and just treat the feat listed as "recommended".

[@dontuserachelslurs]

If someone studied their whole life (sage background) and became a wizard vs if someone did manual labor their whole life (farmer) and became a wizard Why should they get the exact same bonuses or traits? Am I taking crazy pills? Why are people saying this is the same before when it's clearly not. Why should a character not have a mechanical advantage doing the thing their character historically did more of in their background?? I feel like a lot of people are complaining about backgrounds in the new book just to complain.

[@supremeenchilada8725]

I always find complaining about structure in an imagination-based game that can be 100% house ruled to be strange. Structure and world building existing is good for novice or casual players. “Orc is big strong” is OK for helping new players understand the world

[@WayneBraack]

The foundation of the game is zero to hero without being a Superman. Optimizing is trying to be a superhero. I would never allow that. To me you're a zero level farmer in a rough world leading a hard work life happily. To rise to Champion status in my game you need to be creative because you won't have special class abilities and extra actions just because. Which, when you make it to hero, you'll have a much greater satisfaction of having made it yourself and not because you're basically a demigod from the start.

[@armorclasshero2103]

Gandalf is a level 5 wizard, bud...