Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 solik Nov 19, 2008 16:43:16	Would like a thought from the Balance Patrol on this proposal. I don't like the implementation of character backgrounds. They represent a straight increase (however slight) in character power from the baseline originally established. I personally don't see much reason for this increase in power, especially given the errata to DCs of various skill activities. Worse, their bonuses are untyped. That means they stack with everything. This pushes up the maximum numeric power characters can reach, furthering the discrepancy between a focused character and one that mostly ignores the skill. My suggested fix follows: 1. Backgrounds require spending one of your class skill trainings. I don't think using feats is a good idea (backgrounds aren't sufficiently powerful), so I searched for another resource players have at level 1 to use for this. Skills immediately came to mind, especially since most backgrounds represent a bonus to skills. Skill choices are less powerful than a feat (you can use a feat to gain a skill, but not the reverse, and it's not a terribly common choice; multiclass feats give a skill plus more). This makes having a background a choice rather than automatic, but it's a very appealing choice, especially to humans. 2. Background bonuses are feat bonuses. No stacking with Skill Focus and other skill-boosting feats, kthxbye. Another option is to add drawbacks to backgrounds, but that requires a lot more work than this. What do you think?
#2 kouk Nov 20, 2008 8:03:44	Do you mean the backgrounds from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, or the Scales of War article? Either way, allowing the bonuses for a background is pretty much a DM decision, they can be from wherever they want to be regardless of whether you use the bonuses. I don't think any of the backgrounds, at least in the FRPG, are worth as much as a skill training. Unless you have so many skills available and no real incentive to take all of them, like maybe a Human Warlock, you would really want the significantly higher chance to succeed on something. Feats are generally stronger as well, so making them feat bonuses is almost useless for a character, which means for instance that a character who planned on taking Improved Initiative or Quick Draw would be dissuaded from choosing a region that offered a +1 Initiative boost (and whatever RP that might mean). I think in general the power creep is slight enough, and static enough, that it will be hardly noticeable except to the player, which will feel good about his/her choice of region for the character.