http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?357116-PH(B)-Hermit-Background
It's looking like each background type has an illustration.
Hooray for a preview of something new!
That's a much more engaging image than the girl in samurai armor.
EDIT: There's a minor typo in the discovery description: "[T]he people who or consigned you to exile ..." Whoops!
Also, I'm digging the "caretaker of a ruin or relic". My immediate thought was that the relic gets stolen, which is what drives the hermit to become an adventurer as they seek to recover it.
He looks so well-kempt and clean for a hermit. Must be from the Cave of Fastidious Contemplation.
Alright. The samurai is the spitting image of my gypsy roommate. And the hermit is like "Hey, Brad, here's your own personal background, just for you."
and then I squee! For I am a hermit.
How do Hermit's adventure with others?
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
docdoom77 wrote:
At this point, I think WotC has something against feet. 
Well, when the Plucky Young Fighter with the Sword of Fate shows up at your doorst... at your cavestep, you can't just say no, can you? The crazy old hermit that comes out of retirement to give aid on some important quest is a classic trope, after all.
Hmm... the Discovery ability seems a lot less objectively useful than other background abilities. Not that it can't be useful, it just seems like it will rely a lot more on your DM's input. I like that that's an overall trend in Next, trusting the DM's a little more, but I do have a very slight worry that a lot of jaded players might avoid the backgrounds that rely on DM input, out of fear of being given useless abilities by their DM. Probably not a big enough problem to worry about, really, but something for DM's to keep in mind. Just try to keep in mind how useful a lot of the other background abilities can be while deciding what benefits your Hermit can get from their Discovery.
Power. Solitude and contemplation are paths toward mystical or magical power. (Evil)
Azzy1974 wrote:
On the whole, I like it. Both the art and the Background.
JRutterbush wrote:
They left two options off the "Life of Seclusion" chart:
9. I've been arguing on internet forums about D&D for a long time.
10. There has been a Game of Thrones / Star Trek: TNG / Dr. Who marathon on TV for a while now.
ChrisCarlson wrote:
JRutterbush wrote:
I like this background. It's full of role-playing and narrative possibilities. Every PC party should have an ex-hermit. It can drive so much story.
Hats off to WotC for this one 
I can see it now —a hikkikomori character thrust into the life of adventure (against his desire) because of a mysterious package delivered to his abode (or a mysterious person that house-crash in the attemp to evade corrupt authorities/criminal guild/secret society/etc.), and is forced into akward social situations and ever-present danger when all he wants is to go back home, curl up in a blanket in the comfort of isolation.
My first character concept to leap at me from this was the "You have trained as a paladin your whole life, it is now time to go into the world and do the work you have been trained for." It will also obviously fit well with the concepts one could expect from the monk class.
What are the flaws supposed to be, life of seclusion?
Crippling OCD, social anxiety, and very little resistance to disease.
JRutterbush wrote:
So, four from basic scream "fighter, rogue, wizard, cleric." Now, we have "Monk." If not for the Folk Hero, I'd be wondering if we just had another "pick your class" thing going on.
My only beef with the Discovery feature is that it seems to be a one-off. A skilled DM might be able to string it out across most of the campaign, but once you've resolved the threads of your discovery, that's it. No more background feature. The other backgrounds that we've seen may provide less significant features but those features are ones that can be used indefinitely.
Love it. I really can't wait to see all the PHB backgrounds, and then possibly make up a few of my own.
Wow... I think this background is fantastic. It stands out - as soon as I read it, interesting story ideas just came bubbling up. It makes me want to either make a hermit myself, or else have one of my players make one (that way I have an excuse to intergrate their discovery into my next campaign).
Here's the first idea that popped into my head when I read the discovery feature:
Feature - Discovery: After years of study and contemplation, I have become convinced that all of creation and even the gods themselves are the product of a crazy cosmic game in which a group of slightly paunchy and utterly unimpressive beings sit around a table rolling dice and passing gas. I preach this heretical gospel to all who will listen, though it places my life at risk.
Cut to two hermits on a hillside.
First Hermit: Hello, are you a hermit by any chance?
Second Hermit: Yes that's right. Are you a hermit?
First Hermit: Yes, I certainly am.
Second Hermit: Well I never. What are you getting away from?
First Hermit: Oh you know, the usual - people, chat, gossip, you know.
Second Hermit: Oh I certainly do - it was the same with me. I mean there comes a time when you realize there's no good frittering your life away in idleness and trivial chit-chat. Where's your cave?
First Hermit: Oh, up the goat track, first on the left.
Second Hermit: Oh they're very nice up there, aren't they?
First Hermit: Yes they are, I've got a beauty.
Second Hermit: A bit drafty though, aren't they?
First Hermit: No, we've had ours insulated.
Second Hermit: Oh yes?
First Hermit: Yes, I used birds' nests, moss and oak leaves round the outside.
Second Hermit: Oh, sounds marvellous.
First Hermit: Oh it's a treat, it really is, 'cos otherwise those stone caves can be so grim.
Second Hermit: Yes they really can be, can't they? They really can.
...
Second Hermit: You see, you know that is the trouble with living half way up a cliff - you feel so cut off. You know it takes me two hours every morning to get out onto the moors, collect my berries, chastise myself, and two hours back in the evening.
First Hermit: Still there's one thing about being a hermit, at least you meet people.
Second Hermit: Oh yes, I wouldn't go back to public relations.
thewok wrote:
I'm guessing the "evil" options are fairly anodyne so that players who determine their ideals by rolling a d6 don't get stuck with something like "All other mortals deserve to be poisoned in their sleep, by you, at the earliest opportunity, especially paladins."
thewok wrote:
Probably going to have a Hermit Eldritch Fighter if I ever end up actually making a PC for myself. He was the "bodyguard" to his brother, a wandering Sage, until something went horribly awry ending in his brother's death. Disgraced by his failure to protect his brother, and unable to bear the looks of his family, he went off into the mountains. Years passed, until one day he awoke outside his mountain cave to see a curious package. Within it, a leather tome in his brother's handwriting. It looks to be both a journal and a "map" of sorts, like the one he carried with him that he thought he buried with his brother. Now, he seeks the one who left it for him, and to continue his brother's work.
spelley wrote:
thewok wrote:
spelley wrote:
docdoom77 wrote:
Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is an officially-supported character.
Nice.
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
JRutterbush wrote:
I like it, it seems like it cover a good deal of background origin from religious, to scholar, to druidic etc...
docdoom77 wrote:
Tha page is cool, I love the format and the picture... but.... I don´t want to spend my money to have lots of boring pages about background.. it is a stupy filling. I would rather that same pages used to add another PC race or class.
Luis_Carlos wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
Arithezoo wrote:
seti wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
thewok wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
Leugren wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
It could be quite entertaining, in the proper campaign, to play a crazy character that breaks the fourth wall and understands that he is part of an RPG.
Set up a proof for the village. Individually time how quickly 5 healthy human men each run 50 feet. Should be fairly close (if not identical). Then line them up and have them race the same distance. When each of them in turn dashes across the finish line, starting and finishing in piecemeal order, explain how the initiative metric is being demonstrated to the audience.
ChrisCarlson wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote: