Talk:Hellborn (5e Background)

Wouldn't this be more like a race? As far as I know, there aren't supposed to be humans and elves and the like just strutting about the nine hells, and certainly not just living there. While If you died and came back, wouldn't that technically make your some sort of undead? And we already have a pretty good idea, at least from the previous editions, that "devil" is a lot more than a simple occupational title. We also know nothing of how they plan to justify the Nine Hells, or how life/death and souls interact with it in the absence of christian mythology and in accordance with the basic guidelines for planar travel already described in the PHB. Without any explanation, the nine hells are just another strange, though completely distinct and independent, realm of existence, where a myriad of races of devils live. Although many religions have hell-like realms of existence, few function explicitly as eternal punishment for unrepentant sin the way the Christian hell does, and few people understand it as it was intended. (Not that anyone can really be certain on the true intent today)--Kydo (talk) 13:34, 5 October 2014 (MDT)

I need to make the introduction clearer.

In this trope, a person (of any race) dies and their soul goes to the Nine Hells, but if they can escape their body materializes. Think of Frank and Julia in Hellraiser reconstituting; in Greek mythology Eurydice was allowed to walk out of the afterlife, back to the mortal world (but don't look back!). In these cases the escapee retains whatever race they were. Whether or not they are undead or not is down to the story being told. If Eurydice was successful, I assume she would have been a normal living person.

The background was made specifically for use with the Barbed Devil race, since none of the backgrounds in the book seem appropriate. The background is supposed to be general enough to work with a devil race, or any other race for someone who died and came back. Marasmusine (talk) 14:05, 23 October 2014 (MDT)

Maybe I should split this into two different backgrounds.... Marasmusine (talk) 01:26, 24 October 2014 (MDT)

Some suggestions to complete it

Some ideas for the missing entries:

Bonds 5: Devils and their agents are hunting me. 6: A goodly priest gave me sanctuary; I owe them much.

Flaws 5: I never give my word or oath, nor sign a contract; I know the power these bindings have. 6: I am hedonistic; I revel before my inevitable return to torment.

Thanks! Marasmusine (talk) 00:58, 23 November 2014 (MST)

languages

How about adding Abyssal to the list?--209.97.85.48 18:44, 10 February 2016 (MST)

balance

The way the background feature is worded could be construed as having mechanical effects. It also makes a bunch of strong thematic statements which would make it fairly incompatible with some settings. --Kydo (talk) 10:19, 2 September 2016 (MDT)