User:Kydo/Sandbox

Some of the SCAG backgrounds get SERIOUSLY shafted.

The Courtier is the single weakest background. They recieve next to no gear- they are effectly poverty-stricken, despite being a political figure. Their RP feature is less coherent and less functional than a standard noble. In all ways, they are just a noble with the bells and whistles removed... And their pockets emptied. I turned them into rumour-sponges who passively absorb local gossip and news without asking for it. In other words, a player who choses this background is converted into a knowledge-bucket the DM can arbitrarily dump adventure hooks into. The PC becomes a hook distributor. This is a much more useful type of background, and is unique to the other core backgrounds; there's nothing else serving this function.

The Faction Agent gets the social benefits of an Acolyte or Guild Member, but basically nothing else. Their tools and proficiencies are generic and bland. Their feature is not useful for a faction-oriented game, and overall inferior to other backgrounds with similar features. I changed this. The feature now explicitly grants faction membership and room and board from the faction, as well as +3 reputation- enough for second rank in an official faction. This information is described in non-game phrasing, but still uses game terms. This allows it to function in and out of faction-oriented gameplay.

The Inheritor gets thoroughly screwed. It's basically just a Hermit-Variant Outlander, with the discovery in the form of a piece of junk. And junk it is! While the DM MAY decide to make your inheritance important, they are equally justified in making it absolutely worthless. The hermit feature, by contrast, explicitly states that the discovery is both powerful and important, in no uncertain terms. If your inheritance can't match that, then the writing of this background has allowed for an arbitrary weaking of character potential, because it justifies the asshole DM. I changed the table. The junk has been relegated to the Trinket and Heirloom entries. The other items on the list are Deed, Contract, Body Marking, Map, Journal, Secret, Letter, and Art. I explicitly state that the inheritance is somehow very important or valuable.

Knight of the order is another generic bed-and-breakfast background. Literally nothing special, unique, or useful, and adds nothing to the game experience that isn't already done better by a core background. The whole idea of these guys, contrasted to the Knight variant Noble, is that they are not knights by blood, but rather by merit. They are supposed to have proven themselves and sworn an oath into membership. Nothing about the way the background is written supports that concept. My first change was to specify that the knightly order must have an oath that the character has sworn to, and that breaking that oath holds the consequence of losing membership and possibly earning the order's enmity. Since it comes with a consequence and restrictions, this RP feature can be more potent than usual, because it restricts application of the character. Your fellow knights of the order, as few as they are, will fight with you. Not for you, mind you, and they have a clear sense of self-preservation, but they will fight by your side if you call upon them. A new member is added to the order once every 10 years, so don't go burning through your allies. In return, you are expected to fight in their name when you are called upon as well.

The Mercenary Veteran gets persuasion, despite that not being even vaguely thematic. I switched it for intimidation- something an experienced mercenary would actually be good at. The RP feature does two things. 1) It lets the DM information dump about mercenary groups. To be clear: that is pretty much never going to happen. In all of the adventures published in the forgotten realms for 5th edition, mercenaries have not come up once. They just aren't a centerpiece of a campaign unless they're part of a specific narrative. 2) Adds mercenary work as a valid type of profession that can be worked during downtime, which isn't really an RP feature, so much as a sidebar houserule regarding this background. I replaced the RP feature with one which alters rewards from adventuring; thank-yous are replaced with low-coin value cash rewards. Material rewards are replaced with their coin value. Favors are bought off immediately as service fees. You deal in cash only whenever possible.

The Urban Bounty Hunter's RP feature doesn't even make sense! It's just the criminal's contact, but without the networked connections, so less useful, less cool, more abstract, and more bland. Worse: It does nothing to define your capacity to communicate with your contact. This feature is barely functional. I have replaced it with a straight-up batman-style sidekick. Your partner is a commoner, and gets whichever two skill proficiencies you didn't take from the background. They also have proficiency with land vehicles and the disguise kit, so he kind of makes a Green-Hornet style duo for the player. He's not a trained fighter though, and will flee if he feels his life is in danger.