Making Backgrounds Useful
Backgrounds in the 5th edition suck. There, I said it.
Each one has a nice little description, suggesting what you were doing in your life before becoming an adventurer. You pick up a couple of skill proficiencies, a tool proficiency if you’re lucky, and a few languages you’ll probably never use. You’re provided a couple of pieces of equipment, which is nice, but a set of common clothes or a signet ring is pretty much useless in gameplay.
They also come with a feature and three tables you get to roll on. Unless you are a new player, you won’t use the tables. I enjoy writing my background, as do most players I know. I’m not going to constrain myself to eight basic choices. D&D is all about imagination, and I enjoy using mine when creating my character. The background feature has so much potential, but it is a little-used trait. Being a knight gives you three retainers, but I’ve never seen a player take advantage of this.
There is hope that WotC will work on making backgrounds exciting and useful in the future. In Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, each college student's background comes with a feat unique to that college. For example, the Silverquill Initiate gains the Strixhaven Initiate feat, gaining two cantrips and a 1st level spell you can cast without a spell slot. In addition, as long as you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, a selection of 1st through 5th level spells are added to your spell list. I love these changes, but how does that help the old, stale backgrounds.
We can follow a basic template to accomplish this, but it will still take some work for each one. So as not to be surprised, there are no tables for personality, ideals, and so forth.
Short Description - Let’s not write a bunch of page filler. One or two sentences describing your previous job/career/life will suffice.
Charlatan - You traveled the lands running one con or another, never staying in one place too long for fear of being arrested or worse. You didn’t discriminate who you swindled, be it commoners or nobles.
Skill Proficiency - You gain a single skill proficiency in a skill that is related to your background. Since multiple skills could be considered relevant, you will be able to choose from a selection of them.
Charlatan - Choose one of the following skills to be proficient in - Deception, Performance, Persuasion, or Slight of Hand.
Tool Proficiency - Providing a tool proficiency isn’t always a given, but some backgrounds will need them for their feature. The charlatan in the PHB is given proficiency in a Forgery kit and will need it depending on which feature we decide to use. If a Forgery kit is not required for a feature, drop it from the background.
Charlatan - You gain proficiency with the forgery kit if you don’t already have it.
Ability Boost - It’s straightforward, but some may not agree with giving a player another point to throw into an ability. This could be one of the driving factors in a player taking a background. It should be a set skill, not a choice the player should make, but relevant to the background.
Charlatan - Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Feature - The feature is little more than a ribbon attribute in its current incarnation. It would be too much to give out a feat with each background, no matter how tempting that may be. Instead, we create a specialized benefit or ability tailored to each background. The charlatan can currently create forged documents, which sounds neat, but it is something you’ll rarely, if ever, use in practice. But with some thought, there are many small but valuable things you could give our charlatan. A couple of suggestions are listed below
Charlatan - (Option 1) - Individuals attempting to make an Insight check against you have -1 to their roll.
(Option 2) You can spend a long rest creating fake or replica items that will fool most people for a short time. You must have a forgery kit and the appropriate materials to create an item. Each item has a specific length of time required to make. At the end of the last day of item creation, you must succeed on a Dexterity (Forgery Kit) check plus your proficiency bonus. If you succeed, you create a fake item. On a fail, the item falls apart, and the materials are destroyed. You can make the following items:
One (1) Downtime Day -You can attempt to create 1d10 fake gold coins. Make a DC 10 Dexterity check at the end of the day. The material cost is 1 sp per gold piece you create.
Three (3) Downtime Days - You can attempt to create 1d6 fake gems worth 50 gold each. Make a DC 15 check at the end of the 3rd day. The material cost is 5 gp per gem you create.
Five (5) Downtime Days - You can attempt to create 1d4 fake or replica jewelry pieces worth up to 100 gold each. Make a DC 20 check at the end of the 5th day. The material cost is 10 gp per piece of jewelry you create.
Seven (7) Downtime Days - You can attempt to create one piece of fake or replica art (painting, sculpture, etc.) worth up to 500 gold. Make a DC 25 check at the end of the 7th day. The material cost is 50 gp per item you create.
If a creature uses its action to examine the item, it can determine that it is a fake with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your Forgery Kit DC (DC 8+ your Dexterity modifier + your Proficiency bonus). After one day has passed, the item will begin to deteriorate, and the creature may repeat the check with advantage. After 3 days, the item will complete breakdown, and it is apparent to anyone that looks at the item that it is fake.
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