Top 10 Most Useful Backgrounds in DnD 5E
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- A background in DND is one of the core features you pick when you're creating your character, alongside your race and class. It's also the one which provides the least amount of benefits, but there are still some pretty useful benefits from a background nonetheless, which is what this list will be going over, the most useful ones.
Video edited by Selty
-The List-
Intro: (0:00)
10-Inheritor: (0:18)
9- Plaintiff AI : (2:24)
8- Knight of the Order SCAG : (4:13)
7- Celebrity Adventurer's Scion AI : (6:07)
6- Knight: (8:38)
5- Urchin (Spy and Criminal mentions): (9:35)
4- Courtier SCAG: (11:58)
3- Marine GoS: (13:45)
2- Gruul Anarch GGTR: (15:34)
1- Outlander: (16:47)
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Ah, D&D. Where being homeless is good.
Rich but homeless
Depends on the campaign:
-Owning a home in some settings would boost your social standing, allowing you to rub shoulders with the mid-to-upper class npcs.
-While not owning a home could have a negative social and/or health effect. Depending on your circumstances, you could also be a higher priority target for theft if you wear your adventuring successes on your sleeve and don't have a home to store your possessions.
In my campaign, no one is over the age is of 23. Everyone either has a dorm in their school or still lives with their parents.
Where having been homeless is a good thing. It’s basically Aladdin’s background.
Where you can go sleeping in the mud to talking at court without washing or changing your clothes
Urchin's best feature wasn't at all mentioned.
You get a pet mouse.
GM here, dirty little secret for you: if you just say "I have a pet mouse", or arguably any other small domestic animal, I will just give that to you regardless of your background.
It's super busted if you're a kobold pack tactics for lyfe
Which also serves as emergency food like that one player in my game did. Lol
@@StarkMaximum i dont know, im thinking about asking the gm about turning it in a awakaned rat, and making it gain a sidekick class, expert sounds right
If I play a tortal with three brothers, is the mouse my master?
I still can't get over the fact that the 5th best custom card reviewer is also the 5th best d&d top ten CZcamsr. A man of many tallents
And 5th best WoW enjoyer
i've played a character with the Inheritor background that did indeed begin with a Moonblade, but at game start the blade was dormant; it awakened and grew in power as the campaign progressed and, since it was also sentient, it got progressively snarkier and snarkier. fun times.
How did you flavor the growth of power like how did you decide what it gained
@@chamberproductions2159 As I just came up with the same idea: because the blade is sentient it gives only so much power as it deems you worthy to wield. As you level up and/or do stuff the blade asks you to do it deems you worthy of wielding.
Inheritor sounds like it could lead to something really cool, like you have a special broken weapon and your goal is to try and reforge it and then use that as a part of your goal.
I'd just give the player a legacy item that starts at +1 with a property and an activatable power, that then grows with level ups.
Take inspiration from 3.5E Weapons of Legacy, which I'm sure you can find available for download via PDF.
@@AvangionQI do that as well. Aside from that I use crafting tables that allows a character that has a “signature” item that they can build up over time, sometimes it’s weapons, sometimes it’s armor….. I had a PC (battle smith artificer) take a Hayward’s handy haversack and turned it into a saddle bag for his steel defender. Eventually he added the quiver of Ellonna features, an alchemist’s jug, and a once per long rest use of hero’s feast if he used a 5th level spell slot to fuel it.
Some of my players see a locked door no one knows how to pick a lock (in character, out of character one player is a locksmith who regularly gets into his house if he forgets his keys), the barbarian steeps up with a battle axe she calls the "Key of the Old Gods" and I think you can all see where this is going.
When everyone in my party was opening locks with thieves tools I asked if I could use barbarians tools which is to say I smashed the chest with an axe
I homebrewed a magic axe for one of my players (he's 10, and plays a barbarian SO WELL) that gives him advantage on checks made to destroy doors, lol. I called it the Master Key.
He kicked in every door he found in our first two sessions, even if the rogue had already picked the lock.
Such a good barbarian. 😁
@@DeathsHood once we were looting chests and when the rogue used thieves tools i asked to use barbarians tools aka an axe to open it up
@@solalabell9674 And people say barbarians are only good in combat.
A battleaxe is a very useful multi-tool!
Haunted One should be somewhere on this list it also allows for assistance in combat provided you are alone but still even with just that it makes somewhat better than some of the backgrounds mentioned here
And it is open to getting you food and a place to rest.
It should be on here for starting equipment alone - the Haunted One background gives you the Monster Hunter's Pack as a starting item which has a lot of helpful gear, including some you could not receive at character creation otherwise (most notably, a bottle of holy water). Normally, starting equipment from backgrounds are just stuff like clothes and trinkets, so getting a full pack is a huge benefit. You are stuck with only 1 silver piece as your starting gold though... However, you can probably sell back some of the items that'd be potentially redundant (like the tinderbox) to offset that.
I can say from experience that having the Urchin background in Ravnica is amazing. You basically know a shortcut to everywhere.
The golgari agent background is basically a half-urchin which gives you paths around the undercity and you get cool spells like animate dead
@@skittlesilly izziv engineer has similar ability plus you are really good at destroying buildings or traveling through vents
You seemed to skip over the part where the Ravnica backgrounds gives you access to spells your class might not otherwise be able to learn. Gruul Anarch makes you able to learn conjure animals for instance. And Simic gives you access to Pass Without Trace. Obviously these features don't apply to everyone, only spellcasters, but this is a huge boost for a background feature.
Came here to say exactly this.
@@gamecavalier3230 I was kinda expecting them to be like all grouped together
Yeah ravnica backgrounds are a cut above all others simply due to to expanding spell lists a tangible benefit no other background gives
I imagine this was done because most games outside ravnica probably wouldn't allow the spells from those backgrounds because they would be so strong in other settings.
I have bad news based on the "10 worst" list he made
My favorite background, which is VERY useful is the Haunted One from Curse of Strahd, being able to convince commoners to join you and fight on your side... Epic S Level ability.
I was getting worried since it has been a few weeks for a video. I am glad you are still here thank you, and keep up the great work.
Same here!!
Technically the hermit background says you can discuss with your DM the nature of the special secret that you learned in your seclusion, so the same vagueness of wording that would allow the inheritor to start the player off with a useful item/knowledge/something special can also apply to the hermit in my opinion.
Imagine if you discover how ti cast Wish al LV.1...
@@Bardaffo77 You still wouldn't be capable of casting it, But it would be interesting if it was like a scroll or or an item with the wish spell put into it that would be destroyed when used
I feel like Marine isn't as useful as it looks. Unless your whole party are Marines, the other 3ish players aren't going to be keen on continuing past those 8 hours very often.
It's only going to come up in a game where travel time is really important. Having at least one party member that can ignore forced march rules makes it easier for the whole party, as they know at least someone is coming out ok.
Theres a ranger and barbarian feature that help their too so one would need to build around this as a group to use it.
Couldn't they all hop on a wagon and sleep while the marine guides the horses? Hell if you have an elf or warforged you could move continuously that way
Perhaps you pull or steer a cart carrying the resting party? Edit: Agustin is already on this train of thought :)
As some playing both D&D and Hearthstone, it took my brain half the video to figure out that these are not the usual background images used in the book
Of note with ANY guild background (not just the Gruul): You also get an expanded spell list. Gruul's are more druidic focused, but does have some cool stuff.
I was not expecting Courtier to be so high on this list. I took it on a lark, really, for a character who hadn't been knighted but was used to navigating courts and such as a consequence of being a fencing instructor for nobility and the like. Turns out, then, it's quite nice for information gathering. I'll have to keep that in mind.
I appreciate you jumped right into the topic, no BS to sit through. Subscribed.
One that I like that is technically setting specific (but I feel could be fairly easily reflavoured to match whatever setting you're in) is the Volstrucker Agent from "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount" where in exchange for some gold, you can basically use the criminal/spy's criminal contact feature regradless of your current location.
I'm a big fan of Far Traveler. You get two excellent skills (Insight and Perception), a choice between two very fun tool proficiencies (music or gambling), a language on top of it, and then a pretty average but decent background ability where people just kinda think you're neat. Plus it's SUPER general; while certain backgrounds only work for specific character archetypes, so many different tropes can fit into the Far Traveler package.
Agreed. I have never played a far traveler, but the concept is interesting and useful. Pick a far continent the DM is likely to never visit like Evermet, look up a wikia for what it is like there, and have fun being the foreigner of the group.
I love Far traveller if you l do t get perception from your class its a great one and the all eyes on you leads to a lot of RP pick up some fancy/merchants clothes and pretend to be an emissary really great with persuasion or deception. Im not sure why getting a free meal and lodging is such a big issue are DMs really starving that many people.
I really appreciate these kinds of videos, thank you!
I like the Hermit Background. It grants you herbalist stuff, and other helpful plant stuff you find in the wild. Plus you could combine with other kits for major roleplay for healing through food, make better potions, even gain temporary hit points with little effort. Sure, a healer main job is all of that and more. However, if roleplay is in the roleplaying game, the Hermit gives the good option to be loner like without the edge. Like a camping mom/dad you see in some animes.
I’m using the Outlander background with my firbolg Druid in our Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign and it has been so useful so far
One of the nice thing about the commonors from the Knight background is that commoners can be of any race, just give them some of the features that you're looking for. This includes innate spellcasting ability, meaning you can essential grab extra spells and cantrips with this feature.
Also, don't sleep on the Charlatan. Having a second identity complete with paperwork is nice for a disguise-based character like a warlock with Mask of Many Faces, but most importantly the ability to perfectly forge a paper without needing to roll is *very* powerful with the right opportunity. Letters, shipping manifests, any sort of record - your ability to alter the gameworld with creative applications of that ability is astonishing.
Another thing is that a mob of commoners if played right (organized) can cause a legit ruckus.
like you need to sneak into a house in the day but you know that the owner or the guard will arrive after some time and you might not be ready by then (find what it is, or clear up and clear out).
have the comuner stage some activity outside/nearby so that the guards are body blocked from the house.
Man I fuckimg love when video editors leave little jokes in these videos its always funny
Good vid, hope to see more!
I’m surprised sage wasn’t here since that one seemed Op to me my first time
I didn't know u did dnd until a week ago, nice you got this out just as I built my new character
You missed a few things, but I'll only mention the Inheritor and Outlander types.
Inheritor: Inheritance feature. While this is great to get a Blackrazor (which would be great for a hexblade warrior), it can't be just any old blackrazor, but something special that the DM determines how it's pertinent to the game. AKA you get the Mythical Stary Blackrazor from the Tales of Redwater, an ancient sword well sought after by people with deep pockets (and thus can be stolen).
Outlander: Wanderer feature. Your memory for maps and geography also helps you within settlements and so on, meaning you have a weaker cartographer feature. However, you can use this feature by eyeing a map of the city to know how to navigate it, gain dungeon recall, AND use a topical map of the city to recall what direction you travelled through the sewers.
A random, but nice touch using Hearthstone cards for the images
Great and informative vid
Absolute legend. Informing about cards and making great D&D vids. dropped a loke as soon as I saw the upload.
Very informative video! Obviously, backgrounds will only matter as long as they're relevant to your campaign
I feel like not considering the fact that Ravnica is a setting that is entirely experienced inside the gigantic city of Ravnica which occupies the entire plane kind of feels like a bad thing to do when discussing about features that work in a city and explicitly come from the Ravnica book.
Given that, Gruul Anarch is basically an adaptation of Outlander to work with the setting.
Yeah it's a little weird how he rates Gruul Anarch for how useful it is in general DnD campaigns, and not the campaign it's specifically designed to be from. But to be fair, Outlander being more generic but having a lot of the same traits helps it be better.
Great video, compelling and rich.
I took inheritor and my DM allowed me to start with a Hammer of Thunderbolts. It was awesome and I spent a good part of the campaign looking for the other pieces.
I'd just give the player a legacy item that starts at +1 with a property and an activatable power, that then grows with level ups.
Take inspiration from 3.5E Weapons of Legacy, which I'm sure you can find available for download via PDF.
How about one for DMs about the top 10 prewritten adventures. You'd probably need to make a video each for one shots and modules to be fair, but it's a discussion that's always going on and I get asked by DM friends.
Another good watch! Thanks.
Thoughts on the Stojanow Prisoner background from Curse of Strahd? Combines the best parts of Urchin, being S tier proficiencies(Deception, Perception, Thieves' Tools), and the best part of the Courtier, knowing who to go for for information[The background feature is literally listed as a variant of the Courtier feature], and also allows you to seek shelter from authorities with other criminals.
I've always preferred the Outander background. Glad to see my preference validated.
PLEASE DO BEST PROFICIENCIES NEXT! Thank you so much for all the Yugioh and D&D content, you the man!
I just built a warlock inheritor character that has a 3rd rank whisper jar (The organization is reflavored as working for Dispater rather than Acquisitions Incorporated) that has orders and information relayed to them by Titivilus.
Urchin has a lil minor utility, it's the only background that starts with a pet aka free non magical familiar, and that could be really useful until it either inevitably dies or in the case you gain an actual familiar
Faceless, basically free access to disguise self without using a spell slot. Sure, only other disguise, but I've used it to escape when being chased. To get out of a prison cell. To gain double quest rewards. To talk to potential spies from both sides. It's so useful.
Homebrew alternative: Outlander could give you advantage or even just expertise in survival when rolling to forage.
Or you could depending on if you find stronk animals, the outlander fights said animals. Just because you find food doesn't mean you can get the food. ;)
Huh, the icons for the backgrounds are almost all hearthstone art, neat.
Also, I think all of the ravnica backgrounds give you access to spells if you're a spellcaster, so yeah.
Dude, how the fuck? everytime i enter a new hobby you already have a dedicated channel to that. still watching lmao.
If I'm going to be on a boat I want a shipwright. Being able to restore hit points to your hull is very very useful and water vehicles and carpenters tools are so useful on a boat.
The art is from Heartstone😂
Easiest way to make the Moonblade work with the Inheritor background, tweak the Moonblades sentience to be a constant drag instead of just when they try to attune to it. The feature is that if the sword rejects you, you get disadvantage on ability checks, attacks and saving throws while you use it, so tweak it so that you have all of that disadvantage if you ever try to use the sword. So if youre holding it, its going to screw you over, but you may use another type of weapon and still have it on your person, without it screwing you. This way, you have youre inherited sword that you somehow over the course of your career need to prove yourself to it and make yourself worthy of it choosing you, but until then, its just a fancy talking piece because if you ever try to use it for anything, it will make your life hell.
Thats what i plan to do whenever i bust that PC out, an Elven Noble whose family was betrayed, executed and imprisoned, but he took the sword and ran away like a coward, and thus the sword rejects him, and he now lives in near squalor, working basic jobs, living on the streets and in run down inns trying to survive, and takes up adventuring as a way to try and regain his families honor, and make himself worthy of this blade thats been in his family for generations. It might be a bit cliched, but i still think its an interesting story that will get to be played out.
Gotta love that the SCAG, much maligned (and rightly so), contains two of the best backgrounds for actual usefulness.
Great video. Too bad you misunderstood the Gruul Anarch feature where in Ravnica "The city" reffers to the whole plane so the "Rubblebelt" is the wilderness there, plus the extra spells added to the spell list if it's a spellcaster makes the anarch better than the outlander (if the DM allows it in campaigns not set in Ravnica).
Hermit is pretty amazing for getting lore you would not know.
It can be really interesting depending on your DM.
I'm a fan of Far Traveler. Great flavor and gives Perception and Insight, two skills that are ALWAYS worth having on as many people as possible.
Yay another vidya😍
I started playing my first ever DnD Campain almost a year and a half ago. And i wanted to play a bear. I was very neewbie and i didn't know all the rules, so i ended up using the Leonin race as a base, and took Outlander because it was the one that made the most sense tematically. It's hilarious that the actual example for creating a character with that feature is a bear. 10/10.
I always thought that going for Redeemed was rather good since getting Magic Initiate, Lucky or Skilled, along with Insight, Persuasion advantage is a great mix. Magic initiate can then get something like Goodberry as it gives food for up to 10 people per day, and 10Hp healing along with two cantrips such as Guidance and one Mending.
I came from your Yu-Gi-Oh chanel, you really deserve more views.
A little late to the party but I'm honestly surprised by finding about some backgrounds I have not tried. My two favorite ones didn't make the list but I think they're quite powerful, izzet engineer and Archaeologist, Engineer allows you to understand the basic structures of buildings, and allows you to obtain blueprints that may reveal secret spaces or entrances which may be quite strong on heist type games, infiltration, escapes, and the occasional place to put a bomb since it also reveals structural weaknesses
Archaeologist is quite similar, but it's really overloaded, the proficiencies are on the baddish side, but compensates by giving you 25 gold, a map to a dungeon which may be plot relevant, a trinket which are always fun and sometimes powerful, extra items which may even be a whip, and finally gives you 3 knowledge abilities, letting you determine the purpose and creators of ruins or dungeons, and let's you automatically determine the value of art objects.
It's a mix of good dungeoneering with lots of money
Even though it’s not that big of a deal, I feel like it’s also worth noting that the Urchin is (I think) the only background that starts a player with an animal companion, saying that you have a pet mouse. It’s of course up to your own creativity and what the DM allows for how useful the mouse can be, and it’s certainly no retainer like the knights get, but I feel like it’s a really unique part of the urchin background.
What if that pet mouse factors into a Kobold’s Pack Tactics ability?
@@mikebougiamas3418 Now you’re thinking with portals!
What about Boros Legionairre. Those free spells on top of everything else it gives would probably be helpful as well
What about Urban Bounty Hunter? You have so many excelent skill choices + tool prof + game prof. Insane. And the BG feature is basically criminal contact feature.
Pirate! Feature is cool, flavorful and may be useful in most campaign to avoid escalation from shananigans and you get athletic and perception two great skills
Something neat to do w/background abilities is extrapolate upon them for things it implies; a Sage has the Researcher ability, which basically lets you ask the DM directly where they can find information if they fail a check to recall. However, it also implies that your PC knows HOW to research, which you can then argue entails that your PC might be able to take less time than normal to read up on a subject, or find it easier to locate a specific tome among a library's shelves. Such benefits aren't listed in the backgrounds, but are sensible logical leaps based on character history that will usually be unique to each PC since I rarely sit at a table where even two PCs have the same background, so they can use their background for the occasional flair, even if strictly the background doesn't say it gives them that benefit.
Astral drifter gives you magic initiate feta (cleric) and wildspacer gives you the tough feat. 2 free great feats easily outclass the other backgrounds. They’re from the spelljammer book.
one thing I have done a few times with the Outlander is change the Athletic to stealth because it is an easy justification to Hide rather then run and Musical Instrument for Thieves tools to make traps
My favorite not on the list is the Earthspur Miner background that was introduced for Princes of the Apocalypse. While it is definitely a little more situational than many on the list, for most games, being underground is a decent part of adventuring. Athletics and Survival, while not S tier skills, give you more flexibility with your class skills and are very useful by themselves and Dwarven and Undercommon as languages are great in many campaigns as well.
It's feature is Deep Miner:
You’re used to navigating the deep places of the earth. Actually, you never got lost either in the caves or in the mines if you have seen an accurate map of them or else have been through them before. Furthermore, you have capability to scrounge fresh water and also the food for yourself and also as many as five other people each and every day suppose if you’re in a mine or else natural caves.
You should do a list of the best Ravnica backgrounds.
If you're allowing the GGR backgrounds, Boros Legionnaire has an interesting synergy.
The second level spells include Aid, which lasts 8 hours without concentration.
If you play a Warlock (Celestial Warlock is most thematic), you get spell slots back on a short rest.
You can wake up, cast Aid on the entire party (giving everyone +5 HP), take a short rest, and have 7 hours of Aid.
It's not a super-broken combo but it's a fun one.
Selesyna Initiate also gets Aid, but Boros has a better spell list and better background ability.
Bad Reputation is so good I don’t know how it isn’t here
You could do a list for all the subclasses for the classes if they have enough to make top 10s for.
That's wild you've never modified your background before. I haven't run a background as written since I read the section of the rules saying you can modify backgrounds to suit your character (which was the same time I started plaything 5th edition). I prefer extra languages to tools proficiencies 99% of the time. XD
you know that in the PHB their is a "custom background" that allow you to choose which ever 2 skill you want, whichever 2 language or tool (or one each) the background feature of your choice AND the starting equipment of your choice.
So you could grab the stealth and perception, 2 languages the guild marchand starting equipment (if resold worth more then the other PHB background) and the outlander feature to avoid getting lost and food.
Then you call it whatever you want, give it the description of your choice and voila, the perfect background
I just worked out a hermit feat: Through communing with nature the player may use speaking with plants and speaking with animals as cantrips and receives advantage on 2 of the following skills - nature, survival, animal handling, or medicine. Don’t under value talking with your DMs they like cool shit too.
My DM and I also came up with a few others. But I rolled to make it change based.
Wildspacer gives you the tough feat for free, im pretty new to dnd so maybe im overestimating how valuable this is, but im really surprised this was nowhere on the list.
Hey there, nice video indeed.
My only question is if you have a video about "best skill proficiencies". Because you said Athletics is not such a good proficiency, and I think it actually is actually one of the most common and usefull during both combat and exploration.
Backgrounds are funny because RAW homebrew backgrounds are allowed and theres instructions (in the phb!) for how to make a custom background with custom features. This means that the best background is actually just the one that best fits your character concept with a feature you think is fun and can convince the DM is reasonable.
I once played an assimar sorcerer noble who parents and powerful on mount celestia and also happen to know another of my celestial characters I made as well who is a wizard sage and is a professor in arcana history
For the Outlander background in a survival-based game, like Icewind Dale maybe, I'd house-rule it to give the Outlander advantage on foraging checks.
The new one from the owl book thing gets you free spells and a feat
always try to roll some PC background into the game in some way. it does not have to be that deep or out right.
how NPC treat them
their looks
them getting the look from some one
Even in a cave you can put a little background into the game. rich people may have a hard time sleep in the cave (roll to get full rest)
it may of been a hid out for some group and they left telltale signs some background can pick up.
It depends on what I want the character to be but Outlander, Criminal, Clan Crafter, and Marine are my main 4, I like the idea of the Shipwright but it is so difficult to find a game on the sea as so few know how to run the encounters.
I like having at least one character in my parties to have outlander, since it makes my table feel justified in not keeping track of food and water, we just assume whoever is the outlander takes care of it. Or, if we're feeling especially lazy and we don't feel like it, we have an NPC companion who is an outlander, lol.
Haunted One is really useful in almost any setting -- you get fantastic starting gear, a feature that's never not helpful, and a neat little list of skills to choose from -- but on a sufficiently manipulative character in a largely social campaign, the ability to win sympathy from NPCs can go into absolutely ridiculous overdrive provided your DM is prepared to let you get creative. (I may or may not have a Haunted One background, Diplomat feat, whispers bard Ultimate Gaslight Girlboss build just waiting for the right occasion.)
Also, any background that offers your party free transportation will either reshape the entire course of a campaign on multiple occasions or never, ever come up.
About pick 8 and the fact it's the only way to get background fight assistant, doesn't the haunted one from CoS does it too?
Recently I started playing in a grim hollow game and we use advanced backgrounds which is awsome
Profession Dice seems like an interesting mechanic.
@@Battleguild Welll I'm an explorer and I took the beast master one or whatever it's called because my character is a downcast druid and so because hes a downcast he thinks hes the only one left so hes got a little quirk of saving and rescuing rare animals such as griffins, wyverns all those things from people who capture them because they are rare. So far I havent encountered any animals so I havent used the progression dice yet but we are only 3 sessions into a 30 session game
After spelljammer comes out, this list might need a part 2.
Respect to these choices, but let me argue for an honorable mention to Entertainer. Its proficiencies in Acrobatics and Performance are probably going to be situational in any campaign, but it is still worth noting that Acrobatics can be used to break Grapples and with the proficiency in Instruments you do get advantage on Performance when you need it. I wouldn't give it an honorable mention for those, but for By Popular Demand which not only has the generic ability of finding free food and lodging (at the mere cost of a performance check you are going to make at advantage), but impressively you get a reputation in the area you are lodging in and people are generally favorable to you in that area as you become a local celebrity. Unlike Nobles which the politness is forced, the admiration for the Entertainer can be used to talk your way out of a problem without resentment from people. Another background with no use in a strict dungeon crawl, but in a social game this is an alternative to being a noble.
DM "Make a survival check"
Player "I don't have to, I'm an Outlander"
DM "Not to find food. You're in a desert. 90% of available food is either hallucinogenic or venomous. Make the check to see if the bagful of scorpions you found manages to sting you, or the cacti juice is toxic."
Damn I didn't know outlander background was this useful lmao
For some terrible reason I thought this video would be discussing different environmental backgrounds you can have a D&D session in, the actual topic was much more interesting however lol
Mate XD
If it makes you feel any better, I thought the video was going to be about the backgrounds he uses in his videos. Not my proudest moment.
Me too...
I had a campaign where the DM used my characters retainers as a sort of Mini vendor(we would give them gold to go purchase things and sometimes they couldnt find the and other times they got a slight discount) ir was fun until they got kidnapped ;.; one of them died and i felt terrible knowing I might have been able to save him if we were better detectives
Where did you get the images for the backgrounds?
I can see a potential downside to the Courtiers feature. That being, if you happen to be in a town/city with an evil/corrupt government that is ruled over by say, a robber baron, or worse yet, the BBEG. Now sure, you might find some government officials who might give you the info you need, though might also not be 100% accurate, and there is a good chance some might go inform the robber baron that... "There is this new group of adventurers that strolled into town and they are "asking questions." Should we do something about it, boss?"
In this case, I'd almost say Criminal or Spy feature would be better as their contact is at least somewhat trustworthy, but I suppose even that could be turned around in some way. "Wait... your underworld contact was the BBEG this whole time!?"
I go Pirate on all my characters. The ability to RP a Karen with no consequences is definitely the most useful thing you can have.
Hi at D&DLogs,
I'm playing DnD since a long time, but sadly never seen your stream. It's awesome I have to say
Hey, where's my Sailor? The only background that gives you Perception right from a core book. That skill is seriously the best, and Sailor is the only way for a Fighter to get it.
(Note, we play from PHB and XGtE)
how about the `Rewarded´ background for ´the book of many things´? It gives you two skills of your choice and ´Fortunes Favor´ gives you one of the 3 feats: skilled, magic initiate or lucky. I mean getting lucky from your background wins you the game instant. And the other feats are nothing to snees at.
The GGTR backgrounds give extended spell lists, of which many of the spells are class defining or hard to get spells and can totally change the way you play. To name a few, Rakdos adds haste, h***ish rebuke, and vicious mockery, Orzhov gets guidance, spirit guardians, and geas, Azorius gets counterspell and message, Izzet gets rope trick, Otiluke's resilient sphere, and glyph of warding, and so on. Quite a few get produce flames, some get fire bolt and friends. Golgari get animate dead, cloudkill, plant growth, and Giant Insect if you are willing to carry around bugs with you.
orzhov also gives deathward, very important! With this and mark of healing halfling I was able to play my mystic theurgist character I had been wanting to play, cleric/mage for the win
Nice! I thought that Urban Bounty Hunter was the best.
Shadow Network from wildemount is a pretty top class feature I think.
I've actually reflavored Noble for a royal guard (Paladin OotC) and a jester (bard, BCoDance; see PointyHat for that subclass)