D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

[Maxperson]

Now you're getting it. See, if it's a feat, I know the DM isn't going to start playing silly buggers and insisting on all sorts of hoops. I get my feat, and, poof, we're good to go.

Gee, I wonder why players would choose that...

Yeah, if they make it a feat, the feat will have to make sense with the background for my game. No hermits who have lived their lives in solitary knowing folks in every town that will run messages.

I will have to start restricting things so that they make sense, rather than the ability just not working once in a while when it makes sense for it not to work. This change is a bad one.

Edit: And feats aren't guaranteed to work under circumstances where they shouldn't any more than background abilities are. If someone takes the feat to send messages through criminals that they don't know since they've never been to that universe and have no contact...

I'm not sure why you think feats and spells are more reliable. Those work when they make sense to work and don't when it doesn't make sense for them to work.

 

[mamba]

Now I'm confused. Why make me pick the Position of Privilege feat if I choose the noble background when it can just be a part of the noble background?

I have no idea what you are talking about, I said the feat comes with the background, you are not picking both individually

 

[mamba]

Now you're getting it. See, if it's a feat, I know the DM isn't going to start playing silly buggers and insisting on all sorts of hoops. I get my feat, and, poof, we're good to go.

if the feat is just the feature under a different name, I can tell you right now that nothing was accomplished at all. I expect more practical feats, not a repackaging

 

[Maxperson]

if the feat is just the feature under a different name, I can tell you right now that nothing was accomplished at all. I expect more practical feats, not a repackaging

Yeah.

"CRIMINAL
You are a n experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You're far closer than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society.

FEATURE FEAT: CRIMINAL CONTACT
You have a reliable and trustworthy contact who acts as your liaison to a network of other criminals. You know how to get messages to and from your contact, even over great distances; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you."

That changes nothing at all.

 

[Oofta]

So I take a couple days off and people are still claiming we're saying background features never work?

First, no one has said that. They may not make sense in some situations. For me, I don't use them because they don't always make sense but also because they're so limited. I'd rather have background/backstory grant special hooks and benefits customized to the PC.

Someone with a criminal background may know about different gifts, have a better idea where to find where the criminal element could be found far from home and so on .in other cases I have things like someone that spent time in the feywild which will likely have more impact than any background feature.

Much like alignment is just part of a character's personality, background is just part of their backstory. Usually a small part.

 

[Faolyn]

feels a lot like some background feature consequences to me

Sure--like when you adhere too closely to RAW and insist that people have to know you for a feature to work, or that you have to have access to messengers for a feature to work.