[Tome] More Backgrounds?

[radthemad4]

Warriors with Style

Character Backgrounds
"I… I'm a fighter. I stab people. In the face."

D&D is a cooperative storytelling game, and we would hope that the stories it generates will be worth retelling again and again. In the interest of that actually happening, it is imperative that each and every point of view character in the story (that is, the Player Characters) be interesting. To be interesting, a fictional character really only has to have three things: An interesting motivation, an interesting schtick, and an interesting set of adventures. The schtick of the character is generally going to be handled by a character's class levels and equipment and is really up to the game mechanics themselves to generate – ideally the classes contained in this writing will cover that. Interesting adventures are the game itself and hopefully involve challenges only barely overcome and dastardly deeds thwarted in the nick of time – and this falls largely upon the DM to properly gauge the talents of the PCs and provide challenges that can be bested by the skin of the teeth. But the character's motivation, their backstory, really comes from the player's own mind. That's something that the player really needs to bring to the table on his own lookout.

A character with an interesting backstory is fundamentally better for the story than one without. And while it is true that the DM's world is going to highly flavor it (sorry, there are no elven maidens in those mountains!) the fact remains that the player is pretty much going to get what he puts into this. And yet, while the story is frankly going to be somewhat uninteresting if the players don't put some effort into their backstories, putting effort into anything is… well… effort. If people don't get some tangible effect from putting in that effort, they are quite likely to just not do it at all.

So here's what we're going to do: we're going to make some minor character advantages accessible only by writing yourself a character background. Then, when your character has a simple set-piece introduction, you get a tangible bonus that isn't especially game breaking. Note that we don't expect, or even want your character's background to be 7 pages of narrow font before the beginning of the first game. In fact, we probably want it to never get that long. This is a cooperative storytelling game, in D&D you tell the story with the input of the other players and the DM. If you just want to write the story of an awesome character without the input of other players – don't play D&D at all. You really can just type up a story and either submit it for publication or hide it in your diary all emo style as your relative shyness dictates. So no, we want your character's background to be short, but we need it to be there. The kind of thing that a character might actually be able to relate in a one-paragraph info-dump in a book without causing the reader to skim. Normally, a character gets one background. This is as much to keep character background from filling up the world as anything else.

War Profiteer
The War came… and that spells P-R-O-F-I-T. Hoo boy! Maybe you just came from a Goblin family and you really like this sort of thing, maybe you consider yourself a visionary who can see through to a new economic theory based less on gold and more on value. Whatever, you've sold people daggers to cut themselves out of snare traps, and you're proud of it.
Effect: Appraise and Search are class skills for you no matter what you do. Also, you're a jerk. Your personal weapons and armor start masterwork at no cost.

Veteran of The War
There was a great and terrible war that wracked the lands, and you fought on one or more sides of it.
Effect: Veterans have proficiency with 3 Martial weapons and one armor type. Veterans who belong to a class that already has martial weapon proficiency begin play with proficiency in 3 Exotic weapons appropriate to the lands upon which the battles raged. Veterans also have nightmares sometimes and talk about The War more than is perhaps strictly required.

Street Rat
You grew up on the hard end of the streets. The part where kids are total jerks and sometimes the wererats just make one of your friends disappear, and noone else seems to care. You had to lie and steal just to survive, man.
Effect: You have Bluff and Sleight of Hand as class skills no matter what you do. You don't catch normal diseases because you've already had them all. You get a +2 bonus on handle animal checks with street animals like dogs, rats, and pigeons. Also, you have a small shell that a girl gave you when you were twelve. You think she's dead, but really she's been turned into a wererat, so when eventually you meet again it'll be traumatic and you might have to kill her. Or maybe you'll be able to convince her to turn away from Team Monster and live happily ever after.

Slave of the Hobgoblin Clans
The Hobgoblin Clans take slaves every generation, and the children of those slaves are also slaves, but also members of the clans, and they can potentially be promoted within the clan to the point where they aren't even a slave anymore. You may have done that. Or you may have simply run away and escaped Hobgoblin society to become an adventurer.
Effect: You speak Goblin. You also speak any other language you know with a Goblin Accent that makes Dwarves distrust you. If you ran away from the Hobgoblins, there may be a group of them out looking for you who will start adventures for you. If not, then you are still part of the Hobgoblin clans and there will be Hobgoblin plothooks that will draw you into adventures. Of more importance, perhaps, is the fact that you've grown up your whole life among Hobgoblins, and have a +2 racial bonus to Move Silently (yes, that's a racial bonus, so it doesn't stack with the racial bonus you get from actually being a Hobgoblin). Also, Listen is a class skill for you no matter what you do.

Royalty of a Fallen Nation
Welcome to the harsh realities of the Iron Age. If the last hard core member of a noble house dies, there is nothing keeping people from arbitrarily taking all their lands and gold away. Such was apparently the case with your family. When you were young, the last powerful Fighter (or Wizard, or whatever) in your family was slain, and now the only people left in your family with more than a level or two have aristocrat levels. Needless to say, more powerful characters came and took all your stuff. Now you wander the land attempting to gain power and secure your revenge.
Effect: People believe in you for no good reason. Some ancestor of yours was awesome, and people just assume that you'll get the band back together. You get free drinks when people know who you are, and your Leadership value is increased by +2. People will also offer you assistance and otherwise try to get on your good side. Of course, your family's enemies will send ninja and assassins to finish off your line (note: this may seem like a disadvantage, but it's really not – you're a D&D character so you are going to get into fights all the time, the fact that it's ninja attempting to erase your family name is just flavor). And of course, not everyone liked the way your family did things, so sometimes people are going to spit on your horse or in your burritos.

The Resistance
Your nation got overrun by someone you didn't like. And those Halfling oppressors (or whatever) went way too far. You were in a cell of revolutionaries dedicated to removing the foreign devils from the lands of your people.
Effect: Those who spent time in The Resistance have a number of contacts and can easily make contacts in new areas. Essentially this means that they get a +2 bonus on Gather Information checks. Members of The Resistance can make disguises out of substandard materials and suffer no penalties while doing so. Of course, The Resistance is a downright cannibalistic organization what with all the time all of the members spend betraying people. Every even modestly successful member is certain to have a wide variety of enemies, and not just from the oppressors they are fighting! Of course, it would be folly to claim that having large numbers of enemies is much of a disadvantage for a D&D character. I'm more concerned about the fact that you can never really be sure about the loyalty of another person. Not enough to risk sleeping with them anyway.

Refugee from The War
When the big war came, not everyone was old enough or brave enough to fight in it, and your character was in one of those categories and fled to a new land. The people already living in the new land treated your people poorly and made them live in ghettos with little food and poor access to magical healing. You spent several years living as a pawn in someone else's lands and all you got was a disease. Now you're adventuring, to find a new place where you fit in and possibly get a little vengeance on all those peoples who took time out of their day to screw your people.
Effects: Refugees are exposed to a wide variety of places, dangers, diseases, and people that those who live relatively comfortable lives will never know. In essence, they can be thought of as adventurers already, though they rarely get any rewards out of the deal. A refugee begins play knowing one additional language, and this language need not be an available bonus language for her race. In addition, a refugee may consider Knowledge (Geography) and Sense Motive as class skills for the rest of their lives. A refugee character is missing teeth or has the distinctive circular scars of having survived The Pox.

Raised by Owlbears
Tarzan was raised by an ape, Mowgli was raised by a bear, Romulus was raised by a wolf, and in the D&D world your character can be raised by creatures much more exotic. The sky is really the limit here: simply pick some improbable beast and your character was protected and fed as a small child by that beast after she was orphaned or abandoned in the wilderness. While I'd like to think that we've all read enough Burroughs that this story pretty much tells itself, the truth is even more astonishing. This character background has become cliché and we're totally fine with that. You can really have an interesting and memorable character with a clichéd backstory and a three sentence intro that ends with "And then I came to this village to reclaim my birthright as a gnome."
Effect: Characters who were raised by Girallon (or whatever) are arbitrarily able to talk to magical beasts and animals as if they shared a language. Noone knows how they do it, but they do. Unfortunately, such characters didn't grow up surrounded by humanoid languages, and your only starting language is Common no matter what your Intelligence is.

Moil Wrought
Every setting has some horribly tainted land filled with necromantic power. People who live there become tainted with necromantic power and grow up twisted and evil more often than not. You grew up there too, which means that either you grew up all evil, or you grew up tragically misunderstood, which makes you Good and totally awesome.
Effect: You are damaged by Positive Energy as if you were undead. You are also healed by negative energy as if you were undead. Also, some people find you really creepy and you have a tendency to talk in flat affect like the girl in Aliens.

Hero of the Peasants
You're the third son of a poor woodcutter or something. Maybe your father remarried and your new mother hates you. Whatever. The point is that you come from an exceedingly poor background, and your plucky spirit and do-gooder nature propels you forward to make a difference in the world.
Effect: It's not that you're too lazy to pick starting equipment it's that… OK, you're too lazy to pick out starting equipment. Believe me, I understand. A Hero of the Peasants character begins play practically naked. Leather armor or functional clothing, a sling, a quarterstaff, 10 copper pieces, and some bread. Have fun with that. But you're just generally kind of awesome. You get a +2 bonus on Survival, Handle Animal, and Sense Motive checks for no reason. And don't forget that you probably have a destiny of some sort, which means that periodically the DM will go off on a tirade about your destiny (this is worth nothing, all D&D characters have a destiny).

Experimental Stock
You, or your parents, were experimented upon by one of the many mad arcanists that dot the D&D landscape. Maybe they were members of the dreaded Mad Wizards Guild that claims responsibility for Gulguthhydras and Perytons. Maybe it was another group. You might not even know.
Effect: You have a positive, if really messed up looking trait grafted into you. You either have a natural weapon, or your natural armor bonus is increased by 1, or you have low light vision. But you also have some bad trait, like a 5' reduction in speed, or a flipper hand, or a -2 to initiative checks. Also, in polite company you might want to cover up your eyestalk. The ladies do not find it your most attractive feature.

Apprenticed
You learned from the best. Or maybe not the best. But you learned from a successful adventurer, and that's pretty good. Maybe they were your parents, maybe your parents saw fit to hire you on to a master wizard.
Effect: Hide, Spot, and Spellcraft are class skills for you. That's how people stay alive in the adventuring business, after all. You probably know some adventurers, and that means that they'll show you all the tricks like how to identify objects or scribe spells for free, how to turn artifacts into artifacts you want, and how to spend planar currency.

Amnesia
Sometimes a player is really lazy or cannot think of a backstory.
Effect: None. If you're too lazy to think of a damned backstory, you get nothing at all. If the DM is feeling generous or vindictive, she can have things gradually get surreal on you like a David Lynch extravaganza. In doing so, you'll gradually find out that you actually have a backstory, and all the perks and flaws of whatever it is.

We've got plenty of scaling feats here and in dndwiki. Has anyone here made additional backgrounds? Post em here if you get any ideas.

[spongeknight]

Here's a couple.

Raised by the Church of Pelor
As a child you were abandoned on the steps of the church by parents who wouldn't or couldn't take care of you. Your true family became the clergy who ran the church, and the teachings of Pelor guided your early life.
Effect: Any time you come across a temple of Pelor, you are compelled by honor and decency to offer any assistance you can provide at no cost, especially if the problem is something that only adventurers can take care of. You gain a +2 bonus to spellcraft and knowledge: religion due to your heavily ecclesiastical upbringing and treat those skills as class skills for every class you take.

Dragon Descendant
Your whole family has some amount of dragon blood in them. Not, like, a lot, but enough to brag about to your neighbors and possibly enough to start taking levels in Sorcerer.
Effect: You gain bluff and use magic device as class skills. In addition, you can bring up your dragon heritage any time you are trying to seduce a member of the opposite sex, which removes any species-based penalties that might apply to any checks made during the seduction.

Just a couple I whipped up in a minute.

[erik]

Here's some more.

Raised by Monks: Work. Wander. Rest when I can.
Left with monks in a remote martial monastery as a child, you learned some of their ways before leaving for the world with your training incomplete. This has unfortunately left you financially ignorant and without support in the secular world.
Effect: You gain Improved Unarmed Combat as a bonus feat and gain Concentration as a class skill. Despite whatever class you begin with, your starting funds are as a monk at level 1.

Despotic Seed I had the group liquidated, you little shit!
One of your parents was, or more likely still is, a very bad person in a position of significant authority and power. An Evil Overlord, if you will. You were to follow in their footsteps and raised.
Effect: You naturally stir fear, if not respect from your reputation. You gain Intimidate as a class skill with a +2 competence bonus. You also start with one piece of masterwork equipment that belonged to a good person that your parent killed. It fits you perfectly.
People always assume the worst of you. If recognized by strangers then treat NPC Initial Attitude as shifted one step closer to hostile by default when using Diplomacy.

Treasure Hunter Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.
You were raised on stories of lost fortunes and cities of gold. This has nurtured and developed a knack for finding where X marks the spot.
Effect: You gain the Decipher Script and Knowledge(History) as class skills and a +4 competence bonus when using making any knowledge checks about treasure. As an Extraordinary Ability you can Detect Secret Doors as the spell once per day.



Incidentally, about half of these backgrounds make no sense for Warforged. I think that's just the way it's gonna be, however.

Also incidentally, I just found a fuckup in editing/writing that I don't recall noticing before. Because really, who cared about Detect Secret Doors?

2nd Round

Number of secret doors and the location of each. If an aura is outside your line of sight, then you discern its direction but not its exact location.

They obviously were just copying Detect Magic when writing Detect Secret Doors and were lazy about converting it.

[Prak]

Living Weapon
Snkt
You, for some reason, whether hyper specific psionic meditation, experimental meddling with your aura or genetics when you were a child, possession by a violent spirit, or some other thing, can create weapons attached to your body at will.
Effect: As a move action, you may produce a weapon from your body which mimics the stats of any one Simple or Martial weapon (or a pair of light weapons), which may be composed of bone, chitin, horn, psionic/spiritual/arcane energy or whatever material--however, whatever material it is made of, it behaves exactly like a standard version of the weapon it mimics. Form and material are chosen at character creation and cannot later be changed except through magic. However, people who don't have metal claws hidden up their arm find your augmentation horrifying. While this does give you Intimidate as a Class Skill, it also makes NPC initial attitudes start one step worse. Also whatever gave you these weapons was probably pretty traumatic, and you may occasionally run into parts of your past which want to kill you, fill you with rage, or are complete mysteries to you.

[Insomniac]

Fruit Salad:

You are a highly decorated character in more ways than one. Start with snazzy military duds of the highest quality. Bluff, Diplomacy and Perform Oratory are class skills for you and you gain a +2 competence bonus in them. Anyone who recognizes your medals may be positively disposed to you, starting one level higher on Initial Attitude. Maybe you can tell a story and get free grog or something.

Swamp Fox:

You did guerrilla warfare in some funky places and have the leech scars to prove it, baby (try not to prove it in mixed company). Survival, Heal and Stealth are class skills and you may re roll the results of those checks.

REMF:
In the rear with the gear! Appraise, Decipher Script and Use Magic Device are class skills. Start with an additional 50 GP and a piece of Masterwork equipment. Whoopsy daisy, something went missing from the quartermaster area!

K9 Unit:
Handle Animal, Ride and Knowledge Nature are class skills and you gain a +2 competence bonus with them. You may always roll twice to learn an animal or magical beast's characteristics and take the better result.[/list]

[icyshadowlord]

Here's a couple.

Raised by the Church of Pelor
As a child you were abandoned on the steps of the church by parents who wouldn't or couldn't take care of you. Your true family became the clergy who ran the church, and the teachings of Pelor guided your early life.
Effect: Any time you come across a temple of Pelor, you are compelled by honor and decency to offer any assistance you can provide at no cost, especially if the problem is something that only adventurers can take care of. You gain a +2 bonus to spellcraft and knowledge: religion due to your heavily ecclesiastical upbringing and treat those skills as class skills for every class you take.

You could get a lot of backgrounds just by coming up with some "Raised by the Church of X", actually.

I'd think of a few myself, but it's almost 01:30 AM here in Finland and I really need to get some sleep right now.

[Wiseman]

Slave of the Drow
You were born or spent a significant portion of you're life as a slave to the dark elves.
Effect: As a slave, you learned how to survive and manipulate your masters to avoid cruel treatment or being fed to the spiders. You gain a +2 bonus to bluff and sense motive (+3 against drow) and gain a wild empathy ability of a Druid equal to your level, but only against spiders.

[Prak]

Artificial
You were made by another person. But, like, not through the usual means- through special magical artifice means. You're a robot person, is what I'm saying.
Effect: You have the Construct type (See Book of Gears*). The DC to repair you is 10+one half your HD+your highest stat. You are confused by living creatures and their emotions and habits, and probably spend a lot of time trying to understand them. Charisma based skills meant to affect you suffer a -2 penalty, but charisma based skills you use to affect others do as well, as you and the living things around you aren't speaking quite the same language. The exception to this Intimidate--being an emotionally distant, pain-resistant arcane construct with glowing eyes just makes you better at that, and as such, Intimidate is always a class skill for you and you gain a +2 bonus to it.

*Construct Type for convenience

• Low Light Vision
• Dark Vision 60'
• Poor Healing: Daily healing rate is 0, can be healed through magical means
• Mindless: Immune to [Mind Affecting] effects, cannot be detected with detect thoughts.
• Never Alive: Cannot be raised or resurrected, immune to energy drain.
• Repairable: Becomes inert, not staggered, at 0 and below hit points, does not die at -10. Can be repaired with a Craft check taking 1 hour of work per point it was below 1 hp.
• Nonbiological: Does not eat or breath, does not age. A construct is not affected by any effect that allows a Fort save unless that effect affects objects or is a (Harmless) effect. For example, a clockwork horror is not going to catch red fever or become nauseated by a stinking cloud. But it is not outside the realm of possibility for an eidolon to be afflicted with a totally magical disease that functions off of Willpower saves.

Gladiator
Before adventuring, you were the star of a gladiatorial arena. You may have started a mere slave, but through crushing the skulls of other mere slaves and winning the hearts of the crowd, you gradually earned your freedom, a reputation, and experience in crushing skulls. Or maybe you just escaped.
Effect: You may tell stories of your time in the gladiatorial arena to wow new people and make them like you, or to make your existing fans willing to help you out. People who have heard of your time in the arena have their initial attitude improved by one step, people who haven't heard about you can be subjected to stories for ten minutes over drinks and likewise have their attitude improved by one step. As showmanship is important in the arena, Perform is always a class skill for you, but your first style must be something usable in the arena (this is somewhat broad, singing is fine, pipe organ not so much). Finally, you should probably fight in the arenas at least once a month to keep your reputation up. If you are an escaped slave, your former owner probably has men looking for you.

Magical Girl
In the name of some vaguely defined concept or personified object, you punish evil doers. Or kill good doers. Or spank the naughty. Whatever. You are a magical warrior who makes speeches and shit, and that comes with some very specific implied powers. Or, you may or may not actually be a prepubescent and/or female. Whatever.
Effect: You have some manner of magical patron who will offer advice and might be the source of particularly plot important magical items that get used once and then forgotten. You also have the magical girl power of transformation--pick one outfit which may be armour and one weapon (or pair of light weapons) these start as masterwork items, and can be hidden in a dimensional pocket which will not hold anything else. You also have a small token of some sort, possibly disguised as a makeup compact or other mundane item, which allows you to summon these items once per encounter as a Full Round action where in you twirl and pose and are enshrouded in light. During this round, no one can attack you, and at the end the outfit is equipped and you may be holding your weapon readied, if you wish. If your outfit or weapon are damaged they will be fully repaired the next time you call them. Your special outfit and weapon have the Linked quality and can be further enchanted by sacrificing items to them as if you had the Ancestral Weapon feat from BoED. You're probably ambushed by things with tentacles a lot when you're not wearing your armour and trying to have a normal life, and you feel this weird compulsion to never tell anyone who isn't part of your adventuring group about being a magical warrior, regardless of how much simpler it would be, and your propensity for making friendship speeches in battle makes Perform (oratory) always a class skill for you which you can use like Diplomacy for attitude improvement.

[codeGlaze]

I wrote a form to style the entries for you guys.

Here it is, if you want to use it.

Examples (Just re-formatting Insomniac's post )

Fruit Salad: "Military... fruit?"
Start with snazzy military duds of the highest quality.
Effect: Bluff, Diplomacy and Perform( Oratory ) are class skills for you, and you gain a +2 competence bonus in them.

Anyone who recognizes your medals may be positively disposed to you, starting one level higher on Initial Attitude. Maybe you can tell a story and get free grog or something.

---

Swamp Fox: "Cunning. Stinky."
You did guerrilla warfare in some funky places and have the leech scars to prove it, baby (try not to prove it in mixed company).
Effect: Survival, Heal and Stealth are class skills and you may re roll the results of those checks.

---

REMF: "In the rear with the gear!"
Whoopsy daisy, something went missing from the quartermaster area!
Effect: Appraise, Decipher Script and Use Magic Device are class skills.

Start with an additional 50 GP and a piece of Masterwork equipment.

---

K9 Unit: "GIT IM TOOFUS!"
Whoopsy daisy, something went missing from the quartermaster area!
Effect: Handle Animal, Ride and Knowledge Nature are class skills and you gain a +2 competence bonus with them.
You may always roll twice to learn an animal or magical beast's characteristics and take the better result.

---

edit: Added in field for background description, re-generated to match.

[OgreBattle]

Cultural Stereotype: ""Surely that dwarf will have the answers we need about mining and smithing.""

Effect: Pick two skills, they're now class skills and you get a +2 bonus to them. Write a 500 word paragraph on how those skills relate to your cultural backround.

---

Defying Stereotype: ""It's because I'm a dwarf, isn't it""

Effect: Pick two skills, they're now class skills and you get a +2 bonus to them. Write a 500 word paragraph on how your PC defied stereotypes in learning them.

---

Thief replacement: ""Somebody has to find the traps" "But I don't want to be a rogue""

Effect: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Disable Device checks, and that skill is always a class skill for you. In addition, you can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps, like a rogue.

---

Institutionalized racism: "I will kill him on the basis of being a goblin alone"

Effect: Select a creature type (and subtype if you chose outsider or humanoid), you gain +1 on attack rolls against that type.

---

hated ethnic group: "I will kill him on the basis of being a goblin alone"

Effect: Select a creature type (and subtype if you chose outsider or humanoid), you gain a +2 dodge bonus to Armor Class against creatures of that type, and an additional +2 if a member of that race is of a size category larger than you.

---

Transracial: "Actually, I identify as goblin-kin"

Effect: Select a creature type (and subtype if you chose outsider or humanoid),that creature type replaces the creature type of your race for the purpose of any interactions with the rules like feats and racists trying to stab you.

---

[Prak]

Medic "No one wanted to be relegated to healing duty and the cleric has better shit to do."
Look, I get it, no one wants to spend major character resources on restoring hp for people. But people need to be healed if you're going to get that infant-sized ruby at the bottom of the dungeon, so you scribbled down a bit in your background about being an army medic.
Effect: First, Kn. Nature, Heal and Survival are always class skills for you, and you have a +2 bonus to Heal. Second, you can perform a twenty minute ritual which restores X hp to each member of your part (three people plus one per point of Wisdom mod) where X is half their max hp. This ritual may be performed at will, but each time it is used without at least an hour passing since it's last use, it takes twice as long as the last time it was used (1st time: 20 min, 2nd time: 40 min, 3rd time: 1hr 20 min, etc). This ritual requires special herbs which cost 1/4th the amount you would heal your party, or can be scrounged from most wilderness areas with twenty minutes and a successful Kn. Nature or Survival check. You can gather these ahead of time if you wish, but they lose potency 3 days after being picked. You probably also keep a pile of bandages which can be applied to injured people and allow them to heal 1hp per five minutes for a number of hours equal to your Wisdom mod.

Cook: "And in the morning, I'm making waffles!"
Look, not everyone has special noble birth or great destinies or sob stories about growing up in the gutter. You grew up in a surviving merchant or inn owning family, and you learned to cook in between mucking out stables, cleaning shit and putting up with idiot customers. And you found you really enjoyed it.
Effect: What does being a cook get you? Well, people forget that cooking is actually pretty physical work. Your familiarity with knives and cleavers translates over into daggers, handaxes and throwing axes pretty well, and in fact you are proficient in them. In addition, lugging around bags of potatoes and flour has conditioned you for carrying shit and your carrying capacity is calculated as if your strength were two points higher. You have a repertoire of recipes and cooking techniques which you can put into use to keep your party's morale up--anytime you take an hour to cook a meal while your party camps, everyone who eats can activate an Guidance, Resistance or Virtue effect with your character level as the caster level once in the ensuing 24 hours. If you have leftovers, people can eat them to gain another use after using their first (use Survival to determine how many servings you can make, or figure each serving costs 10 gp). Finally, you effectively have max ranks in Craft (Cooking) as if it were a class skill for you, if that ever actually matters.

Animal Magnetism "He followed me home, can I keep him!?"
Animals just inherently like you for some reason. While other people get mauled by wolves when they wander into the woods, you get a bunch of wolves sniffing at your backpack and begging for handouts while you're trying to eat lunch.
...maybe they like you because you always share and word got around.
Effect: Creatures of the Animal type always have an attitude at least one point more in favour of you, and no worse than indifferent unless you attack them. If you're in danger, there is a 10% chance that an animal appropriate to the environment will show up to help you. This chance is increased by 5% for every 5% your hp is below maximum, and decreased 10% for every time an animal has come to your rescue in the last 24 hours. The animal's CR cannot exceed yours, nor be lower than yours minus 3. If you want a specific animal, roll charisma vs DC 20. Finally, you have a +4 bonus on Handle Animal and Ride checks when made to affect Animals. On the other hand, animals will wander up to you in the wilderness and want attention and handouts, and Mister Cavern is encouraged to have this happen when you're trying to sneak, especially if you rolled poorly.

[Insomniac]

Thanks for making the Backgrounds in the proper format, appreciate it. The Fruit Salad thing is when somebody has a bunch of bright-colored awards on their dress uniform and it looks like a "fruit salad."

Touched By His Noodly Appendage:
"Hell yeah, another 5 feet of Reach!"
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) and Knowledge (The Planes) are class skills for you. Get a +2 bonus on social skills when interacting with Aberrations and a +1 on attacks against them. You may take feats for Aberrations as if you were one.

Bullysaurus!
"You talkin' to me? I don't see anybody else here!"
Intimidate is a class skill and you get a +2 Bully bonus on Intimidate checks. You may use your Strength or Charisma, whichever is higher, on Intimidate checks and you are considered to be one size larger for purposes of Intimidation checks.

Whipmaster!
"Whip it. Whip it good."
You are proficient in Whips. They deal 1d8 lethal damage for you. You do not provoke an attack of opportunity for using them and you may make attacks of opportunity with them. Whips and whip-like weapons deal non-lethal damage to you, you kinky freak.
Start with a Mastercraft Whip.

[Aryxbez]

Quite liking some of these, using PHB-Core Fighter-Rogue level near 1st level features for some background benefits makes sense to me, given [Tome].

I really like Animal Magnetism, Cook, Bullysaurus!, and Whipmaster mostly. Though Animal Magnetism should probably find better way than to calculate HP by 5% (definitely something players would need to pre-calculate beforehand). Also the minor DM fiat bit of screwing players, but yeah.


I'll try my hand at it, with the formatting in the link provided:

Unconventional Religion: "I follow the ways of my God..yet I am part of sub-sect long forgotten by its followers."

Effect: If you have access to domains, may replace one of your domain choices as one not listed under the accepted domains of your deity. If applicable, one of your domain choices must still be under the Deity's Granted Domain list.

---

EDIT: added a couple more

Quick-Purse: "Waatcha! bet ye didn't expect that, did you?"

Effect: Sleight of Hand is a class skill for you, and you gain a +2 bonus to the skill. You also gain Quickdraw as a bonus feat. Lastly, halve the DC's required to perform Epic-uses of Sleight of hand.

---

Strongman: " [insert PC name] IS THE STRONGEST THERE IS!"

Effect: Consider your carrying capacity as if one size larger, additionally you add half your level to all strength checks, lift and Bullrush (Does Not apply to attack/damage rolls).

---

Is the format not fully workable? It seems to skip out the description in the format there. Also, the intent of that background, is essentially for Clerics to choose another Domain in case their god's domain list sucks, while still having their choice of a deity mattering with having to pick at least one from theirs. If for some reason, someone only has one domain, then they can pick whatever, and its fine.

Also, the description for it was as follows: "Whether part of an undercover elite-sect, found outdated records of a once old or even forbidden practice, you practice your religion bit differently."

[Prak]

Yeah, I wanted to make less dm-fiat invoking powers, but if you dial it in too much, it just gets unweildy. So for more complex things, you need a degree of DM fiat just to keep things usable, but you need to keep DM fiat invocation minor, too.

edit- So here's a question- would a bag of holding/pocket dimension be too big a boon for a background? I like Rose Quartz's lion in Steven Universe, and while a sonic boom shooting lion is definitely too powerful for a background, I'm really thinking more about the pocket dimension thing. It seems pretty reasonable, especially with an obvious material plane manifestation, but I want opinions.

[radthemad4]

There's some really awesome stuff here that I'm looking forward to presenting to my players and/or using. A few problems:

Living Weapon as written grants you 'a weapon' so you can't actually be Wolverine with it. I like the idea though. It seems to be similar to Experimental Stock (the weapon version) but you get a simple/martial weapon vs a natural weapon and a flaw.

The medic background needs to say that the time intervals reset back to normal each day. I really like the idea of a Cook background, but throwing around piddly +1s is lame.

Touched by his Noodly Appendage is a bit odd, but in a non scaling feat game it's cool. If scaling feats are in play, you could probably just stitch a bunch of aberrant feats together into a scaling feat.

Aryxbez, your ones are more like feats than backgrounds. The different domain thing is okay since people tend to usually ignore that anyway. Quick purse is something any throwing character will want and Strong man is something any grappler will want.

Are there any published feats that could work? Blessed By Tem-Et-Nu comes to mind.

[Prak]

There's a bladed gauntlet in Arms and Equipment Guide, and you could always reflavour daggers. Living Weapon lets you be Wolverine minus healing powers.

[radthemad4]

Sorry, I meant to emphasize that it gave you 'a' weapon as in, a single weapon rather than two. You could take levels in Barbarian or find a feat for regeneration.

[Prak]

Oh, I forgot that Magical Girl was the one with the "(or two light weapons)" caveat. I'll add that into Living Weapon, along with some kind of "flaw."

[radthemad4]

I don't think a flaw is necessary. Experimental Stock provides a natural weapon which counts as an extra attack. This doesn't do that.

[Prak]

Well the flaw is just that you have a Wolverine backstory- you have trauma, and it comes up in game. Kind of like Last Scion how the flaw is "ninjas want to kill you."

Crocodile Charmer "Look at this beauty. If she bites you, the cleric won't even have time to cast a healing spell. ...I'm gonna touch her!"
You have a way with reptiles and similar creatures. Maybe you got dumped in a pit of them when you were a kid, maybe you grew up in a crazy religious sect that uses snakes to test it's piety. Maybe you just like them.
Effect: You begin play with three doses of antitoxin and a pet tiny viper that has 2 int and already knows a full array of tricks. You also gain +4 to handle animal and diplomacy checks made against Scaled Ones. Scaled Ones Animals and Magical Beasts have an initial attitude one point in your favour (no worse than Indifferent), and will not attack you unless you attack them first.

Sea Monkey "Warblgarbl."
You come from the sea. You have fins and gills and probably a bluer skin tone than normal, and people think you want their land-women. They're not necessarily wrong.
Effect: You're an otherwise normal specimen of your race, you just happen to be an obscure sub type which lives in water. You can swim at your land speed and either have the Hold Breath ability or can breath underwater, if you select the latter, you cannot breath air, but you do have a bulky collar-like piece of equipment that allows you to adventure on land for up to 16 hours at a time before you need to rest in water and let it recharge. This collar is a very simple magic item and just needs to be immersed in water for eight hours, which you can do while you sleep since you're usually going to be sleeping in water too.

Giant Frog "Ribbit."
The primal chaos of limbo flows in your veins. And sometimes outside you veins. And sometimes through other parts of you. Look, it's all very complicated hipster math, alright?
Effect: In times of great need, you can call upon the power of giant frog to giant frog your giant frog giant frogs. When you are at or below 1/4 your total hit points, the power of chaos activates within you, and you roll on the following chart-

d20	Effect	1d8	Spell School
1-8	Cantrip	1	Abjuration
9-17	Level 1 spell	2	Conjuration
18-19	Level 2 spell	3	Divination
20	Level 3 spell	4	Enchantment
Roll d12	Caster Level	5	Evocation
1	Character Level-2	6	Illusion
2-3	Character Level-1	7	Necromancy
4-9	Character Level	8	Transmutation
10-11	Character Level+1
12	Character Level+2

• Abjuration- Resistance
• Conjuration- Acid Splash*
• Divination- Prestidigitation (yes, I know it's Uni.)
• Enchantment- Daze*
• Evocation- Ray of Frost*
• Illusion- Ghost Sounds
• Necromancy- Touch of Fatigue*
• Transmutation- Mage Hand

• Abjuration- Roll 1d6; 1: Prot.Good, 2: Prot.Evil, 3: Prot.Chaos, 4: Prot.Law, 5-6: Shield
• Conjuration- Summon Chaos Bullfrog (Anarchic Dire Rat)
• Divination- True Strike
• Enchantment- Sleep**
• Evocation- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Burning Hands, 3-4: Magic Missile*, 5-6: Shocking Grasp
• Illusion- Roll 1d4; 1-3: Colour Spray, 4: Minor Image
• Necromancy- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Cause Fear, 3-4: Chill Touch, 5-6: Ray of Enfeeblement
• Transmutation- Roll 1d6: 1: Animate Rope, 2: Enlarge Person, 3: Expeditious Retreat, 4: Jump, 5: Magic Weapon, 6: Reduce Person*

• Abjuration- Roll 1d4; 1-2: Protection from Arrows, 3-4: Resist Energy
• Conjuration- Summon Toad Swarm (Rat swarm)
• Divination- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Detect Thoughts, 3-4: Locate Object, 5-6: See Invisibility
• Enchantment- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Daze Monster*, 3-4: Hideous Laughter*, 5-6: Touch of Idiocy
• Evocation- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Darkness (centered on you), 3: Flaming Sphere (moves a random direction each round, d10, stays put on a 1 or 10), 4: Gust of Wind, 5: Scorching Ray*, 6: Shatter* (weapon or armour)
• Illusion- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Blur, 3-4: Invisibility, 5-6: Mirror Image
• Necromancy- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Blindness/Deafness, 3-4: False Life, 5-6: Scare
• Transmutation- Roll 1d8; 1: Bear's Endurance, 2: Bull's Strength, 3: Cat's Grace, 4: Eagle's Splendor, 5: Fox's Cunning, 6: Levitate, 7: Owl's Wisdom, 8: Spider Climb

• Abjuration- Roll 1d6; 1: Dispel Magic*, 2: Magic Circle v. Chaos, 3: Magic Circle v. Evil, 4: MCvGood, 5: MCvLaw, 6: Protection from Energy
• Conjuration- Summon Dire Toad (as SMIII, Dire Toad is MM2)
• Divination- Cure Serious Wounds (yes, I know it's Conj.)
• Enchantment- Roll 1d4; 1: Deep Slumber**, 2: Heroism***, 3: Hold Person*, 4: Rage
• Evocation- Roll 1d4; 1-2: Fireball, 3-4: Lightning Bolt
• Illusion- Roll 1d4; 1-2: Displacement, 3-4: Major Image
• Necromancy- Roll 1d6; 1-2: Animate Dead (random corpse in range, destroyed at end of encounter), 3-4: Bestow Curse*, 5-6: Vampiric Touch
• Transmutation- Roll 1d6; 1: Blink, 2: Fly, 3: Gaseous Form, 4: Haste, 5: Keen Edge, 6:Slow*

*affects a random enemy in range
**Randomly determine center of effect
***affects a random ally
If not otherwise noted, you are the target of non-touch spells. Touch spells can be held until you can touch a target.

[Koumei]

I like the Backgrounds here that are actually backgrounds, a way of helping you write one paragraph about your life leading up to the game rather than just describing what you do, which is what your class and skills and shit already do, just like the Tome backgrounds originally worked.

In other words I like about three of the ones here.

[RobbyPants]

I like the Backgrounds here that are actually backgrounds, a way of helping you write one paragraph about your life leading up to the game rather than just describing what you do, which is what your class and skills and shit already do, just like the Tome backgrounds originally worked.

In other words I like about three of the ones here.

I agree. I think a lot of these would work better as feats, if they were beefed up a bit.

I think it's pretty easy to think up lots of "three skills are class skills for you" backgrounds. Hell, that could probably be a default background, and you just tell the player to write up a justification for it. Still, my favorite background are the ones that do something more interesting.

I suppose I should try my hand at a few:


University Graduate
You went to a university, learned a lot, and graduated. Maybe it's a fancy wizard college or one of the more mundane ones. Either way, the university has a vast library, which you're allowed to use. Of course, they also expect donations from you.
Effect: You add any two Knowledge skills to your list of class skills, and you start with four ranks in each of them, for free. Each year, you are expected to pay donations equaling 100 times your level squared gp. So long are you're making your donations, you are allowed to use the library at the university. Spending four hours researching adds a +2 circumstance bonus to any Knowledge check. Also, each year, they give you free tickets to their games and/or theater productions. Don't worry, they'll make it up at the concession stand.


Smuggler
You made your fortune moving and selling contraband, all while escaping notice of the law. You are good at hiding things and recognizing potential buyers as well as stings.
Effect: Sense Motive and Slight of Hand are class skills for you. If you hide an object on your person with at least a 20 in your Slight of Hand check, Divination spells and effects cannot detect it (although it can still be found by a successful Spot check, as normal). When selling items considered contraband for the locale, you sell them for 10% more money than you otherwise would.


Raised by Fey
You were raised by fey creatures. Maybe they stole you from your crib as a baby or while you were playing outside. Maybe you wandered into the wrong mushroom circle on the way to your grandma's house. Perhaps they took pity on you as the sole surviver of a caravan raid. Whatever the reason, you grew up in the wilderness with fey creatures, and some of their magic rubbed off on you.
Effect: You learn the language Sylvan for free, in addition to any other languages you would normally speak. Once per day, you may use each of the following as a spell-like ability, with a caster level equal to your character level: Dancing Lights, Daze, and Ghost Sound. Any DCs are 10 + 1/2 your level + your Cha mod.


Flame-touched
You have an affinity for fire. Perhaps you have a distant ancestor with the [fire] subtype or you were just born different. Maybe you had a run-in with a powerful fire effect and survived, or you've suffered from alchemical experimentation. Regardless, fire doesn't burn you the same way it burns others, and you are able to ignite fires at a whim.
Effect: You gain an amount of Fire Resistance equal to your character level. In addition, as a standard action, you can create a small fire in any space within close range to which you have line of effect. This deals 1 point of fire damage and ignites any unattended flammable objects, such as paper, leaves, kindling, or oil. Worn clothing will ignite if the wearer fails a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 your level + your Cha modifier).


Ex-Cop
No, not Axe Cop. You used to work as a guard/solider/constable/police officer or whatever your old town used for law enforcement. During your time on the force, you made contacts on both sides of the law, so you could get stuff done.
Effect: Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive are class skills for you. Pick a town or city where you worked. In that town, you have one contact in law enforcement who can give you answers relating to current cases and one criminal contact who can give you information on crimes, both past and future. Each contact is considered one step more friendly to you on initial reactions.


Electric
You have an affinity for electricity. Perhaps you have a distant ancestor with electrical abilities or you were just born different. Maybe you had a run-in with a powerful electric effect and survived, or you've suffered from alchemical experimentation. Regardless, electricity doesn't affect you the same way it does others, and you are able to shock things at a whim.
Effect: You gain an amount of Electric Resistance equal to your character level. In addition, you can shoot an arc of electricity at any target within close range with a ranged touch attack. If it hits, the target takes 1d6 points of electric damage. If they suffer any damage, they must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your level + your Cha modifier) or be entangled until the beginning of your next turn.


Corrosive
You have an affinity for acid. Perhaps you have a distant ancestor with corrosive abilities or you were just born different. Maybe you had a run-in with a powerful acid effect and survived, or you've suffered from alchemical experimentation. Regardless, acid doesn't burn you the same way it does others, and you are able to exude acid from your skin at a whim.
Effect: You gain an amount of Acid Resistance equal to your character level. In addition, you can exude acid with a melee touch attack, dealing 1d6 points of acid damage. If dealt to an object, this damage overcomes the object's hardness.


Cold-blooded
You have an affinity for cold. Perhaps you have a distant ancestor with the [cold] subtype or you were just born different. Maybe you had a run-in with a powerful cold effect and survived, or you've suffered from alchemical experimentation. Regardless, cold doesn't affect you the same way it does others, and you are able to freeze things at a whim.
Effect: You gain an amount of Cold Resistance equal to your character level. In addition, you can deal 1 point of cold damage with a melee touch attack. If you touch one gallon of liquid in a container, you can freeze it solid. It will melt as normal per the ambient temperature. You may touch a body of water and freeze the surface up to two inches thick in a five by five foot square. You can freeze multiple connected squares this way, and each will support up to 250 pounds. You may thicken the ice in a square in two-inch increments with additional standard actions, each adding 250 pounds to the capacity. Walking across the ice requires a DC 10 Balance check. Failing by five or more points means the person falls in place.


Captured by Mind Flayers
You were captured by mind flayers or born into captivity. You somehow escaped, yet you return affected by years of experiments and living underground.
Effect: You gain telepathy to a range of 30 feet and Knowledge (Dungeoneering) is a class skill for you.


Aristocrat
You were born into privilege and wealth. This affords you not only material goods, but also a quality education and lots and lots of culture.
Effect: Diplomacy is a class skill for you. You gain +2 on Knowledge (Nobility) checks. You also begin at first level with an additional 300 gp.

[radthemad4]

Hows this:

Original:
Raised by Dark Ones:
You were kidnapped by Dark Ones as an infant. They started raising you as a Dark Stalker, but they were unable to finish the job due to being wiped out by passing adventurers or wild animals or something. You're unusually pale and many people are slightly creeped out by you. You have a soft spot for masks, sun glasses, hoods and large hats. Perhaps you'd like to go find your real parents or perhaps you're not happy about your 'rescue' and would like to rejoin Dark One society.
Effect:
Hide, Move Silently and Listen are class skills for you. You have a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently in dark areas.
You have Darkvision 60 ft. However, you are sensitive to daylight and suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls and precision-based skill checks while in brightly lit surroundings (such as a daylight spell).
You gain Undercommon and Dark One as bonus languages.
If you wear a large hat or a hood, you may choose to have your face be partially or completely shrouded in shadow/darkness.
Special: If you take Blind Feat [Combat] or Alertness [Skill], you get the other for free and may use BAB or listen ranks for both.
If you have two fewer die of Sneak Attack than a Rogue of your level, increase your sneak attack die by one. You need to actually have sneak attack for this to work.

Escaped from Dark Ones:
You were kidnapped by Dark Ones as an infant. You're unusually pale and many people are slightly creeped out by you. Perhaps you'd like to go find your real parents or perhaps you're not happy about your 'rescue' and would like to rejoin Dark One society.
Effect: Sleight of Hand and Listen are class skills for you and you can speak the language of the Dark Ones.

The fluff says they get Darkvision at age 5 so it wouldn't make sense for them to not have it. However, that's objectively better than Experimental Stock, so this is not going to work. Thanks for the feedback Kaelik.

[Kaelik]

rad that is piles of hot garbage. Why not just write "Background: I'm a Mary Sue and I get everthing I want."

Ultimately your post is the best example of why this whole thread is garbage. Backgrounds should be the things that are like what Frank points out PrCs were supposed to me. Something that there aren't more than 10 of, and that you make up your own for your character. They are fucking backgrounds, they are literally the only fucking roleplaying you do at all before the the game starts, you shouldn't have your choice of background dictated by character concept and the knowledge that every single person who tries to build a sneak their character has to be raised by Dark Ones, and not trained by Ninjas, or a street Urchin, or an abandoned child int he wilds, or whatever, because every single person not raised by Dark Ones is a piece of shit.

Also, your background shitts all over the concept of Dark Ones, because the entire fucking point of the Dark Ones entry is that we already have a name for those who are raised by Dark Ones, they are called Dark Ones, because that is how they get their leaders.

[radthemad4]

Yeah, you're right. It's something I'd automatically go for if I was making a partial sneak attacker or if I was planning on taking Blind Fight anyway.