Variant Background Features
Added 2020-09-05 17:14:55 +0000 UTCThis is something completely different to my usual content, but I'm trying to branch out more in what kinds of homebrew I make so hopefully you guys can get behind it.
The backgrounds in the Player's Handbook are all well designed, however I often find them to be too limited (I've lost count of the amount of times I've tried to design a character but can't quite find the right background to "fit" for them). I don't think solving this problem requires whole new backgrounds, however, because I felt the existing backgrounds wouldn't feel nearly as limited if they were just a little more customisable. So, I made this list of variant background features with the intention of making the background-choosing process feel more personal to a character.
Another aim of mine with this list was to make background features that were actually useful. Some of the original background features (like researcher, for example) are flavourful but too restricted to actually be useful, so a character could potentially go an entire campaign without ever actually using it. I wanted these variant background features to therefore give characters abilities or skills that would be valuable, and I also wanted them to be distinct, as I think having a noticable background feature is just as important as having a useful one. Caravaneer and falconry in particular are designed to play a very active role in a character's campaign, rather than just giving them skills that could be easily forgotten or overlooked.
If you like these features and want to use them for your own characters, you can get the high quality PDF version of them over on my patron dropbox.
