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| One of my favorite Erol Otus characters. |
As much as I love the Backgrounds system in D&D 5e, a
few of the options are hit and miss for me. The most egregious misfire to me is
the Noble. I can see why they wanted to include it in the Player’s Handbook but
I think that as it is written, it tries to do too much in the limited framework
it has and as a result, it doesn’t do enough. In a section with soldiers, local heroes, and
urchins, the extra lifting and gymnastics required to make the noble work
without setting one player high above the others is a little outside the scope
of new DMs.
My solution to this was to split the noble background up
into three distinct categories.
The Dilettante -Someone who comes from wealth but isn’t
interested in being wealthy, or at least, do not want to live their life according to their family's expectations. This is for role-players who want lots of family
interaction as the filial obligations of their upbringing can potentially clash
with their adventuring career. I was specifically looking for a way to create a
D&D version of Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and this pretty much covers it.
The Disgraced Noble- I think this is the closest in function
to what the PHB was trying to do with this background. The difference is mainly
that this background really leans into it. It’s good for plotting and hooking
players into the story, as there are plenty of options, secrets, and
interesting bits to tease out. It should be noted that the Disgraced portion of
the background can come from any source;
as simple as “you joined the bard college against the wishes of your family” to
something like Athos, from The Three Musketeers.
This background also works well for setting the kinds of political situations that were the bread and butter on Game of Thrones. Tyrian Lannister is a disgraced noble in the eyes of his father because he drinks and whores and plays the part of the imp. Jaime Lannister is a disgraced noble because he killed the king he swore to protect.
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| Bill may very well kill me for using this. |
The Knight Errant— for all of you paladins and cavaliers out
there, here’s a background that is right up your alley, supporting action and
combat, with plenty of things to do, and as silly (Lancelot in Monty Python and
the Holy Grail) or as serious (Robin Hood) as you want to make it.
Breaking them up along these lines makes the player choices
more nuanced and also better supports most, if not all, character classes. The Warlock
Dilettante, for example, might have stumbled into his patronage during one of
his fantastic benders. The Warlock Disgraced Noble clearly brought shame upon
his house by invoking dark magicks, and the Warlock Knight Errant is a
monster-hunting tyrant-killing man of the people. All of them come from this
noble class, but they actualize it in very different ways.
Anyway, that’s my fix for the Noble. I’d love to hear any
feedback you may have on these backgrounds. Share your thoughts, people.
As a bonus--call it a "thank you," if you will, for all of the great responses and shares I've gotten from all of you, I've included my Noble House Random Generator. It will build you
a family history with just a few die rolls. You can grab free PDFs of the "Expanded Noble" backgrounds below:
Noble House Random Generator
Try these out and let me know what you think.
