My Background Feats System

[caster4life]

Background skills are amazing and help flesh out characters. But there are far more underused feats than skills. Hence I've seen several people discussing the idea of background feats and PF 2e essentially has that built in. So I present my codified system of background feats.

Feel free to comment here or in the google doc with a list of feats you think should be added to the examples! Questions or suggestions are also welcome.

[avr]

Google claims there's no doc at that link.

[caster4life]

Google lies! XD Thanks avr. Here's a new link.

[Lathiira]

Interesting idea. I've given additional traits here and there in a game as the character progressed, I'd never considered feats.

[Valandil Ancalime]

I didn't look at all the feats and traits, but I like the idea. I did notice I didn't recognize many of them, which is a good indication that they are not often used/less powerful feats. Have a cookie.

[GotAFarmYet?]

Have not looked at 2e so cannot comment there. The reason most of these are not known or used was they cost the same as others and would not help the build character system. They basically were not worth the points that they used.

we use to roll a 1d4 for points to use on the background for your character, 9 times out of 10 players would use this to add damage they do with combat traits or feats. This meant the GM kept having to send the players back to redo it.

[Mudfoot]

Good idea. As VA says, most of those you listed are obscure to the point that I have no idea what they do, so nobody will ever take them otherwise. Of course this means that people will spend weeks poring though the list of dross for something interesting when they get a background feat. And the GM will then have to vet each one.

Many of the ignored feats are flavourless but situational and/or weak, so I still don't see anyone really wanting them.

But I approve. It's not an idea I've seen anywhere else, and it's not silly. Have a clap.

Now, how do we wedge in Background Spells? There's some tripe out there too. Maybe give out free slots that can only be spent on approved junk? Detect Metal and Alter Musical Instrument - your time has come!

[caster4life]

Haha. Background spells would be interesting indeed!

As for the list of suggested feats, I just started looking through all the feats listed on my nearly-exhaustive Hero Lab. When I got to the Cs, I realized making an exhaustive list would take far too long so I just left it as a list of possible examples.

[Mark Hoover 330]

I really like this idea and will likely implement it in future games. One question though: should the background feats ignore feats with copious amounts of prereqs?

For example Burrowing Teeth is on your list. I get that the list is non-exhaustive but this feat requires a PC be ratfolk and have the Sharpclaw and Tunnel Rat feats. If a PC has gone to the trouble to have all of that, it may be entirely likely that they were building the PC towards the Burrowing Teeth feat in the first place.

Still this is such a good idea. There are a ton of feats out there that are kind of interesting, give niche flavor to a PC and provide enhanced utility that a player would never sacrifice a precious feat to take. I mean heck, a third of all the General feats alone probably qualify for this houserule.

If anyone every throws together a more complete list of suggested feats or amends/tries this rule in their game, please post your info and experiences! Thanks Caster!

[caster4life]

Good question. I would say the fact that someone has built toward Burrowing Teeth probably isn't a problem and the system should still work as normal. They wouldn't be getting too much bang for their buck compared to builds without Background Feats.

As for an exhaustive list, yeah it's just SO many feats. I spent several hours on the list that I already have and I barely go into the Cs...

[gnoams]

Something I tried in my latest home game was giving the players a list of (homebrew) backgrounds to choose from as a replacement for traits. Some of them were generic like merchant, while others were specific to tie in with the campaign. Each background granted bonus skill ranks in specific skills as well as a minor bonus ability, many of them being some of these underused feats.

I think as long as all the different choices feel balanced and don't have some obviously superior options then it's good. For me, it was a way to introduce aspects of the setting and help get my players invested in it, so having flavor elements written in was important.

So many choices in pathfinder are heavily influenced by rules making certain options superior to others. It's nice to have some choices for players that can be made without pressure, just for flavor. (Not that you won't have players use this to min max with. It may be worth noting that some of these "garbage" skill feats are used as prerequisites for other, more powerful choices).