Retraining Background Lore

[Johann Weiss]

Need some advice on modifying the downtime retraining a bit. I'm running a game where the players are normal citizens in Absalom, with day jobs, who occasionally go adventuring. So there's typical 2 weeks of downtime between sessions. RAW, you can't retrain background, ancestry or class. For the most part I agree cause it's just sensible, but I'd like to allow them to change their background Lore skill. I'm thinking between 1 & 6 months; something like an unpaid internship, apprenticeship or even schooling.

It's a relatively minor change though so I don't want it to be too costly and discourage it. Any thoughts or opinions on this?

[Varus Wreckpoint]

I'm not sure that RAW you can't retrain the skill from your background. The rules say:
"You can also spend a week to retrain an initial trained skill you gained during character creation." (pg.481)
It doesn't limit it to the trained skills you get from class or feats.

[Taja the Barbarian]

Generally speaking, Varus, you don't get a choice of which lore your background gives you, so RAW you can't actually retrain it since there are no other 'valid options.'

Retraining wrote:

Downtime

Source Core Rulebook pg. 481
Retraining offers a way to alter some of your character choices, which is helpful when you want to take your character in a new direction or change decisions that didn’t meet your expectations. You can retrain feats, skills, and some selectable class features. You can’t retrain your ancestry, heritage, background, class, or ability scores. You can’t perform other downtime activities while retraining.

Retraining usually requires you to spend time learning from a teacher, whether that entails physical training, studying at a library, or falling into shared magical trances. Your GM determines whether you can get proper training or whether something can be retrained at all. In some cases, you’ll have to pay your instructor.

Some abilities can be difficult or impossible to retrain (for instance, a sorcerer can retrain their bloodline only in extraordinary circumstances).

When retraining, you generally can’t make choices you couldn’t make when you selected the original option. For instance, you can’t exchange a 2nd-level skill feat for a 4th-level one, or for one that requires prerequisites you didn’t meet at the time you took the original feat. If you don’t remember whether you met the prerequisites at the time, ask your GM to make the call. If you cease to meet the prerequisites for an ability due to retraining, you can’t use that ability. You might need to retrain several abilities in sequence in order to get all the abilities you want.

[Johann Weiss]

I ended up deciding on 3 months of downtime training for an "apprenticeship" with the option to pay for schooling instead, dropping that time to 1 month (with cost based on what level they are when doing it). Given it's 95% a flavour change for the characters, I didn't want it to be too much of a burden on them. With 2 weeks between sessions, a character will be able to retrain it in roughly the time it takes to level up once fully.

I'll post an update here once I see how well it works if anyone else is thinking of copying this.