Second Chance (boon) and Returned (Background)

[Mufty]

Hello everyone,
in our last session one of my players died with a new character. Since he liked the character very much he used the second chance boon.

Since he still has under 12 XP, the question now is, can he use the Rebuilding Your Character rules to choose the Returned background?

Rebuilding Your Character:

After playing a new character, you might find aspects of your character you would like to change. Don’t worry! Until you play a game in which your character starts with 12 or more XP, you can freely rebuild your character completely. The character retains their Reputation earned and character number. Once you begin a session as a second level character, you still have options for changing your character’s choices through Achievement Point purchases or Retraining.

You cannot use Rebuilding or Retraining to build a character that could not be built without using either of those two tools.

Second Chance:

(40 Acp)
Gain the benefits of a resurrect ritual.

Returned is PFS Standard, but also Rare.

Thanks for your help!

[Hilary Moon Murphy]

PFS Standard means that Organized Play has not restricted that background beyond the normal restrictions already on it. It's rare, and I don't see an ACP boon providing access.*

There have been several scenarios that have provided access to Rare backgrounds in the past, but I have not seen that one on a chronicle yet.

Remember that being returned from the dead can always be part of your character's personal story, whether you have this background or not.

Hmm

____
* And if I missed it, I'm sure someone else will chime in shortly.

[Cordell Kintner]

I understand liking a character and wanting to save them, but you could also just remake the same PC from scratch, especially when it's such a low level. Second Chance gets more expensive every time you purchase it, so if they happen to die again at a higher level they will likely be too low on ACP to afford the 80 needed to buy it again. Once you reach level 9 you can then cast the ritual yourself at least, but it's difficult and expensive.

Rare character options require some sort of boon, or you must meet the "access" requirement of that option (present on a lot of Ancestry boons, for an example). There's no boon or access requirements for that background, so while it's not limited or restricted, they wouldn't be able to pick it.

I know it's too late to suggest to them otherwise, but there's no restriction on having multiple copies of the same PC, as long as they level up individually. A lot of people actually do that with level 1 characters to ensure they live to level 2, then swap them over to the actual character once they hit level 2.