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Looking at the provided backgrounds available for Pathfinder 2nd Editon, I am seeing a few holes. So I was inspired to add a few. Check them out.
(Common Background)
Apothecaries are specialists who prepare and supply the medicines prescribed by physicians. They have a working familiarity with a wide range of rare and exotic substances, and their properties for healing and other uses. Apothecaries also understand how to prepare the material components used by arcanists, occultists, and other magic-users.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Crafting skill and the Pharmacy Lore skill. You gain the Alchemical Crafting skill feat.
Special If you take the Alchemist class or archetype, you gain theCrafting skill and Alchemical Crafting feat for free; so you gain the Medicine skill and Inoculation feat (APG 2E, p207) instead. Also Even if you do not take the Alchemist class, consider the Alchemist archetype.
Note: Pharmacy lore focuses on the creation of drugs, remedies, and toxins, much like herbalism lore does, but from a different, more mineral, direction. There is considerable overlap.
(Common Background)
Wizards must serve a long and arduous apprenticeship. By becoming apprentices, aspiring wizards find themselves working many long hours at menial tasks in return for lodgings and magical instruction. Many apprentices tire of scrubbing floors, fetching, carrying, and being treated as menial servants, and do not complete their apprenticeships.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Arcana skill and the Scribing Lore skill. You gain the Recognize Spell skill feat.
* - Add Draconic to the list of additional languages you can learn for having a high Intelligence modifier.
Special If you take the Wizard class (or another class that uses the Arcane spell list) you gain the Arcana skill for free; so you gain the Occultism skill instead. Also Even if you do not take the Wizard class, consider the Wizard archetype.
Note: Compare this background to the Necromancer’s Apprentice (Book of the Dead, p16) background.
(Common Background)
Given the influence of the many churches on most people’s daily lives, it is easy to forget that Druidism is also a faith whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity. Druidic Initiates are practicing followers of this ancient belief system and pursue a strict code of life and strive to live in harmony with nature.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Nature skill and the Lore skill for your branch of the Druidic faith (either a deity of nature or a group such as Golarion’s Green Faith). You gain the Natural Medicine skill feat.
* - Add Sylvan to the list of additional languages you can learn for having a high Intelligence modifier.
Special If you take the Druid class (or another class that uses the Primal spell list) you gain the Nature skill for free; so you gain the Survival skill instead. Also Even if you do not take the Druid class, consider the Druid archetype.
Note: This is effectively the Acolyte background for Druid characters.
(Common Background)
Squires act as servants to Nobles and Free Lances, and it may seem to some that their status is not better than that of a common domestic. The squire attends to the maintenance of the horse and armor and the warrior's other general needs. Many untitled nobles - younger sons of petty aristocrats - serve as squires as part of their training.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Society skill and the Warfare Lore skill. You gain the Armor Assist skill feat (APG 2E, p203).
Special While this background should include the Nature skill, for animal care and equestrian abilities, the social components of serving as a squire: etiquette, heraldry, and politics covered by the Society skill were deemed more central to the concept. Also Consider the Cavalier archetype (APG 2E, p164), especially if you are a Champion or Fighter.
Depending on the response, I may add some more.
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Some may note that the Squire background already existed (APG 2E, p49), but I didn’t agree with Paizo’s interpretation of the concept.
(Common Background)
Raconteurs love to talk and strange though it may seem, people to stop to listen. Raconteur's voices are the tools of their trade, and they can talk for hours on end. Whether standing on a box in the town square, spreading gossip in a tavern, or recounting risqué anecdotes at a society dinner, Raconteurs always manage to be interesting, amusing, or captivating.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Perform skill and the History Lore skill. You gain the Fascinating Performance skill feat.
Special If you gain thePerform skill from your ancestry or class (such as a Bard), you gain the Diplomacy skill instead. Also Even if you do not take the Bard class, consider the Bard archetype.
Note: While the background provides the History Lore skill, other good options would be a Lore for the city or region, games, politics, warfare, or any Lore that could provide fodder for good conversation.
(Common Background)
Ruffians are the crude muscle who extract money from the community around them by extortion, robbery, kidnapping, threats, and violence. These thugs can vary in nature from semi-skilled heavies to members of what amounts to a private army. Slightly more honest ruffians can be found as bodyguards, tavern bouncers, or vigilante militia.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Intimidation skill and the Underworld Lore skill. You gain the Group Coercion skill feat.
Special If you gain theIntimidation skill from your ancestry or class (such as a Rogue with the “Ruffian” racket), you gain the Thievery skill instead. Also Even if you do not take the Rogue class, consider the Rogue archetype.
Note: In addition to Rogues, this is a great background for criminally inclined Fighters or Monks.
(Rare Background)
Whether hated for their tainted blood or revered for their heritage, a trace of an unnatural forbearer made these rare individuals “outsiders” in more than just name. Even if it is not visible in their forms, “the strange” have unusual abilities and bizarre thought patterns. Depending on the nature of their heritage, these characters do well to avoid attention.
Benefits
* - Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
* - You're trained the Lore skill most appropriate to your “other” ancestor. You gain a Deviant Ability (Dark Archive, pp98-103) of the category closest to the nature of your ancestor, awakening one of the Feat 2 abilities (even though you are a starting character). However, the Backlash and Quirk effects of the power also applies to you as defined in those rules.
* - Add the language of their other ancestor to the list of additional languages you can learn for having a high Intelligence modifier – even if it is rare and no-one could have taught them.
Special While this background is vary appropriate to a character with a Versatile Heritage, such a legacy is not required. Also Even if you do not take the Sorcerer class, consider the Sorcerer archetype with the appropriate bloodline feature.
Note: Examples of appropriate birthrights would be Dragons, Elementals, Fiends, Shadows, or even Aberrations. Look at Sorcerer Bloodlines for ideas.
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It is a bit odd to have the replacement skill and skill feat only for particular interactions with certain classes or archetypes. It is also odd to have them doing what appears to be a retroactive replacement after 1st level.
Normally what I am seeing in Backgrounds is that they give a choice up front. Such as with Hermit, Teacher, or Spell Seeker. Those all either give skill feats that would apply to either of the skills that the player could pick, or they apply to the Lore skill. But having the Skill Feat given by the background be based on which skill was chosen wouldn't be terrible either.
The benefit is that it gives up-front flexibility to the player for choosing their character at level 1 when their background is chosen. And then they can forget about their background choice by level 12 when they finally get around to taking the archetype that conflicts with what they got from their background.
It is a bit odd to have the replacement skill and skill feat only for particular interactions with certain classes or archetypes. It is also odd to have them doing what appears to be a retroactive replacement after 1st level.
Normally what I am seeing in Backgrounds is that they give a choice up front. Such as with Hermit, Teacher, or Spell Seeker. Those all either give skill feats that would apply to either of the skills that the player could pick, or they apply to the Lore skill. But having the Skill Feat given by the background be based on which skill was chosen wouldn't be terrible either.
The benefit is that it gives up-front flexibility to the player for choosing their character at level 1 when their background is chosen. And then they can forget about their background choice by level 12 when they finally get around to taking the archetype that conflicts with what they got from their background.
I'm also concerned that my "Strange" background is a little too strong.
For a Rare background, maybe. Certainly would be too strange for a common or uncommon one.
Some other Rare backgrounds do some strange and powerful things too.
Blessed gives you a pretty nice cantrip.
Feybound gives you a fortune effect on a skill check once per day.
And neither of those have any drawbacks.
Revenant gives you negative healing. Which would be really good in certain campaigns like Abomination Vaults.
And Feral Child gives some perception sense increases at the cost of an ability boost.