5.1 - Background Rules
Background Rules
Background answers what your character did before adventuring. V4.0 does not create or replace backgrounds. Use the background rules already selected for the campaign.
Choose One Native Background System
| Campaign Rules | What You Gain |
|---|---|
| 2014-style D&D 5e | The background's listed skills, tools or languages, equipment, and narrative feature. Use the campaign's normal ability-score generation. |
| 2024-style D&D 5e | The background's listed ability-score options, Origin feat, skills, tool, and equipment. |
| Existing Hiraeth background | Exactly the benefits on that background's live BookStack page, interpreted through the campaign's selected edition. |
| Campaign custom background | The benefits allowed by the campaign's normal background-building rule. |
No Double-Dipping
- Do not take both a 2014 background feature and a 2024 Origin feat unless the campaign gives both to every character.
- Do not take ability-score increases from v4.0; it grants none.
- Do not take a second set of skills, tools, languages, or equipment from this chapter.
CultureHeritage andancestryAncestralknacksDetails remain separate because they grant narrowlanguage orlanguage, story access, or physical expression—not another profession package.
Ability Scores
Your ability-score increases come from whichever character-creation method the campaign uses. If a 2014-style background does not assign ability scores, that does not cause v4.0 to assign them. Use the same rule used by every other character in that campaign.
Customizing a Background
If the campaign permits custom backgrounds, follow that edition's or campaign's native customization procedure. CultureHeritage can inspire the background's story, but never supplies extra mechanical selections.