Backgrounds will have an equal emphasis alongside classes and species in Dungeons & Dragons’ new ruleset. Later this year, Wizards of the Coast will publish a new version of D&D’s Player’s Handbook with wholesale rules revisions to the game’s current 5th Edition. While players will still choose a class, species, and background when creating a character using the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the features associated with backgrounds and species have changed, in part to provide more flexibility to players when crafting their character’s origin.
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In the 2014 Player’s Handbook and other early 5th edition rulebooks, each race (renamed species in the 2024 Player’s Handbook) had two Ability Score Increases, which raised specific Ability Scores. This meant that optimizing a specific class build often meant choosing a specific race. Also, many races had specific cultural touchstones associated with them – all dwarves were proficient with warhammers and axes, while all orcs had a “primal intuition” that granted them extra proficiency in certain skills.
In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, Ability Score Increases are now tied to Backgrounds. Each Background has a list of three Ability Scores that are eligible for an increase, with players choosing to increase one eligible Ability Score by 2 and another by 1. Additionally, species no longer have any abilities that grant them proficiencies with specific skills or equipment. These are all tied to Backgrounds instead.
Perhaps the biggest change to Backgrounds is that all of the 2024 Player’s Handbook Backgrounds have an “Origin” feat associated with them. When players choose a background for their character, they also get to take its associated Origin feat for free. All of the Origin feats previously appeared in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, although some feats (such as Alert) have received updates to reflect new rules changes found elsewhere in the book.
The 2024 Player’s Handbook also contains guidance for players who wish to use another background or species not found in the book. Players can use an older species by simply ignoring the ability score increases in the rules for those species, and players can use an older background by adjusting on ability score by 2 and a different one by 1 and take an Origin feat of the player’s choice if the background doesn’t already come with an Origin attached.
The Player’s Handbook will be released on September 17th. You can check out more changes to the D&D rules here.
