Backgrounds are in the spotlight in the 2024 update to the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, since ability scores are now tied to your character’s life experiences instead of their species. The Player’s Handbook offers a lot of options, but what if none of them are a fit for your character?

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Fortunately, homebrewing a background is much easier and more forgiving than homebrewing a class or species, and your DM is more likely to allow it. With a little effort and forethought, you can have a unique background that doesn’t break the game.

What Are Backgrounds?

Folk Hero, by Kai Carpenter

Backgrounds represent where your character is from and what they’ve done prior to becoming an adventurer. In the 2024 rules update, Wizards of the Coast put greater emphasis on backgrounds, to emphasize that your character’s species isn’t the most formative thing about them.

Not all dwarves grow up in mines and learn to use a warhammer, and not all orcs are musclebound brutes. An orc who was taken into a monastery at a young age could be just as intelligent as an elf trained in magic, and a halfling apprenticed as a blacksmith could have as fine an eye for detail as the most discerning dwarvish artisan.

Parts Of A Background

Guild Artisan, by Mark Behm

Backgrounds include five features: three ability scores, an Origin feat, two skill proficiencies, a tool proficiency, and equipment.

Each background lists three ability scores. From this list you can choose one ability score to raise by two points and one to raise by one point, or you can raise all three by one point each.

The backgrounds also include an Origin feat, representing something unique about your character that sets them apart from others, but which is a common feature among everyone sharing the same background.

Skill proficiencies represent a skill or area of study that your character would be familiar with from that background. They may not be an expert at it, but they’re at least passable.

All backgrounds get a tool proficiency. This could be anything from being able to make simple potions with a herbalist's kit to just being good at card games.

Finally, all backgrounds come with a set of starting equipment on top of what comes from your class. The value of this starting equipment varies, but is always valued at about 50 GP.

Brewing Your Background

Candlekeep Sage, by Kim Sokol

The first rule of homebrewing is to scale to the official options. You may be tempted to say that your Knight background comes with full plate armor, a warhorse, multiple weapon proficiencies, and free spells, but that would make everyone using standard backgrounds feel like they were playing second fiddle to you. Instead, focus on staying on the same footing and creating a flavorful background.

The first thing you should do is write a short description of your background. About a paragraph describing how your character was raised and what kind of experience they had before beginning the adventure. This will help feed all of the mechanical parts of the background.

In game development, this is called top-down design. You start with the flavor or result (“My character is a runaway.”), then fill in the mechanics (“What ability scores would fit for someone running from her past?”).

Next, pick three ability scores that someone of your background would likely develop. Characters who spend a lot of time interacting with others are likely to develop high Charisma, while those who do hard labor will probably develop higher Strength and Constitution.

With the ability scores locked in, it’s time to choose your Origin feat. This feat represents a special talent or trait that you’ve developed through the background. A Gambler background might have the Lucky feat, for example, while someone raised in a tribe of Barbarians might have Savage Attacker.

After choosing the feat, it’s time to choose two skill proficiencies. This can be tough, because there might be a lot of skills that make sense for your background, but you want to stay on an even playing field with the official backgrounds.

Next, choose your tool proficiency, which represents your ability to use a specific type of tool or equipment, whether that’s a blacksmithing hammer or a deck of cards. This proficiency is also going to feed your equipment, in the next step.

Finally, choose your equipment. The tool you selected for proficiency should be on this list, along with items to support that kit and a set of clothes. Start with 50 GP and subtract the cost of the tool kit, then stay within that budget. Simple weapons may be included, but armor and magic items should not be.

Updating Backgrounds

Art via Wizards of the Coast

If the backgrounds provided in the Player’s Handbook don’t work for you, consider the backgrounds provided in older Fifth Edition books. These backgrounds are fairly simple to update.

Since older backgrounds didn’t include ability scores and sometimes didn’t include feats, all you need to do is choose one ability score to add two to and one to add one to, or three to add one point to, then choose an Origin feat. The skill and tool proficiencies can remain the same, and most languages can be dropped.

Sample Backgrounds

Agent of the Iron Throne, by Josh Hass

We’ve included two sample backgrounds, one original and the other updating the Feylost background from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight to fit the updated rules.

Dungeon Delver

Dungeon Delver, by Edgar Sánchez Hidalgo

Ability Scores: Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence

You grew up exploring caves and abandoned ruins, scavenging for treasures and relics to sell to earn a living. Perhaps you were a hireling for a group of adventurers or an archaeological survey. Or perhaps you just made a hobby out of disarming traps and locks. Regardless of the reason, you've developed the skills needed to thrive in caves, ruins, and dungeons.

Feat: Skilled

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Perception

Tool Proficiency: Thieves’ Tools

Equipment: Choose (A) or (B): (A) Thieves’ Tools, Traveler’s Clothes, Crowbar, Rope, Hooded Lantern, Oil (2 flasks), 15 GP; or (B) 50 GP

Feylost (Adapted From The Wild Beyond The Witchlight)

Jaheira's Respite, by Mila Pesic

Ability Scores: Dexterity, Charisma, Wisdom

You grew up in the Feywild after entering it as a child. Whether you made your way there by stumbling into a fairy circle on a moonlit night or were replaced in your crib by a changeling, your long stay in the Feywild has left you touched by a hint of magic. You exude an otherworldly feeling that can make others uncomfortable, but natives of the Feywild treat you as one of their own.

Feat: Magic Initiate (Druid)

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Survival

Tool Proficiency: One kind of Musical Instrument

Equipment: Choose (A) or (B): (A) Musical Instrument (same as above), Traveler’s Clothes, three Trinkets (chosen randomly from the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook), 2 Pouches, 8 GP; or (B) 50 GP

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