Innocent character as a background for 5th ed

[FiranDarcalus]

Hi everyone,

For my upcoming campaign, one of my players is looking to remake a character we had started a few years ago when we were doing Pathfinder. Now that we're doing D&D 5th, we decided to redo the character as he never really got the chance to play.

One of the main keys to the character was that they had the 3.5 moniker of being a True Innocent character. It stands to reason that this would make sense as a background for 5th edition. As well, we had added a Pathfinder trait to the character 'let's be friends' from one of the quote the raven books (QTR 17, p. 96) that fit well with being an innocent character.

All that to say is I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas for creating this background. We're planning on doing character creation on Tuesday, so any feedback before Tuesday would be appreciated!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Not being particularly 5e savvy, I'm not sure if you mean "background" in terms of rules, or in terms of story. Can you clarify? (I can help on the latter maybe, but not likely on the former. I have a True Innocent in my campaign, but we use PF rules)

[FiranDarcalus]

So I was specifically thinking about the rules aspects of making an Innocent background as per the Player's Handbook. In our previous campaign, which was Pathfinder as well, we had it all set up for this character. But since my group wanted to move to 5th ed D&D, it's a little trickier to make it a background. Hopefully that makes more sense. Trying to think how to make it work within the existing parameters of the background's in the PHB.

[Mischief]

Background Proficiencies
5e backgrounds reflect the skills the PC has from pre-adventure life. Most backgrounds give out 4 total of language, tool, or skill proficiencies. (so [1 language, 1 tool, 2 skills] or [0 language, 2 tools, 2 skills] etc.) You might just let the player customize based on their character story. Maybe disallow proficiency in Deception (Cha)? I'd have a look at the PHB for ideas.
Extra Equipment: Whatever is appropriate.

Backgrounds also come with 4 character traits. I might suggest the following.
Personality Trait: Player chooses.
Ideal: Hopeful. I look for the best in people and try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Bond: Appropriate PC backstory.
Flaw: Naive. I am often too generous with my benefit of the doubt and try to redeem the irredeemable.

Feature: Hmm. This is a non-crunch benefit that enhances how the character interacts with the setting and its people. You can use a profession background feature here, or you could do something social like "naturally trustworthy" - Good NPCs feel kinship and are more likely to be supportive rather than indifferent even when they are all undercover and stuff.

---

About your lets be friends, -4 to saves vs charm is roughly equal to disadvantage. +2 to diplomacy sounds like persuasion to me. I assume you also want the baseline innocent bonus (Heroes of Light, pg 8.) which is +3 to saves versus "nasty bad" effects with a -2 to Insight rolls and Fear saves.

If you want to combine the two, at the risk of making a somewhat volatile character.
Gain Persuasion Proficiency. If Character is already proficient in Persuasion, character's proficiency bonus is doubled for any Persuasion check they make.
Advantage (≈ +4): Saving throws vs. "Evil Stuff" (judgment call needed as to what these would be in 5e)
Disadvantage (≈ -4): Insight rolls, Fear saves, Saving throws vs. Charm

[FiranDarcalus]

Background Proficiencies
5e backgrounds reflect the skills the PC has from pre-adventure life. Most backgrounds give out 4 total of language, tool, or skill proficiencies. (so [1 language, 1 tool, 2 skills] or [0 language, 2 tools, 2 skills] etc.) You might just let the player customize based on their character story. Maybe disallow proficiency in Deception (Cha)? I'd have a look at the PHB for ideas.
Extra Equipment: Whatever is appropriate.

Backgrounds also come with 4 character traits. I might suggest the following.
Personality Trait: Player chooses.
Ideal: Hopeful. I look for the best in people and try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Bond: Appropriate PC backstory.
Flaw: Naive. I am often too generous with my benefit of the doubt and try to redeem the irredeemable.

Feature: Hmm. This is a non-crunch benefit that enhances how the character interacts with the setting and its people. You can use a profession background feature here, or you could do something social like "naturally trustworthy" - Good NPCs feel kinship and are more likely to be supportive rather than indifferent even when they are all undercover and stuff.

---

About your lets be friends, -4 to saves vs charm is roughly equal to disadvantage. +2 to diplomacy sounds like persuasion to me. I assume you also want the baseline innocent bonus (Heroes of Light, pg 8.) which is +3 to saves versus "nasty bad" effects with a -2 to Insight rolls and Fear saves.

If you want to combine the two, at the risk of making a somewhat volatile character.
Gain Persuasion Proficiency. If Character is already proficient in Persuasion, character's proficiency bonus is doubled for any Persuasion check they make.
Advantage (≈ +4): Saving throws vs. "Evil Stuff" (judgment call needed as to what these would be in 5e)
Disadvantage (≈ -4): Insight rolls, Fear saves, Saving throws vs. Charm

Thanks for the feedback. I like your ideas. My friend and I already started discussing & I think we have something to work with. We want it to obviously capture the feel of what being an Innocent character in Ravenloft would mean. Your suggestions are a great baseline.

[Nirnel]

I was thinking about updating the True Innocent as a Background myself.

I see a few appropriate skills for this background: Animal Handling (animals tend to like you), Insight (you tend to be empathic), Medicine (you tend to care for others), Performance (you tend to find easy to convey the beauty of the world to others), Persuassion (you tend to be likeable) or Religion (you tend to be pious). I think picking two of them would be just about fine. Or maybe one of these and one artisan's tool or musical instrument.

Extra equipment would be simple clothes (commoner or noble), a token of affection from someone and either a musical instrument, artisan's tool, an untrained but clever pet or a trinket worth a few extra GP (another token of affection, or even the same one mentioned before).

As a Feature, people who know you as a rule tend to feel that harming you is somewhat of a taboo. Evildoers would probably pick other victims, enemies would rather choose other targets in combat unless they are especially evil, and good hearted people will feel somewhat more protective towards you than they would be towards your companions.

Personality traits could include a few childlike mannierisms, a nearly perpetual smile or other expressions of joy, or sadness.

Ideals would be related to caring for people, believing in redemption of evil, spreading joy, carelessness or love for good-aligned gods

Bonds might include people who care for you, former villains shaken by your innocence, a group or orphaned children you protect, endangered wild animals that you befriended... this character has a lot of potential for making friends in almost every situation

Flaws ought to include almost certainly an excess of candor; also a excessive tendency to trust everyone. Maybe an obliviousness for laws, social mores and/or taboos about non-evil issues.

[FiranDarcalus]

I was thinking about updating the True Innocent as a Background myself.

I see a few appropriate skills for this background: Animal Handling (animals tend to like you), Insight (you tend to be empathic), Medicine (you tend to care for others), Performance (you tend to find easy to convey the beauty of the world to others), Persuassion (you tend to be likeable) or Religion (you tend to be pious). I think picking two of them would be just about fine. Or maybe one of these and one artisan's tool or musical instrument.

Extra equipment would be simple clothes (commoner or noble), a token of affection from someone and either a musical instrument, artisan's tool, an untrained but clever pet or a trinket worth a few extra GP (another token of affection, or even the same one mentioned before).

As a Feature, people who know you as a rule tend to feel that harming you is somewhat of a taboo. Evildoers would probably pick other victims, enemies would rather choose other targets in combat unless they are especially evil, and good hearted people will feel somewhat more protective towards you than they would be towards your companions.

Personality traits could include a few childlike mannierisms, a nearly perpetual smile or other expressions of joy, or sadness.

Ideals would be related to caring for people, believing in redemption of evil, spreading joy, carelessness or love for good-aligned gods

Bonds might include people who care for you, former villains shaken by your innocence, a group or orphaned children you protect, endangered wild animals that you befriended... this character has a lot of potential for making friends in almost every situation

Flaws ought to include almost certainly an excess of candor; also a excessive tendency to trust everyone. Maybe an obliviousness for laws, social mores and/or taboos about non-evil issues.

I found this template that was pretty cool for the Innocent background. My friend and I did a little adjusting, but it was a nice start:

https://www.5esrd.com/backgrounds/fat-g ... -innocent/