The New 2024 DnD Backgrounds (Rules Deep Dive)

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In the 2014 version of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition, the concept of backgrounds was designed to help players flesh out their character’s personality and backstory, while also providing them with a few minor in-game benefits and starting equipment. Yet for the most part, backgrounds have been an often overlooked part of the game, overshadowed in particular by the various DnD 5e classes & subclasses.

That’s about to change, however, with backgrounds becoming much more prominent in the pages of the 2024 Player’s Handbook. This includes a new approach to ability score modifiers, new skill proficiencies and the introduction of new Origin Feats.

So just how will the new 2024 DnD 5e backgrounds shape the game? Below, we dig into all the details.

Table of Contents

• What’s Changed for All DnD Backgrounds in 2024?
  • Backgrounds Now Give Ability Scores
  • Features Are Now Origin Feats
• What Are the new DnD Backgrounds?
• Are the Old DnD Backgrounds Still Compatible?

What’s Changed for DnD Backgrounds in the 2024 Rules?

In the 2014 DnD backgrounds you received the following benefits:

• Skill Proficiencies: Backgrounds granted proficiency in two skills. This allowed you to add your proficiency bonus to ability checks involving those skills.
• Tool Proficiencies: Some backgrounds provided proficiency with specific tools or instruments, which could be useful for certain checks and role-playing scenarios.
• Languages: Many backgrounds offered one or more additional languages that your character could speak, read and write.
• Equipment: All backgrounds came with a set of starting equipment, often including items that reflected your character’s previous lifestyle or profession.
• Feature: Each background included a unique feature that provided an advantage or benefit related to your character’s history. For example, the Noble background had the “Position of Privilege” feature, which allowed you to leverage your character’s noble status to obtain favors and information.

While much of this remains true in the 2024 DnD Core Books there have also been a number of critical changes which we’ve detailed below.

Backgrounds Now Provide Ability Scores

Each background has a list of three ability scores to choose from. You can increase one score by 2 points and another by 1, or you can increase all three by 1. The Wayfarer background for example, offers you the ability to increase your Dexterity, Wisdom or Charisma scores. This is a major change to the way the game functions as in the 2014 rules, ability score modifiers were based on the various DnDs races & species, not the background you chose.

Features Are Now Origin Feats

Origin Feats are designed to replace Features which were originally included in the 2014 DnD rules. But while Features offered a few minor benefits, Origin Feats are designed to offer more functionality and in-game potential. In the new 2024 DnD rules, there are 10 Origin Feats, each of which is associated with a particular Background. They are s follows:

• Alert: Add your Proficiency Bonus when you roll Initiative. Can also swap your Initiative with a willing ally in the same combat.
• Crafter: Gain proficiency with three different sets of Artisan’s Tools. Gain a 20 percent discount on nonmagical items. Can craft an item from a Fast Crafting table, which lasts until you finish another Long Rest.
• Healer: When you Utilize a Healer’s Kit as an action, a creature can expend one Hit Dice to heal. Your Proficiency Bonus is added to the roll. When you roll to determine Hit Points when healing with this feature or a spell, you can reroll the dice if it rolls a 1. You must use the new roll.
• Lucky: After finishing a Long Rest, you have a number of Luck Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You can expend one when you make a D20 Test to give yourself Advantage. You can also expend one to impose Disadvantage when a creature rolls a d20 to make an attack roll against you.
• Magic Initiate: You gain two cantrips and one level 1 spell from the Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell list, and can replace them with another spell of the same level from the same list when you gain a level. You choose Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma as your spellcasting modifier for these spells when you take this feat. You can cast these spells once per Long Rest without expending a spell slot, and can cast them again using spell slots. This feat can be taken more than once, but you must choose a different spell list each time.

• Musician: You gain proficiency with three musical instruments of your choice. At the end of a Short or Long Rest, you may play the instrument and grant Heroic Inspiration to a number of allies equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
• Savage Attacker: Once per turn, when you hit a target with a weapon attack, you can reroll the damage dice and use either roll against the target.
• Skilled: You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of your choice. You can take this feat more than once.
• Tavern Brawler: When you hit with an Unarmed Strike you can deal 1d4 + your Strength modifier. If the damage dice for your Unarmed Strikes roll is a 1, you can reroll it and must use the new roll. You have proficiency with improvised weapons. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an Unarmed Strike as part of the Attack action, in addition to dealing damage, you can push the target 5 feet away from you.
• Tough: When you first gain this Origin feat, your Hit Point maximum increases by twice your character level. Thereafter, your Hit Point maximum increases by 2 each time you level up.

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What are the new DnD Background options?

There are 16 backgrounds in the new 2024 DnD rules as follows. Notably, some of these (such as the Acolyte, Charlatan, Criminal and Entertainer) have appeared in the 2014 rules, while others (such as the Farmer, Guard, Merchant and Wayfarer) are completely new having never appeared in

• Acolyte: You were a devoted servant in a place of worship. You learned the rituals of your faith and how to channel divine power as part of your service.
• Artisan: You worked your way up from scrubbing floors to an apprenticeship creating your own crafts. You know how to schmooze a customer and have a keen eye for detail.
• Charlatan: You have learned to seek out a mark in taverns and pubs, and find the people most in search of less than honest goods, such as forgeries or sham magic items.
• Criminal: Whether you were a member of a criminal crew or a solo thief who only looked out for yourself, you know the best ways to slice some purse strings or how to find alternative means to enter a locked shop.
• Entertainer: You’ve spent your life on either a literal or proverbial stage, performing for willing audiences. You have learned how to channel your talent for creation into a crowd-pleasing art form.
• Farmer: You’ve tilled the soil or raised animals as livestock or to aid you in cultivating your fields. You’ve gained a healthy respect for nature, in both its bounty and its wrath.

• Guard: You’ve put in your time standing watch over a city or location. You’ve had your head on a swivel, keeping a watchful eye on raiding enemies on one side of a wall or criminal elements on the other.
• Guide: Your life was mostly spent outdoors, exploring the natural wonders around you. In your travels, you learned the basics of how to channel the magic of the wild world around you.

• Hermit: Whether alone in a hut or as part of a monastery, you’ve spent a considerable amount of time outside the trappings of society. You’ve grown comfortable pondering the wonders and mysteries of creation.
• Merchant: As an apprentice to a trader or shopkeeper, you traveled either supplying artisans with the materials they needed or acquiring their goods to sell to your customers. You know how to make a deal and how to handle a long journey.
• Noble: You grew up in the opulence and structure of wealth and societal privilege. You may have bristled against the restrictions and expectations of your role, but you learned a lot about courtly intrigue and the skills of leadership.
• Sage: Your thirst for knowledge drew you to some of the greatest libraries and archives in the world. You’ve got a knack for research and perhaps a rudimentary knowledge of magic gleaned from a book or two.
• Sailor: You called the open water your home, survived some of the sea’s harshest storms. You’ve swapped stories with the best of them, whether that’s on the barstool of a random port or the denizens of the world beneath the waves.
• Scribe: The written word has been your domain, either copying tomes, crafting government documents, or producing your own texts. Your eye for detail and ability to catch errors and mistakes is finely honed.
• Soldier: You can hardly remember a time when you didn’t wield a weapon. You’re well-versed in the ways of battle and war to protect the realm, and you have the muscle memory to prove it.
• Wayfarer: An urchin or societal castoff, you learned to survive. Forging your own path on the streets and possibly turning to crime when needed, you’ve managed to keep your pride and hope that destiny has more for you yet.

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Are the Old 2014 DnD Backgrounds Still Compatible?

There are almost 100 backgrounds that have appeared in previously released DnD 5e books. And while only a fraction are appearing in the new 2024 Player’s Handbook, Wizards of the Coast has said they are all backwards compatible. When using an older DnD 5e background, there are two adjustments you’ll need to make:

• Add Ability Scores Modifiers: You will need to select the ability scores you want to add your 3 total points to (either increasing by +2/+1 or adding +1 to all three scores).
• Determine Your Origin Feats: If the older background does not provide a comparable Feature, you gain the Origin Feat of your choice.

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Final Thoughts on the New DnD Backgrounds

The changes to backgrounds are one of the biggest changes to the new 2024 DnD 5e rules, particularly in how they now inform ability scores (rather than races/species) and include new Origin Feats that provide more tangible in-game benefits. It feels like a smart move from Wizards of the Coast that reflects more modern sensibilities while also offering more flexibility in terms of mechanics.

You can find the complete rules for the new DnD backgrounds in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, which is available for pre-order now on D&D Beyond and Amazon.

Below is also a video from the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel, with DnD lead designer Jeremy Crawford offering details on the changes to backgrounds and species.

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