Editing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (section)

===Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide===
Many of these backgrounds are explicitly intended for use in the ''Forgotten Realms'', and will need rejiggering (some ''extreme'' rejiggering) to work elsewhere.

* ''City Watch'': It ain't easy being the law. But you've decided, if you can't beat those pesky adventurers... join 'em. You gain proficiency in Athletics and Insight, and you can find both the local cops and the local crooks pretty easily from experience.

:: ''Investigator'': A variant for the detectives in the City Watch, rather than the beat cops. Instead of an alternate background feature, you swap out Athletics for Investigation.

* ''Clan Crafter'': You trained under a master of dwarven crafts. Not ''technically'' dwarf-restricted, although non-dwarves can't take on apprentices of their own. You are proficient in History, Insight, and the tools of your trade, and your background feature gives you the undying admiration of all dwarves everywhere forever. Seriously, dwarves will fight over the ''privilege'' of giving you free room and board.

* ''Cloistered Scholar'': If Sage is the "went to college" background, yours is the "spent all high-school prepping for college, then spent all college prepping for a Masters' degree" background. You gain proficiency in History and one of the other non-Investigation Intelligence skills of your choice, and your background feature is a mirror of the Sage's: while he gets a good idea of where to go and who to ask to learn vital information, ''you'' can easily access any library in the world, paying no fees, easily navigating any political or bureaucratic hold-ups therein, and having access to all but the most secret, sacred, or dangerous of knowledge.

* ''Courtier'': The bureaucrat background. Unlike the poncy nobles, you ''earned'' your government job. You are proficient in Insight and Persuasion, and your background feature gives you an easy road map to navigating any political situation, knowing who to ask for what, and how to get ahold of things like records or minutes.

* ''Faction Agent'': Meant to interact with the "faction" semi-mechanic from the Forgotten Realms, but works just as well with other settings' big international movers and shakers. You work for some kind of big international organization, like the Harpers, the Zhentarim, or the Lords' Alliance. To that end, you're proficient in Insight and ''any one mental skill of your choice'' (so long as it fits faction theming), and your background feature gives you access to things like safe houses or meetings with other operatives that can help you out with room and board and information, though they won't risk their lives for you.

* ''Far Traveler'': The "dirty foreigner" background. You've moved into perpetually-Medieval not!Europe from somewhere else, whether not!Asia, not!Africa, the not!Middle East, etc. You are proficient in Insight, Perception, and [[Go|some game or musical instrument native to your home country]], and your background feature makes you a natural curiosity. This has a number of potential uses, whether in drawing attention in a crowd away from your sneaky friends, or being invited to parties for others to gawk at.

* ''Inheritor'': Rivaling the Folk Hero and Hermit for free-form-ness, this is one of the least-defined backgrounds in the game. You inherited a thing. That's it. Its mechanical effect is just as maddeningly inexact and "I unno figure it out yourself or ask your DM lol" as the Hermit's. Anyway, you get Survival and one skill of your choice from among Arcana, History, or Religion, hopefully related to the whatever-the-fuck you inherited.

* ''Knight of the Order'': A variant of a variant, the Knight of the Order is intended to slot into one of the many such organizations that exist in the ''Forgotten Realms''. You are proficient in Persuasion, plus either Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion, depending on what kind of Order you joined, and your background feature is basically along the lines of the Acolyte's, though with a few modifications if your order is civic or philosophical rather than religious, and with the caveat that your supporters ''will'' risk their lives to help you escape or rally to your defense if they see you wavering.

* ''Mercenary Veteran'': Technically tied to the ''Realms'', but like the Knight Order, it's easily disentangled. You're a vet from a group of famous mercenaries, and you've decided to start freelancing. You're proficient in Persuasion, because mercs need to also be businessmen, and Athletics, and your background feature not only lets you identify and locate mercs and places where mercs meet, but to maintain a comfortable lifestyle at no additional cost between adventures by freelancing around.

* ''Urban Bounty Hunter'': Awwww yeah, fantasy [[Star Wars| Boba Fett]] time! Well, sorta. You can flavor it different ways, depending on whether you hunt upper or lower crust targets. Anyway, you can pick two skills of your choice from a list of Deception, Insight, Persuasion, and Stealth, meaning it can be custom flavored for different methodologies. Your background feature gives you a contact in any city you visit who can brief you on the local people and places to best let you find your quarry.

* ''Uthgardt Tribe Member'': Explicitly a generalized "barbarian tribesperson" background, rather than strictly tied to the Uthgardt. Very similar to the Outlander, you are trained in Athletics and Survival, and your background feature lets you find twice as much food and water when you forage in the wilderness. It also lets you gain hospitality from other barbarians or nature-loving hippies, and grants you a knowledge of the geography of the North. (Or, presumably, whatever other wilderness region you were from if you're not Uthgardt.)

* ''Waterdhavian Noble'': You're a noble from the decadent city of Waterdeep, and one of the harder ones to homebrew outside of the ''Forgotten Realms'' unless a similar landscape is in play. While very similar to the Noble background, with proficiency in History and Persuasion, your background feature more-or-less just lets you live it up in the city of Waterdeep itself or the proximity thereoff without having to worry about money as your family foots the bill.