Avowed Background choices, explained

Avowed allows players to customize their character in a few ways, including Background choices. You can start with one of five backgrounds, and each of them gives you a starting weapon, different starting stats, and most important of all, specialized conversation options throughout the game.

Before we proceed, let us declare it right away: backgrounds in Avowed do not play any functional role in gameplay. In Outer Worlds (Obsidian's last RPG), these used to grant you some unique stat boosts. All background does is add some flavor dialogue choices that you can pick to further a specific roleplay fantasy.

Although backgrounds could seem like they help you curry favor with specific factions, this actually doesn't ever happen in Avowed. You get no tangible advantages in any quest exclusive to your background.

That said, you cannot change your Background choice in Avowed. So you do need to make sure you’re happy with the one you pick.

---

What starting stats/weapons do you gain for each Background choice Avowed?

While creating your character in Avowed, you’ll get five Background choices to pick from. These give you specific starting stats and a basic weapon. It scarcely matters, because by the time you leave the tutorial island, you’ll have most of the basic weapons in the game. There's also no weapon proficiency system in Avowed, so there's nothing special with your starter kit.

There's really no wrong choice — it all depends on what flavor works for you (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Below is a list of all of the choices you’ll have available to you. We’ll give you the choices, and a little description of what each character archetype is like. There’s no wrong choice, but each has its own conversation specialties.

Starting Background choices

• Arcane Scholar: This is the wizard class - high essence, low health, and can easily cast powerful magic.
• Court Augur: More of a sorcerer than a wizard, dark and mysterious. Also more of a glass cannon than the Arcane Scholar.
• Noble Scion: Very balanced, standard character. Familiar with the dealings and workings of the noble court. All around decent.
• Vanguard Scout: The ranger/rogue/outlaw archetype — though they don’t start with a bow. You get a bow early on, so don’t worry. Their responses tend to be anti-Empire, so if that’s your bag, pick this one.
• War Hero: Spear-wielding fighters, they’re all about brute force and kicking the stuffing out of people. However, they start with 0 intellect and are far more of a challenge to play than the other archetypes.

Depending on the one you pick, you’ll receive very specific starting stats. However, you can change attributes in the very next page, so if you want to, you can make a War Hero who specializes in magic with 3 points in Intelligence right off the boat.

	Arcane Scholar	Court Augur	Noble Scion	Vanguard Scout	War Hero
Might	2	0	2	1	3
Constitution	0	0	1	2	2
Dexterity	2	2	2	2	1
Perception	2	3	2	3	1
Intellect	3	3	2	1	0
Resolve	1	2	1	1	3

If you're not sure what's the optimal way to allocate your stats, here's what we think are the best Attributes in Avowed to take in the beginning. There's no need to worry about it much at this point, though. The attribute respec is quite cheap in Avowed, especially early on, where it costs a meagre 100 Gold.

Ultimately, the only thing that is really important about Background choices in Avowed, is what flavor you want your character to have. Read each of the background choices carefully, because you cannot alter this once you’re in the game — other than starting over, of course.

If you want the easiest start as a beginner, Noble Scion's probably the way to go (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

As far as the choices go, I feel Noble Scion is the best pick. It has great dialogue and you start with a Sword — which does take longer to get than the other weapons. It has a solid stat spread, and you can easily go into any archetype or build this way. Arcane Scholar is also decent because it easily builds into the Swordmage archetype that's incredibly popular in Scrolls-likes.

---

Check out our other Avowed guides and features

• Avowed Beginner Tips
• Avowed Review
• Why Avowed doesn't have romance
• All Fighter Skills in Avowed, explained