In the Backgrounds section:
Each background gives a character proficiency in two skills. Skills
are described in chapter 7. In addition, most backgrounds give a
character proficiency with one or more tools. Tools and tool
proficiencies are detailed in chapter 5. If a character would gain the
same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a
different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead.
Could a Barbarian character being created, for instance, pick Athletics and Survival as his class skills, and then when selecting a background, pick Outlander (which grants proficiency in these two skills), and then using this rule, instead pick two skills from the whole skill list?
Or is your background chosen before class skill-proficiencies?
Best Answer
Your class and all starting class features, such as skill proficiencies, are chosen before backgrounds — see PHB pages 11–15 for the order of operations. So yes, you can select overlapping skills for your barbarian before taking the Outlander background, then get to choose any two skills instead.
A minor reason you might not want to do this is because the trick locks you into choosing Outlander / not choosing any other background.