5th Edition Background Anthology by CalebS92 (2024)

Backgrounds

Every story has a beginning. Your character’s background reveals where you came from, how you became an adventurer, and your place in the world. Your fighter might have been a courageous knight or a grizzled soldier. Your wizard could have been a sage or an artisan. Your rogue might have gotten by as a guild thief or commanded audiences as a jester.

Choosing a background provides you with important story cues about your character’s identity. The most important question to ask about your background is what changed? Why did you stop doing whatever your background describes and start adventuring? Where did you get the money to purchase your starting gear, or, if you come from a wealthy background, why don’t you have more money? How did you learn the skills of your class? What sets you apart from ordinary people who share your background?

The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and roleplaying suggestions.

Adventurer

Adventuring is nothing new to you. Due to the circ*mstances of how you were raised, you have been involved with wandering heroes for most of your life. Maybe you were part of an adventuring band previously, but split with them after a disagreement or tragedy. Or, perhaps you worked around heroes in a lesser role for most of your younge life, and you are now ready to graduate to the front lines.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength , Dexterity, or Constitution

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Choose one from herbalism kit, navigator's tools, or thieves' tools

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: 50 feet of rope, a small knife, a common monster part (such as an orc tusk or kobold claw) engraved with the name of a fellow adventurer, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Adventurer are well adjusted to life on the road. They are often comfortable doing dangerous things, such as dungeoneering and fighting. They can stay level-headed in the face of danger, but may not be well adjusted to other parts of life.

Anthropologist

You have always been fascinated by other cultures, from the most ancient and primeval lost lands to the most modern civilizations. By studying other cultures’ customs, philosophies, laws, rituals, religious beliefs, languages, and art, you have learned how tribes, empires, and all forms of society in between craft their own destinies and doom. This knowledge came to you not only through books and scrolls, but also through first-hand observation—by visiting far-flung settlements and exploring local histories and customs.

Ability Score Improvement: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Religion

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: A leather-bound diary, a bottle of ink, an ink pen, a set of traveler’s clothes, one trinket of special significance, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Anthropologists leave behind the societies into which they were born to discover what life is like in other parts of the world. They seek to see how other races and civilizations survive — or why they did not. Some anthropologists are driven by intellectual curiosity, while others want the fame and recognition that comes with being the first to discover a new people, a lost tribe, or the truth about an ancient empire’s downfall.

Archaeologist

An archaeologist learns about the long-lost and fallen cultures of the past by studying their remains — their bones, their ruins, their surviving masterworks, and their tombs. Those who practice archaeology travel to the far corners of the world to root through crumbled cities and lost dungeons, digging in search of artifacts that might tell the stories of monarchs and high priests, wars and cataclysms.

Ability Score Improvement: Dexterity, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: History, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Cartographer’s tools or Navigator’s tools

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A wooden case containing a map to a ruin or dungeon, a bullseye lantern, a miner’s pick, a set of traveler’s clothes, a shovel, a two-person tent, a trinket recovered from a dig site, and a pouch containing 25 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Few archaeologists can resist the lure of an unexplored ruin or dungeon, particularly if such a site is the source of legends or is rumored to contain the treasures and relics of wizards, warlords, or royalty. Some archaeologists plunder for wealth or fame, while others consider it their calling to illuminate the past or keep the world’s greatest treasures from falling into the wrong hands. Whatever their motivations, archaeologists combine the qualities of a scrappy historian with the self-made heroism of a treasure-hunting scoundrel.

Athlete

You strive to perfect yourself physically and in execution of everything you do. The thrill of competition lights fire in your blood, and the roar of the crowd drives you forward. Tales of your exploits precede you and might open doors or loosen tongues.

Whether in one of the poleis, between them, or among the nonhuman peoples of Theros, physical contests and those who pursue them command respect bordering on reverence. Athletes arise from all walks of life and all cultures and quite often cross paths with one another.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution

Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Athletics

Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (Land)

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A bronze discus or leather ball, a lucky charm or past trophy, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Competition can forge strong bonds between teammates and rivals or ignite bitter feuds that burn outside the arena. Athletes often apply lessons from their training to their lives in general.

Barkeep

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came. As a barkeep, you're a charismatic fellow that knows how to deal with people. Whether you're the life of the party or simple an ear for someone who needs advice, people from all walks of life are drawn to your trustworthy nature.

Ability Score Improvement: Constitution, Wisdom, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: Brewer's supplies

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: Common clothes, brewer's supplies, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

Cartographer

Governments, rebel groups, and merchant empires all need maps to exert control and influence. You bring order to uncharted lands by transcribing their detail with quill and parchment, thus offering creating a measure of power where there once was none. Perhaps you are drawn by the undiscovered, or you simply seek to bring order from chaos. Whatever your aims, a cartographer is an agent of discovery and control.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Perception

Tool Proficiencies: Cartographer's tools

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A set of traveler's clothes, cartographer's tools, a scrap of a map to a place you have never been, and a coin purse containing 10 gp

Charlatan

You have always had a way with people. You know what makes them tick, you can tease out their hearts’ desires after a few minutes of conversation, and with a few leading questions you can read them like they were children’s books. It’s a useful talent, and one that you’re perfectly willing to use for your advantage.

You know what people want and you deliver, or rather, you promise to deliver. Common sense should steer people away from things that sound too good to be true, but common sense seems to be in short supply when you’re around. The bottle of pink-colored liquid will surely cure that unseemly rash, this ointment — nothing more than a bit of fat with a sprinkle of silver dust — can restore youth and vigor, and there’s a bridge in the city that just happens to be for sale. These marvels sound implausible, but you make them sound like the real deal.

Ability Score Improvement: Dexterity, Wisdom, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Sleight of Hand

Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit, Forgery kit

Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a disguise kit, tools of the con of your choice (ten stoppered bottles filled with colored liquid, a set of weighted dice, a deck of marked cards, or a signet ring of an imaginary duke), and a pouch containing 15 gp

City Watch / Investigator

You have served the community where you grew up, standing as its first line of defense against crime. You aren’t a soldier, directing your gaze outward at possible enemies. Instead, your service to your hometown was to help police its populace, protecting the citizenry from lawbreakers and malefactors of every stripe.

You might have been part of the City Watch of Waterdeep, the baton-wielding police force of the City of Splendors, protecting the common folk from thieves and rowdy nobility alike. Or you might have been one of the valiant defenders of Silverymoon, a member of the Silverwatch or even one of the magic-wielding Spellguard.

Perhaps you hail from Neverwinter and have served as one of its Wintershield watchmen, the newly founded branch of guards who vow to keep safe the City of Skilled Hands.

Even if you’re not city-born or city-bred, this background can describe your early years as a member of law enforcement. Most settlements of any size have their own constables and police forces, and even smaller communities have sheriffs and bailiffs who stand ready to protect their community.

 Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Insight

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: A uniform in the style of your unit and indicative of your rank, a horn with which to summon help, a set of manacles, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Variant City Watch / Investigator: Investigator

Rarer than watch or patrol members are a community’s investigators, who are responsible for solving crimes after the fact. Though such folk are seldom found in rural areas, nearly every settlement of decent size has at least one or two watch members who have the skill to investigate crime scenes and track down criminals. If your prior experience is as an investigator, you have proficiency in Investigation rather than Athletics, and you can choose to take an ability score improvement in Intelligence rather than Strength.

Clan Crafter

The Stout Folk are well known for their artisanship and the worth of their handiworks, and you have been trained in that ancient tradition. For years you labored under a dwarf master of the craft, enduring long hours and dismissive, sour-tempered treatment in order to gain the fine skills you possess today.

You are most likely a dwarf, but not necessarily—particularly in the North, the shield dwarf clans learned long ago that only proud fools who are more concerned for their egos than their craft turn away promising apprentices, even those of other races. If you aren’t a dwarf, however, you have taken a solemn oath never to take on an apprentice in the craft: it is not for non-dwarves to pass on the skills of Moradin’s favored children. You would have no difficulty, however, finding a dwarf master who was willing to receive potential apprentices who came with your recommendation.

Ability Score Improvement: Dexterity, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: History, Insight

Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan’s tools

Languages: Dwarvish or one other of your choice if you already speak Dwarvish

Equipment: A set of artisan’s tools with which you are proficient, a maker’s mark chisel used to mark your handiwork with the symbol of the clan of crafters you learned your skill from, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 5 gp and a gem worth 10 gp

Courtier

In your earlier days, you were a personage of some significance in a noble court or a bureaucratic organization. You might or might not come from an upper-class family; your talents, rather than the circ*mstances of your birth, could have secured you this position.

You might have been one of the many functionaries, attendants, and other hangers-on in the Court of Silverymoon, or perhaps you traveled in Waterdeep’s baroque and sometimes cutthroat conglomeration of guilds, nobles, adventurers, and secret societies. You might have been one of the behind-the-scenes law-keepers or functionaries in Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter, or you might have grown up in and around the castle of Daggerford.

Even if you are no longer a full-fledged member of the group that gave you your start in life, your relationships with your former fellows can be an advantage for you and your adventuring comrades. You might undertake missions with your new companions that further the interest of the organization that gave you your start in life. In any event, the abilities that you honed while serving as a courtier will stand you in good stead as an adventurer.

Ability Score Improvement: Constitution, Wisdom, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: A set of fine clothes and a pouch containing 5 gp

Criminal / Spy

You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You’re far closer than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society.

Ability Score Improvement: Constitution, Dexterity or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth

Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, thieves’ tools

Equipment: A crowbar, a set of dark common clothes including a hood, and a pouch containing 15 gp

Variant Criminal / Spy: Spy

Although your capabilities are not much different from those of a burglar or smuggler, you learned and practiced them in a very different context: as an espionage agent. You might have been an officially sanctioned agent of the crown, or perhaps you sold the secrets you uncovered to the highest bidder.

Doctor

You are a well-trained and studied healer, sworn to cure the ailing and mend the wounded. Your talents may bring you fame and renown, or you might be regarded with suspicion by common people.

When you choose this background, work with your DM to determine the role and prominence of doctors in the world. Is medical knowledge of of your kind rare? Are there institutions that teach such healing, and if so where? Were you self-taught, apprenticed to a village healer, or educated in a medical academy?

Ability Score Improvement: Dexterity, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, and one from Arcana, Nature, or Religion

Tool Proficiencies: Healer's kit and herbalism kit

Equipment: A piece of doctor's equipment (such as a scalpel, pouch of aromatic herbs, or a small mirror), a healer's kit, a token of appreciation given to you by a patient, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

Variant Entertainer: Gladiator

A gladiator is as much an entertainer as any minstrel or circus performer, trained to make the arts of combat into a spectacle the crowd can enjoy. This kind of flashy combat is your entertainer routine, though you might also have some skills as a tumbler or actor. Using your By Popular Demand feature, you can find a place to perform in any place that features combat for entertainment — perhaps a gladiatorial arena or secret pit fighting club. You can replace the musical instrument in your equipment package with an inexpensive but unusual weapon, such as a trident or net. You can also choose to increase your Strength rather than Dexterity

Farmer

You are the most vital citizen in any land, the producer and grower of food. From a young age you learned to care for the land and do chores until dusk. From these humble origins you venture out into the world.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Nature

Tool Proficiencies: One musical instrument of your choice and vehicles (land)

Equipment: A set of common clothes, a token given to you by your family when you left home, and a small pouch containing 5 gp.

Far Traveler

Almost all of the common people and other folk that one might encounter along the Sword Coast or in the North have one thing in common: they live out their lives without ever traveling more than a few miles from where they were born.

You aren’t one of those folk.

You are from a distant place, one so remote that few of the common folk in the North realize that it exists, and chances are good that even if some people you meet have heard of your homeland, they know merely the name and perhaps a few outrageous stories. You have come to this part of Faerûn for your own reasons, which you might or might not choose to share.

Although you will undoubtedly find some of this land’s ways to be strange and discomfiting, you can also be sure that some things its people take for granted will be to you new wonders that you’ve never laid eyes on before. By the same token, you’re a person of interest, for good or ill, to those around you almost anywhere you go.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Perception

Tool Proficiencies: Any one musical instrument or gaming set of your choice, likely something native to your homeland

Languages: Any one of your choice

Equipment: One set of traveler’s clothes, any one musical instrument or gaming set you are proficient with, poorly wrought maps from your homeland, a small piece of jewelry worth 10 gp in the style of your homeland’s craftsmanship, and a pouch containing 5 gp

Feature: All Eyes on You

Your accent, mannerisms, figures of speech, and perhaps even your appearance all mark you as foreign. Curious glances are directed your way wherever you go, which can be a nuisance, but you also gain the friendly interest of scholars and others intrigued by far-off lands, to say nothing of everyday folk who are eager to hear stories of your homeland.

You can parley this attention into access to people and places you might not otherwise have, for you and your traveling companions. Noble lords, scholars, and merchant princes, to name a few, might be interested in hearing about your distant homeland and people.

Suggested Characteristics

These are the suggested characteristics for Far Traveler.

Fisher

You have spent your life aboard fishing vessels or combing the shallows for the bounty of the ocean. Perhaps you were born into a family of fisher folk, working with your kin to feed your village. Maybe the job was a means to an end — a way out of an undesirable circ*mstance that forced you to take up life aboard a ship. Regardless of how you began, you soon fell in love with the sea, the art of fishing, and the promise of the eternal horizon.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: History, Survival

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: Fishing tackle, a net, a favorite fishing lure or oiled leather wading boots, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: Harvest the Water

You gain advantage on ability checks made using fishing tackle. If you have access to a body of water that sustains marine life, you can maintain a moderate lifestyle while working as a fisher, and you can catch enough food to feed yourself and up to ten other people each day.

Suggested Characteristics

Fishers succeed only if they spend time at their jobs. As such, most fishers have a strong work ethic, and they admire others who earn their living honestly. Fishers tend to be superstitious, forming attachments to particular fishing lures or special fishing spots. They have a connection to the bodies of water in which they fish, and they think poorly of those whose actions adversely affect their livelihood.

Folk Hero

You come from a humble social rank, but you are destined for so much more. Already the people of your home village regard you as their champion, and your destiny calls you to stand against the tyrants and monsters that threaten the common folk everywhere.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Wisdom, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan’s tools, vehicles (land)

Equipment: A set of artisan’s tools (one of your choice), a shovel, an iron pot, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Defining Event

You previously pursued a simple profession among the peasantry, perhaps as a farmer, miner, servant, shepherd, woodcutter, or gravedigger. But something happened that set you on a different path and marked you for greater things. Choose or randomly determine a defining event that marked you as a hero of the people.

Feature: Rustic Hospitality

Since you come from the ranks of the common folk, you fit in among them with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among other commoners, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them. They will shield you from the law or anyone else searching for you, though they will not risk their lives for you.

Suggested Characteristics

A folk hero is one of the common people, for better or for worse. Most folk heroes look on their humble origins as a virtue, not a shortcoming, and their home communities remain very important to them.

Guild Business

Guilds are generally found in cities large enough to support several artisans practicing the same trade. However, your guild might instead be a loose network of artisans who each work in a different village within a larger realm. Work with your DM to determine the nature of your guild. You can select your guild business from the Guild Business table or roll randomly.

Feature: Guild Membership

As an established and respected member of a guild, you can rely on certain benefits that membership provides. Your fellow guild members will provide you with lodging and food if necessary, and pay for your funeral if needed. In some cities and towns, a guildhall offers a central place to meet other members of your profession, which can be a good place to meet potential patrons, allies, or hirelings.

Guilds often wield tremendous political power. If you are accused of a crime, your guild will support you if a good case can be made for your innocence or the crime is justifiable. You can also gain access to powerful political figures through the guild, if you are a member in good standing. Such connections might require the donation of money or magic items to the guild’s coffers.

You must pay dues of 5 gp per month to the guild. If you miss payments, you must make up back dues to remain in the guild’s good graces.

Suggested Characteristics

Guild artisans are among the most ordinary people in the world — until they set down their tools and take up an adventuring career. They understand the value of hard work and the importance of community, but they’re vulnerable to sins of greed and covetousness.

Hermit

You lived in seclusion — either in a sheltered community such as a monastery, or entirely alone — for a formative part of your life. In your time apart from the clamor of society, you found quiet, solitude, and perhaps some of the answers you were looking for.

Ability Score Improvement: Constitution, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, Religion

Tool Proficiencies: Harvesting kit or Herbalism kit

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A scroll case stuffed full of notes from your studies or prayers, a winter blanket, a set of common clothes, an herbalism kit, and 5 gp

Inheritor

You are the heir to something of great value — not mere coin or wealth, but an object that has been entrusted to you and you alone. Your inheritance might have come directly to you from a member of your family, by right of birth, or it could have been left to you by a friend, a mentor, a teacher, or someone else important in your life. The revelation of your inheritance changed your life, and might have set you on the path to adventure, but it could also come with many dangers, including those who covet your gift and want to take it from you — by force, if need be.

Ability Score Improvement: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Survival, plus one from among Arcana, History, and Religion

Tool Proficiencies: Your choice of a gaming set or a musical instrument

Languages: Any one of your choice

Equipment: Your inheritance, a set of traveler’s clothes, the tool you choose for this background’s tool proficiency, and a pouch containing 15 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the folk hero background below as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as an inheritor.

Your bond might be directly related to your inheritance, or to the person from whom you received it. Your ideal might be influenced by what you know about your inheritance, or by what you intend to do with your gift once you realize what it is capable of.

Part 1 | Personality and Background

Marine

You were trained for battle on sandy beaches and rocky shores. You have launched midnight raids from swift ships whose names evoke terror in the hearts of your adversaries. The water is your second home, the rain your shelter, and the crashing waves your battle cry.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (water, land)

Equipment: A dagger that belonged to a fallen comrade, a folded flag emblazoned with the symbol of your ship or company, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

Mercenary Veteran

As a sell-sword who fought battles for coin, you’re well acquainted with risking life and limb for a chance at a share of treasure. Now, you look forward to fighting foes and reaping even greater rewards as an adventurer. Your experience makes you familiar with the ins and outs of mercenary life, and you likely have harrowing stories of events on the battlefield. You might have served with a large outfit such as the Zhentarim or the soldiers of Mintarn, or a smaller band of sell-swords, maybe even more than one. (See the “Mercenaries of the North” sidebar for a collection of possibilities.)

Now you’re looking for something else, perhaps greater reward for the risks you take, or the freedom to choose your own activities. For whatever reason, you’re leaving behind the life of a soldier for hire, but your skills are undeniably suited for battle, so now you fight on in a different way.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, vehicles (land)

Equipment: A uniform of your company (traveler’s clothes in quality), an insignia of your rank, a gaming set of your choice, and a pouch containing the remainder of your last wages (10 gp)

Noble

You understand wealth, power, and privilege. You carry a noble title, and your family owns land, collects taxes, and wields significant political influence. You might be a pampered aristocrat unfamiliar with work or discomfort, a former merchant just elevated to the nobility, or a disinherited scoundrel with a disproportionate sense of entitlement. Or you could be an honest, hard-working landowner who cares deeply about the people who live and work on your land, keenly aware of your responsibility to them.

Work with your DM to come up with an appropriate title and determine how much authority that title carries. A noble title doesn’t stand on its own—it’s connected to an entire family, and whatever title you hold, you will pass it down to your own children. Not only do you need to determine your noble title, but you should also work with the DM to describe your family and their influence on you.

Is your family old and established, or was your title only recently bestowed? How much influence do they wield, and over what area? What kind of reputation does your family have among the other aristocrats of the region? How do the common people regard them?

What’s your position in the family? Are you the heir to the head of the family? Have you already inherited the title? How do you feel about that responsibility? Or are you so far down the line of inheritance that no one cares what you do, as long as you don’t embarrass the family? How does the head of your family feel about your adventuring career? Are you in your family’s good graces, or shunned by the rest of your family?

Does your family have a coat of arms? An insignia you might wear on a signet ring? Particular colors you wear all the time? An animal you regard as a symbol of your line or even a spiritual member of the family?

These details help establish your family and your title as features of the world of the campaign.

Ability Score Improvement: Dexterity, Intelligence, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: History, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a signet ring, a scroll of pedigree, and a purse containing 25 gp

Variant Noble: Knight

A knighthood is among the lowest noble titles in most societies, but it can be a path to higher status. If you wish to be a knight, choose the Retainers feature (see the sidebar) instead of the Position of Privilege feature you can also choose to increase your Strength rather than Intelligence. One of your commoner retainers is replaced by a noble who serves as your squire, aiding you in exchange for training on his or her own path to knighthood. Your two remaining retainers might include a groom to care for your horse and a servant who polishes your armor (and even helps you put it on).

As an emblem of chivalry and the ideals of courtly love, you might include among your equipment a banner or other token from a noble lord or lady to whom you have given your heart — in a chaste sort of devotion. (This person could be your bond.)

Outlander

You grew up in the wilds, far from civilization and the comforts of town and technology. You’ve witnessed the migration of herds larger than forests, survived weather more extreme than any city-dweller could comprehend, and enjoyed the solitude of being the only thinking creature for miles in any direction. The wilds are in your blood, whether you were a nomad, an explorer, a recluse, a hunter-gatherer, or even a marauder. Even in places where you don’t know the specific features of the terrain, you know the ways of the wild.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, COnstitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: One type of musical instrument or Harvesting kit

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A staff, a hunting trap, a trophy from an animal you killed, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Sage

You spent years learning the lore of the multiverse. You scoured manuscripts, studied scrolls, and listened to the greatest experts on the subjects that interest you. Your efforts have made you a master in your fields of study.

Ability Score Improvement: Constitution, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, History

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: A bottle of black ink, a quill, a small knife, a letter from a dead colleague posing a question you have not yet been able to answer, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Sailor

You sailed on a seagoing vessel for years. In that time, you faced down mighty storms, monsters of the deep, and those who wanted to sink your craft to the bottomless depths. Your first love is the distant line of the horizon, but the time has come to try your hand at something new.

Discuss the nature of the ship you previously sailed with your Dungeon Master. Was it a merchant ship, a naval vessel, a ship of discovery, or a pirate ship? How famous (or infamous) is it? Is it widely traveled? Is it still sailing, or is it missing and presumed lost with all hands?

What were your duties on board — boatswain, captain, navigator, cook, or some other position? Who were the captain and first mate? Did you leave your ship on good terms with your fellows, or on the run?

 Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Perception

Tool Proficiencies: Navigator’s tools, vehicles (water)

Equipment: A belaying pin (club), 50 feet of silk rope, a lucky charm such as a rabbit foot or a small stone with a hole in the center (or you may roll for a random trinket on the Trinkets table in chapter 5), a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Variant Sailor: Pirate

You spent your youth under the sway of a dread pirate, a ruthless cutthroat who taught you how to survive in a world of sharks and savages. You’ve indulged in larceny on the high seas and sent more than one deserving soul to a briny grave. Fear and bloodshed are no strangers to you, and you’ve garnered a somewhat unsavory reputation in many a port town, you can choose to take an increase to Charisma instead of Wisdom.

Shipwright

You have sailed into war on the decks of great ships, patching their hulls with soup bowls and prayers. You once helped build a fishing vessel that single-handedly saved a town from starvation. You have seen a majestic prow in your dreams that you have not been able to replicate in wood. Since childhood, you have loved the water and have been captivated by the many vessels that travel on it.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Intelligence, or Wisdom

Skill Proficiencies: History, Perception

Tool Proficiencies: Carpenter’s tools, vehicles (water)

Equipment: A set of well-loved carpenter’s tools, a blank book, 1 ounce of ink, an ink pen, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a leather pouch with 10 gp

Smuggler

On a rickety barge, you carried a hundred longswords in fish barrels right past the dock master’s oblivious lackeys. You have paddled a riverboat filled with stolen elven wine under the gaze of the moon and sold it for twice its value in the morning. In your more charitable times, you have transported innocents out of war zones or helped guide herd animals to safety on the banks of a burning river.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Deception

Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (water)

Equipment: A fancy leather vest or a pair of leather boots, a set of common clothes, and a leather pouch with 15 gp

Soldier

War has been your life for as long as you care to remember. You trained as a youth, studied the use of weapons and armor, learned basic survival techniques, including how to stay alive on the battlefield. You might have been part of a standing national army or a mercenary company, or perhaps a member of a local militia who rose to prominence during a recent war.

When you choose this background, work with your DM to determine which military organization you were a part of, how far through its ranks you progressed, and what kind of experiences you had during your military career. Was it a standing army, a town guard, or a village militia? Or it might have been a noble’s or merchant’s private army, or a mercenary company.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Intimidation

Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, vehicles (land)

Equipment: An insignia of rank, a trophy taken from a fallen enemy (a dagger, broken blade, or piece of a banner), a set of bone dice or deck of cards, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Suggested Characteristics

The horrors of war combined with the rigid discipline of military service leave their mark on all soldiers, shaping their ideals, creating strong bonds, and often leaving them scarred and vulnerable to fear, shame, and hatred.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I’m always polite and respectful.
2	I’m haunted by memories of war. I can’t get the images of violence out of my mind.
3	I’ve lost too many friends, and I’m slow to make new ones.
4	I’m full of inspiring and cautionary tales from my military experience relevant to almost every combat situation.
5	I can stare down a hell hound without flinching.
6	I enjoy being strong and like breaking things.
7	I have a crude sense of humor.
8	I face problems head-on. A simple, direct solution is the best path to success.

Part 1 | Personality and Background

Urban Bounty Hunter

Before you became an adventurer, your life was already full of conflict and excitement, because you made a living tracking down people for pay. Unlike some people who collect bounties, though, you aren’t a savage who follows quarry into or through the wilderness. You’re involved in a lucrative trade, in the place where you live, that routinely tests your skills and survival instincts. What’s more, you aren’t alone, as a bounty hunter in the wild would be: you routinely interact with both the criminal subculture and other bounty hunters, maintaining contacts in both areas to help you succeed.

You might be a cunning thief-catcher, prowling the rooftops to catch one of the myriad burglars of the city. Perhaps you are someone who has your ear to the street, aware of the doings of thieves’ guilds and street gangs. You might be a “velvet mask” bounty hunter, one who blends in with high society and noble circles in order to catch the criminals that prey on the rich, whether pickpockets or con artists.

As a member of an adventuring party, you might find it more difficult to pursue a personal agenda that doesn’t fit with the group’s objectives — but on the other hand, you can take down much more formidable targets with the help of your companions.

Ability Score Improvement: Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Deception, Insight, Persuasion, and Stealth

Tool Proficiencies: Choose two from among one type of gaming set, one musical instrument, and thieves’ tools

Equipment: A set of clothes appropriate to your duties and a pouch containing 20 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the criminal background below as the basis for your bounty hunter’s traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a bounty hunter.

For instance, your bond might involve other bounty hunters or the organizations or individuals that employ you. Your ideal could be associated with your determination always to catch your quarry or your desire to maintain your reputation for being dependable.

Urchin

You grew up on the streets alone, orphaned, and poor. You had no one to watch over you or to provide for you, so you learned to provide for yourself. You fought fiercely over food and kept a constant watch out for other desperate souls who might steal from you. You slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the elements, and endured sickness without the advantage of medicine or a place to recuperate. You’ve survived despite all odds, and did so through cunning, strength, speed, or some combination of each.

You begin your adventuring career with enough money to live modestly but securely for at least ten days. How did you come by that money? What allowed you to break free of your desperate circ*mstances and embark on a better life?

Ability Score Improvement: Dexterity, Constitution, or Charisma

Skill Proficiencies: Sleight of Hand, Stealth

Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit, thieves’ tools

Equipment: A small knife, a map of the city you grew up in, a pet mouse, a token to remember your parents by, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Part 1 | Personality and Background