House Rules: Backgrounds

Backgrounds allow you to customize your character based on their life before adventuring.

Your character’s background can help you learn or portray more about their personality while also suggesting what sorts of things they’re likely to know. Consider what events set your character on their path to the life of an adventurer and how those circumstances relate to their background.

At 1st level when you create your character, you gain a background of your choice. This decision is permanent; you can’t change it at later levels. Each background lists a number of options of ability boosts, skill proficiency increases, and feats. When selecting your background, choose one option from each category. You must still meet the prerequisites of the feat if any.

Table: Backgrounds

Background Ability Boost Skill Bonus Feat
Acolyte Int or Wis Lore (your deity) Believer’s Boon or Divine Communion
Animal Whisperer Wis or Cha Handle Animal or Lore (specific animal) Animal Affinity or Animal Call
Artisan Con or Int Appraise or Craft (specific type) Prodigy (Craft or Profession skills only) or Skill Focus (one type of Craft)
Artist Int or Cha Artistry (specific subject) or Lore (specific subject) Prodigy or Skill Focus (one type of Artistry)
Barfly Con or Cha Lore (alcohol) or Profession (bartender) Endurance or Persuasive
Barrister Int or Cha Lore (laws of a specific nation or region), Perform (oratory), or Profession (barrister) Deceitful or Persuasive
Blacksmith Str or Con Lore (metallurgy) or Profession (blacksmith) Prodigy or Skill Focus (Craft [armor, metalworks, weapons]]
Bounty Hunter Str or Wis Lore (criminal underworld of a specific region) or Survival Alertness or Persuasive
Carny Dex or Cha Lore (carnival or circus) or Perform (comedy) Acrobatic or Skill Focus (one type of Perform)
Courtesan Con or Cha Lore (courting customs of a specific region), Perform (act or dance), or Profession (courtesan) Acrobatic or Persuasive
Criminal Dex or Cha Appraise, Lore (criminal underworld of a specific settlement), or Sleight of Hand Black Marketeer or Deceitful
Detective Int or Wis Lore (criminal underworld of a specific settlement, or law enforcement of a specific settlement) Amateur Investigator or Street Smarts
Diplomat Wis or Cha Knowledge (nobility) or Lore (political figures of a specific nation) Cosmopolitan or Persuasive
Entertainer Wis or Cha Perform (specific type) Prodigy or Skill Focus (one type of Perform)
Farmhand Str or Con Handle Animal or Profession (farmer) Animal Affinity or Endurance
Gambler Dex or Cha Profession (gambler) or Sleight of Hand Deceitful or Deft Hands
Gladiator Str or Cha Knowledge (martial) or Perform (act) Antagonize or Toughness
Guard Str or Con Knowledge (martial) or Profession (soldier) Persuasive or Toughness
Healer Int or Wis Lore (disease) or Profession (healer) Improvisational Healer or Skill Focus (Heal)
Herbalist Int or Wis Lore (herbs) or Profession (herbalist) Nature Soul or Skill Focus (Knowledge [nature])
Hermit Con or Wis Craft (traps) or Lore (specific type of terrain) Self-Sufficient or Skill Focus (Survival)
Hunter Dex or Con Craft (traps), Profession (trapper), or Survival Animal Call or Big Game Hunter
Laborer Str or Con Knowledge (local) or Profession (porter) Endurance or Toughness
Martial Disciple Str or Dex Autohypnosis or Knowledge (martial) Autonomous or Toughness
Merchant Int or Cha Appraise or Profession (merchant) Connected or Persuasive
Miner Str or Con Lore (underground) or Profession (miner) Endurance or Toughness
Noble Int or Cha Knowledge (nobility) or Lore (social etiquette of a specific region) Dilettante or Persuasive
Nomad Con or Wis Lore (specific region or specific type of terrain) Endurance or Self-Sufficient
Prisoner Str or Con Profession (smuggler) or Sleight of Hand Deceitful or Stealthy
Sailor Con or Wis Lore (specific sea) or Profession (sailor) Corsair or Deep Diver
Scholar Int or Wis Lore (one specific subject) or Profession (librarian) Prodigy (Profession skills only) or Scholar
Scout Con or Wis Knowledge (geography) or Lore (specific type of terrain) Alertness or Stealthy
Scribe Int or Wis Artistry (literature) or Profession (scribe) Prodigy (Profession skills only) or Scholar
Servant Wis or Cha Diplomacy or Profession (driver) Alertness or Persuasive
Street Urchin Dex or Con Lore (criminal underground of a specific settlement) or Sleight of Hand Sneaky Vagabond or Street Smarts
Tinker Dex or Int Knowledge (engineering) or Profession (engineer) Prodigy or Technologist
Warrior Str or Con Knowledge (martial) or Survival Antagonize or Toughness

Acolyte

You spent your early days in a religious monastery or cloister. You may have traveled out into the world to spread the message of your religion or because you cast away the teachings of your faith, but deep inside you’ll always carry the lessons you learned.

Acrobat

In a circus or on the streets, you earned your pay by performing as an acrobat. You might have turned to adventuring when the money dried up, or when you learned to put skills to better use.

Animal Whisperer

You have always felt a connection to animals, and it was only a small leap to learn to train them. As you travel, you continuously encounter different creatures, befriending them along the way.

Barkeep

You have five specialties: hefting barrels, polishing steins, drinking, drinking, and drinking. You ran or worked in a bar, where you learned how to hold your liquor and rowdily socialize.

Blacksmith

You were a blacksmith or a blacksmith’s apprentice, and during countless hours toiling at the forge, you learned how to smith armor and weapons. Perhaps you worked hard each day and dreamed of adventure each night, or perhaps the adventuring life was thrust upon you by a pivotal event.

Bounty Hunter

Bringing in lawbreakers lined your pockets. Maybe you had an altruistic motive and sought to bring in criminals to make the streets safer, or maybe the coin was motivation enough. Your techniques for hunting down criminals transfer easily to the life of an adventurer.

Criminal

As an unscrupulous independent or as a member of an underworld organization, you lived a life of crime. You might have become an adventurer to seek redemption, to escape the law, or simply to get access to bigger and better loot.

Entertainer

Through an education in the arts or sheer, dogged practice, you learned to entertain crowds. You might have been an actor, a dancer, a musician, a magician, or any other sort of performer.

Farmhand

With a strong back and an understanding of seasonal cycles, you tilled the land and tended crops. Your farm could have been razed by invaders, you could have lost the family tying you to the land, or you might have simply tired of the drudgery, but at some point you became an adventurer.

Gladiator

The bloody games of the arena taught you the art of combat. Before you attained true fame, you departed—or escaped—the arena to explore the world. Your skill at drawing both blood and a crowd’s attention pay off in a new adventuring life.

Hunter

You stalk and take down animals and other creatures of the wild. Skinning animals, harvesting their flesh, and cooking them were also part of your training, all of which can give you useful resources while you adventure.

Laborer

You have spent years performing arduous physical labor, perhaps against your will. It was a difficult life, but you somehow survived. You may have embraced adventuring as an easier method to make your way in the world, or you might adventure under someone else’s command.

Martial Disciple

You dedicated yourself to intense training and rigorous study to become a great warrior. The school you attended might have been a traditionalist monastery, an elite military academy, or the local branch of a prestigious mercenary organization.

Merchant

In a dusty shop, market stall, or merchant caravan, you bartered wares for coin and trade goods. The skills you picked up still apply in the adventuring life, in which a deal on a suit of armor could save your life.

Noble

To the common folk, the life of a noble seems one of idyllic luxury, but growing up as a noble or member of the aspiring gentry, you know the reality: a noble’s lot is obligation and intrigue. Whether you seek to escape your duties by adventuring or to thereby better your station, you have traded silks and pageantry for an adventurer’s life.

Nomad

Traveling far and wide, you picked up basic tactics for surviving on the road and in unknown lands, getting by with few supplies and even fewer comforts. As an adventurer, you travel still, often into even more dangerous places.

Prisoner

You might have been imprisoned for crimes (whether you were guilty or not), or enslaved for some part of your upbringing. In your adventuring life, you take full advantage of your newfound freedom.

Sailor

You heard the call of the sea from a young age. Perhaps you signed onto a merchant’s vessel, joined the navy, or even fell in with a crew of pirates and scallywags.

Servant

Scholar

You have a knack for learning, and from a young age, you sequestered yourself from the outside world to learn all that you could. You’ve read about so many wondrous places and things in your books, and you’ve always dreamed about one day seeing the real things. Eventually, that curiosity led you to leave your studies and become an adventurer.

Scout

You called the wilderness home as you hunted game, found trails, and guided travelers. Your wanderlust could have called you to the adventuring life, or perhaps you were serving as a scout for soldiers and found you liked battle.

Street Urchin

You eked out a living by picking pockets on the streets of a major city, never knowing where you’d find your next meal. While some folk adventure for the glory, you adventure as a means of survival.

Tinker

Creating all sorts of minor inventions scratches your itch for problem-solving. Your engineering skills take a particularly creative bent, and no one know what you’ll come up with next. It might be a genius device with tremendous potential… or it might explode.

Warrior

As a warrior in a tribe or a member of a militia or army, you waded into battle in your younger days. You might have wanted to break out from the regimented structure of these forces, or could have always been as independent a warrior as you are now.

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