I don't like the term "Background." I prefer backstory. When considering your character's motivation, struggles and challenges. I love to have a stories within stories - what the 'campaign' is about, and what your specific character is about intertwines within that narrative to resolve past trauma or some mysterious character plot hook.

Campaign offerings-wise; LitRPG doesn't really need to worry about this, but for TPK, the story IS your character's backstory, and you'll get out it what you put into it, promise.

Acolyte

You have spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods. You act as an intermediary between the realm of the holy and the mortal world, performing sacred rites and offering sacrifices in order to conduct worshipers into the presence of the divine. You are not necessarily a cleric-performing sacred rites is not the same thing as channeling divine power.

Choose a god, a pantheon of gods, or some other quasi-divine, and work with your DM to detail the nature of your religious service. Were you a lesser functionary in a temple, raised from childhood to assist the priests in the sacred rites? Or were you a high priest who suddenly experienced a call to serve your god in a different way? Perhaps you were the leader of a small cult outside of any established temple structure, or even an occult group that served a fiendish master that you now deny.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Religion

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: A holy symbol (a gift to you when you entered the priesthood), a prayer book or prayer wheel, 5 sticks of incense, vestments, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

Feature: Shelter of the Faithful

As an acolyte, you command the respect of those who share your faith, and you can perform the religious ceremonies of your deity. You and your adventuring companions can expect to receive free healing and care at a temple, shrine, or other established presence of your faith, though you must provide any material components needed for spells. Those who share your religion will support you (but only you) at a modest lifestyle.

You might also have ties to a specific temple dedicated to your chosen deity or pantheon, and you have a residence there. This could be the temple where you used to serve, if you remain on good terms with it, or a temple where you have found a new home. While near your temple, you can call upon the priests for assistance, provided the assistance you ask for is not hazardous and you remain in good standing with your temple.

Amnesiac

You... don't even know who you were before becoming an Adventurer. You come up with so many different ideas of who you were, ideas that would keep you up at night. You adventure, dig through history, investigate on huge leads, hoping that they'd bring you one step closer to finding out who you truly are... That is if you even want to know who you are...

Skill Proficiencies: History,

Tool Proficiencies: One of your choice (After the game starts, with advantage if after 5th level)

Languages: one of your choice (After the game starts)

Equipment: A trinket clue from your past, a set of commoner's clothes, a note, and a belt pouch containing 5 gp.

Anthropologist

Anthropologists leave behind the societies into which they were born to discover what life is like in other parts of the world.

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

Archaeologist

Few archaeologists can resist the lure of an unexplored ruin or dungeon

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

Black Fist Double Agent

You are an informant for the Tears of Virulence who now lord over Phlan, but are also a double agent for original town guard of Phlan, the Black Fists. For the Tears you’ve been tasked with ferreting out the secrets of Phlan's criminal underworld, insurgency, and the common peoples of Phlan. In exchange for reporting on the activities of dissenters, criminals, and other rebel elements, the Tears of Virulence leave you alone to conduct your affairs in peace.

In reality you work for the deposed Black Fists, sharing misinformation with the Tears of Virulence that often helps the Black Fists and other phlan insurgents.

Since the evacuation of Phlan, you are even busier today than you ever were previously, as the number of dissenters among the refugees grows daily, while you are afforded many opportunities to spy on the peoples of Mulmaster and Elventree, to the pleasure of your contact(s) within the Tears of Virulence.

Skill Proficiencies. Deception, Insight

Tool Proficiencies. Disguise Kit, and one type of artisan's tools or gaming set

Equipment. Disguise kit, common clothes, a Tears of Virulence emblem, a writ of free agency signed by the Lord Regent, a set of artisan's tools or gaming set you are proficient with, and a pouch with 15 gp (payment for services rendered).

Lifestyle. Moderate

Caravan Specialist

Skill Proficiencies. Animal Handling, Survival

Tool Proficiencies. Land Vehicles

Languages. One of your choice

Equipment. A whip, a tent, a regional map, a set of traveling clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp Lifestyle. Poor

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.

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 belt pouch containing 15 gp

Child of War

You were born in a war-torn country, and your history reflects this. Whether you were the only survivor of the ransacking of your birth city or you come from a long line of weary soldiers and broken families, you have had to live on your own for years, and have become quite self-sufficient and hearty because of it. You may not be who people look at and think of as a hero, and you are definitely not a leader, but you have lived outside of society for long enough that neither of these things bother or influence you. Instead, you adventure for your own purposes, though what those might be are for you alone to know...

Skill proficiencies:Stealth, Survival

Tool proficiency: Vehicles (Land)

Languages: One language of your choice

Equipment: A locket or other keepsake that belonged to someone important to you, tinder and flint, a first aid kit, 50’ of rope, a dagger, a horse or other mount.

Varient Feature: Vengeful Agent

While you might be hunted and demonized by those who destroyed your home, you still have some friends out there who are more than willing to help you repay the... "kindness" you have been shown. When you go to a village, town or city that reasonablely could hold some of your former allies, they may be willing to provide you with food and shelter, as well as information on the activities of your mutual enemies, including potential weak points and targets. If you are deep in enemy territory and are a known threat to your enemies, however, only the most staunch of your former allies will be willing to risk their security for you.

The Choosen

You are chosen of a god or goddess and are now a pawn in a much bigger game. Some gods care for their chosen, while some gods let their chosen survive or die on their own wits and strength. Chosen are chosen from several backgrounds as street rats to nobles are all called to some purpose. Who has chosen you changes who and what you are or could become.

Skill Proficiencies: Religion or Arcana

Tool Proficiencies: Inquisitive Kit or Thieves’ Tools

Languages: Common or one of your choice

Equipment: Choose an equipment package from another background. This reflects your former life before you realized you were chosen.

The Chosen One, ... almost

Thousands of years ago a prophecy in your kingdom foretold of a great evil rising to power and of a great good that would vanquish that evil. It was said that that person would be born under the right combination of stars, with the right hair color, the right eye color, and a birthmark in one specific place. Sadly your older twin is the one with the birthmark, not you. This left you with a life of being ignored. Maybe your parents still loved you for who you were but the country had no care as to what you would do with your life, leaving you to teach yourself. Still everything you ever did was overshadowed by your older sibling. Did they do this on purpose? Were they intentionally trying to make you look bad to make everyone love them more, or was it simply the nature of who they were that caused them to be in the way of every step you made? Were your parents always supportive of you despite you not becoming the great good that would vanquish evil, were they extra hard on you so that you could still have a life of meaning, or did they cast you aside, allowing you to do whatever you pleased because they had already given up hope of you achieving anything? How many times have you pretended to be your sibling in order to get favors, or maybe just feel the love that they are given? Whatever the case you grew up with much hatred and resentment in your heart, did you pursue a holy life to try to purge you of this hatred or did you embrace it, seeking to bring about the evil your sibling was fated to destroy, only to murder your sibling after wards?

Skill Proficiencies: Stealth (no one is looking anyway) and Deception

Tool Proficiencies: Disguise Kit (good), Forgery Kit (Neutral), Thieves' Tools (Evil)

Languages: Any One

Equipment: Common Clothes; 1 days rations; 1 water skin; Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit, or Theives' Tools depending on proficencies

Feature: Sibling of the Chosen One

Due to the status of your sibling, people don't look in your direction if your sibling is near. Everyone is too awestruck by your sibling, and, to be blunt, don't give two flying chamber pots about you. However, you can get certain things for free, like whatever you can get your hands on while no one is looking. Sometimes you can even get a free room or service by promising the Chosen one will visit an establishment.

SOURCE: Homebrew

City Watch

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.

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.

• 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

Source: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, page 145

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 fin e s kills you possess today.

You are most likely a dwarf, but not necessarily. 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 nondwarves to pass on the skills of those that live in the Mror Holds. You would have no difficulty, however, finding a dwarf master who was willing to receive potential apprentices who came with your recommendation.

• Skill Proficiencies: History, Insight
• Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan's tools
• Languages: One of your choice
• 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

Cloistered Scholar

As a child, you were inquisitive when your playmates were possessive or raucous. In your formative years, you found your way to one of Khorvaire's great institutes of learning , where you were apprenticed and taught that knowledge is a more valuable treasure than gold or gems. Now you are ready to leave your home—not to abandon it, but to quest for new lore to add to its storehouse of knowledge.

The most well known of Khorvaire fonts of knowledge is the Library of Korranberg. The great library is always in need of workers and attendants, some of whom rise through the ranks to assume roles of greater responsibility and prominence. You might be one of Korranberg's own, dedicated to the curatorship of what is likely the most complete body of lore and history in all the world. Perhaps instead you were taken in by the scholars of the Morgrave University or University of Wynarn. Now you have struck out to increase your knowledge and to make yourself available to help those in other places who seek your expertise. You might be one of the few who aid Arcane Congress, helping to catalogue and maintain records of the information that arrives daily from across Khorvaire.

• Skill Proficiencies: History, plus your choice of one from among Arcana, Nature, and Religion
• Languages: Two of your choice
• Equipment: The scholar's robes of your cloister, a writing kit (small pouch with a quill, ink, folded parchment, and a small penknife), a borrowed book on the subject of your current study, and a pouch containing 10 gp

SOURCE: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, page 146

Convict

You were recently released from captivity after spending years surviving in prison. Whether or not you were justly accused or captured by an enemy, you learned to adapt to a life of confinement, and to handle your fellow inmates.

Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Sleight of Hand.

Tool Proficiencies: Cards and dice.

Languages: Thieves' Cant.

Equipment:Common clothing, dagger, one random trinket from page 160-161 of the Player's Handbook, a self-made gaming set, and self-made thieves tools.

CUSTOMIZATION There are various reasons you might have been imprisoned. Roll on or choose from the following table.

Cormanthor Refugee

You are one of hundreds of refugees that were driven from Hillsfar or that fled the destruction of Myth Drannor and who now shelter in hidden camps under the northern eaves of the Cormanthor Forest. If you up grew in the camps, you have never been to a settlement other than the village of Elventree. As a guest of the elves, you have learned their ways and the ways of the forest. You are also a traumatized, as residual wild magic, energies released by the fall of Thultanar upon Myth Drannor, and the constant fear of raids hunting for non-humans to fight in Hillsfar's Arena have taken their toll on you, as they have on everyone in the camps.

Skill Proficiencies. Nature, Survival

Language Proficiencies. Elven

Tool Proficiencies. One type of artisan's tools

Equipment. A two-person tent, artisan's tools, a holy symbol, a set of traveler's clothes, a belt pouch, 5 gp

Lifestyle. Poor

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 circumstances 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 Fairhaven, or perhaps you traveled in Sharn'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 Korth or Thaliost, or you might have grown up in and around the birth of Regalport.

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.

• Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion
• Languages: Two of your choice
• Equipment: A set of fine clothes, identification papers with a portrait and a pouch containing 20 gp

Criminal

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.

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 belt pouch containing 15 gp

Doctor

You were a surgeon, barber, country doctor, field medic, nurse, or another medical professional. Healing wounds, treating diseases, and creating medicines for others in need was how you spent your days. While illness and injury make many uncomfortable, they are areas in which you thrive. When others panic, you're working on a cure or stopping the bleeding..

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine (at 8th level gain advantage on checks)

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit, Poisoner's Kit

Equipment: A preserved medical anomaly (such as a deformed skull or appendix), an herbalism kit, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

Dragon Casualty

When the Maimed Virulence descended upon Phlan, you were one of the unfortunate casualties of war. Captured during the initial assault, you have spent the last year of your life as a plaything of a capricious and malevolent overlord.

While many of your fellow prisoners fell to the dragon's insatiable fury over the coming months, you and your fellow "survivors" were spared only for a worse fate as one of the dragon's magical experiments, leaving you and those who survived the torture scarred and disfigured.

What reasons the dragon had for releasing you few survivors, nobody knows. You only fear that those who died under his terrible claw were the lucky ones, and you and your fellow Dragonscarred are doomed for a fate worse than death.

Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Special (see origin below)

Languages: Draconic Equipment: A dagger, tattered rags, a loaf of moldy bread, a small cast-off scale belonging to Vorgansharax – the Maimed Virulence, and a pouch with 5 gp of various coins (salvaged during your escape from Phlan)

Lifestyle: Wretched

Drifter

You've spent most of your life moving from place to place, never settling down in one location for long. Maybe your family was part of a traveling circus, or perhaps you are an outlaw on the run. As you've wandered, you've dealt with people of all backgrounds and from all walks of life.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: vehicles (land)

Languages: Any two standard languages of your choice

Equipment: A set of traveler's clothes, souvenirs from various places you've called home, belt pouch containing 15gp.

Duelist

You are a travelling combatant, always on the lookout for a new challenger. You duel with those who seem competent enough to push you further. You might use swords, magic, or even games of chance to test yourself and your chosen foe. In the end there is nothing more important to you than proving of your mettle.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight , Intimidation

Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A token of favor from an admirer (a handkerchief, flower, or love letter), a set of bone dice or deck of cards, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a belt pouch containing 12 gp

Earthspur Miner

You are a down-on your luck miner from the Earthspur Mountains who is no stranger to hardship. You have spent a great deal of time living among the dwarves, goliaths, and denizens of the Underdark that also work mines in the area. At this point, you're just as comfortable working underground as above. You know how to read a seam, dicker for supplies with the deep gnomes, party with dwarves, and find your way back to the surface afterwards. Unfortunately, you haven't struck it rich…yet. Although you've come to Mulmaster looking for work, the tall peaks and deep mines of the Earthspurs still call to you.

Skill Proficiencies. Athletics, Survival

Languages. Dwarven and Undercommon

Equipment. A shovel or a miner's pick, a block and tackle, a climber's kit, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 5 gp.

Lifestyle. Poor

Entertainer

You thrive in front of an audience. You know how to entrance them, entertain them, and even inspire them. Your poetics can stir the hearts of those who hear you, awakening grief or joy, laughter or anger. Your music raises their spirits or captures their sorrow. Your dance steps captivate, your humor cuts to the quick. Whatever techniques you use, your art is your life.

Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Performance

Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit, one type of musical instrument

Equipment: A musical instrument (one of your choice), the favor of an admirer (love letter, lock of hair, or trinket), a costume, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

Faction Agent

Many organizations active in the North and across the face of Faerun aren't bound by strictures of geography. These factions pursue their agendas without regard for political boundaries, and their members operate anywhere the organization deems necessary. These groups employ listeners, rumormongers, smugglers, sellswords, cache-holders (people who guard caches of wealth or magic for use by the faction's operatives), haven keepers, and message drop minders, to name a few. At the core of every faction are those who don't merely fulfill a small function for that organization, but who serve as its hands, head, and heart.

As a prelude to your adventuring career (and in preparation for it), you served as an agent of a particular faction in Faerun. You might have operated openly or secretly, depending on the faction and its goals, as well as how those goals mesh with your own. Becoming an adventurer doesn't necessarily require you to relinquish membership in your faction (though you can choose to do so), and it might enhance your status in the faction.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight and one Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma skill of your choice, as appropriate to your faction

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: Badge or emblem of your faction, a copy of a seminal faction text (or a code-book for a covert faction), a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 15 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 Faerun 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.

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 that depict where you are in Faerun, a small piece of jewelry worth 10 gp in the style of your homeland's craftsmanship, and a pouch containing 5 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Farmer

You have worked the land and hand—raised livestock from birth to feed the mouths of many. As a farmer, you woke up before the and sun came in from working the fields after it set. You worked the land for many years, or perhaps even owned a farm of your own. For some reason, that path is closed to you now. Maybe your farm was razed during the Last War. Maybe days of work under the hot sun no longer appealed to you. In any case, you sold what you could and equipped yourself for a more exciting future. You have left behind a mundane life to seek adventure for thrill or fame or fortune or cause there is nothing else.

You could have mainly worked with animals as a dairy farmer, or a small plot in the woods, or as a fungus farmer, or worked as a hand on a vineyard. Figure out the kind of farmer you where and work with your DM to determine the types of livestock and crops you had on your farm.

• Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Nature
• Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (land)
• Languages: One of your choice
• Equipment: A relative's recipe for homemade stew, an iron pot, 50 feet of hemp rope, 2 gp worth of trade goods (your choice), a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch with 5 gp

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.

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 belt pouch containing 10 gp

Gate Urchin

All traffic into and out of the City of Trade passes through the Hillsfar Gate, making it the ideal place for the destitute to gather to panhandle, busk, gossip, and pick pockets. You grew up on the streets in the shadow of that great steel edifice, which houses both Red Plumes and Guild Mages. Though you may have moved on, you still have friends among them, and that life has had a lasting impact on you.

Skill Proficiencies. Deception, Sleight of Hand

Tool Proficiencies. Thieves' tools, one type of musical instrument

Equipment. A battered alms box, a musical instrument, a cast-off military jacket, cap, or scarf, a set of common clothes, a belt pouch, and 10 gp

Lifestyle. Poor

Gladiator

You have gained some fame (or infamy) by participating in the sport of armed combat, being pitted in battle against other gladiators, wild animals, and magical beasts for the enjoyment of the masses. Sometimes these battles are preceded by competitions of martial skill such as archery contests, chariot races, or foot races through dangerous obstacle courses.

Gladiatorial combats may be held in public arenas, sponsored by a ruler or government, or could be clandestine, held underground in secret clubs, for the profit of a criminal organization. You may have become a gladiator by choice or against your will, after having been captured or sold into slavery. Or perhaps you were even a criminal, condemned to the arena as punishment, who succeeded despite the odds. Maybe you fought in the Burning Ring in Sharn, work with your DM.

• Skill Proficiencies: Performance, and your choice of either Athletics or Acrobatics
• Tools Proficiencies: Disguise kit, one type of gaming set
• Equipment: A costume, a trinket (such as a title belt, ornate sash, badge, or trophy) from a gladiatorial competition that you won, an unusual weapon (such as a net, scimitar, or trident), and a purse containing 15 gp.

Guard

You have the skills to protect other people and their possessions. In the past you may have been a bodyguard protecting a traveling merchant caravan, protecting an important person or a security guard protecting a place of business. Likely you've done a bit of all of those tasks over the years. However, keeping other people's gold safe gets old after a while. Eventually you decided to go out and find your own gold...though sometimes you still have to take the occasional guard job to pay the bills

Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Perception Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set Languages: one of your choice (After the game starts)

Equipment: A set of common clothes, a set of bone dice, a belt pouch continuing 10gp

FEATURE: Steadfast You are used to spending long periods of time waiting but being on high alert the entire time. During a long rest you can perform light activities such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for 4 hours instead of the maximum of 2 hours.

Guild Artisan

You are a member of an artisan’s guild, skilled in a particular field and closely associated with other artisans. You are a well-established part of the mercantile world, freed by talent and wealth from the constraints of a feudal social order. You learned your skills as an apprentice to a master artisan, under the sponsorship of your guild, until you became a master in your own right.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan’s tools

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A set of artisan’s tools (one of your choice), a letter of introduction from your guild, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

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.

Variant Guild Artisan: Guild Merchant

Instead of an artisans’ guild, you might belong to a guild of traders, caravan masters, or shopkeepers. You don’t craft items yourself but earn a living by buying and selling the works of others (or the raw materials artisans need to practice their craft). Your guild might be a large merchant consortium (or family) with interests across the region. Perhaps you transported goods from one place to another, by ship, wagon, or caravan, or bought them from traveling traders and sold them in your own little shop. In some ways, the traveling merchant’s life lends itself to adventure far more than the life of an artisan.

Rather than proficiency with artisan’s tools, you might be proficient with navigator’s tools or an additional language. And instead of artisan’s tools, you can start with a mule and a cart.

Haunted One

You are haunted by something so terrible that you dare not speak of it. You've tried to bury it and flee from it, to no avail. This thing that haunts you can't be slain with a sword or banished with a spell. It might come to you as a shadow on the wall, a bloodcurdling nightmare, a memory that refuses to die, or a demonic whisper in the dark. The burden has taken its toll, isolating you from others and making you question your sanity. You must find a way to overcome it before it destroys you.

• Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Arcana, Investigation, Religion, and Survival
• Tools Proficiencies: One type of gaming set or musical instrument
• Languages: Choose one exotic language (Argon, Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, Reidran, Sahuagin, or Undercommon)
• Equipment: A monster hunter's pack (see the sidebar), a set of common clothes, and one trinket of special significance (choose one or roll on the Gothic Trinkets table), and a belt punch containing 10gp.

Healer

Whether you were a tribal witch-doctor, a medicine-man, a holy healer, a military field medic, or a genuine medical professional from some unusually enlightened society, you specialize in the treatment of suffering. You have seen injury, disease, poison, and death, and still you have defied it all, fighting to save that every last soul. As a medical professional, you have sworn an oath to help those who are sick. You have pledged your life to protect life, that all who suffer are your patient, to support other doctors as family, to train any who swear the oath, to practice to the best of your ability, to always improve upon the art, to practice only your specialization, to practice not for your own gain, to practice within the law, and to keep all of your patients' secrets.

• Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, Nature
• Tool Proficiencies: Healer's Kit, herbalism kit
• Equipment: Healer's kit or herbalism kit, healer's robes, blanket, a badge or identification papers that identifies you as a healer, pouch with 10 gp

Hermit

You lived in seclusion—either in a sheltered community such as a monastery, or entirely a lone—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.

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, Religion

Tool Proficiencies: 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

Other Hermits

This hermit background assumes a contemplative sort of seclusion that allows room for study and prayer. If you want to play a rugged wilderness recluse who lives off the land while shunning the company of other people, look at the outlander background. On the other hand, if you want to go in a more religious direction, the acolyte might be what you’re looking for. Or you could even be a charlatan, posing as a wise and holy person and letting pious fools support you.

Hillsfar Merchant

Before becoming an adventurer, you were a successful merchant operating out Hillsfar, the City of Trade. Your family operated warehouses, organized caravans, managed stores, or owned a ship and has trade contacts throughout the Moonsea region, as well as up and down the length of the Sword Coast. Perhaps they import ore, uncut gems, untreated furs, or grain into the City of Trade, or they export fine cloth, faceted gems, fine furs, or Dragon's Breath, a brandy-like liquor. Regardless, you've largely given that life up for some reason and have chosen to seek adventure instead. Nevertheless, the training you received then, and perhaps the contacts you made, serve you well as an adventurer.

Skill Proficiencies. Insight, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies. Vehicles (land) and vehicles (water)

Equipment. A fine set of clothes, a signet ring, a letter of introduction from your family's trading house, and a purse containing 25 gp.

Lifestyle. Wealthy

Choose one of the following features:

Hillsfar Smuggler

Hillsfar is the City of Trade. However, the Great Law of Trade only protects "legitimate" trade, trade that passes through the city's sole gate, which the Red Plumes monitor and tax. And the Great Law of Humanity banishes non-humans from the city altogether. The two Great Laws create great demand and great risk for smugglers, who shepherd illicit goods and non-humans into and out of the city by secret routes. The Rogues Guild tightly controls all of this activity, taking its cut from sanctioned jobs and exacting punishment for independent jobs.

Perhaps you trafficked Dragon's Breath (a brandy-like liquor) to avoid tariffs or contraband to avoid seizure, or maybe you are a human who sympathizes with the non-humans and worked as part of the network of secret routes and safe houses that helps them pass through Hillsfar. Either way, you have contacts in the smuggling community who can help you slip into and out of the city unnoticed, for a price.

Skill Proficiencies. Perception, Stealth

Language Proficiencies. One racial language

Tool Proficiencies. Forgery kit

Equipment. A forgery kit, a set of common clothes, a belt pouch, and 5 gp

Lifestyle. Modest

House Renegade

Sometimes being a member of a dragonmarked house means power, prestige, and influence. Sometimes it means living firmly under the thumb of a controlling relative until you can find a way to escape. Congratulations—you've found a way.

You adventure because it's better than the alternative, a tightly controlled life as part of a dragonmarked house. Your family thinks you should be home, putting your talents to use in the service of your house. Your mother wants you where she can keep an eye on you and make sure you don't get into any trouble. Your father wants to find you someone appropriate to marry and keep your children close at hand.

Fundamentally, you adventure because you know your family hates it. You might not know yet what you want to do with your life–adventuring might just be something you're doing to kill time until you figure it out–but you know it won't involve the work of your house. Clearly, you've got a rebellious streak. You don't necessarily reject all authority, but you certainly don't like to be under anyone's thumb. But you're not bad at heart. Is it so wrong to want to shape your own destiny?

• Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among History, Insight, Perception, Persuasion, and Performance
• Tool Proficiencies: Choose one artisan tool set
• Languages: Choose one language
• Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a set of artisan tools with which you are proficient, a signet ring, identification documents and a pouch containing 10 gp.

House Scion

You were born to one of the thirteen dragonmarked houses that wield enormous power throughout Khorvaire. Perhaps you have manifested one of the magical dragonmarks that showed your descent from a house member, or were born to someone who was granted member-ship or married into a house; regardless, you have lived a life of privilege and responsibility.

The House Scion is a member of a dragonmarked house who embraces his heritage but keeps is distance from the administration of the house. Young heirs often wish to see the world before settling down in one of the house guilds. Some scions are carefree wanderers with no interest in politics and economics. Some are independents, seeking to establish their own personal businesses instead of joining one of the major bound house arms. Some have a deep interest in gaining power in their house, but believe that building powerful allies in the outside world as the best means to do so.

When you choose this background pick a dragonmarked house based on your race, consult the following table as well as a particular set of skill and language/tool proficiencies, and starting equipment.

House Jorasco

The Mark of Healing first appeared among the halflings of the Talenta Plains about three thousand years ago, but the Jorasco family eventually moved its headquarters to Karrnath to better serve greater Khorvaire. For this reason, most of the Jorasco halflings are cosmopolitan and cultured in the traditions of the Five Nations, with few ties to the ancient nomadic ways of the Plains.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Healing
• Race: Halfling
• Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Medicine
• Tool Proficiencies: Healer's kit, herbalism kit
• Equipment: A healer's kit with Jorasco insignia, an herbalism kit, a set of common clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Kundarak

Possessing great wealth and the magical Mark of Warding, the dwarves of House Kundarak have established themselves as the bankers and moneylenders of Khorvaire, as well as providers of persistent security for businesses and precious goods.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Warding
• Race: Dwarf
• Skill Proficiencies: History, Persuasion
• Tool Proficiencies: Artisan tools, thieves' tools
• Equipment: A set of artisan's tools (one of your choice), a lockbox with Kundarak insignia, an abacus, a set of fine clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Lyrandar

Hosue Lyrandar dominates two quite different fields. The Windwrights Guild controls the shipping trade, while the smaller Raincallers Guild has made a fortune through control of the weather. The half-elves of Lyrandar might be farmers, sailors, raincallers, or diplomats serving the interests of the Khoravar people.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Storm
• Race: Half-elf
• Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Survival
• Tool Proficiencies: Navigator's tools, choose either vehicles (air) or vehicles (water)
• Equipment: A set of navigator's tools, a set of fine clothes, a set of traveler's clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Medani

The half-elves of House Medani carry the Mark of Detection. House Medani originated in pre-Galifar Breland fifteen hundred years ago, using its abilities to detect threats to foresee dangers and establish a base of power related to knowledge in the wake of the War of the Mark.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Detection
• Race: Half-elf
• Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Search
• Languages: One of your choice Tool Proficiency: Inquisitive's kit
• Equipment: A pair of manacles with Medani insignia, a bull's-eye lantern, a flask of oil, a set of fine clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Orien

The humans of House Orien bear the Mark of Passage. The house originated in pre-Galifar Aundair almost two thousand years ago; its abilities related to transporation and teleportation quickly earned it a place among the economic powers.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Passage
• Race: Human
• Skill Proficiencies: History, Survival
• Tool Proficiencies: Navigator's tools, vehicles (land)
• Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a set of traveler's clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

House Phiarlin

The Mark of Shadow grants divinatory and illusory powers to those who possess it. The Entertainers and Artisans Guild of House Phiarlan provides gifted members of both professions with gainful employment. The house's true work, done in secret, involves information brokering and espionage.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Shadow
• Race: Elf
• Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion, Stealth
• Tool Proficiencies: Artisan's tools, disguise kit
• Equipment: A disguise kit, a set of costume clothes or a set of artisan's tools (your choice), a set of fine clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Sivis

Using natural talent and the Mark of Scribing, the gnomes of House Sivis have established themselves as the masters of the written and spoken word. In addition to maintaining the lines of mystical communication that connect the nations of Khorvaire, House Sivis provides translators, notaries, mediators, and advocates to cities across the continent.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Scribing
• Race: Gnome
• Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Insight Languages: Two of your choice
• Equipment: A scroll case with Sivis insignia, a bottle of black ink, a quill, 10 sheets of parchment, a set of fine clothes, a signet ring, identification documents, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Tharashk

The humans and half-orcs of House Tharashk use the Mark of Finding to work as prospectors, inquisitives, and bounty hunters. The Mark of Finding first appeared in the Shadow Marches about one thousand years ago.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Finding
• Race: Half-orc, Human
• Skill Proficiencies: Search, Survival
• Tool Proficiencies: Mounts (land), navigator's tools
• Equipment: An explorer's pack with Tharashk insignia, a set of common clothes, a set of traveler's clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp

House Thuranni

Once part of House Phiarlan, the elves of House Thuranni formed their own house during the Last War as the conflict began to turn various house factions against each other. Now Thuranni competes directly with Phiarlan in the areas of espionage, surveillance, and information brokering, as well as in entertainment and artisan endeavors. The two houses share the Mark of Shadow, though the newer version of the house in many ways remains the weaker of the two.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Shadow
• Race: Elf
• Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth
• Tool Proficiencies: Poisoner's kit, disguise kit
• Equipment: A disguise kit, a set of costume clothes or a poisoner's kit (your choice), a set of fine clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

House Vadalis

House Vadalis bears the Mark of Handling, which has the power to calm and control animals. The Vadalis Handlers Guild breeds and sells a tremendous variety of animals, and Vadalis handlers serve as teamsters, trainers, and stablekeepers across Khorvaire.

• Dragonmark: Mark of Handling
• Race: Human
• Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Nature
• Tool Proficiencies: Mounts (land), mounts (air)
• Equipment: A magebred trained companion (cat, dog, or hawk), a collar and lead with Vadalis insignia, a set of fine clothes, a signet ring, identification papers, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: House Membership

You are a member of a dragonmarked house. The house will provide you with lodging and food, though you may be expected to put in a few hours of work in exchange. Where the house has a presence, you may have access to discounts on other goods and services related to the house's specialty.

Dragonmarked Houses wield tremendous political power in every nation on Khorvaire. If you are accused of a crime, your house will support you if a good case can be made for your innocence or the crime is justifiable in the eyes of the House. You can also gain access to powerful political figures through the house, if you are a member in good standing. Such connections might require that you perform some noteworthy service for the house.

Your house will occasionally call upon you for support. You will have to provide support for the house to remain in the house's good graces.

Suggested Characteristics

The scions of the dragonmarked houses display the full range of motivations. Some spend their time performing charitable works or repaying debts of honor, while others use their house connections to achieve their own ends no matter the cost, same carry on the house business, some were heroes of the Last War. Regardless, their house affiliation irrevocably colors their attitudes and methods. Use whatever personality traits, bonds, and flaws tables you wish, with the following fitting very well Folk Hero, Guild Artisan, Inheritor, Noble, Legendary Lineage, Sharn Noble, and War-Torn Hero fitting particularly well. Pull from the following ideals since you have some sort of tie to your house.

Iron Route Bandit

The Iron Route, once the primary trade route between Phlan and Zhentil Keep, used to be a site of extensive banditry until the Phlan’s recent occupation. Your time as an erstwhile bandit has given you plenty of experience in the saddle and a knack for acquiring and appraising other people’s mounts, pets, and vehicles among other things. This particular set of skills has become very lucrative for you by working for the underground as a horse thief for a local guild of thieves and other shadowy organizations.

Skill Proficiencies: Stealth, Animal Handling

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

Equipment. A set of dark common clothes, pack saddle, burglar’s pack and a belt pouch containing 5 gp.

Lifestyle: Poor

Knight of the Order

You belong to an order of knights who have sworn oaths to achieve a certain goal. The nature of this goal depends on the order you serve, but in your eyes it is without question a vital and honorable endeavor. Eberron has a wide variety of knightly orders, all of which have a similar outlook concerning their actions and responsibilities.

Though the term "knight" conjures ideas of mounted, heavily armored warriors of noble blood, most knightly orders in Eberron don't restrict their membership to such individuals. The goals and philosophies of the order are more important than the gear and fighting style of its members, and so most of these orders aren't limited to fighting types, but are open to all sorts of folk who are willing to battle and die for the order's cause. Particularly with the prevalence of magic there are some knightly orders that look for battlemages, such as the Knights Arcane of Aundair.

• Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion, plus one from among Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion, as appropriate for your order
• Tools Proficiencies: One type of gaming set or musical instrument
• Languages: One of your choice
• Equipment: One set of traveler's clothes, a signet ring, banner or seal representing your place or rank in the order, identification papers, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Knightly Orders of Faerun

Many who rightfully call themselves "knight" earn that title as part of an order in service to a deity, such as Kelemvor's Eternal Order or Mystra's Knights of the Mystic Fire. Other knightly orders serve a government, royal family, or are the elite military of a feudal state, such as the brutal Warlock Knights of Vaasa. Other knighthoods are secular and nongove rnmental organizations of warriors who follow a particular philosophy, or consider themselves a kind of extended family, similar to an order of monks. Although there are organizations, such as the Knights of the Shield, that use the trappings of knighthood without necessarily being warrio rs, most folk of Faerun who hear the word "knight" think of a mounted warrior in armor beholden to a code. Below are a few knightly organizations.

Knights of the Unicorn. The Knights of the Unicorn began as a fad of romantically minded sons and daughters of patriar families in Baldur's Gate. On a lark, they took the unicorn goddess Lurue as their mascot and went on various adventures for fun. The reality of the dangers they faced eventually sank in, as did Lurue's tenets. Over time the small group grew and spread, gaining a following in places as far as Cormyr. The Knights of the Unicorn are chivalric adventurers who follow romantic ideals: life is to be relished and lived with laughter, quests should be taken on a dare, impossible dreams should be pursued for the sheer wonder of their completion, and everyone should be praised for their strengths and comforted in their weaknesses.

Knights of Myth Drannor. Long ago, the Knights of Myth Drannor were a famous adventuring band, and Dove Falcon hand, one of the famous Seven Sisters, was one of them. The band took its name to honor the great but fallen city, just as the new Knights of Myth Drannor do today. With the city once again in ruins, Dove Falconhand decided to reform the group with the primary goal of building alliances and friendship between the civilized races of the world and goodly people in order to combat evil. The Knights of Myth Drannor once again ride the roads of the Dalelands, and they've begun to spread to the lands beyond. Their members, each accepted by Dove herself, are above all valiant and honest.

Knights of the Silver Chalice. The Knights of the Silver Chalice was formed by edict of the demigod Siamorphe in Waterdeep a century ago. Siamorphe's ethos is the nobility's right and responsibility to rule, and the demigod is incarnated as a different noble mortal in each generation. By the decree of the Siamorphe at that time, the Knights of the Silver Chalice took it upon themselves to put a proper heir on the throne of Tethyr and reestablish order in that kingdom. Since then they have grown to be the most popular knighthood in Tethyr, a nation that has hosted many knighthoods in fealty to the crown.

Mulmaster Aristocrat

From your hilltop home, you have looked down (literally and perhaps figuratively) on the unwashed masses of Mulmaster for your entire life. Your fur-trimmed robes and training in the visual and performing arts mark you as wealthy and perhaps well-born; you are a member of the City of Danger's aristocracy.

None of your immediate family members sits on the Council of Blades or is even a Zor or Zora…yet. Nevertheless, you are one of Mulmaster's elite, and whether you personally covet a higher standing or not, you are at home in the dance halls where the aristocracy gathers to plot, to scheme, to do business, to discuss the arts, and, above all, to see, and to be seen.

Skill Proficiencies. Deception, Performance

Tool Proficiencies. One type of artistic artisan's tools and one musical instrument

Equipment. One set of artisan's tools or musical instrument, a set of fine clothes, and a purse containing 10 gp.

Lifestyle. Wealthy