Foreward

This document aims to enhance Backgrounds akin to the (as of writing) recently-released UA, Heroes of Kyrnn, by giving each background a Feat fitting of it.

It should be noted, this document will NOT have any of the backgrounds from Acquisitions Incorporated, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, Eberron: Rising From The Last War, Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica or Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos. This is because those backgrounds are meant for those specific settings which are drastically different from Faerun or other standard 5e settings. Additionally, those backgrounds both come with spells baked in which is a good enough substitute for a feat in my mind. Also, the Baldur's Gate Backgrounds are effectively reskins of existing backgrounds and the singular Eberron Background is tailored specifically to Eberron. If you want a recommendation for a Feat for the latter, one of the Dragonmark feats would suffice. Wildemount's backgrounds are either copies of existing ones or the Grinner background which is made for Wildemount's setting. Wild Beyond the Witchlight is again aimed at a specific niche setting and its backgrounds are drastically different - in fact, they seem to be more meant to add to any other background, so I'd recommend adding the new tables to any other background that fits, such as Far Traveler or Outlander.

It should be noted that this is best used with my revised Feats (from Smug's Compendium of Changes, referred to as SCoC in this document, which you can find on my GM Binder page) as well as my Revised Classes for 5th Edition D&D.

If you would rather give your players more choice, you can completely ignore the pre-selected feats for each Background and let your players choose any feat they want. If you do so, check out the Revised Human and Revised Custom Lineage Races at the end of this document; I would argue that offering two feats at 1st level is far too powerful unless everyone gets two feats; it makes Variant Human (PHB) and Custom Lineage (TCE) far too powerful an option and an obvious pick for games that allow them with these rules.

That said, enjoy this document and I hope it brings a new kick in the pants to your games!

Feature: Cultural Researcher

You gain the Linguist Feat.

Additionally, you can communicate with humanoids who don't speak any language you know. You must observe the humanoids interacting with one another for at least 1 day, after which you learn a handful of important words, expressions, and gestures - enough to communicate on a rudimentary level.

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.

Feature: Dungeon Historian

You gain the Dungeon Delver Feat.

Additionally, when you enter a ruin or dungeon, you can correctly ascertain its original purpose and determine its builders, whether those were dwarves, elves, humans, yuan-ti, or some other known race. In addition, you can determine the monetary value of art objects more than a century old.

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.

Feature: Athletic Fame

You gain the Athlete (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you have attracted admiration among spectators, fellow athletes, and trainers in the region that hosted your past athletic victories. When visiting any settlement within 100 miles of where you grew up, you can find someone there who admires you and is willing to provide information or temporary shelter.

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.

Feature: Master of Deception

You gain the Actor Feat.

Additionally, you have created a second identity that includes documentation, established acquaintances, and disguises that allow you to assume that persona. Additionally, you can forge documents including official papers and personal letters, as long as you have seen an example of the kind of document or the handwriting you are trying to copy.

Suggested Characteristics

Charlatans are colorful characters who conceal their true selves behind the masks they construct. They reflect what people want to see, what they want to believe, and how they see the world. But their true selves are sometimes plagued by an uneasy conscience, an old enemy, or deep-seated trust issues.

Feature: Watchman

You gain the Observant Feat.

Additionally, Your experience in enforcing the law, and dealing with lawbreakers, gives you a feel for local laws and criminals. You can easily find the local outpost of the watch or a similar organization, and just as easily pick out the dens of criminal activity in a community, although you're more likely to be welcome in the former locations rather than the latter.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the soldier background on page 34 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a member of the city watch.

Your bond is likely associated with your fellow watch members or the watch organization itself and almost certainly concerns your community. Your ideal probably involves the fostering of peace and safety. An investigator is likely to have an ideal connected to achieving justice by successfully solving crimes.

Feature: Favor of the Dwarves

You gain the Dwarven Fortitude Feat if you are a Dwarf. Otherwise, you gain the Durable (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, you always have free room and board in any place where dwarves dwell, and the individuals in such a settlement might vie among themselves to determine who can offer you (and possibly your companions) the finest accommodations and assistance.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the guild artisan background on page 18 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a clan crafter. (For instance, consider the words "guild" and "clan" to be interchangeable.)

Your bond is almost certainly related to the master or the clan that taught you, or else to the work that you produce. Your ideal might have to do with maintaining the high quality of your work or preserving the dwarven traditions of craftsmanship.

Feature: Deep Memory

You gain the Keen Mind feat.

Additionally, you have free and easy access to the majority of libraries, though they might also have repositories of lore that are too valuable, magical, or secret to permit anyone immediate access. You have a working knowledge of your cloister's personnel and bureaucracy, and you know how to navigate those connections with some ease and you are likely to gain preferential treatment at other libraries across the Realms, as professional courtesy to a fellow scholar.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the sage background on page 30 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a cloistered scholar.

Your bond is almost certainly associated either with the place where you grew up or with the knowledge you hope to acquire through adventuring. Your ideal is no doubt related to how you view the quest for knowledge and truth - perhaps as a worthy goal in itself, or maybe as a means to a desirable end.

Feature: Bureaucrat

You gain the Diplomat (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, your knowledge of how bureaucracies function lets you gain access to the records and inner workings of any noble court or government you encounter. You know who the movers and shakers are, whom to go to for the favors you seek, and what the current intrigues of interest in the group are.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the guild artisan background in the Player's Handbook as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a courtier.

The noble court or bureaucratic organization where you got your start is directly or indirectly associated with your bond (which could pertain to certain individuals in the group, such as your sponsor or mentor). Your ideal might be concerned with the prevailing philosophy of your court or organization.

Feature: Criminal Resources

You gain the Quick-Fingered (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you have a reliable and trustworthy contact who acts as your liaison to a network of other criminals. You know how to get messages to and from your contact, even over great distances; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.

Suggested Characteristics

Criminals might seem like villains on the surface, and many of them are villainous to the core. But some have an abundance of endearing, if not redeeming, characteristics. There might be honor among thieves, but criminals rarely show any respect for law or authority.

Feature: Popular Demand

You gain the Performer (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you can always find a place to perform, usually in an inn or tavern but possibly with a circus, at a theater, or even in a noble's court. At such a place, you receive free lodging and food of a modest or comfortable standard (depending on the quality of the establishment), as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they typically take a liking to you.

Suggested Characteristics

Successful entertainers have to be able to capture and hold an audience's attention, so they tend to have flamboyant or forceful personalities. They're inclined toward the romantic and often cling to high-minded ideals about the practice of art and the appreciation of beauty.

Feature: Expert Agent

You gain the Actor feat.

Additionally, you have access to a secret network of supporters and operatives who can provide assistance on your adventures. You know a set of secret signs and passwords you can use to identify such operatives, who can provide you with access to a hidden safe house, free room and board, or assistance in finding information. These agents never risk their lives for you or risk revealing their true identities.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the acolyte background on page 2 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a faction agent. (For instance, consider the words "faith" and "faction" to be interchangeable.)

Your bond might be associated with other members of your faction, or a location or an object that is important to your faction. The ideal you strive for is probably in keeping with the tenets and principles of your faction, but might be more personal in nature.

Feature: Foreigner's Gaze

You gain the Alert Feat.

Additionally, 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

Far Travelers tend to act in ways that the people in local communities find odd. As such, their Personality Traits tend to be eccentric at best and guarded at worst.

Feature: Fisherman's Tales

You gain the Historian (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, 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.

Feature: Local Prodigy

You gain the Prodigy (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you fit in among the common folk 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.

Feature: Are You Not Entertained?

You gain the Brawny (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you can always find a place to perform in any place that features combat for entertainment—perhaps a gladiatorial arena or secret pit fighting club. At such a place, you receive free lodging and food of a modest or comfortable standard (depending on the quality of the establishment), as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they typically take a liking to you.

Suggested Characteristics

Successful entertainers have to be able to capture and hold an audience's attention, so they tend to have flamboyant or forceful personalities. They're inclined toward the romantic and often cling to high-minded ideals about the practice of art and the appreciation of beauty.

Feature: Artisan Guild Member

You gain the Expert Artisan (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you are 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.

Feature: The Fear of the Darkness

You gain the Shadow Touched Feat.

Additionally, those who look into your eyes can see that you have faced unimaginable horror and that you are no stranger to darkness. Though they might fear you, commoners will extend you every courtesy and do their utmost to help you. Unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them, they will even take up arms to fight alongside you, should you find yourself facing an enemy alone.

Suggested Characteristics

Characters in a horror-focused campaign might have distinct motivations and characteristics. Use the following tables to supplement your background's suggested characteristics or to inspire those of your own design.

Feature: Medical Researcher

You gain the Medic (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, the quiet seclusion of your extended hermitage gave you access to a unique and powerful discovery. The exact nature of this revelation depends on the nature of your seclusion. It might be a great truth about the cosmos, the deities, the powerful beings of the outer planes, or the forces of nature. It could be a site that no one else has ever seen. You might have uncovered a fact that has long been forgotten, or unearthed some relic of the past that could rewrite history. It might be information that would be damaging to the people who or consigned you to exile, and hence the reason for your return to society.

Work with your DM to determine the details of your discovery and its impact on the campaign.

Suggested Characteristics

Some hermits are well suited to a life of seclusion, whereas others chafe against it and long for company. Whether they embrace solitude or long to escape it, the solitary life shapes their attitudes and ideals. A few are driven slightly mad by their years apart from society.

Feature: Inherited Knowledge

You gain the Skilled (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, work with your Dungeon Master to choose your inheritance and come up with details: Why is your inheritance so important, and what is its full story? You might prefer for the DM to invent these details as part of the game, allowing you to learn more about your inheritance as your character does.

The Dungeon Master is free to use your inheritance as a story hook, sending you on quests to learn more about its history or true nature, or confronting you with foes who want to claim it for themselves or prevent you from learning what you seek. The DM also determines the properties of your inheritance and how they figure into the item's history and importance. For instance, the object might be a minor magic item, or one that begins with a modest ability and increases in potency with the passage of time. Or, the true nature of your inheritance might not be apparent at first and is revealed only when certain conditions are met.

When you begin your adventuring career, you can decide whether to tell your companions about your inheritance right away. Rather than attracting attention to yourself, you might want to keep your inheritance a secret until you learn more about what it means to you and what it can do for you.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the folk hero background on page 16 of this document 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.

Feature: Private Eye

You gain the Investigator (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you're experienced at gaining access to people and places to get the information you need. Through a combination of fast-talking, determination, and official-looking documentation, you can gain access to a place or an individual related to a crime you're investigating. Those who aren't involved in your investigation avoid impeding you or pass along your requests. Additionally, local law enforcement has firm opinions about you, viewing you as either a nuisance or one of their own. facing an enemy alone.

Suggested Characteristics

An Investigator is someone who seeks the truth, usually in regards to a crime. They tend to be very analytical and can sometimes miss the forest through the trees or end up with their foot in their mouth.

Feature: Knight's Training

You gain the Inspiring Leader Feat.

Additionally, you have the service of three retainers loyal to your family. These retainers can be attendants or messengers, and one might be a majordomo. One of your retainers is a noble who serves as your squire, aiding you in exchange for training on his or her own path to knighthood (This person could be your bond.). 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).

Your retainers can perform mundane tasks for you, but they do not fight for you, will not follow you into obviously dangerous areas (such as dungeons), and will leave if they are frequently endangered or abused.

Suggested Characteristics

Nobles are born and raised to a very different lifestyle than most people ever experience, and their personalities reflect that upbringing. A noble title comes with a plethora of bonds—responsibilities to family, to other nobles (including the sovereign), to the people entrusted to the family's care, or even to the title itself. But this responsibility is often a good way to undermine a noble.

Feature: Knightly Prestige

You gain the Skilled (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, you receive shelter and succor from members of your knightly order and those who are sympathetic to its aims. If your order is a religious one, you can gain aid from temples and other religious communities of your deity. Knights of civic orders can get help from the community—whether a lone settlement or a great nation—that they serve, and knights of philosophical orders can find help from those they have aided in pursuit of their ideals, and those who share their ideals.

This help comes in the form of shelter and meals, and healing when appropriate, as well as occasionally risky assistance, such as a band of local citizens rallying to aid a sorely pressed knight, or those who support the order helping to smuggle a knight out of town when he or she is being hunted unjustly.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the soldier background on page 34 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a knight of your order.

Your bond almost always involves the order to which you belong (or at least key members of it), and it is highly unusual for a knight's ideal not to reflect the agenda, sentiment, or philosophy of one's order.

Feature: Steady Drinker

You gain the Tavern Brawler (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you can move twice the normal amount of time (up to 16 hours) each day before being subject to the effect of a forced march (see "Travel Pace" in chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook). Additionally, you can automatically find a safe route to land a boat on shore, provided such a route exists.

Suggested Characteristics

Marines are looked up to by other soldiers and respected by their superiors. They are veteran warriors who rarely lose composure on the battlefield. Marines who leave the service tend to work as mercenaries, but their combat experience also makes them excellent adventurers. Though they are self-reliant, marines tend to operate best in groups, valuing camaraderie and the companionship of like-minded individuals.

Feature: Mercenary Life

You gain the Martial Adept feat.

Additionally, you know the mercenary life as only someone who has experienced it can. You are able to identify mercenary companies by their emblems, and you know a little about any such company, including who has hired them recently. You can find the taverns and festhalls where mercenaries abide in any area, as long as you speak the language. You can find mercenary work between adventures sufficient to maintain a comfortable lifestyle (see "Practicing a Profession" under "Downtime Activities" in chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook).

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the soldier background on page 34 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a mercenary.

Your bond could be associated with the company you traveled with previously, or with some of the comrades you served with. The ideal you embrace largely depends on your worldview and your motivation for fighting.

Feature: Noble Magic

You gain the Magic Initiate (SCoC) Feat, but you must choose your spells from the Wizard or Bard lists.

Additionally, people are inclined to think the best of you. You are welcome in high society, and people assume you have the right to be wherever you are. The common folk make every effort to accommodate you and avoid your displeasure, and other people of high birth treat you as a member of the same social sphere. You can secure an audience with a local noble if you need to.

Suggested Characteristics

Nobles are born and raised to a very different lifestyle than most people ever experience, and their personalities reflect that upbringing. A noble title comes with a plethora of bonds—responsibilities to family, to other nobles (including the sovereign), to the people entrusted to the family's care, or even to the title itself. But this responsibility is often a good way to undermine a noble.

Feature: Superior Survivalist

You gain the Survivalist (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you have an excellent memory for maps and geography, and you can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth.

Suggested Characteristics

Often considered rude and uncouth among civilized folk, outlanders have little respect for the niceties of life in the cities. The ties of tribe, clan, family, and the natural world of which they are a part are the most important bonds to most outlanders.

Feature: Vicious Reputation

You gain the Menacing (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, no matter where you go, people are afraid of you due to your reputation. When you are in a civilized settlement, you can get away with minor criminal offenses, such as refusing to pay for food at a tavern or breaking down doors at a local shop, since most people will not report your activity to the authorities.

Suggested Characteristics

Sailors can be a rough lot, but the responsibilities of life on a ship make them generally reliable as well. Life aboard a ship shapes their outlook and forms their most important attachments.

Feature: Superior Survivalist

You gain the Arcanist (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, when you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this information comes from a library, scriptorium, university, or a sage or other learned person or creature. Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an almost inaccessible place, or that it simply cannot be found. Unearthing the deepest secrets of the multiverse can require an adventure or even a whole campaign.

Suggested Characteristics

Sages are defined by their extensive studies, and their characteristics reflect this life of study. Devoted to scholarly pursuits, a sage values knowledge highly—sometimes in its own right, sometimes as a means toward other ideals.

Feature: Sailor's Eyes

You gain the Perceptive (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, when you need to, you can secure free passage on a sailing ship for yourself and your adventuring companions. You might sail on the ship you served on, or another ship you have good relations with (perhaps one captained by a former crewmate). Because you're calling in a favor, you can't be certain of a schedule or route that will meet your every need. Your Dungeon Master will determine how long it takes to get where you need to go. In return for your free passage, you and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage.

Suggested Characteristics

Sailors can be a rough lot, but the responsibilities of life on a ship make them generally reliable as well. Life aboard a ship shapes their outlook and forms their most important attachments.

Feature: Ship's Handyman

You gain the Chef (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, provided you have carpenter's tools and wood, you can perform repairs on a water vehicle. When you use this ability, you restore a number of hit points to the hull of a water vehicle equal to 5 × your proficiency modifier. A vehicle cannot be patched by you in this way again until after it has been pulled ashore and fully repaired.

Suggested Characteristics

Sailors can be a rough lot, but the responsibilities of life on a ship make them generally reliable as well. Life aboard a ship shapes their outlook and forms their most important attachments.

Feature: Ship's Handyman

You gain the Silver-Tongued (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you are acquainted with a network of smugglers who are willing to help you out of tight situations. While in a particular town, city, or other similarly sized community (DM's discretion), you and your companions can stay for free in safe houses. Safe houses provide a poor lifestyle. While staying at a safe house, you can choose to keep your presence (and that of your companions) a secret.

Suggested Characteristics

In general, smugglers value survival, and then profit, above other things. One could be a part of a larger organization, or might run a small smuggling vessel of their own. Smugglers live the lies they have told, and they have a natural ability to recall all the falsehoods and half-truths they have ever spouted.

Feature: Military Training

You gain the Weapon Master (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you have a military rank from your career as a soldier. Soldiers loyal to your former military organization still recognize your authority and influence, and they defer to you if they are of a lower rank. You can invoke your rank to exert influence over other soldiers and requisition simple equipment or horses for temporary use. You can also usually gain access to friendly military encampments and fortresses where your rank is recognized.

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.

Feature: Shadowed Hunter

You gain the Stealthy (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, you are in frequent contact with people in the segment of society that your chosen quarries move through. These people might be associated with the criminal underworld, the rough-and-tumble folk of the streets, or members of high society. This connection comes in the form of a contact in any city you visit, a person who provides information about the people and places of the local area.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the criminal background on page 11 of this document 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.

Feature: Nosy Mouse

You gain the Animal Handler (SCoC) Feat.

Additionally, you know the secret patterns and flow to cities and can find passages through the urban sprawl that others would miss. When you are not in combat, you (and companions you lead) can travel between any two locations in the city twice as fast as your speed would normally allow.

Suggested Characteristics

Urchins are shaped by lives of desperate poverty, for good and for ill. They tend to be driven either by a commitment to the people with whom they shared life on the street or by a burning desire to find a better life—and maybe get some payback on all the rich people who treated them badly.

Feature: Uthgardt Survivalist

You gain the Survivalist (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, Yyu have an excellent knowledge of not only your tribe's territory, but also the terrain and natural resources of the rest of the North. You are familiar enough with any wilderness area that you can find twice as much food and water as you normally would when you forage there and you can call upon the hospitality of your people, and those allied with your tribe, often including members of the druid circles, tribes of nomadic elves, the Harpers, and the priesthoods devoted to the gods of the First Circle.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the outlander background on page 28 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a member of an Uthgardt tribe.

Even if you have left your tribe behind (at least for now), you hold to the traditions of your people. You will never cut down a still-living tree, and you may not countenance such an act being done in your presence. The Uthgardt ancestral mounds - great hills where the totem spirits were defeated by Uthgar and where the heroes of the tribes are interred - are sacred to you.

Your bond is undoubtedly associated with your tribe or some aspect of Uthgardt philosophy or culture (perhaps even Uthgar himself). Your ideal is a personal choice that probably hews closely to the ethos of your people and certainly doesn't contradict or compromise what being an Uthgardt stands for.

Feature: Stylish Living

You gain the Diplomat (SCoC) feat.

Additionally, while you are in Waterdeep or elsewhere in the North, your house sees to your everyday needs. Your name and signet are sufficient to cover most of your expenses; the inns, taverns, and festhalls you frequent are glad to record your debt and send an accounting to your family's estate in Waterdeep to settle what you owe.

This advantage enables you to live a comfortable lifestyle without having to pay 2 gp a day for it, or reduces the cost of a wealthy or aristocratic lifestyle by that amount. You may not maintain a less affluent lifestyle and use the difference as income—the benefit is a line of credit, not an actual monetary reward.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the noble background in on page 27 of this document as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a member of a Waterdhavian family.

Like other nobles, you were born and raised in a different world from the one that most folk know - one that grants you privilege but also calls you to fulfill a duty befitting your station. Your bond might be associated with your family alone, or it could be concerned with another noble house that sides with or opposes your own. Your ideal depends to some extent on how you view your role in the family, and how you intend to conduct yourself in the world at large as a representative of your house.

Art (In Order)

• Dark Duck