Character Background Stories and Bonuses

SPY

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

Starting Gold: 50

Attribute Bonus: +1

Dexterity Passive Bonus: +10% gold found

URCHIN

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

Starting Gold: 5

Attribute Bonus: +1

Dexterity Passive Bonus: +10% move speed

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.

Starting Gold: 15

Attribute Bonus: +1 Wisdom

Passive Bonus: +3 to all healing given

Starting Items: Scroll of Restoration (2), Scroll of Shatter

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.

Starting Gold: 15

Attribute Bonus: +1 Charisma

Passive Bonus: +2 to Wisdom and Charisma saves

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.

Starting Gold: 50

Attribute Bonus: +1 Dexterity

Passive Bonus:+2 to Lockpicking

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 oranger. Your music raises their spirits or captures their sorrow. Your dance steps captivate, your humor cuts to the quick. Whatever techniques you use, your artis your life.

Starting Gold: 15

Attribute Bonus: +1 Charisma

Passive Bonus: Nearby allies heal for 1 hit point every 10 seconds

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.

Starting Gold: 10

Attribute Bonus: +1 Charisma

Passive Bonus: +1 to Physical Damage dealt

GLADIATOR

A gladiator is as much an entertainer as any minstrel or circus performer, trained to make the arts of combat into a spectacle the crowd can enjoy. This kind of flashy combat is your entertainer routine, though you might also have some skills as a tumbler or actor.

Starting Gold: 15

Attribute Bonus: +1 Strength

Passive Bonus: +50% bonus experience from defeating beasts, 41 to hit and damage versus beasts

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.

Starting Gold: 15

Attribute Bonus: +1 Intelligence

Starting Items: Healing Potion (5), Scroll: Summon Monster (3), Scroll: Cone of Cold, Thunderstone (2)

GUILD MERCHANT

You belong to a guild of traders, caravan masters, and shopkeepers. You 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.

Starting Gold: 50

Attribute Bonus: +1 Wisdom

Starting Items: Healing Potion (5), Oil of Sharpness, Potion of Hill Giant Strength, Healer's Kit (2)

HERMIT

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

Starting Gold: 5

Attribute Bonus: +1 Wisdom

Passive Bonus: +2 to Radiant, Necrotic and Psychic damage dealt, -2 Radiant, Necrotic and Psychic damage taken