Better Backgrounds

What makes a good background? More flavor! Also, useful features with well-defined mechanics.

Before we dig into the backgrounds, we need some new tools.

New Tools

Beautician's Supplies (25 GP, 8 lbs)

Beautician's supplies include hair combs and brushes, a hand mirror, hair clips and pins, nail clippers and file, a makeup kit, hair dye, hair curlers, safety pins, soap and razor, miscellaneous ribbons and bows, a wig, toupee or hair extensions, and simple jewelry and accessories.

Proficiency in beautician's supplies lets you improve a creature's appearance by accentuating their natural beauty or complementing an outfit. A successful beautician's skill check can hide a blemish, make garments appear more expensive than they are, change a creature's look, fashion, or overall impression, potentially grant a creature a bonus on a Charisma check, or even grant temporary hit points, improve sanity or reduce stress as determined by the DM.

Proficiency in Beautician's Supplies grants half proficiency in Disguise Kits, and vice-versa.

Farm Implements (10 gp, 10 lbs)

Includes tools for farming such as a hoe, shovel, hand plow, snips, rake, ties, trowel, a milk bucket, and so on. Proficiency helps with digging, planting, weeding, harvest, and foraging.

Official Documentation (25 gp, 0.5 lbs)

Official Documentation tools includes papers, stamps, various forms, regulatory guides, legal notes, ink vial, parchment or paper, and a pen or quill. Proficiency grants you the ability to comprehend and draft contracts, work proposals, laws and regulations, memorandums of understanding, official reports, research summaries and findings, judicial orders, summons, writs of habeas corpus, sales orders, bills of sales, receipts, invoices, financial records, wills, writs of power of attorney, affidavits, and so on. Proficiency may allow you to additionally apply your proficiency bonus to skill checks with Intimidation, Persuasion, and Deception, when you use Official Documentation in conjunction with your communications.

Physician's Tools

Physician's Tools includes a tongue depressor, ear horn (stethoscope), reflex tester, roll of bandages, scalpel, clamps, forceps, suction bulb, vials and bottles, and a book of anatomy and medical procedures. Or, it includes basic medical instruments appropriate to your game setting. The scope of medical practice that can be performed with this tool kit will be determined by the DM, in accordance with the game setting. In general, proficiency with Physician's tools allows you to additionally add your proficiency bonus to medicine checks to perform tasks non-professionals are not trained to do, such as set broken bones, stop severe bleeding, perform basic surgeries and diagnose diseases.

Rigging (15 gp, 25 lbs.)

Rigging supplies include block and tackle (pulleys), woven straps, tripple-stranded rope, hook and chain, twine for whipping the ends of rope, a can of grease, and similar implements for hoisting, tethering, tying down, and hauling boxes and goods. You can add your proficiency bonus additionally to an Athletics check when attempting to haul up creatures and objects up to one size larger than you with weight up to a hundred times your Strength score, provided you have access to an overhead structure such as rafter, roof, or tree. Rigging proficiency allows you to additionally apply your proficiency bonus to Sleight of Hand checks to tie ropes, restrain incapacitated or doubly-grappled creatures your size or smaller (1d10 minutes of work), and also furl sails, hoist cargo, and secure booms on ships.

Sewing Kit (5 gp, 0.5 lbs.)

The Sewing Kit includes fabric scissors, needles, thread, a thimble, buttons, lace and other notions, fabric scraps and patches, a measuring tape, pins, and pattern notes. Proficiency grants you the ability to add your proficiency bonus to skill checks to make, modify, or repair clothing and drapes, including the use of sewing machines (if they exist in your world). For Investigation and History checks, you can additionally add your proficiency bonus to analyze wear or damage to clothing and deduce the cause.

Traps (15 gp, 15 lbs.)

Traps are tools for capturing animals. A set of traps includes steel-springed bear traps, spring-loaded cages for capturing rodent and small or tiny beasts, a shovel for digging a dead fall, saw, rope and twine for anchoring traps and setting snares, and a sturdy box or cage with a latching door for a small or medium-sized beast.

Woodcutter's Tools (25 gp, 20 lbs.)

Woodcutter's Tools includ an ax, log splitting wedge, long-toothed saw (two or four-handed), whetstone and oil, boot spikes, tree climbing strap and climbing harness, and measuring twine. With proficiency in Woodcutters Tools you deal double damage to any tree or wooden object when you make an attack roll with an ax. A successful Woodcutter's Tools skill check and appropriate tools (such as a four hand saw) allows you to fell a tree of diameter in feet up to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1) in one hour, or half that time if the diameter in feet is less than your Strength modifier.

You can apply your proficiency additionally to Nature checks to identify tree, the age of a tree, or Investigation checks to determine the origin of damage to a tree, or identify a type of wood from a region you have cut wood in.

New Instruments

Not all performances use an instrument. Add flavor to your campaigns with three new performance specialties that can be selected instead of an instrument.

For example, as a bard, you might specialize in story telling (oration), rather than lute playing, or dancing instead of the lyre.

Dancing

Your instrument is your body and your coordinated movements its harmonies. Trained as a dancer, your performances captivate attention, convey emotion, delight and surprise, and even astonish. You can additionally add your proficiency bonus to a Performance check when you perform a solo dance or dance with a partner, or when you make History check to identify a type of dance or its origin.

Oration

Your instrument is your mind, and your words are your notes. You are trained in the art of public speaking. From tall tales, to epic stories, from persuasive speeches and public debates, to powerful poems and stirring motivational speeches, your speech is power. You can additionally add your proficiency bonus to any Charisma or Intelligence check to make a speech, tell a story, recite a poem, or make a similar Oration, or to a History check to identify a speech, poem, or story, its place of origin, or its author.

Singing

Your instrument is your voice. You specialize in vocal performance. Your training allows you to harmonize with others, reproduce familiar tunes, sing ballads and love songs, and project your singing loud enough to be heard by a wide audience. Varying your tones with dynamics, you evoke a wide array of emotions. Whether leading a tavern in a rousing folk song, singing a mournful dirge, or wooing with a heartfelt love song, your voice has the power to stir hearts. You can add your proficiency bonus additionally when you make a Performance check to sing a song, or a Persuasion check to influence a person romantically through a song, also to History checks to identify a song, its place of origin or its writer.

New Backgrounds

Animal Handler

Whether as a stable boy, breeder, dog trainer, pet babysitter, wildlife rescue center volunteer, cattle driver, falconer, bird watcher, or animal aficionado, you usually find the company of animals preferable to other people. Your animals behave better and you even trust your life to them on occasion.

As an animal handler, people come to you when they have problems with their pets, farm animals, hunting hounds and more. Often, your experience gives you enough insight to help those poor animals with their owners.

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling and choice of Nature, History, or Athletics
Tool Proficiencies: Leatherworker's Tools, Rigging Equipment: lasso or bolos or small cage, riding saddle, bridle and bit, brush, saddle blanket, feed bag, common clothes, an injured small or tiny animal, pouch with 15 gp

Feature: Taming the Beast

Your experience getting animals under control helps you in dangerous situations. You can add 1d4 to Animal Handling checks when dealing with beasts that are injured, angry, or threatened. Also, if you have a beast that is friendly to you nearby when you make an Insight check as to whether a creature you are interacting with is trustworthy, you can read your animal's reaction, allowing you to additionally add your proficiency bonus to the check.

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I share my tempestuous mount's fiery temper.
2	I talk to animals...more than people.
3	I demand obedience from my animals...and people.
4	I am intensely interested in pedigrees (including peoples') and ask too many awkward questions.
5	I am fiercely competitive about animals I train and their performance.
6	My gentle personality attracts curious animals.

d8	Ideal
1	Loyalty I reciprocate the loyalty of the animals and people I depend on.
2	Pedigree Inheritance of traits is an inescapable reality.
3	Discipline I demand rigorous, principled behavior from my animals and from associates.
4	Freedom My free spirit is called to open fields and skies. I fear enclosed spaces.
5	Education I share the wonders of nature.
6	Preservation I preserve uniqueness and variety in nature.
7	Superiority I, and my trained animals, must win.
8	Patience Good animal handlers must watch, listen, and learn.

d6	Bond
1	Show no weakness. I must maintain a strong demeanor to be the alpha.
2	I always help an injured creature.
3	I feed animals before the people they carry and serve.
4	I seek to find unique animals and traits to add to a breeding line or collection.
5	I bring justice to abusers of animals.
6	I am entrusted to preserve a valuable breeding line, or unique or endangered species.

d6	Flaw
1	I share my room with animals, usually small-sized animals, but not always.
2	I don't clean up after my animals so well—watch your step.
3	I'm never quite rid of the smell of the barn.
4	Betting...and other bad habits I picked up at the track.
5	I share my food with my animals, even if I have to sneak out of a formal dinner, or sneak a rat in.
6	I can't bear to watch an animal ridden improperly and handled improperly. I'll even correct a king if I have to.

Attorney/Bureaucrat

Never underestimate the power of paperwork. You fought for that power, suffering for years in thankless clerkships and internships. Now you wield a weapon greater than any army, more powerful than a king: bureaucracy. Whether by litigation, deposition, injunction, petition, appeal, summons, recess, or any of your panoply of paper-pushing tactics, you control the vital breath of society itself.

Wherever your journey takes you, knowing a thing or two about how official things get done (and don't get done) always comes in handy.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose History or Investigation; choose Insight or Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: Official Documentation
Languages: Choose one language
Equipment: diploma or badge of office, folio containing several weeks worth of unfinished business and case notes, 10 sheets of paper, ink pen, sealing wax, official seal or notary stamp, fine clothes, an incriminating receipt related to your (embarrassing) vice, a pouch containing 20 gp (10gp of which is either fines or fees received and not yet turned in, or funds entrusted to you to be delivered to a trustee)

Feature: Serving Papers

By spending 1d4 hours you can prepare an official-looking stack of legal papers, impenetrably unintelligible to anyone not proficient in Official Documentation. By serving these papers to an unsuspecting creature, you or an ally may gain advantage on an Intimidation or Persuasion check toward that creature. Your knowledge of statutes and procedure also comes in handy when you are in a tight spot with the law. By investing similar time and materials you can prepare a documents to arrange for bail or perhaps even dismissal of a case with a suitable skill test chosen by your DM.

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	My automatic response to any request is to deny responsibility and refer someone to another official at another office.
2	I neurotically point out and intentionally take advantage of loopholes.
3	I religiously point out logical fallacies, including oxymorons and self-contradictions.
4	I always paint a grim outlook filled with delays, hoping for a bribe, or to be left alone.
5	I always use the biggest word possible. Short words are for savages and ignoramuses.
6	I always use the longest ways of saying anything. (I was once paid by the word to write documents.)

d6	Ideal
1	Justice No matter how long the battle, justice must be served.
2	Procedure Do it right or do it twice. Haste makes waste.
3	Interpretation There are always two ways to read a rule or regulation.
4	Efficiency A process that is wasteful must be optimized.
5	Deliberation All sides should be heard and considered.
6	Sedition Undermine authority by breaking the system from the inside.

d6	Bond
1	Schedules and procedures must be followed.
2	The paying client always deserves fair representation, no matter how dirty their hands.
3	Agreements must always be witnessed and signed.
4	Pro-bono legal work is the only thing that will save my cankered soul.
5	I seek win-win outcomes that are good for all sides (and especially me).
6	Records must be kept. Food and such are optional.

d6	Flaw
1	I give unsolicited advice, regardless of whether it is appreciated.
2	I am allergic to dust that collects on paperwork.
3	I sadistically enjoy slowing progress.
4	I blindly follow my authorities, regardless of how they came about or use their power.
5	I am quick to admit when a good point is made in an argument—on any side.
6	In stressful situations I copiously record everything people say and do to occupy my nervous hands, and also to recite it back to them later.

Avenger

You have suffered wrongs at the hand of an oppressor or rival. Amid the emptiness of what you lost there remains in your soul only a burning need for revenge. You will find vengeance, no matter how long it takes. You may whittle down your foe with a thousand cuts, turning their allies against them, besmirching their reputation, and working from the shadows to undermine their objectives. Or, you may seek gain power until you can challenge them directly.

Little else beyond vengeance holds meaning for you. Your purpose gives you focus. It drives you onward. When it requires sacrifice, you do not hesitate. Perhaps you feel like you have nothing to lose. Perhaps you swore an oath to a dying friend or family member. Perhaps you are all that remains of your clan.

Your path was chosen by your enemy. In the end, only one of you can survive.

Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation and Investigation
Tool Proficiencies: Disguise Kit, Poisoner's Kit
Equipment: A written vow or affidavit asserting your claim, a simple weapon disguised as a mundane object, common clothes, a pouch with 15 gp, a token or memento of your broken past, a drawing or effigy of your enemy.

Feature: Riffraff Wrangling

Vengeance is a dirty business. When you arrive in a new town or city, you can easily find the sort of people who can do dirty work, follow someone, or sell information for a price. While dealing with such riffraff, your inner wrath lends you a sinister cast that suggests you are earnest and not to be trifled with.

Suggested Characteristics

d8	Personality Trait
1	For one wronged as I was, a scowl is a suitable expression for any occasion.
2	Revenge is best served with a cold, winning smile. Vengeance is only worthwhile if you can make it look like you didn’t have to try hard.
3	Vengeance is great and all, but there has to be good food involved. Surely.
4	Taking revenge a little at a time, like an annoying pest drawing blood, is the most satisfying. Why waste it all in one go?
5	I forgave the one who wronged me long ago. But I didn’t tell my weapon. It’s not personal anymore, just business.
6	My way of getting revenge is working to prevent and undo all the wrongs perpetrated by my enemy. I thrill at their frustration as their victims continually slip away.
7	Convincing others to take revenge for me is my mode of operation. I’m just too lazy to do it myself.
8	I seek inspiration on how to get revenge through meditations and mindfulness.

d6	Ideal
1	Blood for blood. Nothing else will suffice.


2	Fair play. If I can’t win in a fair fight, I’ll wait.
3	Compensation. I would give up on my revenge for the right price.
4	Humor. Pranks are the best form of revenge.
5	Pride. It has to be me in the end that ends this vendetta. No one else.
6	Discretion. I am tight-lipped about my plans for revenge.

d6	Bond
1	I will not drink a toast until I toast my enemy’s downfall.
2	I tattoo a record of my enemies wrongs onto my skin so I can’t forget them.
3	I carry the weapon that my enemy used to wrong me. It never leaves my side. I will use it to end them.
4	I won’t stoop to my enemy’s standards. My revenge must be within the law. Entrapment works, too.
5	I must warn others against the evil and threat posed by my enemy.
6	I only allow myself to work on revenge for one hour a day…maybe two.

d6	Flaw
1	Forgetful. So, I can’t quite remember everything they did wrong. But I remember being really mad. So, it must have been pretty bad, right?
2	Shaking mad. When I see my enemy, I quiver with rage to the point I look like I have some kind of palsy.
3	Short attention. Sometimes I get distracted from my revenge for months at a time.
4	Party animal. Whenever I get any form of revenge, I take my celebrations a little too far.
5	Exuberance. Shouting a battle cry before I charge in to exact revenge tends to ruin my surprise attacks.
6	Muttering. All my scheming and brooding has left me with a bad habit of muttering curses under my breath.

Farm Hand

You grew up on a farm, raised in a community that tilled the land and raised animals. The inescapable necessity of hard work was the hallmark of your formative years, but that did not diminish your imagination and your dreams. Tempered only by the realities of your ordinary life, you have alway hungered for something more.

You know the land, the soil, the times of planting and harvest, when to water and how to make a field yield an abundant crop. But despite hardships thrust upon you, and the hunger that never seems to quit, you have a deep inner strength born of labor and reward. Farming is never ending problem solving on a shoestring budget that trains your wit as much as your vigor. Other folks will always be surprised at what a farm hand can manage in a tight spot.

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Animal Handling
Tool Proficiencies: Farm Implements and your choice of Leatherworker's Tools or Carpenter's Tools
Equipment: one of a shovel, hoe, pitchfork, scythe, pruning hook, or other farm tool, bucket or sack, pen knife, bag of seeds, overalls or work clothes, common clothes, leather gloves, wide brim work hat, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: Make Do

You have a knack for re-purposing broken things or improvising when supplies are limited. Where allowed by the DM, with a successful tool check, you can use two or more broken items in place of an unbroken item, or in the case of a missing item, you can use two related items.

Suggested Characteristics

d8	Personality Trait
1	I can work from sunup to sundown.
2	I'm always willing to give a helping hand.
3	I work like three men as eat just as much.
4	I'm not afraid to cry "wolf" if it gets me out of a little work. Really any distraction will do.
5	I can smell dinner cooking from a mile away.
6	I can always find an excuse to do it later.
7	I work slow and steady.
8	I ain't much for looks, but my tools shine.

d8	Ideal
1	Quality If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
2	Mooching Borrowing stuff you can't afford is an art form.
3	Self-Sufficiency Never take a loan.
4	Grounded Stay away from vices and vain pursuits.
5	Food Anything for a full belly.
6	Resourcefulness Fix it up, make do, or do without.
7	Teamwork Why work alone when I could wheedle someone into helping me.
8	Finishing Quitting before harvest is treason.

d6	Bond
1	I'm always up before sunrise.
2	I must pay off the mortgage on the farm.
3	I must always help a neighbor in need.
4	Family first.
5	Protect the land.
6	Work until it's done or too dark too see.

d8	Flaw
1	I am stubborn as mule in frozen mud.
2	I'm tone deaf and not afraid to prove it with a folk ballad.
3	I whistle while working.
4	I have a folksy idiom or saying for everything.
5	I am the gosh-darndest master of psuedo-swearing you ever met.
6	I'm grubby. Always.
7	The smell of the farm always clings to me.
8	Table manners? What's them?

Gravedigger

Well, someone has to do it. Being a gravedigger means long lonely hours, a sore back, callused hands, and occasional surprises. Depending on the day, you drift somewhere between archaeologist,coroner, laborer, and thief. There are the occasional jobs you get asked to do on short notice with extra pay for no questions asked. In all, it wouldn’t be bad except for the smell of death that clings to you from the lazy morticians and folks eager to bury their dead without proper embalming. And there’s the occasional loot—which comes along less often than a waitress gets tips. Shame.

Skill Proficiencies: Perception and Sleight of Hand
Tool Proficiencies: Any two gaming sets (dice, playing cards, three dragon ante, dragon chess, etc.)
Equipment: Pick and shovel, playing cards or dice, box, stolen ring or necklace worth 10 gp, 50 sp, common clothes, crowbar, pet rat or ferret

Feature: Corpse Robber

When you inspect a corpse, you can take advantage on a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to search for loot or traps, or a Wisdom (Medicine) check to determine the time of death. You can use this feature again after you change locations.

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	Corpses don’t bother me. By now, I’m more comfortable around the dead than the living.
2	Sometimes I just sit or lay really still with my eyes wide open so people mistake me for a corpse. It’s great for a scare when I move.


3	I learned the art of cutting corners as a gravedigger–corners of caskets, I mean. Just dig a sloppy grave and then cut off whatever part of the casket or corpse is too long.
4	Robbing graves satisfies my kleptomania
5	To be a gravedigger for very long you need a pretty sick sense of humor. I’ve got that in spades. Get it? Spades!
6	I took the job to face my claustrophobia, but it didn’t work. Now I’m deathly afraid of both corpses and tight spaces.

d8	Ideal
1	Sloth. Not every job worth doing is worth doing well…or fast.
2	Company. Always work with a partner you trust…or want to bury alive.
3	Piety. Always thank the gods of luck when you find something worth stealing on a corpse.
4	Darkness. Only in the perfect still and umber of the night can truth be found.
5	Solitude. Time alone digging is time well spent.
6	Pragmatism. It’s just a job. It doesn’t define me. Well...except the smell.
7	Greed. It’s only a matter of time before I dig up something valuable.
8	Common Sense. If people didn’t want the stuff they decorate their dead with to get stolen, they wouldn’t pay us so poorly to dig the graves. It’s like a tip, you know?

d6	Bond
1	I must ensure the dead have a proper burial. Respect for the dead honors both the gods of life and death.
2	I only take pay upfront for a job. This is a matter of life and death, after all.
3	I never leave a coworker alone while digging a grave. That’s just dangerous, and freaky, and rude. It applies to other situations as well.
4	Always take a potential lover to your workplace to see how they handle it.
5	If someone left you unsupervised, it is a moral prerogative to do a prank.
6	Follow the rules or get dead. Civic codes such as minimum grave depth, grave digging safety protocols, and casket construction specifications are there for a reason.

d6	Flaw
1	I forget what is stolen and what is not. Sometimes I wear clothing I’ve grave-robbed in public and in front of people who know the deceased. It’s just so hard to keep track!
2	Eating on the job. Yeah, I know it’s gross. But, food!
3	Sleeping on the job. A lot.
4	Leaving before the job is finished. What? They're dead. They can wait.
5	Not leaving until the job is finished.
6	Unfeeling. I’ve lost the sense for what is macabre and what is “normal.” Common decency is always a bit hazy.

Healer

As a doctor, nurse, or midwife you make your living making people better and saving lives, while listening to a lot of complaining and their begging for substances they don't need.

You know about the body, illnesses, and medicines. You see people at their worse and most desperate, and ofttimes you can make a difference, ease pain, prolong life, and help families to hold on to their loved ones. Death is your constant nemesis, lurking at the edges of your craft. You have become accustomed to its unwelcome presence, but fight it always.

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, choose Perception or Insight Tool Proficiencies: Physician's Tools, Herbalism Kit Equipment: reflex tester, tongue depressor, stethoscope, book of anatomy, vial of pain killer, a roll of bandages, a flask of distilled alcohol (for antiseptic purposes), a handfull of IOUs for medical services, a pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: Bedside manner

Your experience with patients has taught you what to say (you're going to make it) and what not to say (the leg is a gonner, for sure). When you succeed on a medicine check to stabilize a patient, dress a wound, or diagnose a condition, your encouraged patient gains a number of temporary hits points equal to your proficiency bonus which last until they finish a short or long rest.

Specialty

d4	Specialty
1	midwifery
2	nursing or therapy
3	general medicine (doctor)
4	herbal medicine, chiropractics, massage, or acupuncture

Suggested Characteristics

d4	Personality Trait
1	I flirt with patients. It, uh...promotes healing.
2	I mix in ridiculous instructions with real medical advice, just for fun.
3	All healing is spiritual in nature. I seek the advice and influence of spirits when helping patients.
4	I secretly aspire to be a farmer—really, anything but this. But it's the only thing I'm good at.
5	I like to experiment on my patients. It's a win-win for knowledge and patient health...usually.
6	Bedside manner? Why bother? Once I get out the scalpel, they shut right up.

d4	Ideal
1	Wholeness I seek to help others find peace of mind and body.
2	Common Sense If alcohol isn't the cure, it's probably the problem. And so on for sports, marriage, etc.
3	Experience Each interaction with a patient or family member teaches me something important.


4	Grit Sometimes I have to deal with bad news and worse people. Stiff upper lip and carry on!

d6	Bond
1	I don't charge for services to priests.
2	I record all my findings and procedures for future generations to learn from.
3	Helping the poor is my lifelong calling.
4	I was trained at a royal institute. I owe that family my allegiance for everything I have.
5	Self-taught, I practice medicine without a license. I must keep that fact a secret from other healers and the authorities.
6	Medicine supplies my curiosity about the occult and undead. My experimentation must be kept secret from those who are not so liberally minded.

d5	Flaw
1	I get shaky at the sight of blood.
2	Too terse.
3	My flaw. Ah yes, that. As I was saying, everyone has a flaw. And in my case, well it's nothing at all, really. Just a little thing. I tend to talk around isssues and pooh-pooh anything negative.
4	Ouch! Sorry, I forget to warn people before I do things like, er, incisions.
5	I gather gossip from my patients about everyone in town.
6	No flaws. I'm that confident. (Overconfidence)

Homemaker

The simple joys of hearth and home wrap your view of the world, narrow as it is. Many seek to the ends of existence for joy that can be found in rocking a baby to sleep, teaching a child a game, or serving a simple meal to those who look to you for everything. Your home's decor on a budget is cozy and quaint, yet refined by your attention to detail. Nursing sick ones, coaching others through the crisis of the day, and a never ending list of chores keeps you busy from sunup to sundown and often anxious hours between.

As a homemaker, your job encompasses more than housing, from happiness and health to education and events. You are the ultimate jack of all trades. But there are few things you do better than anyone else, things that require a listening ear, a caring heart, and a gentle touch—skills that are priceless.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Medicine
Tool Proficiencies: Cook's Utensils, Sewing Kit or Weaver's Tools
Equipment: a quilt, baking tin or pot or frying pan, recipe book, footstool or broom , common clothes, book of fairy tales or trashy romance novel, journal, family portrait in a locket or small frame, domestic pet, pouch with 100 sp (your life savings)

Feature: Touch of Home

When you are away from the comforts of hearth and home, you know how to make others feel comfortable in many small ways, such as whistling or humming familiar tunes, massaging sore muscles, fixing holes in clothes, combing hair, using just the right spice to bring back memories of better times, or simply lending a listening ear. One allied creature that you designate that spends at least six hours of a long rest within 100 feet of you gains advantage on their next Constitution or Wisdom save before the next long rest (hint: roleplay this interaction).

Suggested Characteristics

d10	Personality Trait
1	Everybody is welcome. The more the merrier.
2	Home cooked meals are how I show love.
3	My heart aches each time I see the empty chair at the table.
4	I see the best in people. A little tender loving care and that goodness will shine through.
5	My "family" is all the people that depend on me. I'll do anything for them.
6	I'm fearless. Being a mom or dad is much harder than anything adventurers do. Have you ever tried to raise a toddler? ...I'll take an angry dragon any day.
7	Nobody is too old to learn manners. That's what my big spatula is for.
8	I can solve most problems just by listening.
9	I act content on the outside, but I'm desperate to experience something beyond my dreary home life.
10	I harbor a secret grudge against those who arranged my dead-end marriage at a young age and look for the first chance to escape it forever.

d6	Ideal
1	Peace Harmony in the home is heaven on earth.
2	Tradition The way our forefathers lived is best. Just wait and see.
3	Appearances Keeping up with the Joneses is the most important job of a homemaker. Well, it's true!
4	Sunshine Patient kindness always wins out over bad attitudes and crusty jaded rudeness.
5	Variety A new dish. New decor. New dress. That's the spice of life.
6	Protection You think a mother bear is protective? Well, don't try me.

d8	Bond
1	I must provide for those dependent on me.
2	I will no longer be locked away in a kitchen as a slave. I will experience everything denied by my marital incarceration.
3	I will find peace only when I can truly understand those who took away what I loved most dearly.
4	Until my recipe book is complete, I must discover new flavors.
5	Every angry soul is a child who was not loved enough. I must show them love.
6	My rules are good rules. People must learn to keep them no matter how old they are.
7	The hungry must be fed, wherever and whoever they are.
8	I must make whatever place I'm in cozy and comfortable for everyone.

d8	Flaw
1	I overcook the vegetables every time.
2	They say spanking doesn't change bad behavior, but I am willing to try it anyway. Trust me, this hurts me, more than it hurts you.
3	I'm too generous. It leaves me with nothing for myself.
4	I secretly harbor an addiction to cookies and sweets, which I hide by baking for others (always snitching some for myself when no one is looking).
5	I make a lot of noise in the morning when I get up to start cooking breakfast.
6	Rage cleaning. You and your mess had better be ready to face the business end of my broom.
7	Seeing only the good in people blinds me to their true natures.
8	I instinctively correct and mother everyone around me.

Hunter

Patience is the virtue last earned by a young hunter, and the most valuable. Your training and experience have given you that, and more: animals' habits, their feeding grounds and watering holes, their mating calls, their places of resort, their tracks. Your mind is a treasure trove of facts and a wellspring of instinct. You have gone beyond knowledge about hunting. You are, through and through, a predator.

But no one holds it against you. That's just your job. Days you aren't in the wilds going native and slaying things, you maintain your traps, sharpen arrows and blades, skin and preserve game, plan hunts, and do whatever you want until you run out of food or money or someone in your household tells you to get back out there and bring back something for dinner.

Skill Proficiencies: Survival, choice of Perception or Nature

Tool Proficiencies: Leatherworker's Tools, Traps Equipment: skinning knife, snare twine, traveler's clothes, short bow or spear or net, pelt or fur from a recent hunt, a scar from the big one that got away, a pouch with 5 gp

Feature: Hunter's Patience

When you are in the wild, you can roll Survival checks in the place of Stealth checks. Whenever you attack a target that is surprised and you take no movement on your turn, you can add 1d4 to one ranged weapon attack roll and its damage on a hit. You can also add 1d4 to skill checks to identify beasts.

Specialty

d6	Specialty
1	Snares and nets
2	Dead falls and pit traps
3	Tracking and hunting with dogs
4	Steel traps (bears); underwater traps (crocs, beavers)
5	Hunting from blinds using calls
6	Live traps (cages)

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I play the long hunt when someone crosses me. I'll get back when they least expect it.
2	I like to rig needlessly complex traps—the zanier the better.
3	I never hunt alone. It's totally not because I get scared, lonely, and lost.
4	I always leave something of mine at the site of a kill.
5	I actually enjoy giving tours of the wilderness better than hunting.
6	I show off my hunting trophies (stuffed animal heads) to impress my romantic interests.

d6	Ideal
1	Inner Peace I use time hunting to seek a higher state of existence.
2	Dependability My sense of value comes from delivering on my promises.
3	Variety I seek new experiences each time I go hunting.
4	Efficiency A short hunt is a good hunt.
5	Competition Hunting is the ultimate contest of person and beast.
6	Restoration As a caretaker of the wilds, I seek to balance nature by catching and relocating beasts to areas where they were once native, but have died out, culling excess herds, and removing invasive foreign creatures.

d6	Bond
1	I never go home empty handed.
2	My first kill of a hunt goes to the orphans and elderly.
3	I must pass on the hunting techniques of my tribe to a successor.
4	I must protect the wilds and its game that my people depend on.
5	I seek the permission of spirits before a hunt.
6	My mentor went missing in the wilds. I seek to find and inter the remains in an ossuary belonging to our clan.

d6	Flaw
1	I curse when I miss my target...and other times.
2	I tend to walk too fast and leave others behind...sometimes lost.
3	Insomnia: I'm hyper-sensitive to small noises and wake easily, but struggle to fall asleep again.
4	I've become accustomed the sight and scent of gore and forget it upsets other people.
5	Easily distracted. On a hunt, if I find different tracks, I have a hard time keeping to the original target.
6	Constantly attempting to avoid getting dirty limits my effectiveness as a hunter. (But at least I look great.)

Occult Enthusiast

The lure of the unknown, the macabre, and the forbidden are impossible for you to resist. Powers unseen draw your thoughts. Forces of death and undoing draw you inexorably. Always watching for oddities from the corner of your eye, you see much which others miss. The world indeed is not what it seems. There is more. And you will find it.

d4	Curiosity
1	Ghosts and undead phenomena
2	Lycanthropes
3	Curses
4	Fiendish dealings and contracts

Skill Proficiencies: Religion; choose one of Arcana, Investigation, History, or Perception
Languages: choose two from Abyssal, Celestial, Deep Speech, Infernal, and Primordial
Equipment: A book of occult lore, loose pages or a notebook with notes and observations about local or recent occult or paranormal phenomena, a vial of holy water or religious symbol, a stake and mallet, a silver-plated dagger, a macabre trinket, common clothes, a cloak, a pouch containing 15 gp

Feature: Fanatical Fascination

If you or an ally succeed in identifying a creature or arcane object that you have not faced before, your excitement in seeing the new creature and your obsession over facts about such things grants you advantage on your next Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw from an effect that thing or its lair causes.

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I make and collect fact cards for creatures that interest me. I show them to anyone I meet.
2	I love to be frightened. The shock. The tingle. Most of all the horror!
3	I am secretly afraid of the occult. I started this hobby to prove to my friends that I wasn’t afraid.
4	I take occult matters seriously. Anyone who doesn’t is a fool.
5	I enjoy interviewing people about their occult experiences. And anything for that matter. I like asking questions.
6	I share gross and disturbing facts at inappropriate times.

d4	Ideal
1	Immortality. Life is too short to not seek for a means to cheat death.
2	Collect them all. Cataloging occult creatures and phenomena is an imperative.
3	Caution. Always go prepared into any situation with potential occult sources.
4	Thrills and chills. Death is the ultimate adventure.

d4	Bond
1	Each time I meet undead, I ask them about the other side. What comes after death? I must know.
2	Protect the living. The boundary between the living and the dead (or the undead) must be kept.
3	Exterminate evil. Rid the world of undead, lycanthropes, and other occult menaces.
4	I must know what lies beyond this world and this one life. I must connect with the great beyond.

d4	Flaw
1	My zeal in investigating the occult gets in the way of life: eating, sleeping, relationships.
2	In my eagerness to investigate the occult, I sometimes overlook hazards and end up in over my head.
3	I talk too much about the occult. I probably talk too much in general.
4	My lack of fear about the occult, monsters, and creatures of the darkness sometimes endangers my friends.

Real Estate Agent

You help people. It's true. You help people spend lots of money. You help people go into debt. But most of all, you help people selling property get rich, including you. Oh, you do a fair amount of listening and searching and helping folks get exactly what they want—often what you want them to want. And, in the end, everybody is happy, especially you and the bank and any other real estate agent involved.

It's a competitive business, and you've had your moments at the top. It's only a matter of time before you are back in the game, making big deals and showing fancy manors. Just as soon as taxes come down. Yes, only a matter of time.

In the meantime, you can show second floor office space above cobbler's shops and creepy apartments.

Skill Proficiencies: History, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: Official Documentation
Languages: choose one language
Equipment: fine clothes, folio, real estate sales brochure, agent's license, notary stamp and book, deed to a parcel of land you've never managed to find, a pocket-sized portrait of you, seller of the month certificate (or similar award), pouch containing 15 gp

Feature: Location. Location. Location.

With your knowledge of many locations and building styles, you have advantage on Perception checks to discover hidden doors and passages, and Survival checks to navigate cultivated mazes and inside buildings.

Specialty

d6	Specialty
1	Commercial properties: workshops, stores, offices
2	Residential properties: homes, cottages, villas, family farms
3	Exclusive properties: manors, castles, towers, dungeons
4	Public properties: parks, churches, government buildings, tenements
5	Getaways: time-share properties, vacation rentals, bungalows
6	Entry level: apartments, rented rooms, attics, basements, cellars, cupboards under stairs

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I must be number one. I'm too good for anything less.
2	I do talk too much—but it's fun! And I'm so good at it.
3	I could sell a shack with a leaking a roof to king. It just takes imagination and whole lot of smooth talking.
4	I just love to learn the history of any property I visit.
5	I play to win and my rivals have all found other places to be after losing to me. So don't get on my bad side.
6	I use pet names for everybody: darling, sweetie, honey, pumpkin, sugar—you name it.

d6	Ideal
1	Speed More deals, means more money. Hustle makes moola.
2	Compatibility The best deal is a perfect match of property and personality. It's all about match-ups.
3	Commitment When I'm brokered to sell a property, I'm in it until the deed is delivered and the escrow funds are freed. You can always count on me to find a way.
4	Opportunity Every deal has a little room for a side hustle. Some insider trading knowledge, a little industrial espionage, some gossip worthy information, special services—its all on the table.
5	Rainbows and Sunshine There is a bright side to everything. This property is great fixer-upper!
6	Reward It's about the vacations. Make some deals, then get to the beach!

d4	Bond
1	I never sell a property to someone who won't take care it. The community matters to me.
2	I always reduce my fee for broken families, widows, and young couples. I can't take so much from people who have so little.
3	I make sure I and my clients read all the paperwork line by line. I never make a deal without reading every last word.
4	I try to undermine the powerful nobles in the area by getting the best properties into the hands of hardworking commoners and selling poor soil and ramshackle buildings to lords.

d6	Flaw
1	I tend to leave out important details if the news is bad.
2	I trust people too much.
3	I'm nicer to rich people than poor ones. It's just easier to be nice to people with money. Don't you think?
4	I'm too much of a push-over, always willing to bend over backwards to help people. (It's why I'm such a lousy real estate agent.)
5	I have a horrible sense of direction, especially indoors.
6	I stutter when I lie, fib, or even exaggerate.

Romancer

Suitor, playboy, flirt, cougar, golddigger—romancers go by many names, not all kind. Which is too bad, because people you are courting always seem to enjoy the attention. Occasionally you have to make a hasty getaway when the prize is already taken and your rival is not happy to find you on the scene, but the hunt for passion is often its own reward.

What do you do in the hours you are not wooing wealthy and attractive lovers? You work out. You get a pedicure. You shop. Keeping up your chic look is not easy. You also do research on your quarry: what they like, what they don't, the competition, the family, the friends. Also, how much they are worth, because you have a lifestyle to maintain.

Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion, choose one of Insight, Investigation, or Performance
Tool Proficiencies: Beautician's Supplies
Languages: choose one language
Equipment: book of poetry, fine clothes, little book of amorous contacts, monogrammed handkerchief, two tickets to a performance, bottle of an enticing beverage, comb, shaving or makeup kit, fine coin purse containing 15 gp

Feature: Setting the Mood

If you succeed on an Insight or Investigation check regarding a creature's preferences, and you have an hour to prepare for a meeting or encounter with that creature by tailoring the setting, you can add 1d4 to your first Charisma check to influence the creature at that meeting.

Origin

d6	Origin
1	Financial ruin left me without an inheritance. Marrying up is my only hope for saving my family.
2	I started as a thief, playing a suitor to get close to the target. I liked the romancing better.
3	I act at the direction of my parents. Only a suitable marriage will allow me to keep my inheritance.
4	I made fast money gambling. I intend to make use of it while I'm young.
5	Wealthy and bored, I romance for something to do.
6	I was a government informant. I left as soon as I had connections.

Preferred Romancing Technique

d6	Romancing Technique
1	Tease I create romantic attraction through all manner of teasing. My lovers never know what to expect.
2	Mystery I heat up encounters by bringing an element of intrigue and mystery to the relationship. There is something hidden, something to discover, a checkered past, something to fear, perhaps and always something to wonder about.
3	Boy/girl next door I get in at the ground floor, with the down-to-earth simple look that disarms and invites trust. Romance heats up as we share simple joys: talking about life, laughing, doing chores, playing.
4	Coincidences A master of planning, I engineer chance encounters that pique intense interest. Is is fate? No. But they can believe that fantasy as long as they like.
5	Minor disasters Nothing brings two people together like surviving a shared adventure. I arrange for minor disasters in which I and my quarry are stuck together. Coming through it together bond us.
6	I can help you I find my would-be lover's weak point, be it social, financial, or political, and apply pressure through some of my less savory contacts. Then, I arrive as their only hope.

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	Roses are red, violets are...violet—why do I have to be so honest? It makes romancing so much harder.
2	In the eyes of every person I try to romance, I only see my one true love...the one I will never see again.
3	I laugh off any accusation. If I don't take it seriously, nobody else should.
4	I practice one-liners on random people to see how well they work. Dangerous business. I have scars to prove it.
5	My addiction to true crime stories, unsolved mysteries, and disappearances hampers my night life. Whenever I come to a new place, I'm torn between romancing the local beauties and combing the catacombs and libraries for dark tales.
6	When circumstances, or my own wandering heart, or revelations about who I really am, etc. leads me to abandon the one I'm courting, I set off in search of innocent hearts to tempt with love. But I never get over breakups. Those wounds run deep and keep me awake at night. If I could see my scarred soul in the mirror, I shudder to think what I would find. So, in those long hours of the night, when all is still save my screaming conscience...I play Sudoku.

d6	Ideal
1	The Perfect Wedding It is everything I work for.
2	No Commitments I make them, just not keep them.
3	If I can't have you When I can't win the heart of the one I seek, I have no choice but try to make them jealous.
4	All good fun Why do people take love so seriously?
5	Playing for keeps Flirting and coy maneuvering seems so easy, as if I didn't care if I loved or lost. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm playing this game to win: heart, mind, and soul. I'm in it for eternal love.
6	The Challenge Sometimes I just think, "I wonder if I could get that amazing, famous, rich person to kiss me?" After that, I'm committed. The game is on.

d4	Bond
1	If I don't marry soon, I'll be deported.
2	If I don't find a lover with money, I'll soon be homeless.
3	I have a terminal illness. I dare not marry.
4	I'm hired to break up rich heir's childhood crushes.

d4	Flaw
1	I was betrothed in my teens in an arranged marriage, but I fled after the ceremony. So, technically I'm already married, and on the run. But who really needs to know?
2	My desire for my true love makes want to be a better person. If only that better person could shake loose of the prison deep in my heart that I locked when I gave up my true love for wealthier prospects.
3	I judge by appearances. Sometimes I regret that.
4	I have a birth mark or birth defect that I'm embarrassed about that I try to hide as long as possible.

Searcher

You seek what was lost. It could be your clan or family, arcane knowledge, a fabled city, a deity, an artifact to save someone you love, a lover or family member taken prisoner, lost technology, a portal home—anything.

This search is more than a hobby. It is your greatest purpose. It keeps you awake at night. It drives you on. Your existence is suspended between the twin pillars of hope and despair. You are never out of sight of either.

Skill Proficiencies: History; Investigation or Survival depending on whether your search is through archives or overland
Tool Proficiencies: Choose one of Official Documentation, Cartographer’s Tools, or Navigator’s Tools
Languages: A language of your choice that aids with your search

Feature: Tireless Seeker

Your quest lends you a powerful drive to continue. While searching for what you seek, you ignore the penalty for ability checks caused by exhaustion for skills with proficiencies granted by this background.

d12	Goal
1	lost loved one or friend
2	lost city, temple, or fabled location
3	artifact of power or magial item/weapon
4	cure
5	famous but elusive guru or mentor
6	rare creature
7	new business opportunity
8	lost clan or tribe
9	planar portal
10	famed crafter
11	family heirloom or signet ring
12	will, document, or certification

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I interview most everyone I meet to find out what they know about my goal.
2	I keep my goal a secret as much as possible. It's a delicate or dangerous topic.
3	I tend to change my goal on a whim.
4	When people get in the way of my goal, I get in the way of theirs.
5	When asked about my goal, I always make up a different backstory for it. So nobody knows the real reason I seek it.
6	I secretly hope I don't find my goal, because searching is so much fun. Sometimes, I sabotage my own efforts or don't take every opportunity I could to close in on it.

d6	Ideal
1	Vigilance. My search never ends. I am always on watch.
2	Temperance. My search matters, but not more than my friendships.
3	Payoff. I've risked everything for this. No price is too big.
4	Experience. I relish and record every part of my search. It may be my only adventure.
5	Avoidance. My search is a means to avoid other duties. I drag it out whenever possible.
6	Ruthlessness. If something gets in my way, I cut it down.

d6	Bond
1	I won't eat dessert until I finish my quest.
2	I recite my quest as a mantra whenever I join a battle (roll initiative).
3	Those at home are counting on me. I must provide for them while on my quest.
4	I cannot truly obtain my quest until I am pure of heart.
5	My life means nothing if I cannot reach my goal. I accept any hazard.
6	I must report on my progress to superiors regularly.

d4	Flaw
1	I suffer from crippling doubts about whether I will ever find what I seek.
2	I fall asleep while researching my goal. I just get so drowsy. I tend to get pranked a lot.
3	When I am tired or intoxicated, I ramble about my quest, frequently spilling secrets and trusts I should have kept.
4	I'm so careful about making sure others don't find out about my quest, I don't make much progress.

Sequestered Heir

Sheltered from the harsh realities of a cruel world by overprotective guardians, you grew up in luxury and isolation. Far too good to witness the ignominy of poverty and squalor, you instead learned the subtleties of fine food and comportment. Yet, for all their caring, your caretakers denied you the chance to truly struggle. You have never truly been stood up to or defied, your wishes merely delayed, if not granted immediately. Physical suffering—unthinkable.

With your every need attended to, you could pursue safe leisure activities such as painting, music, and reading and laugh at the odd things authors make up in their stories about people without money, widespread suffering, and crime. Truly ridiculous stuff, if imaginative.

Skill Proficiencies: History, Performance
Tool Proficiencies: Choose one instrument.
Languages: Choose one language.
Equipment: a classic novel or book of fairy tales or poems, fine clothes, a letter of introduction to a noble, a hand mirror, a small portrait of you as a child and your doting mother and/or father, a bell for calling servants to you, a parasol or cane, a silk handkerchief, and pouch containing 3 platinum pieces (no golds, silvers or coppers)

Feature: Penny for your Troubles

Growing up in the shelter of a manor, estate, or castle, your delicate features and manner convey such an air of privilege that others of lower station are inclined voluntarily do manual labor tasks for you, such as carry items and generally be of assistance to you (also because they will expect to paid for it). When you tip someone for such aid, you can add 1d4 to your next Charisma check or Insight check toward that creature.

Sequestered Heir Origin

d6	Origin
1	As the second in line, you were not the favored heir and were intentionally kept out of the public eye.
2	Warned by a prophecy of your untimely demise (which may or may not have been true), your parents kept you locked up far from any source of danger.
3	Fearful that you might one day pose a threat to them, your guardian, who is not the true heir, kept you isolated with tutors rather than allow you to learn what they were doing with your kingdom.
4	Your frail body was often ill as a child and your parents and servants became accustomed to pandering to your every whim, fearing that overexertion would do you harm.
5	When your mother fled with you away from your violent father (or vice-versa) they made every effort to keep your location a secret.
6	Serious allergies (hay fever) induced your guardians to move your residence to the high country, and far away from farms, where it was cold much of the year and you mostly stayed indoors.

Sugggested Characteristics

d8	Personality Trait
1	If it's already in a book, why bother going to trouble of seeing it or doing it for yourself? That's just asking for a misadventure.
2	Never trust a servant. They are always cutting corners and talking about you behind your back.
3	The outdoors are for wild animals and savages.
4	Do you even know what ""privileged"" means? It means I don't have to work. Ever.
5	I would do anything to escape my sheltered life, so long as it doesn't involve any discomfort.
6	My favorite things are myself, my puppies and kitties, and my nanny.
7	I can smell any spice, taste any flavor, and detect any odor. My food must be perfect.
8	I can't fall asleep without a bedtime story and getting tucked in.

d8	Ideal
1	Cleanliness It is next to godliness.
2	Presentation The dishes are as important as the dish served.
3	Fashion What people see first is what really matters in the end.
4	Expectations Never disappoint mommy or daddy. Uphold the family name.
5	Money And more money.
6	Land And more land.
7	Emancipation Status means being able afford to treat everyone as though they are important.
8	Flattery It is mandatory.

d8	Bond
1	Never get up before noon—it's bad for digestion.
2	A cup of tea at 10 and 2.
3	Never disobey mommy and daddy.
4	Always follow the guidebook, tour guide, or whoever is charge. Obviously they know what they are doing or they wouldn't have written the book or been put in charge.
5	Always tip for services.
6	Perpetuate the family fortune.
7	To go back home is to admit you are a failure.
8	Keep up appearances, even with an empty purse.

d6	Flaw
1	Hypochondriac or germophobe
2	Voice that sounds nasal, pained, or out of breath
3	No understanding of the practical monetary value of coinage and goods (likely to get ripped off)
4	Gullible
5	Can't dress self
6	Daddy or mommy issues

Street Vendor

Spreading your wares for passersby to see, calling out the daily news headline, polishing the apples in your cart, haggling prices, dodging tax collectors, popping up at carnivals and festivals with delights for all ages—it's all part of the daily grind of a street vendor. Whether you merely hawk goods for other crafters, or bake or make your own items, the daily process of repleshing your tray, blanket or cart of goods and the exhausting hours on the street enticing buyers certainly takes a toll. It's a meager existence interspersed by those exceptional festival days where you make enough to take a few days off.

Moving with the other vendors from farmer's market to farmer's market keeps you fit and introduces you to contacts all over the area. You learn things, see things, but always sell things—occasionally getting robbed. But that is all part of the life of a street vendor. Love it or not, you can't leave it. Where would the money for tomorrow come from?

Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion; choose either Sleight of Hand or Insight
Tool Proficiencies: choose one of Cook's Utensils, Jeweler's Tools, or Woodcarver's Tools
Equipment: small cart or tray with carry straps or woven blanket for displaying your wares, a forged permit for vending in your present location, a supply of trinkets of modest value for sale such as reproductions of religious relics, statuettes, carved toys, hair pins, beaded necklaces or bracelets, crystals with purported (though non-existent) magical powers, luck charms, tickets for tours, snacks or baked goods, vials of cure-all tonics, etc., a sack, and an apron with pockets for holding your change with your recent receipts totaling 10 gp.

Feature: Pop-up Shop

You can quickly set up a roadside vending spot and earn enough money in 1d8 hrs of vending to sustain a modest lifestyle expense for you and your companions (provided you are in a place where you can find customers and you have goods or services to sell).

Specialty

d10	Vending Specialty
1	baked goods
2	wood carvings and toys
3	pouches, purses, bags, waterskins, gourds, baskets
4	knives, pots, pans, and kitchen utensils
5	jewelry, hairpins, pendants, bracelets, beads
6	event tickets, playbills, concessions, and souvenirs
7	scarves, gloves, hats, accessories
8	mystic and arcane collectibles, or contraband
9	flowers, herbs, medicines and poultices
10	fresh fruits and vegetables

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I make a new friend with every sale. I just love talking with people and learning about them.
2	I try to up-sell every customer. Never settle for easy.
3	I count change very slowly and deliberately, hoping the customer will tell me to keep the change.
4	I include a surprise gift with every purchase. I love to see customers delighted.
5	If a customer flirts, I pull a knife. Business is business.
6	If something else is selling better, I'll change my stock.

d6	Ideal
1	Discretion Selling such sensitive items, I keep my head down, sell only to people I trust, and avoid the authorities. Skulking? Yeah, you could call it that. But I do it well. It's a way of life for a black market vendor.
2	Volume People can't buy if you they don't know what I am selling. Just shout it out. Want to sell? Don't be shy.
3	Uniqueness I only offer items that people can't buy anywhere else. I love to have sell things that are special, exclusive, and unique.
4	Quality I guarantee everything I sell for quality. I never sell junk. My reputation depends on it.
5	Variety In life and in business, I like a little bit of everything.
6	Shock and Awe I seek and sell exciting things that really captivate customers.

d6	Bond
1	Having spent too much time in jail for dodging tariffs and taxes, I just pay my taxes on everything now. No questions asked. No hesitation. No argument.
2	I'm a street vendor because I can do it anonymously. My past is dark and I best keep to myself and stay on the move.
3	I try to sell out every day, even if I have to take a loss. People have to know that what I'm selling is limited quantity. It creates demand. That same desperation to finish the job permeates my whole life.
4	I always take off time in the middle of the day to spend time with people I care about. No sense in missing out on life.
5	I feel duty-bound to carefully examine and remember the faces and descriptions of all my customers. If one turns out to be a thief, I can describe them and that is good for all vendors. Or, maybe I'm just paranoid.
6	I must keep detailed notes on when and how much merchandise I sell. My records help me know what to stock and when. I just write everything down out of habit, or compulsion. How do you think this got here?

d6	Flaws
1	My vendor stall is disorganized. And my clothes. And my life. I'm too busy to worry about appearances.
2	I have no qualms selling flawed merchandise. In fact, I get a kick out of it. Tricking people is a thrill.
3	Out of paranoia, I setup my stand in a different location every day. Who knows what could happen if I stayed in one place?
4	I always give a good deal to a pretty face...and people who look dangerous. Is it fair? No.
5	I eat my own profits. I just can't sell food all day and not snitch it. I also snitch from other stands, for variety.
6	I can't help haggling for everything. It's just so ingrained into me. I hate paying full price.

Tailor

As a crafter of fine custom clothing, you are a cut above a typical seamstress or hobbyist making alterations. Your clothing is art in motion. Line, form, cut, pattern, layers—it all comes together like an exquisite dish for consumption by hungry eyes. Your patrons vary from high-born regulars to traders visiting from afar who have heard of your genius. You may have a humble place of business, but there is nothing so modest about your creations.

Skill Proficiencies: Sleight of Hand, Perception
Tool Proficiencies: Sewing Kit, Weaver's Tools
Equipment: sewing kit, fine clothes, dress form or manequin, a half-finished piece of commissioned clothing, a roll of fine cloth, a bag of buttons and notions, pouch with 10 gp

Feature: Quick Stitch

As part of a short rest, with suitable materials, you can repair one damaged piece of clothing. Alternatively, during the short rest, you can alter an outfit or piece of clothing to make the wearer less recognizable. The wearer can add your proficiency bonus to their next Deception, Performance, or Stealth check to avoid being recognized.

Specialty

d6	Tailor Specialty
1	Dresses and skirts
2	Suits
3	Hats, ties, gloves, wraps, and accessories
4	Robes, loungewear, and sleepwear
5	Shirts and blouses
6	Garments for weddings, religious ceremonies, and special occasions

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	New places and experiences inspire my creations.
2	I am always in search of new materials.
3	I flirt with my customers...and others.
4	Perfectionism torments me amid imperfect creations.

d4	Ideal
1	Fame I seek glory and recognition for my genius.
2	Perfection I make each garment flawless.
3	Beauty I create to make people more beautiful.
4	Creativity I make only things no one has ever seen.

d4	Bond
1	I have signed away my designs to a wealthy sponsor.
2	I use only local materials for my creations.
3	I must provide for my mentor's orphaned children.
4	I create fashions only for the person I love—my singular source of inspiration.

d4	Flaw
1	I am brutally honest. (Yes, those pants do make you look fat.)
2	My designs are too daring, bold and new. I push too far on social limits and sometimes offend.
3	I have a bad habit of overdressing for mundane occasions.
4	My artist's temper flares when I cannot get it right!

Village Idiot/Drunk/Jester

You are the laughing stock of the town, and you wouldn't have it any other way. Why take things seriously when you act like nothing matters? Sure, you live off the scraps and occasional generosity of others, but there are advantages to being a full-time layabout. No boss. No schedule. No expectations.

And it isn't like do don't earn your keep. You entertain, or at least you make people laugh, sometimes at yourself, other times at the expense of someone who certainly deserves it. And if not, they'll get over it as soon as you choose a new target for your wit.

The most certain thing about your malingerer's life of loafing, laughing, and lambasting is that with nothing to lose, you can do and say what you please.

Skill Proficiencies: Performance, choose Acrobatics or Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit, choose one instrument
Equipment: a wooden pint (empty, leaks a little), 10 gp of blatantly counterfeit coinage, a tin platter, a colorful silk scarf or expensive top hat (you can't remember where it's from), a gold tooth, a bouquet of mostly dead flowers, a message you were paid to deliver (you've forgotten to whom), a pouch containing 3 gp

Feature: Nobody's Fool

By acting the fool, you put others at ease, as they become certain of your incompetence. While behaving as a fool or drunk, you can add 1d4 to a Perception checks to eavesdrop, or to a Sleight of Hand check. You can use this feature again after you change locations.

Alternatively, you can use humor to discredit another creature who is attempting intimidate or persuade others. When another creature makes a Charisma check, you can use your reaction to make a humorous remark or action. The creature subtracts 1d4 from their check total. You can use this feature again when you change locations.

Humor Specialty

d8	Humor Specialty
1	Bombastic and ridiculous drunken speeches
2	Heckling of all sorts
3	Distracting others and snitching their food and drink
4	Limericks on demand
5	Offensive nonverbal gestures including mooning, vulgar gestures, scathing imitations of posture and mannerisms, copycat gestures, and entertaining, distracting, and discrediting facial expressions
6	Scoffing, coughing, chortling, guffawing, blowing raspberries, snoring, snorting, belching, farting, and other well-timed non-speech sounds that discredit the person speaking
7	Table dancing
8	Tavern songs, especially crude ones

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	If is needs saying, and hasn't been said yet, and everybody is wincing and waiting for it, that's your cue.
2	Passing gas at the most inopportune moment is a time-honored art form, and the perfect refutation to any valid point in an argument.
3	Nobody feeds a sad beggar. A smile softens the hardest hearts.
4	Life is too short for hygiene.
5	A jest looks best on the one best-dressed. I always target rich folk for harassment.
6	I am a tool of the gods. I exist to test the charitableness of souls. (Spare a copper?)

d6	Ideal
1	Laziness Never work unless threatened with jail time.
2	Creativity Never tell the same story twice. (Just change the story.)
3	Equality No one is so rich they can afford to be poor in humor.
4	Avoidance Why cry when you can laugh?
5	Spontaneity Never miss a chance to say something you'll regret.
6	Brutal Honesty Only a beggar can afford to tell the truth.

d6	Bond
1	Those who don't offer me coins will rue the day their ears started working.
2	I share my beggin's with other beggars.
3	An awkward silence is a chance wasted.
4	A brutal impersonation is the only proper way to introduce any person or rehearse any saying of importance.
5	Those who are generous with me escape the whip of my wit for precisely one hour.
6	I am too poor to afford anyone honor.

d6	Flaw
1	I'm ornery in the morning. And most other times.
2	I fart, therefore I am.
3	I steal when I'm hungry. And most other times.
4	Teeth…or lack of them.
5	Wrinkles—they're not just for old people anymore.
6	They say I don't know when to quit with the jokes. And they're right.

Woodcutter

A humble lumberjack you are, brought up in the woods and rivers, content to ply your trade chopping trees, sawing logs and keeping to the quieter parts. Your joys are simple: a stunning view from the top of a tree you've climbed, a sharp ax and sharper saw, pride in a job well done, occasionally actually getting paid, and every day you aren't eaten by a bear.

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, choose Nature or Survival Tool Proficiencies: Woodcutter's tools, Carpenter's tools
Equipment: ax or wood saw, suspenders, flannel or woolen shirt (preferably plaid), common clothes, sturdy boots, woodcutter's permit, lucky socks, a sack of pancake mix, a spatula, a personal item or trinket lost by a traveler in the woods, pouch containing 10 gp.

Feature: At Home in the Woods

You have advantage on Athletics checks to climb trees, fell trees, and on Survival and Nature checks in forests.

Suggested Characteristics

d6	Personality Trait
1	I just love cutting things. Is that creepy?
2	I prefer the company of trees to people.
3	An honest day's work, but no more. Evenings are for other adventures.
4	I can sense the soul of each tree I cut. My work is pain.
5	A wind-blown tree killed my brother. I just hate trees.
6	I take meticulous care of my tools.

d6	Ideal
1	Peace and Quiet Bliss is hearing only my ax.
2	Industry Wood fuels society. I seek more new tools and methods to deliver that lifeblood of progress.
3	Frolicking I have fun when nobody is watching close.
4	Preservation I harvest only trees that are unhealthy.
5	Knowledge My work feeds my hobby as a dendrologist.
6	Exploration I seek new places.

d6	Bond
1	Only a hard day's work keeps my conscience from dredging up memories of my dark past.
2	I must find a way to save the old growth forests.
3	A plague grows in the dark parts of the forest. I must find the cause.
4	The ones who raised me tought me to be a woodcutter. I owe them everything, but leaving the business will hurt them.
5	I must stop over harvesting of trees.
6	I must protect the natives living in the woods we harvest.

d6	Flaw
1	I came to this land as an indentured servant. I ran away from my work crew before I had paid my due. The guilt of it burdens me.
2	I like to get my supervisors (or others) lost in the woods, for fun.
3	I am afraid of heights.
4	I fight a constant secret temptation to start a forest fire just to see what happens.
5	I'm always angry. I just take it out on the trees.
6	I talk to myself in the woods.

Meet the NPCs

Trobly, kenku Street vendor

is one of the more popular street vendors. He entertains children with his expert imitations of their parents.

Niacari Faryl, half-elf Bureaucrat

keeps accurate records of trees felled in the king's wood,
and occasionally drags in poachers...by their ear.

Gregori Tolich, human, Performer

holds an impromptu, traffic-stopping street performance with his latest choreography: "dance of thousand broken hearts."

Rana Dewborn, human Animal Handler

and famed horse breeder showing off her prize stallion. (Come on now, choose a side to stare at.)

Jasper Oakhill, human Farm Hand

is thoughtful, hardworking and well thought of. He has turned down several offers to become a squire. Somehow, people seem to know that his future holds something important.

Linkin, human Healer

a nurse, attends his patient, the recently-paralyzed Yodori

Rakesa, human Healer

and patient Miuri (she's expecting, but doesn't know it!)

Roko, human Homemaker

and adorable Haru. She's rumored to be a sorcerer. If so, perhaps Haru will be, too.

Shia and Tod Blackthorne
human Hunters

work together to corner their quarry
(either would make quite a catch themselves)

Reminiscence ("Remi")
tiefling Real Estate Agent

shows off...um, a house

Hackylgak ("Hax")
hobgoblin Occult Enthusiast

has a face only a mother could love (or another hobgoblin). But they say he's the best at finding strange artifacts.

Desire, tielfing Romancer

sets the mood before the evening festivities begin

Fahzi, human Romancer

at the oasis again, with Amal, his latest catch.

Lariana Stormsky, human Romancer

puts a move on Rupero Oreliar, the duke's eldest son

Calys Durun, human Sequestered Heir

not the most exciting guy around, but seriously rich. Seriously. Rich.

Mooky, goliath Street Vendor

Advice: never haggle. Just don't try it.

Crezzi, goblin Street Vendor

always serves up something interesting...very interesting

Huxley Hornbreaker
minotaur Street Vendor

and his famous butter crisp buns

Benson Brimhall, human Tailor

and adoring fans

"Loopy" Lena Vathi, human Village Idiot

never a dull moment...but not the sharpest either

Hank Valdor & Poppy Corun
human Woodcutters

are rumored to be getting engaged soon!

Rugan Hoffelfeld and Misty Jermaine

are steaming up the forest again. No wonder people get lost in the fog. Do they ever even work, or just make purse-lipped smolder expressions and eye-catching poses?

Credits

All artwork is original (Midjourney tool v5). This homebrew was created for the Royal Academy campaign. (More soon!)

Version History

Date	Version	Change
2024.05.29	2.0	added missing farm implements, plus avenger, gravedigger, occult enthusiast, and searcher
2023.08.11	1.0	Initial release

WWW.GMBINDER.COM

This document was lovingly created using GM Binder.

If you would like to support the GM Binder developers, consider joining our Patreon community.