Backgrounds
Astronomer
You spent a significant portion of your life studying the stars, planets, and other wonders of the universe. You can use the clues observed in the sky to help you discern realities about the world around you. You are interested in mysteries of the universe and the forces that rule it.
Skill Proficiencies: Perception, and pick either Arcana or History
Tool Proficiencies: Navigator's Tools, Vehicle (spelljammer)
Equipment: A set of either Navigator's Tools. A book written about your discoveries, or 10 sheets of blank parchment and a quill. A set of common clothes. Belt pouch containing 10 gp.
Feature: Stellar Knowledge
As long as you have a clear view of the night sky, you can always determine:
- Which way is North while on a planet.
- What time of the day and time of the year it is.
- How long has it been since sunset, and how long until sunrise.
- Your approximate location, to within 50 miles.
- In addition to that, you can name constellations and recall lore related to any constellation that you can see.
Your DM determines what the specific requirement for a "clear view of the night sky" is: light cloud cover should not be a problem, but looking through a tiny window of a prison cell might not be good enough.
This ability doesn't work at all on a plane different from the one you did your research on, and even on the same plane in a solar system sufficiently distant that its night sky is dissimilar to your own (DM's discretion).
Suggested Characteristics
Astronomers view the world as a part of the bigger picture, they understand their place in the universe. They tend to be humble, and distance themselves from minor local conflicts they view as irrelevant. They adventure to expand their knowledge of nature and the universe as whole.
Bounty Hunter
However fine and noble the world might have seemed at first glance, once you dug a little deeper beneath the facade, a deeper truth revealed itself to you. Conflict and strife are the only real constants in "civilized" lands, and for you, therein lay the opportunity for profit. As a bounty hunter you had plied your trade well, offering dubious (if effective) services and skills to all manner of client for myriad reasons- superficial or otherwise. Regardless of the cause, the justification, or the moral impunity associated with locating your mark. Every job finished brought the clink of coin between your purse strings at the expense of another poor soul fated to endure consequences dire, and often foul.
Though the time spent in this line of work has left you grim and jilted, your reputation for ruthlessness and cunning precedes you. More often than not, you found yourself sought after and petitioned to ferret a mark, never needing to eke out the work on your own. From the lowly debtor owing the wrong merchant guild, to the misguided runaway offspring of a minor noble, or the thieving murderer eluding the city guard, none could evade your dogged pursuit, and many more dared not try once your involvement was learned.
Skill Proficiencies:
Deception,
Intimidation
Tool Proficiencies: Thieves' Tools
Equipment: Ink bottle, a set of traveler's clothes, ink pen, 6 pages of parchment, 4 hunting traps, thieves' tools, 5 rare trinkets from previous bounties (roll on table PHB pg. 160-161), and a belt pouch containing 30 gold
Feature: Ear to the Ground
You are in frequent contact with people in the segment of society that your chosen mark moves 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, places and the political standings of the local area.
Suggested Characteristics
A bounty hunter's sole purpose is to hunt down people with a price on their head, for grievances ranging from the mundane to the terrible. Those who follow this life can be quiet, taciturn individuals as readily as they can be savage brutes living not for the pay, but for the thrill of pursuit. Hunters are therefore often as varied in personality as their marks.
Variant Bounty Hunter: Vigilante
Standing in contrast to the mercenaries who haul in anyone labelled a criminal for coin are those who target thieves, charlatans, and murderers exclusively – and for no material reward. Vigilantes are as often soldiers dumbstruck by newly-found social decay and corruption whence they return home from war, as they are wealthy citizens with a penchant for martial prowess an and axe to grind against their city's seedy underbelly for a past, personal transgression. As a matter of course, a particularly zealous vigilante may come into conflict with a bounty hunter, deeming her as guilty of violating the law as any brigand skulking about an alleyway. If you indeed wish to be a vigilante, select the Crime Doesn't Pay feature outlined below instead of the Names, Faces, & Places feature above. Living a life of vigilantism means that you will always be on the lookout for criminal activity, especially so if you're within the boundaries of a town or other settlement you claim as your home. The promise of payment never sways your decisions in whom you target, and you hold yourself to a higher code than your capricious counterparts – you consider it preferable to turn your marks over to the appropriate authorities instead of harming them.
City guard and militia are likely to turn a blind eye to your unsanctioned activities unless you cross someone in their rank, be they corrupted, prideful, or otherwise. Additionally, as your reputation grows, you will gradually earn the accolades and support of the common people who find their streets safer, and petty thugs less inclined to hold them at knife point over a few coins. At the same time, organizations and individuals accustomed to using their coffers to help guide a settlement's definition of "criminal" (such as a merchant house, corrupt council member, and the like) will gradually grow to resent and perhaps lash out at your burgeoning reputation.
Variant Feature: Crime Doesn't Pay
Pulling from your prior experiences as a soldier, mercenary, or even an extensive time living the life of a vigilante, you have the skills needed to wage a kind of psychological battle against the criminal elements of society. When interrogating someone to glean information about the location, motive, or operations of their superiors, they will easily buckle under questioning and often times readily give up sensitive knowledge without the need to press further. Any promises you may make concerning their fate in exchange for information you are not obligated to keep, short of killing them. You can coordinate this information with any authority in a city you're on amiable terms with, be it the guard or militia, your own old military unit, or even a sympathetic temple's leadership, provided that temple maintains soldiers of their own.
Scavenger
Battlefields are everywhere, and countless items are left behind. Many people avoid them, for fear of the undead or evil curses, but some very brave, or incredibly foolish, individuals risk everything to gain riches beyond their wildest imaginings by plundering these sites. From grave robbers who dig up the mass burials, weapon burnings, and individual grave sites, to battlefield scroungers who loot the scattered dead, scavengers are some of the least-appreciated professionals in most cultures. Their work is dangerous- they risk accident, disease, and fell magics, and face the threat of being attacked by wild predators, undead, and survivor soldiers. Many gods condemn their actions as a disgrace to the dead.
Why did you engage in this risky line of work? Are you searching for a legendary item? Or are you just seeking to get rich by amassing a mountain of salable clutter? Have you ever had to do something you felt was wrong to get out of danger on the job? How did you get into scavenging in the first place? Did you ever "hit it big", or have you been running a dry streak? What do you think of others in your profession? Do you have any rules about whose body you are willing or unwilling to disturb? Why did you leave a scavenging life to join a group? Are you still scavenging, or did you leave that life behind?
Skill Proficiencies:
Perception,
Investigation
Tool Proficiencies: Smith's Tools, Vehicles (Land)
Equipment: A trinket scavenged from a battlefield (i.e, a sword hilt, a dented helmet, a scrap of cloth from a banner), a set of common clothes, a warm blanket, a leather sack, and a pouch containing 10 gp.
Feature: Keen Eye
Whenever you see something that could be of value, you have a vague estimate of its worth, as well as some interesting information about the item, if there is anything interesting to know. If you fail any checks to identify the value of an item, you learn of someone or someplace where you can have the item's value measured, unless the DM deems the item too rare or obscure.
Smuggler
You have spent your life hiding in the darkness, making shady deals behind closed doors. What led you to engage in a life of crime? Do you crave the thrill of lawbreaking, or did you enter the profession to pay off a debt, risking your hide on behalf of a less than honorable noble? A smuggler is an individual trained in the art of acquisition, a professional thug who can deliver anything… for a price. Smugglers tend to be more bolder criminals than most, preferring bribery or distraction over subterfuge and stealth.
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth (choose 2)
Tool Proficiencies: Forgery kit and Vehicles (spelljammer)
Equipment: One set of common clothes, backpack with hidden compartment, forgery kit, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp
Smuggled Item Specialty
A smuggler is no good without illicit goods to transport! Roll on the table below or work with your DM to define another category of controlled substances your character tends to acquire.
D6 Roll
1) Addictive Substances
2) Alchemical Ingredients/ Potions
3) Exotic Creatures
4) Discounted Wares (Tax Dodger)
5) Weaponry
6) Antiquities
Feature: Careful Selection
Some close brushes with the law have taught you that not every city guard can be bribed, and some people are simply too keen to miss minute discrepancies. This feature allows you to study a person and gain insight into whether or not they would accept a bribe, or to pick up on whether they are exceptionally more perceptive than you. It does not reveal how expensive a bribe may be for a given situation, however.
Alternate Feature: Trained Eye
Extensive practice concealing at items has given you an uncanny ability to tell when someone is hiding something. Whether someone is telling a half-truth or actively hiding a dagger in their belt, you can always tell when there is more to a person than meets the eye.
Alternate Feature: Shadow Meld
You have learned how to blend in with shadows, as a result you have advantage on stealth checks in rooms with low to no light.
Spacefarer
You have traveled the space lanes for years and have seen things and been to places that others could only dream of.
Skill Proficiencies: Survival, plus one from among Insight, persuasion, or deception
Tool Proficiencies: Navigator’s tools, Vehicles (Spelljammer)
Languages: One of your choice
Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, a bedroll, a walking stick, a token of your old life at home (roll on the trinkets table), a small knife, and a pouch with 5 gp
Feature: Tales to tell
Your travels have given you a wide variety of stories of exotic locations, fantastic sights, and interesting people. Others are always fascinated by these tales and are they are willing to trade a free drink, information, or a place to stay for these tales. The tales may also provide advantage on history checks related to famous planets, ships and personas through out Wildspace that may have been referenced in the tales you know based on DM discretion.
Mercenary
As a mercenary, your services were for hire to anyone who could afford them. What drove you to be a soldier of fortune? Was it to escape poverty? Was it the thrill of battle? Or was it simply that fighting was all you knew growing up? Who was your mercenary company, or did you work alone? What made you give it up, or are you still for hire? Did you make any allies or enemies along the way? What wars or battles were involved in? What were the consequences? Lost allies? War crime charges?
Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Perception
Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set
Equipment: Proof of the first contract you completed, a set of common clothes, one gaming set of choice, belt pouch containing 10 gp
Feature: Hired Blade
You are a soldier of fortune, a fighter who sells his services to the highest bidder. You roam towns and cities in search of a place where your unique set of talents are useful; whether for a lord hunting a group of bandits, or a local barkeep tired of the goblin infestation in his cellar, you can always find some work if you look hard enough. The job itself should not matter much for a person like you, at least that is what others believe. Therefore, other less admirable and shunned upon jobs sometimes arrives at your lap, giving you the choice and the problem of figuring a way to compromise between your ethics and your job.
{All of the proceeding backgrounds were derived from the list at
https://spelljammer5e-1.obsidianportal.c...ackgrounds}
Shiprat
If you weren't born on a ship, you grew up on one. You have known the pull of the sails, the pitch of the decks, and the curve of the keel for as long as you remember. This has given you a second nature when aboard and underway.
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Acrobatics
Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (Spelljammer), one of Shipwright's tools or Carpentry tools, one of Martial Weapons, Heavy Weapons, or Simple Weapons.
Equipment: Bedroll, belaying pin (2), rations (5), belt pouch containing 15 gp.
Feature: Wildspacer Native
Your personal air envelope lasts twice as long as normal.
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