by Greylen » Wed Jul 13, 2016 12:52 am
The Second thing is the character backgrounds are going to be even more important in this little adventure that usual. Basically your background will determine a bonus your character will get for having that particular type of background. Plus you have the option of having a 'minor quest' that is your characters alone and if accomplished during the main quest, will result is a substantial XP gain.
I have detailed 7 types of backgrounds here. You can use them exactly, or just choose the one that best fits your own custom background for the bonus. OR if you really get into it, you can ask me for a particular bonus you think would nicely fit the background you thought up. Sky's the limit. These are just to get the creative juices flowing.
Whispers about your family’s lineage haunted your childhood. Claims of being cursed, doomed, or otherwise touched by evil made your early years difficult. These troubles sourced from tales about your family’s history because it is believed you are a descendant of the infamous Acererak.
Possible Minor Quests: You might seek to clear your family’s name, uncover the truth about your family’s past, or follow in the steps of your dark ancestor.
Suggested Skills: History, Intimidate, Religion
Background Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate checks when interacting with undead creatures.
One or both of your parents were adventurers and you grew up listening to stories about their achievements, the monsters they defeated, and the fantastic places they explored. Although each tale was more harrowing than the last, they always came out victorious in the end, with one exception: the Tomb of Horrors. They never speak of it, except to say it was an evil place—dark like no other. The only survivors, they left many friends in that accursed dungeon and warned you against following in their steps.
Possible Minor Quests: You might seek out the fabled Tomb of Horrors to succeed where your parent or parents failed. You could search the dungeons or what lies beyond to rescue their lost comrades.
Suggested Skills: Arcana, History, Religion
Background Benefit: Whenever you make a monster knowledge check, you can reroll the check, but you must use the second result even if it’s worse than the first.
Dungeons, ruins, and old tombs house the secrets of the past, and dedicated scrutiny can reveal much of old civilizations and famous personages. So whenever an opportunity arises to examine a historical sight, you’re loath to let it pass you by. While many dungeons capture your imagination, none of them has quite the same allure as does the Tomb of Horrors.
Possible Minor Quests: You might explore the corridors of Acererak’s tomb, retrieve relics from the deep chambers, or seek lore about who Acererak was in life.
Suggested Skills: History, Perception, Thievery
Background Benefit: When engaging in a skill challenge to disable a trap, your first successful Thievery check grants you an extra success.
When you were young, a beloved relative—a parent, sibling, or another family member—left with an adventuring company in search of glory, treasure, and adventure. From time to time, you received letters recounting their successes and near-failures, but eventually the letters stopped coming. The last letter was brief, saying only they were headed for a 'Tomb of Horrors' somewhere in the Vast Swamp. After years of no Communication, your family believed the relative met an end somewhere in that sinister place, but no one knows and the question of what really happened haunts you still.
Possible Minor Quests: Although searching for your lost kin might be the forefront of your concerns, you should be careful of what you seek. In all likelihood, your lost kin might be searching for you, but this person might not be the person you remember. You relative might have been driven mad, might seek to give you a cursed relic pulled from the dungeons she explored, or might even return as an undead monster. In any event, putting the memory of your relative to rest, and perhaps the relative herself, might serve as a suitable minor quest.
Suggested Skills: Any class skill
Suggested Language: Any language other than Abyssal or Supernal
Background Benefit: You gain a +3 bonus to Nature checks made to recall useful information about geography.
A Necromatic Academy keeps a stable of living slaves to murder and animate as undead when they come of age. Life in servitude to these necromancers is understandably bleak. You, though, escaped your chains and survived the long flight through the Vast Swamp to reach civilized lands. Do you want vengeance? Will you fight to liberate the others held by the necromantic cabal?
Possible Minor Quests: You might have escaped, but your former captors are not likely to let you stay free. You might have to avoid their attempts to reclaim you, so you are always moving and staying one step ahead of them. Or you might go back, intent on freeing your fellows and razing the necromancers’ city.
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Religion, Stealth
Background Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus to saving throws to end conditions and ongoing effects with the fear keyword.
Undead horrors stalk the countryside in your homeland, preying on the living and staining the land with their evil presence. You grew up fighting these monsters, watching as your friends and kin fell at your side only to rise as zombies or worse. You escaped the nightmare of youth, but the experiences fill your nights with nightmares. Have you sworn to fight undead no matter the cost? Or are they so terrible that you cannot bear to face them?
Possible Minor Quests: Finding and destroying the origin of the undead creatures menacing your community might drive you to undertake a life of adventure. You might scour the countryside to find and destroy powerful agents until you find the true source of the burgeoning evil.
Suggested Skills: Insight, Perception, Religion
Background Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls against creatures with the undead keyword.
You might have served a necromancer in your youth, perhaps as an apprentice or possibly as guard or servant. Proximity to your master’s corruption left a mark on you. Did your experience alter how you see undead? Is necromancy a path you might seek or is it an abomination to be fought and destroyed? How does the mark manifest on you? Are you pale? Do you suffer from a disfiguring condition, or are you unhinged?
Possible Minor Quests: You might have born witness to appalling acts of wickedness, and if so, you might seek redemption, fighting the darkness to atone for your past. You might also seek out the necromancer or undead master you served to prevent his works from plunging the world into death.
Suggested Skills: Intimidate, Stealth, Religion
Background Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against ongoing effects and conditions with the necrotic keyword.
Magic? Who needs Magic?
-Greylen Dragonslayer
