The Backgrounds of Dungeons and Dragons 5e
Diving into the immersive world of Dungeons & Dragons is an exciting adventure. But once you have chosen the race and class of the character, what other character designing tactics are left? Choosing the background of a character can truly shape who they are. Rich backstories narrate the character’s history and represent who they were before joining the campaign. Choosing a background provides a feature or two that can be utilized during the roleplaying session. There are many different backgrounds out there so it’s important to read up on them all to have the best foundation of character creation when involving your character’s past. Dice Domain covers a few core backgrounds and some others to describe how certain classes can utilize these backgrounds to the fullest potential.
The Acolyte is a popular background to choose from, especially when playing a Cleric class. The Acolyte holds the mighty divine power dear, with priest ceremonies and prayer services of their chosen deity. The Acolyte has the feature Shelter of the Faithful, which can help with commanding priests and those who share the same faith to provide the Acolyte and their party healing and care.
The Entertainer whisks away a crowd with their vivid performance of dance and song. Perfect for the charismatic Bard class, the feature By Popular Demand can have accommodations of room and board due to the Bard’s popularity. A lot like the Entertainment background is the mighty Gladiator, fueled with power and showmanship. Showing off their greatness and vigor, these warriors were trained to prolong battles and provide performance for entertainment. The Gladiator’s feature is also By Popular Demand.
Charlatans are quite an interesting background choice as they create different personas and wear a mask to conceal their past. With the feature False Identity, this serves a Charlatan character to forge documents of official or personal papers which can be an excellent choice for sneaky Rogues or even a Ranger in a bounty hunter position.
There are intriguing backgrounds that are established with obtaining information as well as investigating the truth, with corrupt or ethical motives. With a Criminal background, your character is an experienced criminal whether in crime organizations or thieves guilds, or more individual crimes like smugglers and robbers. With the feature Criminal Contact, the criminal character will have a very trustworthy connection with other criminals across the lands to send and receive messages and warnings. A character with a Spy background hides within the shadows, gaining information on a particular target and solving a specific problem. Investigator backgrounds are motivated by seeking the truth and exploring destinations that may be typically dangerous to seize that truth. Urchin backgrounds come from a life of poverty and hardships, but can also have a rags-to-riches story. Urchins can utilize their background feature City Secrets to perhaps become a spy and gather information within their town and city limits to earn money, something they may desperately seek themselves.
Creators and builders are powerful backgrounds in their own ways. Artisans of their own crafts and skills. There are a few crafty backgrounds that can have a useful trade for the campaign and make a really awesome backstory for your character. Shipwrights have a significant amount of experience on the sea. Sailing on the decks of the ships, building and fixing those decks that are traveled on from near and far. With the feature, I’ll Patch It, the Shipwright can repair water vehicles. With the Izzet Engineer background, your character may be enamored by science experiments, explosive blasts, and other magical and technological creations. With the use of their feature Urban Infrustractor, this engineering background gains the knowledge of building structures that can guide the creation of their crafts.
These are just a few of the various backgrounds that exist in the world of Dungeons & Dragons 5e. Creating your character with their race and class, but inevitably the backgrounds and histories of your character can really tie into a fantastic adventure and with growing your character to its full potential. All in all, it can make the roleplaying experience exceptionally rich and vivid. Enjoy your character creation!
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