Backgrounds shape your character's past before becoming an adventurer. When selecting a background, think about how it connects to your character's culture and class. Did serving as a soldier prepare you to become a fighter? Or did a profound religious experience lead you to a new path, away from a community of different beliefs? Your background adds depth to your character and grants extra proficiencies, talents, equipment, or languages.
This section covers the key components of a background.
Each background provides one skill point in two skills and/or tools. If this point exceeds 2 skill points on the skill or tool, you can move this point to another skill of your choice.
Most backgrounds offer proficiency with vehicles, weapons and/or additional languages.
Backgrounds include a package of starting equipment. Some packages also offers choices, in that case pick the one that best suit your character.
Each background gives a choice of one talent from a limited selection, often allowing access to talents your class may not offer later.
Every adventurer has a backstory that drives their actions and decisions. This underlying motivation is what sets them apart from others, making them brave (or foolhardy) enough to venture into mortal places where other people would never dare tread.
In many cases, this motivation is rooted in one's past experiences, personal circumstances, or inherent desires. Backgrounds can provide a spark for creativity, helping you to flesh out your character and understand what drives them to take risks and face challenges head-on.
Backgrounds represent the experiences and training your character received before taking up the mantle of adventurer. They provide mechanical benefits, skill and tool proficiencies, additional languages, equipment packages, and sometimes unique talents, while also offering a narrative springboard for your character's history. Whether you were a soldier hardened by battle, a scholar buried in dusty tomes, or an artisan perfecting your craft, your background shapes how you approach new challenges and interact with the world.
In the world of Eberron, backgrounds take on a distinctly continental flavor, reflecting the fractured nations, magical innovations, and planar forces at play. From the mist-haunted Mournland of Cyre to the storm-tossed islands of the Lhazaar Principalities, each regional background blends setting-specific lore with thematic skills, equipment, and talents. These options ground your character in the Five Nations and beyond, connecting their past to the unique dangers and wonders of Khorvaire.
While the standard backgrounds offer a wide variety of options to suit most characters, sometimes a custom background is the perfect way to fully realize your character's story and unique traits. Creating a custom background allows you to combine skills, talents, and equipment that best reflect your character's history and experiences. Follow the steps below to craft a background tailored to your adventurer's past.
By following these steps, you can craft a custom background that fits your character's story and enhances their abilities in a way that standard backgrounds may not fully capture.
You were born in the depths of the void, or perhaps found yourself there, caught between worlds or in the far reaches of the cosmos. The void is a strange and unsettling place, but it has shaped you in ways that others can hardly imagine. You've been exposed to forces beyond mortal understanding, granting you unique abilities and insights, but also leaving you somewhat detached from the material world. The void has left its mark on you, and now you walk the fine line between reality and the unknown.
Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Perception, Survival, Insight (choose two)
Equipment: A set of dark, flowing robes, a mysterious trinket from the void (such as a glowing shard of unknown origin), a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp
Talent: Your connection to the void has sharpened your abilities. Choose one of the following talents to represent your experience.
Adventuring Motivation
| d8 | Adventuring Motivation |
|---|---|
| 1 | I seek to understand the mysteries of the void that shaped me. |
| 2 | I'm searching for a way to return to the void or wield its power. |
| 3 | I wish to protect the material world from the dangers of the void. |
| 4 | I've glimpsed something in the void that compels me to take action. |
| 5 | I seek to escape the void's influence and reclaim my humanity. |
| 6 | The void has made me different, and I wish to understand how or why. |
| 7 | I must find the source of a mysterious power calling to me from beyond. |
| 8 | I am fleeing something dark and terrible that followed me out of the void. |
You have spent years chasing the faintest rumors of ancient relics, forgotten artifacts, and legendary treasures. Your life has been one of delving into forgotten tombs, deciphering ancient texts, and unlocking the secrets of civilizations long gone. Whether motivated by curiosity, wealth, or an obsession with lost knowledge, you are driven to find what others thought lost forever.
Investigation, history.
Relic Sense (Unique Talent)
You have developed an uncanny ability to sense the presence of valuable or magical relics, honing your instincts through years of exploration.
When you find a magical item or artifact, you gain an additional 1d4 temporary hit points as a rush of discovery fills you with energy.
Determine Equipment:
Write an Adventuring Motivation: I need to recover a legendary artifact to restore my family's lost honor and fortune.
Personalize with Flavor:
For as long as you can remember, your family has struggled. Once wealthy and influential, your family's fortunes dwindled due to poor investments and mounting debts. Your parents spoke often of the glory days when your family's name commanded respect and power, but those days are now distant memories. You, however, are determined to restore that legacy.
During your time spent poring over ancient texts and following rumors, you discovered the existence of a long-lost relic, a priceless artifact said to bring wealth and influence to its owner. This relic, you believe, is the key to returning your family to its former glory. Recovering it would not only clear their debts but elevate their status beyond what they ever imagined.
Driven by the thought of restoring your family's honor and securing their future, you've left the safety of home to search for this legendary treasure. You know the journey ahead is fraught with danger, but the promise of wealth, and the respect that comes with it, pushes you onward. You will stop at nothing to find the relic that will change everything for your family.