Dnd 5e Backgrounds Dungeons & Dragons Backgrounds

Many people are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy role-playing game. dnd 5e backgrounds have a very reputable position in the game community. This game has been exponentially growing audience that is called by the concept of logic, fantasy, imagination, tactics, and improvisation. These are the elements that bring the game to life. The thing that makes DND unique and interesting to play is that a player is not limited to traditional military formations in this game. Instead, this game allows players to create their own character by using their imagination which is what makes this game worthwhile to play. 

The player-created character is then given scenarios and problems to solve in which the character will encounter difficulties, Monsters, and many more. In addition, the player-created character will also be able to interact with other player-created characters.  the person who creates these scenarios and problems is known as the “Dungeon master” (DM). The background will provide you all the information about story cues and character information.

Name	Source	Languages	Page	Tools	Skills
Acolyte	PHB	Any two	119	None	Insight,  religion.
Criminal	PHB	None	121	Gaming set, thieves	Deception, stealth
Charlatan	PHB	None	120	Disguise kit, forgery kit	Deception,  sleight of hand
Entertainer	PHB	None	122	Musical instrument, disguise kit	Acrobatics, performance
Folk hero	PHB	None	123	Artisan’s tool, vehicles (land)	Animal handling survival guide
Guide artisan	PHB	Any one	124	Artisan’s tool insights	Insight, persuasion
Hermit	PHB	Any one	126	Herbalism kit	Religion,  medicine
Noble	PHB	Any one	127	Gaming set	History,  persuasion
Outlander	PHB	Any one	128	Musical instrument	Athletics,  survival
Sage	PHB	Any two	129	Navigators tools, vehicles	Arcana, history
Solider	PHB	None	132	Gaming set,  vehicles( land )	Athletics, intimidation
Sailor	PHB	None	131	Navigator’s tools, vehicles (water)	Athletics, perception
Urchin	PHB	None	133	Disguise kit, thieves’ tools	Sleight of hand, stealth
City watch	SCAG	Any two	145	None	Athletics,  Insight
Clan crafter	SCAG	Any  one	145	Artisan’s tool,	History,  Insight
Cloistered Scholar	SCAG	Any two	146	None	History, choose 1:  Arcana, nature,  religion
Faction agent	SCAG	Any two	147	None	Insight,  special (choice)
Far traveler	SCAG	Any  one	148	Musical instrument  ×10, Gaming set	Insight, perception
Inheritor	SCAG	None	150	Musical  instrument ×1, gaming set×1	Survival choose 1: Arcana, history religion
Investigator	SCAG	Any two	145	None	Insight, investigation
Knight of the order	SCAG	Any  one	151	Gaming set×1, Musical  instrument ×1	Persuasion,  special (choice)
Mercenary veteran	SCAG	Any one	152	Gaming set×1,  ground vehicle	Athletics, perspiration
Urban bounty hunter	SCAG	None	153	Choose one: Gaming set Musical instrument Thieves’ tools	Choose 2:  Deception   Insight,  persuasion,  stealth
Uthgardt tribe member	SCAG	Any  one	153	Choose one: Artisan’s tool Musical instrument	Athletics,  survival
Waterdhavian noble	SCAG	Any  one	154	Choose one: Gaming set Musical instrument	History, persuasion
Black fist double  agent	COS(AL)	None	02	Disguise kit and choose one from Artisan’s tools and gaming set	Deception,  Insight
Dragon casualty	COS(AL)	Draconic	03	Special (see page)	Intimidation,  survival
Iron route bandit	COS(AL)	None	05	Gaming set X1 land vehicles	Animal  handling,  stealth
Phlan insurgent	COS(AL)	None	06	Artisan’s tools X1 land vehicles	Stealth, survival
Stojanow prisoner	COS(AL)	None	08	Gaming,  set X1, Thieve’s tools	Deception,  perception
Ticklebelly nomad	COS(AL)	Gaint	09	Herbalism kit	Animal, handling, nature
Caravan specialist	EE(AL)	Any one	02	Land vehicles	Animal, handling, survival
Earthhspur miner	EE(AL)	Dwarvish, undercommon	03	None	Athletics, survival
Harborfolk	EE(AL)	None	04	Gaming set X1, water vehicles	Athletics, sleight of hand
Mulmaster Aristocrat	EE(AL)	None	05	Artisan’s tool X1, Musical instrument	Deception,  performance
Phlan refugee	EE(AL)	None	06	Artisan’s tool X1	Athletics, Insight
Cormanthor refugee	RoD (AL)	Elvish	05	Artisan’s tool X1	Nature, survival
Gate urchin	RoD (AL)	None	06	Musical instrument  X1, Thieves’ tools	Deception,  sleight of hand
Hillsfar merchant	RoD (AL)	None	07	Vehicles (land), vehicles (water)	Insight,  persuasion
Hillsfar smuggler	RoD (AL)	Any on	08	Forgery kit	Perception,  stealth
Secret identity	RoD (AL)	None	09	Disguise kit, forgery kit	Deception,  stealth
Shade fanatic	RoD (AL)	Netherese	10	Forgery kit	Deception,    intimidation
Trade Sheriff	RoD (AL)	Elvish	11	Thieves’ tools	Investigation, persuasion

 

Sources mentioned in the above list.

• PHB= Players hand book
• CoS= Curse of Strahd
• EE= Princes of Apocalypse
• SCAG= Sword Coast Adventure Guide
• RoD= Out of the Abyss

 

What does the background in dnd 5e background mean?

 We must therefore first consider what background is and what function serves in our DND game before delving further into the DND 5th edition backgrounds, am I correct? Backgrounds are in fact one of the greatest inventions ever made. If you are a DND fan like me, you’d concur with me. But,  you ask, what is it? 

To make your character stand out and have more of an impact when combined with the overall theme of your game you can define their history thanks to this useful feature. 

dnd 5e backgrounds list below:

The official list of backgrounds for DnD 5E can be found in the player’s handbook and is included below. Thirteen backgrounds are available.

Examples of 13 DnD background for Dungeons and Dragons 5E

What is new in its fifth edition is the question that arises at this point. The Fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons provides the character background, in contrast to its earlier edition. By saying this,  we intend to convey the idea that playing  DnD is about more than just creating a character whatever your character is right now must be the result of real events that have shaped him into the person he is today. This will be covered in a few moments.

If, for example, you have completed all the steps and created your character. You have given him the name Doctor Strange junior. Why junior, you might ask, what does that mean? Well even though he is a dwarf and possesses great skills like a  priest, does not define who he was or what he went through prior to becoming a priest, does it? Even though you have already sketched out all the skills and abilities for your priest character, does that really define who was before becoming a priest?

This is where background comes into play:

It gives your character an extra layer of personality by revealing things like who they were before deciding to become a priest or whoever they are now and what specifically happen to make them into living this peculiar life of inhabiting the enigmatic dragons. Wasn’t their desire to discover the buried Treasures chock-full of priceless and rare gems and jewels that drove them to do so? Or did they merely become who they are as a result of a negative event that occurred in the past? See How easily it adds this familiarity with the character after learning what they have gone through. This makes it so much more interesting just as we see in most movies. They use this technique to increase our engagement and help us to relate to the character. 

Fortunately, the fifth edition of DnD has this fantastic background mechanic to help you transform your flat, fictitious doll of a character into a multi-dimensional, fully functional, live entity with a story that has some sort of place in the DnD society that you have established.

But how can we make use of these backdrops:

Now that we are aware of what background is and its significance it has when playing a game it is time to consider how we can use this incredible mechanic to make an interesting and lifeless character come to life. 

There are a variety of routes One could take in order to create a real character for your DM’s story charade, but in this article, we will focus on two of the most traditional method.

First method:

This is probably the more unconventional approach. You need to first create your creature, then after you have decided on your character, you search through the player’s handbook to determine which backgrounds go best with the initial character sketch you have created in your head. 

Second method:

Since this is most likely a by-the-book approach,  you should start with the player’s handbook and use the options that are already provided to help you fill out your character’s back story and give it a more appropriate background based on that.

Both approaches are very useful, so which one should you choose? It is entirely up to you, and of course your DM, as the handbook only lists a total of 13 options. However,  if we look into extended DND content from other awesome creators around the world, there are more options to consider.  In addition, You and your DM can also discuss creating a custom background for your character based on whatever you have envisioned in your adventurous mind.

Backgrounds help give your character life!

Backgrounds contribute to your character’s personality in a variety of ways. We will cover some of the ways further in this guide they do much more than just give them a fascinating backstory. In DND 5th edition, the background can also give you these awesome little special perks that can be very helpful for your character in the game depending on the background of your character.  For example:

• Acquire new gear based on the history of your character.
• Discover new role-playing skills
• Learn additional languages other than the ones that are specified
• Become proficient in predetermined skills and much more.

This may be the case because if it was learned from another source,  you could have a totally fresh proficiency, which is fantastic, right?

As I already mentioned, the backstory is very important. It’s not the only thing you need to have in order to make a great character. Let’s say we have our character and have established its backstory. It is now time to develop our character’s personalities. For this, each background has some suggested traits that we can reply to our characters, such as ideals, flaws, bonds, and personality traits to further enhance the game and also allow the DM to create some intriguing situations for the players to deal with.

Creating our first character with backgrounds:

We have all the information we require about 5e backgrounds at this point. Finally,  it is time to create our character. To do this, we will use the handbook to quickly create our charlatan character and leverage the power of background to make him the enduring Robinhood of our game. So, Let’s go through this process step-by-step so that we can easily return here and create as many characters as we want in the future by following these easy steps. Are you ready? 

Create a character with PHB:

 let’s start by creating the charming conman Willy Wonka. He enjoyed making fools of others from an early age. Over time he grew to like this minor transgression.  he ultimately decided to use this as a means of support. As a result,  according to the handbook, our character can be proficient in both deception and sleight of hand.

dnd 5e backgrounds: Items to define:

 You have two tools. One of each tool is for forgery and disguise. Let’s move on to the items/tools.  as a charlatan, You receive tools like nice closing and a disguise kit to trick people. Speaking of which, you also get to select some descriptive props or tricks of your own choice. For example;  magnetic weights, magical cards, fake rings, or weighted dice,  it all depends on what you want to use in your game. Woah,  that’s pretty cool. However,  it’s not all there is!

Read Also: Classes

Explain its history:

Now that you have the bond,  you roll a d6 and get a result of 6.  This gives your character some background information. And it also explains that you had a difficult bringing because of how hard it was for your family to make ends meet.  As a result,  you would go without food for days at a time. This forced you to con people into lending you money through flattery.  Over time, this helped you support yourself,  but it also reveals your secret guilt.

Purchase special features:

On the other hand, we can go a step further and give our character some unique abilities that only he can use. Because of this tendency to deceive, for instance, we can say that our character has created a second hidden identity for himself with forged documents,  a disguise, and a fake accent that he can use to hide when faced with a dangerous situation.

 Additionally,  because our character has a forgery kit,  he can create additional forged documents as needed which can be useful when impersonating someone. 

Give it a unique personality:

We have still got just a little more work to do like setting up our character’s personality trait and for that, we can roll a d8. Say we get a 3, which says our character uses the skill of flattery to get what he needs and it works pretty much all the time. Now for the ideal, you rolled a d6 and say got a result of 3, defining our character as a good guy who gives some amount of what he earns or let’s say steals, to other poor and needy people to help them out. For the flaw, you roll a d6, getting a result of 1 which makes you a flirt as you just cannot let a pretty face go away which you think would be a “waste of beauty”. 

Enjoy it!

And that’s all it took. In a matter of few minutes, you had created a charming charlatan who loved tricking wealthy people. But, he had a good heart. As a result, he stole from the rich and gave at least half of it to the poor acting like Robin Hood. And that was just using the handbook.  imagine the additional elements you will add to this character once you begin experimenting with these incredible backgrounds.

 a lot of stories will be attached to characters in these DND 5E backgrounds which will make them more realistic by defining their position and providing more information about it.  Additionally,  these stories will improve our capacity to invasion and plot various scenarios.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does “bonds” mean in dnd 5e backgrounds?

Bonds can mean many different things. To put it simply, signify a connection you have with a location, a person, or any other object that has had an impact on or continues to have an impact on your personality.

For instance, if you were an orphan abandoned on the streets and a priest came along and took you in and provided you with shelter, this would have created a bond between you and the priest. Because he took you in when no one else did. You could have been spending the rest of your life as an acolyte, worshiping a spirit So, yes anyone or anything can have an impact on your personality and shape your character.

How can I select a dnd 5e background?

Now, picking a dnd background is difficult because creating a character requires much more than just putting random ideas together.

It depends on the following:

• Theme your DM is going for.
• The map or game setting
• Your character’s class
• And last but not least how do you want your character to fit in with all of that 

If, for example, you choose to play as a Barbarian in order to better fit the game’s settings and find yourself in the middle of the forest with a militia of other tribal warriors searching for you, what Kind of background should you choose? Entertainer? Hell no!

There’s no chance you will be able to charm your way past these warriors.  what if you pick an outsider who is familiar with the wilderness?

 now that makes more sense because it would work in your favor and could give you an additional skill proficiency when combined with your Barbarian class.

What exactly are dnd 5e backgrounds ideals?

Ideals are one of the most basic traits if you’re an acolyte. An acolyte constantly believes in the divinity of holy spirits. He spends his whole life preaching about it and is willing to give his life in defense of it if necessary. However, people from different backgrounds have different ideals that are largely influenced by their past.

What does “flaw” in dnd 5e backgrounds mean?

Everything else that we have discussed such as ideals, bonds, and personality traits, are there to work in your character’s favor(Most of the time). However, the flaws stand for something negative about your character such as a negative habit that other players may exploit.

For example, if you choose a charlatan who is really good with people and can easily deceive them, but you have a terrible tendency to overspend, so you always end up in a debt no matter how much money you have. This is something that other players can exploit and take full advantage of during the game. This is the elegance of flaws. They make the game more interesting. Or else everyone would just be perfect, right?

What do proficiencies in Dnd mean?

Your character class, background, or race determines the character of your proficiencies, which are the points you earn particularly for a tool or skill. As you advance in levels these proficiencies go from two to more as you do.

DnD 5e Background proficiencies table:

 

Acrobatics	Dexterity
Animal handling	Wisdom
Arcana	Intelligence
Athletics	Strength
Deception	Charisma
History	Intelligence
Insight	Wisdom
Intimidation	Charisma
Investigation	Intelligence
Medicine	Wisdom
Nature	Intelligence
Perception	Wisdom
Religion	Intelligence
Sleight of hands	Dexterity
Stealth	Dexterity
Survival	Wisdom
Performance	Charisma
Persuasion	Charisma