The main figures in any D&D campaign are the characters created by the players. The heroics, folly, righteousness, and potential villainy of your characters are at the heart of the story. This chapter provides a variety of new options for them, focusing on additional subclasses for each of the classes in the player's handbook.
Each class offers a character-defining choice at 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level that unlocks a series of special features, not available to the class as a whole. That choice is called a subclass. Each class has a collective term that describes its subclasses; in the fighter, for instance, the subclasses are called martial archetypes, and in the paladin, they're sacred oaths. The table below identifies each of the subclasses in this book. In addition, the section for druids presents details on how the Wild Shape feature works, and the warlock receives a collection of new choices for the class's Eldritch Invocations feature.
Each of the class presentations leads off with advice on how to add depth and detail to your character's personality. You can use the tables in these sections as a source of inspiration, or roll a die to randomly determine a result if desired.
Following the subclasses, the section called "this is your life" presents a series of tables for adding detail to your character's backstory.
The chapter concludes with a selection of feats for the races in the player's handbook, offering ways to delve deeper into a character's racial identity.
| Class | Subclass | Level Available | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | Path of the Ancestral Guardian | 3rd | Calls on the spirits of honored ancestors to protect others |
| Barbarian | Path of the Storm Herald | 3rd | Filled with a rage that channels the primal magic of the storm |
| Barbarian | Path of the Zealot | 3rd | Fueled by a religious zeal that visits destruction on foes |
| Bard | College of Glamour | 3rd | Wields the beguiling, glorious magic of the Feywild |
| Bard | College of Swords | 3rd | Entertains and slays with daring feats of weapon prowess |
| Bard | College of Whispers | 3rd | Plants fear and doubt in the minds of others |
| Cleric | Forge Domain | 1st | Clad in heavy armor, serves a god of the forge or creation |
| Cleric | Grave Domain | 1st | Opposes the blight of undeath |
| Druid | Circle of Dreams | 2nd | Mends wounds, guards the weary, and strides through dreams |
| Druid | Circle of the Shepherd | 2nd | Summons nature spirits to bolster friends and harry foes |
| Fighter | Arcane Archer | 3rd | Imbues arrows with spectacular magical effects |
| Fighter | Cavalier | 3rd | Defends allies and knocks down enemies, often on horseback |
| Fighter | Samurai | 3rd | Combines resilience with courtly elegance and mighty strikes |
| Monk | Way of the Drunken Master | 3rd | Confounds foes through a martial arts tradition inspired by the swaying of a drunkard |
| Monk | Way of the Kensei | 3rd | Channels ki through a set of mastered weapons |
| Monk | Way of the Sun Soul | 3rd | Transforms ki into bursts of fire and searing bolts of light |
| Paladin | Oath of Conquest | 3rd | Strikes terror in enemies and crushes the forces of chaos |
| Paladin | Oath of Redemption | 3rd | Offers redemption to the worthy and destruction to those who refuse mercy or righteousness |
| Ranger | Gloom Stalker | 3rd | Unafraid of the dark, relentlessly stalks and ambushes foes |
| Ranger | Horizon Walker | 3rd | Finds portals to other worlds and channels planar magic |
| Ranger | Monster Slayer | 3rd | Hunts down creatures of the night and wielders of grim magic |
| Rogue | Inquisitive | 3rd | Roots out secrets, akin to a masterful detective |
| Rogue | Mastermind | 3rd | A master tactician, manipulates others |
| Rogue | Scout | 3rd | Combines stealth with a knack for survival |
| Rogue | Swashbuckler | 3rd | Delivers deadly strikes with speed and panache |
| Sorcerer | Divine Soul | 1st | Harnesses magic bestowed by a god or other divine source |
| Sorcerer | Shadow Magic | 1st | Wields the grim magic of the Shadowfell |
| Sorcerer | Storm Sorcery | 1st | Crackles with the power of the storm |
| Warlock | The Celestial | 1st | Forges a pact with a being from celestial realms |
| Warlock | The Hexblade | 1st | Serves a shadowy entity that bestows dread curses |
| Wizard | War Magic | 2nd | Mixes evocation and abjuration magic to dominate the battlefield |
This is Your Life
The character creation rules in the player's handbook provide all the information you need to define your character in preparation for a life of adventuring. What they don't do is account for all the circumstances that shaped your character during the years between your birth and the start of your career as a member of a class.
What did your character accomplish or experience before deciding to become an adventurer? What were the circumstances of your birth? How large is your family, and what sorts of relationships do you have with your relatives? Which people were the greatest influences on you during your formative years, for better or worse?
To answer these questions and more, you can use the tables and the advice in this section to compose a well-developed backstory for your character-an autobiography of sorts-that you can use to inform how you roleplay the character. Your DM can draw from this material as the campaign proceeds, creating situations and scenarios that build off your previous life experiences.
Ideas, Not Rules
Even though these pages are full of tables and die rolls, they don't make up a rules system-in fact, the opposite is true. You can use as much or as little of this material as you desire, and you can make decisions in any order you want.
For instance, you might not want these tables to help you decide who your parents and siblings are, because that's among the information you've already come up with. But you can still use other parts, such as the section on life events, to provide added depth and detail.
How and When to Use the Tables
If you're comfortable with letting the dice decide a certain fact about your character, go ahead and roll. If not, you can take charge and make the decision, choosing from among the possibilities on a table. Of course, you also have the option of disregarding the result of a die roll if it conflicts with another result. Likewise, if the text instructs you to roll on a table, that's not meant to be taken literally. You can always make your own choice.
Although these tables are meant to augment the step-by-step character creation process in the player's handbook, they don't occupy a specific place in that process. You can use some of them early on-for instance, it's possible to determine your parents and other family members immediately after deciding your character's race-but you could also wait until later in the process. You might prefer to establish more facts about your character's game identity-such as your class, ability scores, and alignment-before supplementing that information with what's offered here.
Section by Section
This material is divided into four sections, each addressing a different aspect of your character's backstory.
Origins
To find out who and where you came from, use the "Origins" section. When you're done, you will have a summary of facts about your parents, your siblings, and the circumstances under which you grew up.
Personal Decisions
After you have selected your character's background and class, use the appropriate tables to determine how you came to make those choices.
Life Events
Your character's existence until now, no matter how brief or uneventful, has been marked by one or more life events-memorable happenings that have had an effect on who you are today.
Supplemental Tables
Your life has intersected with the lives of plenty of other people, all the way from your infancy to today. When a result mentions such a person, you can use the supplemental tables to add needed details-such as race, class, or occupation-to that person. Some tables in the other sections direct you to one or more of the supplemental tables, and you can also use them any other time you see fit.
Origins
The usual first step in creating your character's life story is to determine your early circumstances. Who were your parents? Where were you born? Did you have any siblings? Who raised you? You can address these questions by using the following tables.
Parents
You had parents, of course, even if they didn't raise you. To determine what you know about these people, use the Parents table. If you want, you can roll separately on the table for your mother and your father. Use the supplemental tables as desired (particularly Class, Occupation, and Alignment) to learn more about your parents.
Nonhuman Parents
If your character is a half-elf, a half-orc, or a tiefling, you can use one of the tables below to determine the race of each of your parents. When you have a result, randomly determine which part of the result refers to your father and which to your mother.
| d100 | Parents |
|---|---|
| 1-95 | You know who your parents are or were. |
| 96-100 | You do not know who your parents were. |
| d8 | Parents |
|---|---|
| 1-5 | One parent was an elf and the other was a human. |
| 6 | One parent was an elf and the other was a half-elf. |
| 7 | One parent was a human and the other was a half-elf. |
| 8 | Both parents were half-elves. |
| d8 | Parents |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | One parent was an orc and the other was a human. |
| 4-5 | One parent was an orc and the other was a half-orc. |
| 6-7 | One parent was a human and the other was a half-orc. |
| 8 | Both parents were half-orcs. |
| d8 | Parents |
|---|---|
| 1-4 | Both parents were humans, their infernal heritage dormant until you came along. |
| 5-6 | One parent was a tiefling and the other was a human. |
| 7 | One parent was a tiefling and the other was a devil. |
| 8 | One parent was a human and the other was a devil. |
Birthplace
After establishing your parentage, you can determine where you were born by using the Birthplace table. (Modify the result or roll again if you get a result that's inconsistent with what you know about your parents.) Once you have a result, roll percentile dice. On a roll of 00, a strange event coincided with your birth: the moon briefly turning red, all the milk within a mile spoiling, the water in the area freezing solid in midsummer, all the iron in the home rusting or turning to silver, or some other unusual event of your choice.
| d100 | Location |
|---|---|
| 1-50 | Home |
| 51-55 | Home of a family friend |
| 56-63 | Home of a healer or midwife |
| 64-65 | Carriage, cart, or wagon |
| 66-68 | Barn, shed, or other outbuilding |
| 69-70 | Cave |
| 71-72 | Field |
| 73-74 | Forest |
| 75-77 | Temple |
| 78 | Battlefield |
| 79-80 | Alley or street |
| 81-82 | Brothel, tavern, or inn |
| 83-84 | Castle, keep, tower, or palace |
| 85 | Sewer or rubbish heap |
| 86-88 | Among people of a different race |
| 89-91 | On board a boat or a ship |
| 92-93 | In a prison or in the headquarters of a secret organization |
| 94-95 | In a sage's laboratory |
| 96 | In the Feywild |
| 97 | In the Shadowfell |
| 98 | On the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane |
| 99 | On an Inner Plane of your choice |
| 100 | On an Outer Plane of your choice |
Siblings
You might be an only child or one of many children. Your siblings could be cherished friends or hated rivals. Roll on the Number of Siblings table to determine how many brothers or sisters you have. If you are a dwarf or an elf, subtract 2 from your roll. Then, roll on the Birth Order table for each sibling to determine that person's age relative to yours (older, younger, or born at the same time).
Occupation
For each sibling of suitable age, roll on the Occupation supplemental table to determine what that person does for a living.
Alignment
You can choose your siblings' alignments or roll on the Alignment supplemental table.
Status
By now, each of your siblings might be alive and well, alive and not so well, in dire straits, or dead. Roll on the Status supplemental table.
Relationship
You can roll on the Relationship supplemental table to determine how your siblings feel about you. They might all have the same attitude toward you, or some might view you differently from how the others do.
Other Details
You can decide any other details you like about each sibling, including gender, personality, and place in the world.
| d10 | Siblings |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | None |
| 3-4 | 1d3 |
| 5-6 | 1d4+1 |
| 7-8 | 1d6+2 |
| 9-10 | 1d8+3 |
| 2d6 | Birth Order |
|---|---|
| 2 | Twin, triplet, or quadruplet |
| 3-7 | Older |
| 8-12 | Younger |
Family and Friends
Who raised you, and what was life like for you when you were growing up? You might have been raised by your parents, by relatives, or in an orphanage. Or you could have spent your childhood on the streets of a crowded city with only your fellow runaways and orphans to keep you company.
Use the Family table to determine who raised you. If you know who your parents are but you get a result that does not mention one or both of them, use the Absent Parent table to determine what happened.
Next, refer to the Family Lifestyle table to determine the general circumstances of your upbringing. (Chapter 5 of the player's handbook has more information about lifestyles.) The result on that table includes a number that is applied to your roll on the Childhood Home table, which tells you where you spent your early years. Wrap up this section by using the Childhood Memories table, which tells you how you were treated by other youngsters as you were growing up.
Supplemental Tables
You can roll on the Relationship table to determine how your family members or other important figures in your life feel about you. You can also use the Race, Occupation, and Alignment tables to learn more about the family members or guardians who raised you. Developer's Note: Below you will find a link to a Story Template which uses the tables in this and the sections below to randomly determine your back story. Instructions on how to use the template are given in the template itself.
| d100 | Family |
|---|---|
| 1 | None |
| 2 | Institution, such as an asylum |
| 3 | Temple |
| 4-5 | Orphanage |
| 6-7 | Guardian |
| 8-15 | Paternal or maternal aunt, uncle, or both |
| 16-25 | Paternal or maternal grandparent(s) |
| 26-35 | Adoptive family (same or different race) |
| 36-55 | Single father or stepfather |
| 56-75 | Single mother or stepmother |
| 76-100 | Mother and father |
| d4 | Fate |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your parent died (roll on the Cause of Death supplemental table). |
| 2 | Your parent was imprisoned, enslaved, or otherwise taken away. |
| 3 | Your parent abandoned you |
| 4 | Your parent disappeared to an unknown fate. |
| 3d6 | Lifestyle* |
|---|---|
| 3 | Wretched (-40) |
| 4-5 | Squalid (-20) |
| 6-8 | Poor (-10) |
| 9-12 | Modest (+0) |
| 13-15 | Comfortable (+10) |
| 16-17 | Wealthy (+20) |
| 18 | Aristocratic (+40) |
| d100 + #$prompt_number:title=Enter Lifestyle Modifier$# | Home |
|---|---|
| 0 | On the streets |
| 1-20 | Rundown shack |
| 21-30 | No permanent residence |
| 31-40 | Encampment or village in the wilderness |
| 41-50 | Apartment in a rundown neighborhood |
| 51-70 | Small house |
| 71-90 | Large house |
| 91-110 | Mansion |
| 111-140 | Palace or castle |
| 3d6 + #$prompt_number:title=Enter Charisma Modifier$# | Memory |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | I am still haunted by my childhood, when I was treated badly by my peers. |
| 4-5 | I spent most of my childhood alone, with no close friends. |
| 6-8 | Others saw me as being different or strange, and so I had few companions. |
| 9-12 | I had a few close friends and lived an ordinary childhood. |
| 13-15 | I had several friends, and my childhood was generally a happy one. |
| 16-17 | I always found it easy to make friends, and I loved being around people. |
| 18-25 | Everyone knew who I was, and I had friends everywhere I went. |
Personal Decisions
Your character's life takes a particular course depending on the choices you make for the character's background and class.
Background
Roll on the appropriate table in this section as soon as you decide your background, or at any later time if you choose. If a background includes a special decision point, such as a folk hero's defining event or the specialty of a criminal or a sage, it's best to make that determination before using the pertinent table below.
Class Training
If you haven't chosen your class yet, do so now, keeping in mind your background and all the other details you have established so far. Once you've made your selection, roll a d6 and find the number you rolled on the appropriate table in this section, which describes how you came to be a member of that class.
The class sections earlier in this chapter have further story suggestions, which you can use in concert with the material here.
Life Events
No matter how long you've been alive, you have experienced at least one signature event that has markedly influenced your character. Life events include wondrous happenings and tragedies, conflicts and successes, and encounters with the unusual. They can help to explain why your character became an adventurer, and some might still affect your life even after they are long over.
The older a character is, the greater the chance for multiple life events, as shown on the Life Events by Age table. If you have already chosen your character's starting age, see the entry in the Life Events column that corresponds to how old you are. Otherwise, you can roll dice to determine your current age and number of life events randomly.
After you know the number of life events your character has experienced, roll once on the Life Events table for each of them. Many of the results on that table direct you to one of the secondary tables that follow. Once you have determined all of your character's life events, you can arrange them in any chronological order you see fit.
| d100 | Current Age | Life Events |
|---|---|---|
| 1-20 | 20 years or younger | 1 |
| 21-59 | 21-30 years | 1d4 |
| 60-69 | 31-40 years | 1d6 |
| 70-89 | 41-50 years | 1d8 |
| 90-99 | 51-60 years | 1d10 |
| 100 | 61 years or older | 1d12 |
| d100 | Event |
|---|---|
| 1-10 | You suffered a tragedy. Roll on the Tragedies table. |
| 11-20 | You gained a bit of good fortune. Roll on the Boons table. |
| 21-30 | You fell in love or got married. If you get this result more than once, you can choose to have a child instead. Work with your DM to determine the identity of your love interest. |
| 31-40 | You made an enemy of an adventurer. Roll a d6. An odd number indicates you are to blame for the rift, and an even number indicates you are blameless. Use the supplemental tables and work with your DM to determine this hostile character's identity and the danger this enemy poses to you. |
| 41-50 | You made a friend of an adventurer. Use the supplemental tables and work with your DM to add more detail to this friendly character and establish how your friendship began. |
| 51-70 | You spent time working in a job related to your background. Start the game with an extra 2d6 gp. |
| 71-75 | You met someone important. Use the supplemental tables to determine this character's identity and how this individual feels about you. Work out additional details with your DM as needed to fit this character into your backstory. |
| 76-80 | You went on an adventure. Roll on the Adventures table to see what happened to you. Work with your DM to determine the nature of the adventure and the creatures you encountered. |
| 81-85 | You had a supernatural experience. Roll on the Supernatural Events table to find out what it was. |
| 86-90 | You fought in a battle. Roll on the War table to learn what happened to you. Work with your DM to come up with the reason for the battle and the factions involved. It might have been a small conflict between your community and a band of orcs, or it could have been a major battle in a larger war. |
| 91-95 | You committed a crime or were wrongly accused of doing so. Roll on the Crime table to determine the nature of the offense and on the Punishment table to see what became of you. |
| 96-99 | You encountered something magical. Roll on the Arcane Matters table. |
| 100 | Something truly strange happened to you. Roll on the Weird Stuff table. |
Secondary Tables
These tables add detail to many of the results on the Life Events table. The tables are in alphabetical order.
| d100 | Outcome |
|---|---|
| 1-10 | You nearly died. You have nasty scars on your body, and you are missing an ear, 1d3 fingers, or 1d4 toes. |
| 11-20 | You suffered a grievous injury. Although the wound healed, it still pains you from time to time. |
| 21-30 | You were wounded, but in time you fully recovered. |
| 31-40 | You contracted a disease while exploring a filthy warren. You recovered from the disease, but you have a persistent cough, pockmarks on your skin, or prematurely gray hair. |
| 41-50 | You were poisoned by a trap or a monster. You recovered, but the next time you must make a saving throw against poison, you make the saving throw with disadvantage. |
| 51-60 | You lost something of sentimental value to you during your adventure. Remove one trinket from your possessions. |
| 61-70 | You were terribly frightened by something you encountered and ran away, abandoning your companions to their fate. |
| 71-80 | You learned a great deal during your adventure. The next time you make an ability check or a saving throw, you have advantage on the roll. |
| 81-90 | You found some treasure on your adventure. You have 2d6 gp left from your share of it. |
| 91-99 | You found a considerable amount of treasure on your adventure. You have 1d20+50 gp left from your share of it. |
| 100 | You came across a common magic item (of the DM's choice). |
| d10 | Magical Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | You were charmed or frightened by a spell. |
| 2 | You were injured by the effect of a spell. |
| 3 | You witnessed a powerful spell being cast by a cleric, a druid, a sorcerer, a warlock, or a wizard. |
| 4 | You drank a potion (of the DM's choice). |
| 5 | You found a spell scroll (of the DM's choice) and succeeded in casting the spell it contained. |
| 6 | You were affected by teleportation magic. |
| 7 | You turned invisible for a time. |
| 8 | You identified an illusion for what it was. |
| 9 | You saw a creature being conjured by magic. |
| 10 | Your fortune was read by a diviner. Roll twice on the Life Events table, but don't apply the results. Instead, the DM picks one event as a portent of your future (which might or might not come true). |
| d10 | Boon |
|---|---|
| 1 | A friendly wizard gave you a spell scroll containing one cantrip (of the DM's choice). |
| 2 | You saved the life of a commoner, who now owes you a life debt. This individual accompanies you on your travels and performs mundane tasks for you, but will leave if neglected, abused, or imperiled. Determine details about this character by using the supplemental tables and working with your DM. |
| 3 | You found a riding horse. |
| 4 | You found some money. You have 1d20 gp in addition to your regular starting funds. |
| 5 | A relative bequeathed you a simple weapon of your choice. |
| 6 | You found something interesting. You gain one additional trinket. |
| 7 | You once performed a service for a local temple. The next time you visit the temple, you can receive healing up to your hit point maximum. |
| 8 | A friendly alchemist gifted you with a potion of healing or a flask of acid, as you choose. |
| 9 | You found a treasure map. |
| 10 | A distant relative left you a stipend that enables you to live at the comfortable lifestyle for 1d20 years. If you choose to live at a higher lifestyle, you reduce the price of the lifestyle by 2 gp during that time period. |
| d8 | Crime |
|---|---|
| 1 | Murder |
| 2 | Theft |
| 3 | Burglary |
| 4 | Assault |
| 5 | Smuggling |
| 6 | Kidnapping |
| 7 | Extortion |
| 8 | Counterfeiting |
| d12 | Punishment |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | You did not commit the crime and were exonerated after being accused. |
| 4-6 | You committed the crime or helped do so, but nonetheless the authorities found you not guilty. |
| 7-8 | You were nearly caught in the act. You had to flee and are wanted in the community where the crime occurred. |
| 9-12 | You were caught and convicted. You spent time in jail, chained to an oar, or performing hard labor. You served a sentence of 1d4 years or succeeded in escaping after that much time. |
| d100 | Event |
|---|---|
| 1-5 | You were ensorcelled by a fey and enslaved for 1d6 years before you escaped. |
| 6-10 | You saw a demon and ran away before it could do anything to you. |
| 11-15 | A devil tempted you. Make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, your alignment shifts one step toward evil (if it's not evil already), and you start the game with an additional 1d20+50 gp. |
| 16-20 | You woke up one morning miles from your home, with no idea how you got there. |
| 21-30 | You visited a holy site and felt the presence of the divine there. |
| 31-40 | You witnessed a falling red star, a face appearing in the frost, or some other bizarre happening. You are certain that it was an omen of some sort. |
| 41-50 | You escaped certain death and believe it was the intervention of a god that saved you. |
| 51-60 | You witnessed a minor miracle. |
| 61-70 | You explored an empty house and found it to be haunted. |
| 71-75 | You were briefly possessed. Roll a d6 to determine what kind of creature possessed you: 1, celestial; 2, devil; 3, demon; 4, fey; 5, elemental; 6, undead. |
| 76-80 | You saw a ghost. |
| 81-85 | You saw a ghoul feeding on a corpse. |
| 86-90 | A Celestial or Fiend visited you in your dreams to give a warning of dangers to come. |
| 91-95 | You briefly visited the Feywild or Shadowfell. |
| 96-100 | You saw a portal that you believe leads to another plane of existence. |
| d12 | Tragedy |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | A family member or a close friend died. Roll on the Cause of Death supplemental table to find out how. |
| 3 | A friendship ended bitterly, and the other person is now hostile to you. The cause might have been a misunderstanding or something you or the former friend did. |
| 4 | You lost all your possessions in a disaster, and you had to rebuild your life. |
| 5 | You were imprisoned for a crime you didn't commit and spent 1d6 years at hard labor, in jail, or shackled to an oar in a slave galley. |
| 6 | War ravaged your home community, reducing everything to rubble and ruin. In the aftermath, you either helped your town rebuild or moved somewhere else. |
| 7 | A lover disappeared without a trace. You have been looking for that person ever since. |
| 8 | A terrible blight in your home community caused crops to fail, and many starved. You lost a sibling or some other family member. |
| 9 | You did something that brought terrible shame to you in the eyes of your family. You might have been involved in a scandal, dabbled in dark magic, or offended someone important. The attitude of your family members toward you becomes indifferent at best, though they might eventually forgive you. |
| 10 | For a reason you were never told, you were exiled from your community. You then either wandered in the wilderness for a time or promptly found a new place to live. |
| 11 | A romantic relationship ended. Roll a d6. An odd number means it ended with bad feelings, while an even number means it ended amicably. |
| 12 | A current or prospective romantic partner of yours died. Roll on the Cause of Death supplemental table to find out how. If the result is murder, roll a d12. On a 1, you were responsible, whether directly or indirectly. |
| d12 | War Outcome |
|---|---|
| 1 | You were knocked out and left for dead. You woke up hours later with no recollection of the battle. |
| 2-3 | You were badly injured in the fight, and you still bear the awful scars of those wounds. |
| 4 | You ran away from the battle to save your life, but you still feel shame for your cowardice. |
| 5-7 | You suffered only minor injuries, and the wounds all healed without leaving scars. |
| 8-9 | You survived the battle, but you suffer from terrible nightmares in which you relive the experience. |
| 10-11 | You escaped the battle unscathed, though many of your friends were injured or lost. |
| 12 | You acquitted yourself well in battle and are remembered as a hero. You might have received a medal for your bravery. |
| d12 | What Happened |
|---|---|
| 1 | You were turned into a toad and remained in that form for 1d4 weeks. |
| 2 | You were petrified and remained a stone statue for a time until someone freed you. |
| 3 | You were enslaved by a hag, a satyr, or some other being and lived in that creature's thrall for 1d6 years. |
| 4 | A dragon held you as a prisoner for 1d4 months until adventurers killed it. |
| 5 | You were taken captive by a race of evil humanoids such as drow, kuo-toa, or quaggoths. You lived as a slave in the Underdark until you escaped. |
| 6 | You served a powerful adventurer as a hireling. You have only recently left that service. Use the supplemental tables and work with your DM to determine the basic details about your former employer. |
| 7 | You went insane for 1d6 years and recently regained your sanity. A tic or some other bit of odd behavior might linger. |
| 8 | A lover of yours was secretly a silver dragon. |
| 9 | You were captured by a cult and nearly sacrificed on an altar to the foul being the cultists served. You escaped, but you fear they will find you. |
| 10 | You met a demigod, an archdevil, an archfey, a demon lord, or a titan, and you lived to tell the tale. |
| 11 | You were swallowed by a giant fish and spent a month in its gullet before you escaped. |
| 12 | A powerful being granted you a wish, but you squandered it on something frivolous. |
Supplemental Tables
The supplemental tables below give you a way to randomly determine characteristics and other facts about individuals who are part of your character's life. Use these tables when directed to do so by another table, or when you simply want to come up with a piece of information quickly. The tables are in alphabetical order.
| 3d6 | Alignment |
|---|---|
| 3 | Chaotic evil (50%) or chaotic neutral (50%) |
| 4-5 | Lawful evil |
| 6-8 | Neutral evil |
| 9-12 | Neutral |
| 13-15 | Neutral good |
| 16-17 | Lawful good (50%) or lawful neutral (50%) |
| 18 | Chaotic good (50%) or chaotic neutral (50%) |
| d12 | Cause of Death |
|---|---|
| 1 | Unknown |
| 2 | Murdered |
| 3 | Killed in battle |
| 4 | Accident related to class or occupation |
| 5 | Accident unrelated to class or occupation |
| 6-7 | Natural causes, such as disease or old age |
| 8 | Apparent suicide |
| 9 | Torn apart by an animal or a natural disaster |
| 10 | Consumed by a monster |
| 11 | Executed for a crime or tortured to death |
| 12 | Bizarre event, such as being hit by a meteorite, struck down by an angry god, or killed by a hatching slaad egg |
| d100 | Class |
|---|---|
| 1-7 | Barbarian |
| 8-14 | Bard |
| 15-29 | Cleric |
| 30-36 | Druid |
| 37-52 | Fighter |
| 53-58 | Monk |
| 59-64 | Paladin |
| 65-70 | Ranger |
| 71-84 | Rogue |
| 85-89 | Sorcerer |
| 90-94 | Warlock |
| 95-100 | Wizard |
| d100 | Occupation |
|---|---|
| 1-5 | Academic |
| 6-10 | Adventurer (roll on the Class table) |
| 11 | Aristocrat |
| 12-26 | Artisan or guild member |
| 27-31 | Criminal |
| 32-36 | Entertainer |
| 37-38 | Exile, hermit, or refugee |
| 39-43 | Explorer or wanderer |
| 44-55 | Farmer or herder |
| 56-60 | Hunter or trapper |
| 61-75 | Laborer |
| 76-80 | Merchant |
| 81-85 | Politician or bureaucrat |
| 86-90 | Priest |
| 91-95 | Sailor |
| 96-100 | Soldier |
| d100 | Race |
|---|---|
| 1-40 | Human |
| 41-50 | Dwarf |
| 51-60 | Elf |
| 61-70 | Halfling |
| 71-75 | Dragonborn |
| 76-80 | Gnome |
| 81-85 | Half-elf |
| 86-90 | Half-orc |
| 91-95 | Tiefling |
| 96-100 | DM's choice |
| 3d4 | Attitude |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Hostile |
| 5-10 | Friendly |
| 11-12 | Indifferent |
| 3d6 | Status |
|---|---|
| 3 | Dead (roll on the Cause of Death table) |
| 4-5 | Missing or unknown |
| 6-8 | Alive, but doing poorly due to injury, financial trouble, or relationship difficulties |
| 9-12 | Alive and well |
| 13-15 | Alive and quite successful |
| 16-17 | Alive and infamous |
| 18 | Alive and famous |
What's Next?
When you're finished using these tables, you'll have a collection of facts and notes that-at a minimum-encapsulate what your character has been doing in the world up till now. Sometimes that might be all the information you want, but you don't have to stop there.
By using your creativity to stitch all these bits together into a continuous narrative, you can create a full-fledged autobiography for your character in as little as a few sentences-an excellent example of how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Did you get a couple of results on the tables that don't outright contradict each other but also don't seem to fit together smoothly? If so, now is your chance to explain what happened to you. For instance, let's say you were born in a castle, but your childhood home was in the wilderness. It could be that your parents traveled from their forest home to seek help from a midwife at the castle when your mother was close to giving birth. Or your parents might have been members of the castle's staff before you were born, but they were released from service soon after you came into the world.
In addition to deepening your own roleplaying experience, your character's history presents your DM with opportunities to weave those elements into the story of the campaign. Any way you look at it, adding definition to your character's pre-adventuring life is time well spent.
Racial Feats
Leveling up in a class is the main way a character evolves during a campaign. Some DMs also allow the use of feats to customize a character. Feats are an optional rule in chapter 6, "Customization Options," of the player's handbook. The DM decides whether they're used and may also decide that some feats are available in a campaign and others aren't.
This section introduces a collection of special feats that allow you to explore your character's race further. These feats are each associated with a race from the Player's Handbook, as summarized in the Racial Feats table. A racial feat represents either a deepening connection to your race's culture or a physical transformation that brings you closer to an aspect of your race's lineage.
The cause of a particular transformation is up to you and your DM. A transformational feat can symbolize a latent quality that has emerged as you age, or a transformation might be the result of an event in the campaign, such as exposure to powerful magic or visiting a place of ancient significance to your race. Transformations are a fundamental motif of fantasy literature and folklore. Figuring out why your character has changed can be a rich addition to your campaign's story.
| Race | Feat |
|---|---|
| Dragonborn | Dragon Fear |
| Dragonborn | Dragon Hide |
| Dwarf | Dwarven Fortitude |
| Dwarf | Squat Nimbleness |
| Elf | Elven Accuracy |
| Elf (drow) | Drow High Magic |
| Elf (high) | Fey Teleportation |
| Elf (wood) | Wood Elf Magic |
| Gnome | Fade Away |
| Gnome | Squat Nimbleness |
| Half-elf | Elven Accuracy |
| Half-elf | Prodigy |
| Half-orc | Orcish Fury |
| Half-orc | Prodigy |
| Halfling | Bountiful Luck |
| Halfling | Second Chance |
| Halfling | Squat Nimbleness |
| Human | Prodigy |
| Tiefling | Flames of Phlegethos |
| Tiefling | Infernal Constitution |