Avenger of Greyhawk Background


4th Edition


Just typed this up because I really couldn't find the right type of background for a character I was putting together.

Avenger of Greyhawk
Barbarians from the far north invaded the people of Tenh. Iuz the evil, the great demi-god, sent his non-human troops across vast stretches of the Flanaess, overtaking the Bandit Lands, the Barrens, the Horned Society, and the Shield Lands. The giants came from western reaches of the Flanaess, conquering the kingdoms of Sterich and Geoff. The Scarlet Brotherhood invaded the jungles of the south. Here they slew many, made slaves out the people and exploited the natural resources of the land. Spread throughout the Flanaess, are many powerful nobles ruling over their subjects through fear, bringing much tyranny, oppression and misery to the lands.

You come from a land that has suffered from the hands of tyrannical rulers, invaders of a foreign nation, or hordes of great monsters coming out of the wilderness, slaughtering the people and stealing their goods. The despair, horror and death you have seen is overwhelming. It is these images in your mind that will never give you the peace you seek and so you realize that someone must stand up to the face of tyranny, invasion and injustice.

When selecting this background, explore the lands of the Flanaess which have suffered from the hands of oppressors and invaders, selecting that which you feel most akin to call home. How did the injustices of the land affect you and your family? Was your home and land taken away from an evil lord bent on greed deriving pleasure watching others suffer? Were you or your family imprisoned, thrown into the dungeon to be forgotten? What monsters invaded your land, resulting in the exodus of its people? Was it a single monster such as a great dragon that burned the fields and villages? Was your land invaded by giants coming across the deserts of the far west? Did you live in a frontier town which was overrun by humanoids?

Skill Proficiencies: History, Survival
Tool Proficiencies: None
Equipment: A memento from home (such as a family medallion, sword or rightful land deed), a trophy taken from a slain invader or corrupt civil servant (such as a necklace of teeth, weapon, banner or bloodied garment), a map of the land, a drinking flask and a pouch of 10 gold

DEFINING EVENT
Having lived an ordinary life, pursuing the profession of a common person, perhaps the family trade or serving as an apprentice, you experienced a traumatic event as the result of corrupt ruler or invaders. This tragic moment caused you such great pain and anguish that you vowed to no longer be a victim but instead champion those that cannot for themselves. Choose or randomly determine a defining moment that changed your life.

d10 Defining Event
I robbed the rich and gave to the poor.
I watched helplessly as my family was taken away in chains.
My family died at the hands of a monstrous beast or horde that came from the wilds.
Corrupt soldiers or religious leaders tried to break me when I served my prison sentence for not paying taxes.
My family was captured by invaders and I freed them in the middle of the night.
The family business was lost and I watched my parents die poor and desolate.
I once worked for a tyrannical ruler and at my hands or order many people were imprisoned or killed.
I am related to the greedy lord and secretly freed slaves or prisoners.
I fled like a coward rather than fighting for my families freedom.
I witnessed a great hero lay down his life trying to save the helpless.

FEATURE: My defining event has caused me to realize that one person can make a difference. With this strength I am able to rally others, bringing them together and instilling courage within so that they may help me fight the good fight. Others see me as a leader and a hero. They grant me shelter and hiding when necessary.

SUGGESTED CHARACTERISTICS
The avenger of Greyhawk is a versatile role. The character may be familiar with the unsavory elements of their ruthless lord having been a victim or worked for them. The character may seek justice or revenge. The avenger may be a dark seeded character that believes an eye for an eye, ready to deal out justice in the same manner the corrupt lord delivered. The character may be proud to stand to evil or simply be bent on revenge and be just as bloodthirsty as those he opposes. If the character’s homeland is overrun by evil monsters they may need to develop the necessary skills before they can slay the dragon, giants, humanoids, or demonic entity that plagues them. The character may need to seek out a powerful artifact to assist in slaying their monstrous foe. Perhaps the character learns that the monster was sent by another powerful person or creature, furthering their vendetta for years to come.

d10 Personality Trait
I must rally as many allies as possible to overcome the tyrannical ruler, invaders or monster that plagues my homeland.
My revenge is justified by the deaths of those that fell at the hands of my enemy.
I was once a coward but now I am a threat to all that oppose me.
I always encourage others to put down the sword unless they fight for the right reasons.
If I die for my cause I lived a life worth living.
Should I fail to avenge those that suffer I am not worthy of my title or family name.
Mercy is for the weak and I shall give none.
I am relentless in seeking justice.
Once my cause is over I shall seek out others that must be freed or avenged.
I cannot find love or happiness until I succeed.

d6 Ideal
Justice: Justice belongs to the law and it shall be so. (Lawful)
Honorable: I shall not rest until my people are free. (Good)
Victory: I alone must face the enemy. (Chaotic)
Revenge: I will destroy my enemy and rule in their place. (Evil)
Allies: You may fight with me, but you must hold your own in battle.(Neutral)
Wealth: I take the victory as I choose; the people may share in the spoils. (Any)

d6 Bond
My family is my life; I shall honor them with victory.
My enemy has captured my bride (or groom) to be.
I have given my word to the people that freedom shall be had.
Those that fight with me I honor and respect.
The weak and helpless must be shielded at all costs.
Someone saved me but at the cost of their freedom or life.

d6 Flaw
I secretly plan to rule once I remove the evil.
My blood thirst shall not be sated even once this task is done.
I have made a pact with another evil in order to acquire equipment or knowledge needed to succeed.
Once I free the land of the evil, the people must fend for themselves.
My pride shall be my downfall for I will attempt this task before I am fully ready.
The people I free owe me their lives; I shall come to collect my debt one day.


I think backgrounds traditionally have 2 skill proficiencies and 2 tool proficiencies or languages. Maybe one language and one tool like disguise kit?


I'd give them a tool proficiency of their choice to represent the profession they had before.


I would call it just Avenger and drop the first paragraph. That will allow it to work in any campaign world.

The feature is essentially the same as folk hero, isn't it? I'd come up with something more unique.

Perhaps something like:

Lost Knowledge
You are the inheritor of your people's lost knowledge. This could be the knowledge of how to craft a weapon, suit of armor, musical instrument, or piece of artwork favored by your people. Whatever the form, the lost knowledge is only known by you and perhaps a few other survivors of your homeland. Work with your DM to create a suitable lost knowledge for your character.


Quote:
FEATURE: My defining event has caused me to realize that one person can make a difference. With this strength I am able to rally others, bringing them together and instilling courage within so that they may help me fight the good fight. Others see me as a leader and a hero. They grant me shelter and hiding when necessary.

I feel that this is too weak, but my immediate thought for how to fix it makes it a bit too strong. That thought was to give it a similar ability to the background feature in Curse of Stahd, where people (NPCs) will join you in a fight and risk their lives for you if they see you're in trouble.

So instead, what about adding "(When I rally others,) people often defer to me or assume I'm the leader of a given expedition or organization." Parenthetical is used as a potential qualifier to add to the sentence. Make it so it doesn't work with obvious situations, like if you're standing next to the king or a known mayor, but if someone knows of you and doesn't know anyone else (and can't determine it by looking) you'd be the default assumption. At the very least, there may be a king or a general next to you, but most people see you as equals rather than whatever the reality may be.

Thoughts?

Sovereign Court

I agree about the proficiencies, but generally you just have to offer an additional language and maybe a tool proficiency (but the tool proficiency is not required). Everything else looks good, and I always encourage people to make their own backgrounds. The game encourages you to do so as well.


Tormsskull wrote:

I would call it just Avenger and drop the first paragraph. That will allow it to work in any campaign world.

The feature is essentially the same as folk hero, isn't it? I'd come up with something more unique.

Perhaps something like:

Lost Knowledge
You are the inheritor of your people's lost knowledge. This could be the knowledge of how to craft a weapon, suit of armor, musical instrument, or piece of artwork favored by your people. Whatever the form, the lost knowledge is only known by you and perhaps a few other survivors of your homeland. Work with your DM to create a suitable lost knowledge for your character.

If I were to make it commercially available I would drop the word Greyhawk in its title. I included it because I made it for Greyhawk for a specific character that was developed.

The feature is somewhat different as it includes rallying others to assist in the character's fight. Where as the Folk Hero Feature gives the PCs a place to rest and shielded from the law.


bookrat wrote:
Quote:
FEATURE: My defining event has caused me to realize that one person can make a difference. With this strength I am able to rally others, bringing them together and instilling courage within so that they may help me fight the good fight. Others see me as a leader and a hero. They grant me shelter and hiding when necessary.

So instead, what about adding "(When I rally others,) people often defer to me or assume I'm the leader of a given expedition or organization." Parenthetical is used as a potential qualifier to add to the sentence. Make it so it doesn't work with obvious situations, like if you're standing next to the king or a known mayor, but if someone knows of you and doesn't know anyone else (and can't determine it by looking) you'd be the default assumption. At the very least, there may be a king or a general next to you, but most people see you as equals rather than whatever the reality may be.

Thoughts?

Agreed it could be better defined.


All backgrounds include 2 skills, most backgrounds include a set of tools and some backgrounds include a language.

Thanks for the input on these everyone. The toolset of the characters choice may be added and a language if it is applicable to the monster, person, or persons applicable to marauding one's homeland.


FYI, the standard template for Background proficiencies is two skills and two languages and/or tools (2 Lang, 2 tools, or one each).


bookrat wrote:
FYI, the standard template for Background proficiencies is two skills and two languages and/or tools (2 Lang, 2 tools, or one each).

Please tell me where you found this because I went off of the following:

Players Handbook page 125

Proficiencies
Each background gives a character proficiency in two skills (described in chapter 7, "Using Ability Scores").

In addition, most backgrounds give a character proficiency with one or more tools (detailed in chapter 5,"Equipment").

If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead.

Languages
Some backgrounds also allow characters to learn additional languages beyond those given by a race. See "Languages" earlier in this chapter.

Anyway, that's what I went off of when I wrote the background in my original post.


Customizing backgrounds. Same page (125).

"To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds."


bookrat wrote:

Customizing backgrounds. Same page (125).

"To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds."

Yes, that's customizing, doesn't mean its the standard way to do it. Its nice to have an way to alter/modify if you need it.


Ok, how's this? Every single background published to date gives:

2 skills

And

1 tool + 1 language
Or
2 tools
Or
2 languages

Look through the PHB, every single background follows that pattern. Same is true of the additional backgrounds in SCAG and CoS, the only two published books that have full background options.

There is no background which does not give 2 tools and/or languages.

I mean, if you want to intentionally make that background weaker than all the rest, go ahead. But why?


feel free to do what you wish, I'm not interested in tit for tat arguments.


Heh. Funny; I just got done driving, and I was going to come in to apologize for seeming antagonistic. I didn't mean to be; looks like I was too late and it was already taken that way. So, I apologize. Truly, I'm sorry for making it seem as if I was attacking you or trying to prove right over you or anything to that effect. It was not my intent.

I like what you've come up with; it's really good. My only comment was to give the feature a little power boost and not give up an extra proficiency for no reason. You don't have to; it matters not. The background is solid, it has some excellent fluff, and it's well written.

So, anyways. Sorry for appearing aggressive.


It's alright, I think what bothers me the most isn't that someone would do it differently, its the idea that I come to the message board smiling inside because it should be a pleasurable experience communicating with fellow gamers. Instead it turns out to be a disagreement over whatever issue and one walks away wishing they had never posted in the first place and should just keep to themselves. That's what bothers me the most about message boards.


I can see it.

Keep posting your stuff. Even if some jerk (me in this case) quibbles over something irrelevant, there are likely lots of people who will read it and never post anything and get something cool out of it.

That's what we really want, isn't it? It matters not what people comment on, it matters that what we give out can be used and helpful. And you've certainly done that!


EileenProphetofIstus wrote:
Instead it turns out to be a disagreement over whatever issue and one walks away wishing they had never posted in the first place and should just keep to themselves. That's what bothers me the most about message boards.

I think a lot of this comes from unknown goals for posting. The default assumption when someone posts some kind of homebrew creation is that they are looking for input/feedback/suggested changes.

If a poster isn't looking for that, but just wants to share their creation with the community, then it would probably be helpful to mention that in the first post.

I've found that putting something like "My goals for this thread are a, b, c," helps a lot in keeping a thread on topic.


Tormsskull wrote:
EileenProphetofIstus wrote:
Instead it turns out to be a disagreement over whatever issue and one walks away wishing they had never posted in the first place and should just keep to themselves. That's what bothers me the most about message boards.

I think a lot of this comes from unknown goals for posting. The default assumption when someone posts some kind of homebrew creation is that they are looking for input/feedback/suggested changes.

If a poster isn't looking for that, but just wants to share their creation with the community, then it would probably be helpful to mention that in the first post.

I've found that putting something like "My goals for this thread are a, b, c," helps a lot in keeping a thread on topic.

I would agree with you.

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