Tag: 5.5e

  • Be the hands that weave – a D&D background for 5/5.5 D&D and Black Flag

    Be the hands that weave – a D&D background for 5/5.5 D&D and Black Flag

    Weaving, sewing, quilting, tapestries — these arts were part of what common people did in the times that inspire fantasy storytelling. It’s rare that these professions are featured as heroes, but they should be. They are community leaders or practitioners of the quiet circle, often of women unempowered in a society.

    From these origins one may rise to be a powerful Artificer, a storytelling Bard, a Mastermind Rogue, a healing Druid, a Cleric of Peace, a vengeful Paladin. Or something else.

    The weaver is not soft, though they can make great fabrics. A quilter is not necessarily warm to all. These are the people who toil with nimble fingers and converse with those too often overlooked by authority.

    These are the people who see destiny in fabric.

    Originally published 23 May 2023
    Updated on 14 August 2026

    A vertical loom in a wooden branch shack. The threads on the loom are blue
    Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels.com

    Clothier/Weaver

    You are an independent artisan who makes fabric or clothes or blankets. Your specific art is less important than what you do with it. Your friends and colleagues know things and count on you.

    Authority may overlook your presence, but you know their tenor and can hide what they are looking for — whether that’s a person or a thing.

    Clothier (5e)

    Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Sleight of Hand
    Tool Proficiencies: Disguise Kit, Weaver’s Tools
    Languages: No additional
    Equipment: Blanket, 3 candles, chalk, cloths (either common or winter), 3 needles, spool of thread, pouch, 5 gold

    Feature: As the Wheel Wills

    You have a certain comfort and understanding that you aren’t always in control. You have advantage on saves against fear, charm and other enchantments after the first round in these conditions.

    Additionally, you are able to find and protect secrets. When using Insight or Sleight of Hand to keep or discover secrets you do so with double proficiency.

    Personality: use the Folk Hero and Guild Artisan as guidance.

    Clothier (5.5e / 2024)

    Ability scores: Dexterity, Wisdom, Charisma
    Feat: As the Wheel Wills
    Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Sleight of Hand
    Tool Proficiency: Weaver’s tools
    Equipment: Blanket, 3 candles, chalk, cloths (either common or winter), 3 needles, spool of thread, pouch, 5 gold or 15 gold

    Origin Feat: As the wheel wills

    We are only threads. You have a certain comfort and understanding that you aren’t always in control. You have advantage on saves against fear, charm and other enchantments after the first round in these conditions.

    In the circle. You are able to find and protect secrets. When using Insight or Sleight of Hand to keep or discover secrets you may roll a d4 proficiency bonus times per Long Rest.

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    Full Moon Storytelling is brought to you by Kristin Clark of Keller-Williams Lake Washington
    If you are looking to buy or sell a home in King or Pierce County, Washington support Full Moon Storytelling by supporting Kristin.
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    She’s my partner in everything I do.

    Clothier  (Black Flag)

    Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Sleight of Hand
    Additional Proficiencies: Weaver’s tools
    Equipment: Blanket, 3 candles, chalk, cloths (either common or winter), 3 needles, spool of thread, pouch, 5 gold or 15 gold

    Talent

    You are familiar with fate and the conversations among the hidden folk that keep a community running. Pick one of the following;

    1. Field medic
    2. Scrutinous
    3. Ritualist (Arcana)

    Design Goals

    Avoiding the Folk Hero’s problem of “if you’re already a hero you shouldn’t be level 1” is my primary goal with the Clothier. It’s the primary goal with many of the backgrounds I’ve created. Common people become heroes through playing D&D — although someday I’ll make a False Hero, one who hasn’t yet been heroic.

    Fernando Pessoa once said “Sometimes, when I wake up at night, I feel invisible hands weaving my destiny.”

    I also wanted to capture the magic of weaving and other arts of cloth. These aren’t arts that I understand. They are arts that I want to celebrate.

    From the literature that inspires D&D the lines from Wheel of Time about “the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills” prodded me into action.

    Finally there are some important quilters in my life. This background goes out to them too. Whether by stitch, by arms long or short, they are the fabric of our lives. A quilter can tell a story in squares and thread. Hopefully this story helps tell theirs.

    Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons

  • The Tinker — A D&D Background for 5e, 5.5e and Black Flag

    The Tinker — A D&D Background for 5e, 5.5e and Black Flag

    The clattering of tin as they come over the hill; a belly laugh as the tinker learns of some gossip from mother; the circle of enraptured youth as a tale that is at most half-true is told; the fussing over a minor repair for a family that has no goods to offer in service.

    In fantasy the Tinker is a trope that captures a travelling fixer who knows news, rumor, and myth. Their wealth rides a donkey or canoe with them and every community on their circuit is home and an unknowable set of peoples. Now, you too can play a Tinker.

    Original: 3 August 2021
    Updated: 13 August 2026

    Photo by Isa Sebastiu00e3o on Pexels.com

    Tinker

    Maybe you grew up in a family of smiths, or were raised by bards, or maybe you were kind of good at a lot of arts, but not really good at one in particular. Whatever your past you decided to leave the ‘civilized’ world and help those families on the frontier. When things break you fix them.

    When communities break you share that information with others who need to hear it. You carry as much information as you do tin. Your donkey is your only friend on the trails throughout the wilds. Everyone you meet trusts you, even the bandits, brigands and raiders. They need your services too.

    Tinker (5e/2104)

    Skill Proficiencies: Performance, Insight
    Tool Proficiencies: Tinker’s Tools, Vehicle (Land or Water)
    Languages: None
    Equipment: Donkey/Mule/Pony (if water vehicles chosen a canoe, rowboat or skiff is appropriate), Tinker’s Kit, 1 Pound Each Tin, Copper, Iron, Pack Saddle, 3 Pots, Traveler’s Clothes, Pouch with 5 Gold

    Feature: I Can Fix It

    Facing a mundane device that is broken you are able to fix it, even if you don’t have the proper supplies and parts. This repair may only last a few minutes or a few hours, though it is enough for the device to last through it’s next use. You may wind up using a copper coin, or a bit of string, or a knife during this repair. This feature can be used to fix ammunition, traps, broken wheels, or other adventuring equipment. The repair is not permanent.

    Tinker (5.5e / 2024)

    Ability scores: Dexterity, Intelligence, Charisma
    Feat: I Can Fix It (or choose between Linguist or Skilled)
    Skill Proficiencies: Performance, Insight
    Tool Proficiency: TInker’s Tools
    Equipment: Donkey/Mule/Pony (if water vehicles chosen a canoe, rowboat or skiff is appropriate), Tinker’s Kit, 1 Pound Each Tin, Copper, Iron, Pack Saddle, 3 Pots, Traveler’s Clothes, Pouch with 17 Silver or choose 30 gold.

    Origin Feat: I Can Fix It

    Ingenious repair. You can repair a broken piece of non-magical Adventuring Gear using another piece of gear using the Utilize Action. The repair lasts one minute and after that both items are broken.

    Idle hands make waste. When another character is crafting you count as two assistants, reducing the time it takes to craft non-magical gear.

    A thin shape of a house with script Kristin Clark inset

    Full Moon Storytelling is brought to you by Kristin Clark of Keller-Williams Lake Washington
    If you are looking to buy or sell a home in King or Pierce County, Washington support Full Moon Storytelling by supporting Kristin.
    Here’s a wonderful 3-bed townhome in the Totem Lake area you should consider.
    She’s my partner in everything I do.

    Tinker  (Black Flag)

    Skill Proficiencies: Performance, Insight
    Additional Proficiencies: Tinker’s tools
    Equipment: Donkey/Mule/Pony (if water vehicles chosen a canoe, rowboat or skiff is appropriate), Tinker’s Kit, 1 Pound Each Tin, Copper, Iron, Pack Saddle, 3 Pots, Traveler’s Clothes, Pouch with 17 Silver

    Talent

    You are familiar with the a broad selection of peoples, their cultures, their tools, and their stories. Pick one of the following;

    1. Polyglot
    2. Scrutinous
    3. Trade Skills
    4. Ritualist (Arcane) — rare.

    Tinker Design Goals

    Throughout the literature that inspires Dungeons & Dragons are tales of itinerant workers who travel the barely civilized wildernesses drifting between villages. Primarily they are fixers, using bits of tin, copper, iron, leather, etc to repair farming tools or kitchen utensils in the homesteads too far from smithys.

    The fiction also has these tinkers as storytellers. They aren’t bards, as their magic is just the magic of carrying tales of other households, villages, and empires to people who long for information, but don’t want to live in places where information is common. The Tinker tells their tales around a fire or a meal, informing the group through storytelling. At their next stop they will share what they’ve learned. Every encounter is a bit of knowledge to share in an attempt to connect the frontier lands despite weather and monsters that keep those connections broken.

    For these reasons the Tinker has Performance and Insight. Consideration was made for History. That would seem to indicate an intellectual rather than a tale-teller. Insight made sense because of the way the literature has the Tinker connect to the families year after year.

    Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons

  • Cabbies and ferien – people moving backgrounds for 5e/5.5 D&D and Black Flag

    Cabbies and ferien – people moving backgrounds for 5e/5.5 D&D and Black Flag

    Paths and ways in a fantasy world are not just occupied with masses of people walking with a few nobles on horseback. They are also clogged with carriages and carts delivering goods. In my own world one NPC used two giant turkeys to pull his coffee delivery cart. The players enjoyed the presence of this NPC so much they kept bringing him back up.

    The cabbie or ferien are taxis for a world where there are dragons and very expensive teleport circles.

    Cabbie

    You help carry people and goods between neighborhoods and distances. Working in urban areas either on the land or water you know the paths between places and the peoples who inhabit them.

    The cabbie may pull their own cart, use a pony or even have experience with a two-horse carriage. Often they have a stool to help their clientele into their car. Also willing to talk, even when the occupant isn’t interested, the cabbie can learn the happenings of a region or distract that occupant in such a way that they are susceptible to crimes.

    Cabbie (5e / 2014)

    Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Deception or Persuasion
    Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (pick one of land or water)
    Languages: One additional language, often from a culture that is nearby the home of the character
    Equipment: Cart, carriage, rowboat, gondola, sailboat (pick one), a lantern with 3 flasks of oil, traveler’s clothes, a trinket, 2 days rations, pouch with 25 silver

    Feature: Talk too much

    You are a skilled conversationalist that frequently goes on and on. These long talks are often consuming and distracting. Some cabbies and feriens may have allies who use that speech as a distraction to pick pockets or similar events.

    Additionally, you pick up the streets, rivers or flyways of a new city quickly almost never getting lost in natural urban areas.

    Personality

    Use the Folk Hero and Fisher for guidance.

    Alternate: Ferien

    First, let’s get this out of the way. There’s no simple gender neutral word for ferryman. Similar to Anagod on World Anvil, I appreciate the older English word ferien. As you expect the cabbie knows the streets of a city or the ways between villages, the ferien works the waterways of a land — rivers, canals, lakes and shores.

    Image from page 270 of Medieval and modern times; an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time (1919)
    A scene in Venice – public domain

    It’s pretty simple to make the Ferien version. Choose Vehicles (water) and then pick a rowboat, canoe, gondola or tiny sailboat for the vehicle. Nothing else needs to change.

    Cabbie (5.5e / 2024)

    Ability scores: Charisma, Strength, Wisdom
    Feat: Talk Too Much
    Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Deception or Persuasion
    Tool Proficiency: Navigator’s Tools (2024 depreciated Vehicles)
    Equipment: Cart, carriage, rowboat, gondola, sailboat (pick one), a lantern with 3 flasks of oil, traveler’s clothes, a trinket, 2 days rations, pouch with 25 silver or 20 gold.

    Origin Feat: Talk Too Much

    Shoulder talking. When talking to creature with which you share a language (or culture) you are able to distract a non-hostile creature. An ally attempting use Sleight of Hand, Stealth, or Deception against that creature has advantage in the current minute.

    Paths and landmarks. After spending an hour in a bar, market, restaurant or other third place in a new non-magical urban area you are unable to get lost.

    Cabbie (Black Flag)

    Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Deception or Persuasion
    Additional Proficiencies: Vehicle (land, water to be a ferrien)
    Equipment: Cart, carriage, rowboat, gondola, sailboat (pick one), a lantern with 3 flasks of oil, traveler’s clothes, a trinket, 2 days rations, pouch with 25 silver or 20 gold.

    Talent

    You are familiar with the conversations and flow of urban places, used to finding your way through new cities and old while talking to people across social class, faiths or ancestries. Pick one of the following;

    1. Polyglot
    2. Trade Skills
    3. Aware

    Design Goals

    Watching Shadow & Bone, or the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you see that those who manage transportation are part of fantasy stories. Whether the carriage driver or the polemaster in a gondola, these characters deserve the opportunity to be heroes.

    Maybe because I’ve been focused on the bog-city of Sheljar for Dungeon 23 I thought it was time to share this background publicly. The bog-city, or an island city, must have peoples who are dedicated to navigating the waters.

    This post was originally written for 5e in January 2023 and updated for 5.5e and Black Flag in July 2026.

    Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons