
War has been your life for as long as you care to remember. You trained as a youth, studied the use of weapons and armor, learned basic survival techniques, including how to stay alive on the battlefield. You might have been part of a standing national army or a mercenary company, or perhaps a member of a local militia who rose to prominence during a recent war.
When you choose this background, work with your DM to determine which military organization you were a part of, how far through its ranks you progressed, and what kind of experiences you had during your military career. Was it a standing army, a town guard, or a village militia? Or it might have been a noble’s or merchant’s private army, or a mercenary company.
- Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Intimidation
- Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, vehicles (land)
- Equipment: An insignia of rank, a trophy taken from a fallen enemy (a dagger, broken blade, or piece of a banner), a set of bone dice or deck of cards, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp
During your time as a soldier, you had a specific role to play in your unit or army. Roll a d8 or choose from the options in the table below to determine your role:
d8 | Specialty |
---|---|
1 | Officer |
2 | Scout |
3 | Infantry |
4 | Cavalry |
5 | Healer |
6 | Quartermaster |
7 | Standard bearer |
8 | Support staff (cook, blacksmith, or the like) |
You have a military rank from your career as a soldier. Soldiers loyal to your former military organization still recognize your authority and influence, and they defer to you if they are of a lower rank. You can invoke your rank to exert influence over other soldiers and requisition simple equipment or horses for temporary use. You can also usually gain access to friendly military encampments and fortresses where your rank is recognized.
Suggested Characteristics
The horrors of war combined with the rigid discipline of military service leave their mark on all soldiers, shaping their ideals, creating strong bonds, and often leaving them scarred and vulnerable to fear, shame, and hatred.
d8 | Personality Trait |
---|---|
1 | I’m always polite and respectful. |
2 | I’m haunted by memories of war. I can’t get the images of violence out of my mind. |
3 | I’ve lost too many friends, and I’m slow to make new ones. |
4 | I’m full of inspiring and cautionary tales from my military experience relevant to almost every combat situation. |
5 | I can stare down a hell hound without flinching. |
6 | I enjoy being strong and like breaking things. |
7 | I have a crude sense of humor. |
8 | I face problems head-on. A simple, direct solution is the best path to success. |
d6 | Ideal |
---|---|
1 | Greater Good. Our lot is to lay down our lives in defense of others. (Good) |
2 | Responsibility. I do what I must and obey just authority. (Lawful) |
3 | Independence. When people follow orders blindly, they embrace a kind of tyranny. (Chaotic) |
4 | Might. In life as in war, the stronger force wins. (Evil) |
5 | Live and Let Live. Ideals aren’t worth killing over or going to war for. (Neutral) |
6 | Nation. My city, nation, or people are all that matter. (Any) |
d6 | Bond |
---|---|
1 | I would still lay down my life for the people I served with. |
2 | Someone saved my life on the battlefield. To this day, I will never leave a friend behind. |
3 | My honor is my life. |
4 | I’ll never forget the crushing defeat my company suffered or the enemies who dealt it. |
5 | Those who fight beside me are those worth dying for. |
6 | I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. |
d6 | Flaw |
---|---|
1 | The monstrous enemy we faced in battle still leaves me quivering with fear. |
2 | I have little respect for anyone who is not a proven warrior. |
3 | I made a terrible mistake in battle that cost many lives—and I would do anything to keep that mistake secret. |
4 | My hatred of my enemies is blind and unreasoning. |
5 | I obey the law, even if the law causes misery. |
6 | I’d rather eat my armor than admit when I’m wrong. |

Cool
Well Done to you Sir
I think theirs a problem regarding ranks for military personal. Considering in a military there are people that can outrank you like a General or Captain. If you get what i mean so when you roll for being a Healer or Support staff where does that put you? At the middle or bottom of your command? I mostly ask this cause its just not clear to me knowing the Soldiers description for Feature: Military Rank.
I expected that "Officer" to be the "Command Staff", as every speciality has its own Officers and NCOs.
Honestly, I don't think it was clear to the person who wrote the background.
An officer is not a specialty. Officers have specialties very similar to the ones enlisted have, because they are in charge of the enlisted servicemembers in that specialty area.
Officer is a rank, not a rate/specialty. The_Yog is likely right, they probably mean Command Staff.
In most modern militaries as in historical ones, specialist staff exist both within and outwith the rank structure. For instance, a Cpl in the british army is a low rank, only one or two up form private, but if that Cpl is a personal training instructor (specialist skill) then whilst the soldiers are in the gym he temporarily holds the rank of Colonel (a very high rank). This means that in a situation that the specialist skill thrives in, the normal rank structure is set aside temporarily.
A better example is that of medical staff, seeing as you talked about Healer and Support. In any medical emergency, be it a gunshot or IED or even a case of the flu, medically trained personell outrank everyone until the issue is resolved. This means that a general would even have to shut up and help put on a tourniqet if an angry medic Cpl told him to! (Which I would love to see).
So that is the real life examples that I know through my service, I am sure you can craft the background that within the unit/militia/tribal guard your characters talents for healing were recognised and respected, therefore you wouldnt always be subservient if you met a general or captain on your adventures. Hope this helped!
I think that might be more of a flavor thing. You don’t specifically have a rank in the command, but people might do you favors on account of you having saved their life (healer) or helped them out of a tough spot (support staff). I’d talk with your DM about specifics really!
My Dad was a Sergeant in the South African Army and a coms specialist and was put in charge of the signal tent at the base where he was stationed. they were doing some maintenance on some equipment and he was up on the radio mast checking that everything was correct when the Base Commander walked in wanting to send a message.
The private on duty in the tent told him that they couldn't send as they were doing maintenance and the radios had all been switched off and was then promptly ordered to to turn it on and send the message. About a minute later my dad walks in with burns on his hands from the shock he'd received and started laying in to this private for sending a message. when it was pointed out that the Commander had given the order, he ordered all none coms staff out and banned anyone except his staff from entering the coms tent. From then they would need to write the message on paper and then hand it to however was at the table at the front of the tent to be sent out.
A clear case of My tent, My responsibility, My Rules as Jamseus_Middenheim said
It probably puts you a bit above the basic recruits but bellow the officers because, in some militaries (I think) they do that (putting doctors a bit above basic recruits but bellow officers)
Noice
That doesn't affect the rank, the ranks are like in the actual army, but that's just what you were put as. You and your DM will decide your rank
Support staff are specialists, there is no officer ranks for them. Chef is the chief of the kitchen.
Doctors are officers
In most militaries, there are two kinds of support staff, military specialists, and "contractors," or "Hangers on." They are civilians doing work to support the military but not not actually a part of the military. To be considered a soldier, one would be in the first group, which is what the table appears to be describing. Acook in the army is still a soldier, and still has a rank. As a DM, I would resolve it by inventing a rank structure, and rolling a die. so let's say the structure is:
We now roll a d6, I just rolled a 4, so that means that in the army he was probably in charge of a section of a mess hall, maybe the butcher shop, or the bakery. A staff sergeant would be in charge of the whole mess hall, and the Sgt. Major in charge of all of the mess halls on the base. So out Staff Sergeant will have received basic military training, but probably isn't up to date on the most recent infantry tactics.
So why bother? One of my players is skilled in feeding a large number of people a nutritious, reasonably tasty meal. Now instead of a party existing on iron rations, the former cook might know how to combine everyone's rations with their skills and a few seasonings and now we have a morale boost. Or, the cook knows how to tell if a foodstuff is tainted, so no food poisoning. He knows whether those cranium rats are good eating or tough, vile, and stringy. (I have no idea, I'm not a cook!)
It's all a part of the backstory, which I use to further the story. It also explains how a PC who spent 10 years in the Army is still a level 1 or 2 fighter, it's because he spent that 10 years in the cook tent, not in combat.
Indeed, on the list of specialties, the author mixed up at least two, if not three, groups of military structures, i.e. ranks, types of troops and professions. You can be a cavalry or infantry officer, for example. In most cases, a doctor will be in the rank of an officer, but a cook will never be in the rank of a general. Moreover, a doctor in the army will always feel more like a doctor than an officer or a soldier at all. In turn, if a cook from the rank of a private man reaches the rank of general, he will not be a cook anymore and will shoot anyone who calls him that in the face. Moreover, in each army these dependencies were and are very different and very nuanced. Therefore, one list of only 8, let's call it the general roles played in the army, is, to put it mildly, a misunderstanding.
clavicle
it puts you where ever your dm decides
(I had the same suggested characteristics}
This helped a lot thank you!
Dose anyone know the military ranks from like the most important to least? My DND character is supposed to be just a little higher up then an average soldier and idk what that would be