Self-Made Scholar

You grew up in squalor, watching as those around you become successful in their trades. While you had the temperament and drive to become successful, you were dealt a poor hand by the gods. When all else failed, you decided to take matters into your own hands. 

Through sheer determination, you take matters into your own hands: stealing from the trash of a wizard, spying on warriors practicing their fighting methods, and even “borrowing” the tools of a blacksmith to get a head-start on your apprenticeship (at least that’s what you’d say).

No matter the methods, your intent is clear: knowledge and learning at any cost (or no cost if you play your cards right). 

Skill Proficiencies: Sleight of Hand, Stealth

Tool Proficiencies: The tools that you yearn to learn come from your method of study. With this, learn one of the following:

Alchemist's Supplies, Brewer's Supplies, Calligrapher's Supplies, Carpenter's Tools, Cartographer's Tools, Cobbler's Tools, Cook's Utensils, Glassblower's Tools, Jeweler's Tools, Leatherworker's Tools, Mason's Tools, Painter's Supplies, Potter's Tools, Smith's Tools, Tinker's Tools, Weaver's Tools, Woodcarver's Tools

Languages: As you come to know the people you learn your trade from, you have also learned a bit of their tongue.

With that, you have the option to learn one of the following languages: 

Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish, Gnomish, Halfling, Infernal

Equipment: A trinket from one of your frequented “learning locations”, a list of the places you frequented for materials, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Suggested Characteristics

Urchins are shaped by lives of desperate poverty, for good and for ill. They tend to be driven either by a commitment to the people with whom they shared life on the street or by a burning desire to find a better life — and maybe get some payback on all the rich people who treated them badly.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I hide scraps of food and trinkets away in my pockets.
2	I ask a lot of questions.
3	I read in the library until someone has to kick me out.
4	I sleep with my back to a wall or tree, with everything I own wrapped in a bundle in my arms.
5	I eat like a pig and have bad manners.
6	I think anyone who’s nice to me is hiding evil intent.
7	I tend to look in the garbage before considering a shop
8	I bluntly say what other people are hinting at or hiding.

d6	Ideal
1	Respect. All people, rich or poor, deserve respect. (Good)
2	Community. We have to take care of each other, because no one else is going to do it. (Lawful)
3	Change. The low are lifted up, and the high and mighty are brought down. Change is the nature of things. (Chaotic)
4	Retribution. The rich need to be shown what life and death are like in the gutters. (Evil)
5	People. I help the people who help me — that’s what keeps us alive. (Neutral)
6	Aspiration. I’m going to prove that I’m worthy of a better life.

d6	Bond
1	The establishment I frequent for my materials is special to me and any threat to them is a threat to me.
2	I sponsor an orphanage to keep others from enduring what I was forced to endure.
3	I owe my survival to an urchin who taught me to live on the streets.
4	I owe a debt I can never repay to the person who took the blame for a theft I committed.
5	I stole an important tome from a powerful wizard, and I’m wanted for it.
6	No one else should have to endure the hardships I’ve been through.

d6	Flaw
1	If I’m outnumbered, I will run away from a fight.
2	If a tome or tool that hasn't been in the trash is offered to me, I'll do just about anything to obtain it.
3	I will never fully trust anyone other than myself.
4	I save anything that I think can be used for later (and that's a lot).
5	It’s not stealing if I need it more than someone else.
6	People who can’t take care of themselves get what they deserve.