You are a well-trained and studied healer, sworn to cure the ailing and mend the wounded. Your talents may bring you fame and renown, or you might be regarded with suspicion by common people.
When you choose this background, work with your DM to determine the role and prominence of doctors in the world. Is medical knowledge of your kind rare? Are there institutions that teach such healing, and if so, where? Were you self-taught, apprenticed to a village healer, or educated in a medical academy?
- Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, and one from Arcana, Nature, or Religion
- Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kit
- Languages: One of your choice
- Equipment: A piece of doctors equipment (such as scalpel, pouch of aromatic herbs, or a small mirror), a healer's kit, token of appreciation given to you by a patient, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt much containing 15 gp.
As a doctor, you likely specialize in a particular field and manner of medicine. Choose one specialty, or roll on the table below.
| d10 | Speciality |
|---|---|
| 1 | Apothecary |
| 2 | Battlefield Magic |
| 3 | Dentist |
| 4 | Spiritual Healer |
| 5 | Medical Arcanist |
| 6 | Herbalist |
| 7 | Nurse |
| 8 | Surgeon |
| 9 | Veterinarian |
| 10 | Psyhcologist |
Your talents make you highly sought after, particularly in regions or communities with little access to medicine. Those who recognize you as a doctor may request your services, and may offer you a reward in return should you choose to provide them. You might be able to receive free or discounted food and lodging, or gain access to normally off-limits locations by leveraging your position as a doctor if your services are needed.
Suggested Characteristics
Doctors are defined by their ability to give succor to the pained and strength to the wounded. All doctors are united by their desire to cure the ailing, although some view this ability as a means to an end instead of a gift in and of itself.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am sympathetic to anyone in pain. |
| 2 | I have a tendency to become focuses on my work to the exclusion of everyone else. |
| 3 | I like to explain my theories of medicine to anyone who will listen. |
| 4 | I have seen too much horror to be affected by scenes of suffering. |
| 5 | I am skeptical of magic, and instead I trust in the sciences. |
| 6 | When someone is injured, I will drop all other responsibilities to tend to them. |
| 7 | I am constantly taking note of potential signs and symptoms in the people I meet. |
| 8 | I take every opportunity I can get to wash my hands. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Empathy. All I care about is the relief my skills bring to others. (Good) |
| 2 | Change. Those who seek to cure must be as adaptable as those who seek to harm. (Chaotic) |
| 3 | Respect. The sick and dying deserve to be treated with dignity. (Good) |
| 4 | Greed. Those in need of my services will pay through the nose to get them. (Evil) |
| 5 | Efficiency. I must not lot my emotions cloud my ability to do my job. (Lawful) |
| 6 | Preservation. Life must be preserved by any means. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I'll always remember the place where I learned my medical skills. |
| 2 | Nothing is more important than my patients. |
| 3 | I am working on a cure for the plague that decimated my home. |
| 4 | Someone I loved died of an illness. I want to spare others from the same fate. |
| 5 | I am compiling my medical discoveries in a series of tomes, which I hope will educate future generations. |
| 6 | I have a terminal disease and I am trying to find a cure before it's too late. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am haunted by the memories of every patient I could not save. |
| 2 | I use hard drink to numb myself to stress. |
| 3 | I am disgusted by the body's potential for filth and disease. |
| 4 | I make more mistakes than I should, a fact that I hide even from myself. |
| 5 | I have a propensity to see my patients as opportunities instead of people. |
| 6 | I am hesitant to injure others, even in self-defense. |