You are descended from a bloodline cursed with something so terrible that you dare not speak of it. You might have been anyone, done anything, gone about your life oblivious to your dark inheritance until a harrowing event awoke the curse within you. Since then you’ve tried to bury it and run away from it, to no avail. This curse that haunts you, can’t be slain with a sword or banished with a spell. It comes to you as a shadow on the wall, a bloodcurdling nightmare, a memory that refuses to die, or a horrifying snarl in the dark. The burden has taken its toll, isolating you from most people and making you question your sanity. You must find a way to overcome it before it destroys you.
The curse running through your veins transforms you into a horrifying beast. You either live in despair of what harm you will inevitably cause when you succumb to your savage nature, or are determined to master the curse before it consumes you entirely. You are likely being hunted by individuals or organisations aware of your curse and who may wish to kill, cleanse or use you.
In your efforts to live with your curse you have become weary of people and prefer to keep your distance, taking every precaution to ensure your curse remains in check and a secret. As a result you may live the life of a wanderer always on the move or a loner living out in the unsettled wilderness. You have struggled to maintain some semblance of a normal existence, but are unable to forget what happened that awoke the beast within you and wont rest easy until you've reconciled your with your past.
- Skill Proficiencies: Your life before you curse awakened , or your time wandering since has made you proficient in two skills.
- Tool Proficiencies: In your early life you picked up a trade and are proficient at working with a particular set of related tools.
- Languages: As a result of your trade or your travels, you have grown fluent in a particular language. Choose one language you have become proficient in.
- Equipment: A explorer's Pack, a set of common clothes, and one trinket of special significance (choose one or roll on the Gothic Trinkets table after this background).
Prior to becoming an adventurer, your path in life was defined by one dark moment, one fateful decision, or one tragedy. Now you feel a darkness threatening to consume you, and you fear there may be no hope of escape. Choose a harrowing event that haunts you, or roll one on the Harrowing Events table.
| d10 | Harrowing Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | A monster that slaughtered dozens of innocent people spared your life, and you don’t know why. |
| 2 | You were born under a dark star. You can feel it watching you, coldly and distantly. Sometimes it beckons you in the dead of night. |
| 3 | An apparition that has haunted your family for generations now haunts you. You don’t know what it wants, and it won’t leave you alone. |
| 4 | Your family has a history of practicing the dark arts. You dabbled once and felt something horrible clutch at your soul, whereupon you fled in terror. |
| 5 | An oni took your sibling one cold, dark night, and you were unable to stop it. In your rage and despair, the beast within tore free. |
| 6 | Under a blood moon you turned into a feral beast and went on a rampage. You are now haunted by the innocents you slaughtered. |
| 7 | A hag kidnapped and raised you. You escaped, but the hag still has a magical hold over you and fills your mind with evil thoughts. |
| 8 | You opened an eldritch tome and saw things unfit for a sane mind. You burned the book, but its words and images are burned into your psyche. |
| 9 | A fiend possessed you as a child. You were locked away but escaped. The fiend is still inside you, but now you try to keep it locked away. |
| 10 | You did terrible things to avenge the murder of someone you loved. You became a monster, and it haunts your waking dreams. |
Predatory Senses. You gain darkvision to a range of 60ft. You also have keen senses giving you advantage on any Perception checks relying on hearing, or smell.
Lycanthropic Transformation. You are able to transform into a hybrid form (You can speak, use equipment, and wear armor in this form) and a beast form. You revert to your normal form if you fall unconscious, or die. In beast form you take on the physical traits and characteristics of you associated beast and might otherwise pass for a normal member of the species except for size which remains the same as your base form. While you are in your hybrid form, you gain/suffer the following features:
Bloodlust. whenever you transform, you must succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or lose control. You automatically fail this saving throw during a full moon. When you lose control you move directly towards the nearest visible creature and savagely attack it. If there is no potential target within range of your senses then you will begin hunting for prey to kill. At the start of your turn in combat you may reattempt the saving throw to regain control, outside of combat you may reattempt the saving throw every hour or give in and wait until you have killed at least one victim at which point your bloodlust will have run it's course.
Feral Might. You have advantage on Strength and Intimidation checks, but have disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws.
Bestial Hide. You have +1 to AC while not wearing heavy armour. You also have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical attacks but have vulnerability to silver and silvered weapons.
Stalker's Prowess Your speed increases by 10 feet. You can also add 10 feet to your long jump distance and 3 feet to your high jump distance.
Savage Strikes. You develop beastial claws. Your unarmed strikes have a bonus +2 on attack and damage rolls and deal 2d4 slashing damage When you use the attack action to make an unarmed strike, you can make one unarmed strike, or bite as a bonus action.
Cursed Bite. Your bite has a +4 bonus to hit and is dripping with cursed blood, dealing 1d6 piercing damage, overcoming resistances/immunity to non-magical attacks and damage. When you attack a humanoid with a bite, it must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be infected with a weakened strain of lycanthropy. Beings that do not have blood (such as constructs) or which are immune to disease automatically succeed this saving throw. Vampires cannot be infected with lycanthropy and will instead take 3d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half damage on a successful one and are unable to regain hit points until their next turn.
Primal Regeneration. If you start any turn below half of your maximum hit point value then you must roll for bloodlust. After you roll for bloodlust, you regain hit points equal to 1d6 + your Constitution modifier (minimum of one) so long as you have at least 1 hit point and no more than half of your hit points left. Hit points lost due to damage dealt by silvered weapons do not regenerate through this feature and may only be restored through other means such as healing potions, restorative magic or resting.
Suggested Characteristics
You have learned to live with the terror that haunts you. You are a survivor, who can be very protective of those who bring light into your darkened life.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I don’t run from evil. Evil runs from me. |
| 2 | I like to read and memorize poetry. It keeps me calm and brings me fleeting moments of happiness. |
| 3 | I spend money freely and live life to the fullest, knowing that tomorrow I might die. |
| 4 | I live for the thrill of the hunt. |
| 5 | I don’t talk about the thing that torments me. I’d rather not burden others with my curse. |
| 6 | I expect danger around every corner. |
| 7 | I refuse to become a victim, and I will not allow others to be victimized. |
| 8 | I put no trust in divine beings. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | I try to help those in need, no matter what the personal cost. (Good) |
| 2 | I am the master of my own fate and refuse to let my curse, or my past define me. (Any) |
| 3 | I kill monsters to make the world a safer place, and to exorcise my own demons. (Good) |
| 4 | I have a dark calling that puts me above the law. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | I like to know my enemy’s capabilities and weaknesses before rushing into battle. (Lawful) |
| 6 | I’m a monster that destroys other monsters, and anything else that gets in my way. (Evil) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy. |
| 2 | I would sacrifice my life and my soul to protect the innocent. |
| 3 | My torment drove away the person I love. I strive to win back the love I’ve lost. |
| 4 | A terrible guilt consumes me. I hope that I can find redemption through my actions. |
| 5 | There’s evil in me, I can feel it. It must never be set free. |
| 6 | I have a child to protect. I must make the world a safer place for him (or her). |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I have certain rituals that I must follow every day. I can never break them. |
| 2 | I assume the worst in people. |
| 3 | I feel no compassion for the dead. They’re the lucky ones. |
| 4 | I have an addiction. |
| 5 | I am a purveyor of doom and gloom who lives in a world without hope. |
| 6 | I talk to spirits that no one else can see. |
Previous Versions
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11/9/2022 4:15:06 AM
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