Handling the deceased and managing their interment is an ancient and necessary profession. Though you hold an important role in any community, your proximity to death frightens common folk, and they are more than likely to avoid you. Gravedigging requires a strong body and mind, and most will have a stoic constitution. Because of your experience you do not fear the dead or dying, nor even the undead.
There are myriad traditions regarding disposal of the departed, many involve strict taboos and significant spiritual implications. When you choose this background, work with your DM to determine which religious tradition you were a part of, or for which authority you worked handling the dead.
- Skill Proficiencies: History or Religion
- Tool Proficiencies: Your experience in cemeteries and tombs grants you proficiency with one of the following tool kits: carpenter's tools, mason's tools, land vehicles.
- Equipment: A shovel, a pick-hammer, 5 torches, a pouch with 5 pinches of salt, a prayer book or a bronze bell, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 5 gp.
Familiarity with corpses has given you insight into the processes of death and decay. When presented with the dead or undead you are able to know details such as its cause of death and for how long it has been expired. Similarly, you are able to sense the presence of death and undeath when within 60 feet of its location. You have advantage on all skill checks involving undead, and places of the dead.
Spell List
Your experience in laying the dead to rest has given you the ability to cast Gentle Repose. You always have it prepared, and can cast it as a ritual.
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 2nd | gentle repose |
Suggested Characteristics
Gravedigger
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I’m always polite and respectful, though some would say laconic and terse. |
| 2 | I’m haunted by memories of death. I can’t get the images of disease and violence out of my mind. |
| 3 | I have a rather morbid sense of humor, which some may find off-putting. |
| 4 | I wouldn't hesitate to take the clothes off a dead person's back. |
| 5 | I have the greatest reverence for the dead and the places they reside. |
| 6 | I believe that everyone deserves a proper funeral. |
| 7 | I am reluctant to make close friends. |
| 8 | I am fatalistic, but not dour. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hedonism and debauchery. |
| 2 | A gambling addiction. |
| 3 | I once buried someone still alive; I will do anything to protect this secret. |
| 4 | I find no joy in earthly pleasures. |
| 5 | I am deathly afraid of crows. |
| 6 | A penchant for grave robbing. |
In addition to preparing the grave, you were also responsible for announcing the burial complete and sounding the final note to proclaim that the body has been properly and finally inhumed.
Because you are practiced in concluding burial rites, and ensuring souls have been laid to eternal rest you do not possess the advantages with undead of other gravediggers.
However, you gain the ability to cast Toll the Dead.
You are able to cast Toll the Dead.
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