You are closer to death than most could handle. You’ve tried to run away from it, tame it, and even destroy it to no avail. Whatever force brought you to this state can’t be slain with a sword or banished with a spell. Now you exist in a space between life and death, unable to feel connected to the living world around you but equally unable to accept your destined death. Death is always looming over your shoulder, tainting the way you look at the world for better or worse.
You might be a priest trying to help others find the peace you can't. Or maybe you've taken your turmoil and turned it against the very entities that haunt you, hunting and slaying the wicked horrors who haunt the less fortunate. Perhaps you truly have accepted your fate and the thought of dying no longer haunts your soul. To choose to adventure is to face the specter of death every day. Maybe joining with allies will bring you comfort through your turmoil, or maybe forming such fragile mortal connections will be your undoing.
- Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Arcana, Religion, Survival, or Perception.
- Languages: Choose two, one of which must be Abyssal, Celestial, or Infernal.
- Equipment: A monster hunter’s pack (containing a chest, a crowbar, a hammer, three wooden stakes, a holy symbol, a flask of holy water, a set of manacles, a steel mirror, a flask of oil, a tinderbox, and 3 torches), one trinket of significant to your brush with death (choose one or roll on the Horror Trinkets table after this background), a set of common clothes, and 1 sp.
Prior to becoming an adventurer, your path in life was defined by one dark moment, one fateful decision, that brought you to the eve of death's door. Now you feel a Death's specter threatening to consume you, and you fear that you will never be free of its presence, even in death. Choose a near-death experience that haunts you, or roll one on the Brushes With Death table.
| d8 | Brush with Death |
|---|---|
| 1 | A monster slaughtered dozens of innocent people but left you clinging to life. You don't know why. |
| 2 | Your mother died during your childbirth, marking you as a dark omen from the moment you were born. |
| 3 | An apparition that has haunted your family for generations now haunts you. It whispers omens of death whenever your mind is at peace. |
| 4 | You've played with the boundaries of life and death through dark arts when you were younger. The specter of your acts now clings to you, reminding you of your sins. |
| 5 | You could have saved someone close to you but did nothing and their death is forever on your hands. |
| 6 | You've been chronically ill your whole life with seemingly no reason or cure. |
| 7 | A dark entity possessed you as a child. It forced you to slaughter dozens before you could seal it away. The entity is still inside you, but now you try to keep it locked away. |
| 8 | You committed a violent murder in the name of revenge but your righteous fury can't free you from the haunting memory. |
You have an uncanny connection to the final moments of life. Whenever a creature within 30 feet of you is reduced to a number of hit points equal to or less than twice its Constitution modifier (minimum 1), you briefly perceive a dark, wraithlike figure hovering just behind them—a manifestation you know as the Shadow of Death. This spectral form is visible only to you, and only for a fleeting moment, vanishing as quickly as it appears if the creature stabilizes or dies. This eerie vision provides no mechanical advantage in combat, but it grants you an unsettling awareness of how close others are to death. You might use this knowledge to offer aid at the precise moment it's needed—or to deliver a final blow with grim certainty.
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 speak plainly, for death has robbed me of the need for pretense. |
| 2 | I find solace in helping others find peace, even as I am unable to find it myself. |
| 3 | Death could come at any moment. I treat every day like it could be my last. |
| 4 | I keep others at a distance. If I care too much, death will just take them too. |
| 5 | I don’t talk about the thing that torments me. I’d rather not burden others with my curse. |
| 6 | I use dark humor in the face of horror, it's the only power I have left. |
| 7 | My scars remind me that I have survived what should have ended me. That means something. |
| 8 | I don't hold faith in the divine. Faith saves no one from the inevitability of death. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mercy. I will do anything to save others to spare them from the trauma of death. (Good) |
| 2 | Acceptance. I’ll conquer death or die trying. (Any) |
| 3 | Balance. Life and death are two sides of the same coin. Mine is yet to land. (Neutral) |
| 4 | Freedom. If in death's shadow, I live on my own terms. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | Justice. Whatever force cursed me, I will find it. And I will end it, for myself and others. (Lawful) |
| 6 | Death is not my enemy. It is simply a weapon to be inflicted on those who defy me. (Evil) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | A sacred text, charm, or ritual keeps me anchored to the world. Without it, I might slip away for good. |
| 2 | I was once saved from the brink of death by a stranger. I owe them more than I can ever repay. |
| 3 | I founded or protect a sanctuary for those haunted like I am, the broken, the cursed, the forgotten. |
| 4 | My death was supposed to mean something. I need to find out what — or who — brought me back. |
| 5 | No one deserves to face death alone. |
| 6 | I have a loved one to protect. I can keep them safe by taking their burdens upon myself. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I feel disconnected from the living and sometimes treat others as already dead. |
| 2 | I'm obsessed with the thing that brought me close to death, I can't let it go. |
| 3 | The dead don't deserve pity, they have a peace I never will. |
| 4 | I seek out danger recklessly. The closer I am to my own death, the bigger rush I feel. |
| 5 | I act fine, but inside I have a paralyzing fear of dying. |
| 6 | I personify Death and it tells me what to do. |
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