Herbalists are the women who have spent their entire lives studying the healing arts, the language of herbs, and the quiet magic of cooking for their families and communities. They are the mothers and grandmothers of their villages — the ones who hold generations of knowledge in their hands and pass it down through warm meals, soothing poultices, and gentle wisdom.

A true herbalist nurtures the body as much as the spirit, tending wounds with salves and hearts with advice. In every corner of the world, one truth remains the same: a mother always knows best.

Ability Scores: This background grants +1 Wisdom.

Feat:

FEAT 1 (Level 1): Mother’s Touch

Gentle healing, comfort magic — the baseline mom power.

Name:

Mother’s Touch

Prerequisite:

None

Description:

Your nurturing presence soothes pain and calms frightened hearts. You mend wounds not only with herbs, but with kindness and steady hands.

Soothing Hands. When you restore hit points to a creature using a spell, healer’s kit, or herbalism kit, you can add your Wisdom modifier to one healing roll.

Comforting Word. As an action, you speak soft reassurance or grounding advice. A creature within 5 feet that can see or hear you gains 1d4 temporary hit points and advantage on its next saving throw against the frightened condition.

You can use Comforting Word a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses on a long rest.

FEAT 2 (Level 3): Mother Knows Best

The mom-advice feat that grants Inspiration — absolutely perfect.

Prerequisite:

3rd Level

Description (copy/paste):

You have mastered the fine maternal art of giving advice — helpful, pointed, or lovingly judgmental. Your words can snap heroes back into focus.

Mother Knows Best. As a bonus action, you may give a creature within 30 feet that can hear you Inspiration, as long as they do not already have Inspiration.

Once you give Inspiration this way, you cannot use this feature again until the target finishes a long rest.

I Told You So. When a creature uses Inspiration granted by this feat, it also gains 2 temporary hit points as your words echo in their mind at just the right moment.

FEAT 3 (Level 6+): Home-Cooked Healing

(Optional higher-tier feat, since you mentioned cooking)
This turns her food into buffs — like a cozy mini-Heroes’ Feast.

Prerequisite:

6th Level, proficiency with Cook’s Utensils or Herbalism Kit

Name:

Home-Cooked Healing

Description (copy/paste):

You infuse your meals with warmth, herbs, and quiet magic. A shared table becomes a source of strength.

Healing Meal. After a short or long rest, you may prepare a Home-Cooked Meal for up to six creatures, including yourself.

A creature who eats your meal within 1 hour gains:
• Temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
• Advantage on the next saving throw against poison or disease

A creature can benefit from this feature only once per long rest.

Restorative Cooking. Cooking a meal in this way also counts as tending wounds. At the DM’s discretion, you may stabilize a creature or cure a minor ailment if food and herbs are available.

 

Skill Proficiencies: You gain proficiency in the Nature and Medicine skills

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit, Cook’s Utensils, Weaver’s Tools

Languages: Herbalists and wise-women share a subtle “Mother’s Cant” — a gentle language of matronly sayings, knowing glances, and comforting murmurs. Whether it’s a whispered Yiddish “Oy, just let me fix that” or an Italian “Mangia, it’ll make you strong,” these herbalists have a way of making wisdom feel like home. They might not have a formal secret language, but a few timeless phrases can speak volumes.

Equipment: You begin your journey with:
• An Herbalism Kit filled with dried leaves, salves, and tincture vials
• A Cook’s Kit consisting of a small iron kettle, wooden spoon, tin cup, travel spices, and a folded cloth apron
• A Sewing & Mending Kit (counts as Weaver’s Tools), including needles, thread, yarn, and a pair of wooden knitting needles
• A collection pouch of gathered herbs and roots
• A well-worn field journal full of plant sketches and remedies
• A simple home-knit shawl or scarf
• A set of common traveler’s clothes
• A belt knife
• A small bundle of home-baked treats wrapped in linen
• 10 gp tucked safely in a pocket

Spell List

Bonus Cantrip:
Your years of stitching, darning, patching, and repairing have taught you a gentle magic passed down through generations of wise women. You learn the mending cantrip.

Spell Level	Spells

You gain the mending cantrip.

You may cast mending using Wisdom as your spellcasting ability for this spell, even if you are not otherwise a spellcaster.

This represents the instinctive, almost motherly magic of fixing torn clothing, cracked tools, frayed ropes, and battered gear — something even non-wizards know how to do after a lifetime of caring for others.

Suggested Characteristics

Herbalists carry the quiet strength of generations. Whether mothers, grandmothers, wise-women, or village caretakers, they are shaped by years spent tending wounds, mending clothes, stirring pots, and soothing worries. Their wisdom is not academic — it comes from lived experience, from listening more than speaking, and from enduring hardship with grace.

These herbalists often speak in gentle truths and practical sayings, offering guidance the way others offer bread. Their values tend to revolve around family, community, and the natural world. Even when frustrated — often punctuated by an “Uff da!” — their hearts remain soft.

Herbalists are compassionate, patient, and resilient, but also stubborn as a pine root. They believe in hard work, good food, quiet prayer, and the healing power of herbs. Whether they travel the world or stay rooted in a single village, their presence brings comfort and steadiness to those around them.