Not all criminals choose their path. Some are driven there by empty stomachs, cold nights, and the harsh realities of life without a home. You survived by your wits, learning how to disappear into crowds, find shelter where none existed, and acquire what you needed when no one would give it willingly. Whether you stole to eat, smuggled messages through city streets, or gathered secrets for coin, the streets became both your home and your teacher.
Though society may see you as a thief or vagabond, you know the truth: survival is a skill all its own.
- Ability Scores: Choose any three ability scores. One score increases by 2, another increases by 1, or three different scores each increase by 1.
- Feat: Lucky
Years of surviving impossible circumstances have taught you how to seize opportunities when fortune presents them.
- Skill Proficiencies: Sleight of Hand and Stealth
Stealth
You learned to move unseen through alleys, rooftops, and crowded streets.
Sleight of Hand
Quick fingers and careful movements allowed you to acquire necessities without attracting attention.
- Tool Proficiencies:
Thieves' Tools
Whether opening abandoned buildings or bypassing locks protecting valuables, you've learned the practical uses of these tools.
Disguise Kit
Blending into different neighborhoods often meant changing your appearance to avoid trouble.
- Languages: You know Common and one additional language of your choice.
- Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Dagger, Thieves' Tools, Disguise Kit, Pouch, Traveler's Clothes, Bedroll, 12 GP; or (B) 50 GP
You possess an instinctive understanding of urban environments. In any settlement, you can usually locate basic shelter, inexpensive food, and the areas where the city's forgotten people gather. You can often learn local rumors, identify criminal activity, or find contacts among beggars, laborers, street vendors, and other overlooked members of society.
These individuals recognize a fellow survivor and are generally willing to exchange information or point you toward assistance, provided doing so does not place them in serious danger.
Not every street survivor relied solely on the kindness of fellow vagrants. Some found protection, training, and opportunity among thieves' guilds and criminal organizations. As a guild pickpocket, you learned the value of information, subtlety, and connections within the underworld. Though your methods may have been illegal, the guild provided structure and purpose when society offered neither.
Instead of relying primarily on the homeless and forgotten, you survived by working among thieves, fences, smugglers, and confidence artists. You know how to locate criminal contacts in settlements and can usually identify the signs of local underworld activity.
You can often secure meetings with fences, information brokers, or smugglers willing to conduct business, though they expect fair payment or useful information in return.
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