You have had a special connection to nature for as long as you can remember. Some of your earliest memories are of the natural world bending itself - nearly unbidden - to protect you from harm. You couldn't wield it like a druid, channel it like a cleric, or weave it like a wizard, but whenever danger loomed it was there at your fingertips, warding you against attack.
Do you know how you came to possess this power? Maybe it is part of your heritage, passed down from a powerful ancestor. Perhaps an inscrutable fey being meddled with your birth. It could be a gift from a divine or devilish entity, or absorbed through proximity to potent elemental forces.
Have you run from this power and its social consequences, or embraced it as a calling?
A more important question might be why you have been kept safe... at least until now. If this power was inherited or absorbed, there may not be any reason; it may simply be the color of your thread, randomly woven into the tapestry of fate. But if it was bestowed, there must have been a motive. Was it repayment of a debt? Investment in a foretold champion? Or are you merely a cog in machinations far beyond your current understanding, manipulated like a playing piece on a game board?
However it happened and whatever the reason, you are clearly a ward of nature, and you may need that protection in the days to come.
- Ability Scores: Please pick from Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma when selecting your background ability boost in the character builder.
- Feat: Natural Warding gives you access to the Razor Shell and Resistance cantrips and one Level 1 self-defense spell you choose from a list.
- Skill Proficiencies: Nature and one of Animal Handling, Insight, Perception, or Survival.
- Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit
- Languages: Sylvan
- Equipment: A set of common clothes, an Herbalism Kit, a small shield carving made of bark, and a pouch containing 10 GP.
Your natural warding may have originated in a number of ways, and may be significant for the journey ahead. Create one yourself, or roll to pick one from the table below.
| d8 | Origin Type |
|---|---|
| 1 | an inscrutable fey being whose plans for you have not yet been revealed |
| 2 | a nature god or other divine entity granting favor to reward a service by your parents |
| 3 | a devil, granted as part of a contract whose other terms you may not know |
| 4 | prolonged proximity to a powerful source of elemental energy before you were born |
| 5 | a familial trait inherited from a powerful druid or fey being |
| 6 | a curse placed upon you to punish your parents, with consequences that have yet to appear |
| 7 | the first sign of an ancient prophecy coming to fruition (which doesn't necessarily bode well for you) |
| 8 | a natural phenomenon known to effect a small number of children every generation |
Spell List
You gain access to two self-defense cantrips and a level 1 self-defense spell of your choice from the list provided.
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|
You always have the following spells prepared. They do not reduce the number of spells you are otherwise allowed to prepare, and do not count as spells associated with any class. You may cast these with Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability, chosen once during character creation.
- Razor shield (cantrip) - a whirling cloud of metal shards reduces the likelihood of incoming attacks actually striking you
- Resistance (cantrip) - you gain limited resistance to a single non-mechanical damage type (you may only cast this on yourself)
- Level 1 spell - you may cast the self-defense spell you select once per day without using a spell slot (resets at Dawn), after which you may cast it with other spell slots available to you
Suggested Characteristics
Your connection to nature may have led to social isolation when you were growing up, as peers and neighbors are sometimes prone to gossip and mistrust of the unknown. Alternatively, the unusual safety of your childhood may lead you to underestimate the dangers of a broader, more perilous world as an adult. Or you may have become unusually private and guarded with strangers, knowing the risks of being open about who and what you are.
| d4 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | overly confident in your own safety |
| 2 | insensitive to danger that threatens the people around you |
| 3 | mistrusting of strangers |
| 4 | uncomfortable letting anyone get close to you |
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