A lot of threads discuss the mechanical benefits of playing these new subclasses which I don't mind because the fighter isn't necessarily the most interesting class. But now that I have decided to play a fighter for an upcoming campaign, I would like sample background hooks for subclasses, especially for the new knights on the block because there hasn't been many examples of them and Dynamis isn't a proper field in every world.
The Psi Warrior I'm in the process of creating has a fairly complex backstory. About 200 years ago, the Githzerai raided an Illythid stronghold. There they found females from just about every race who were being experimented on. All the females were pregnant. The Gith discovered that all of the females had tadpoles implanted into them and were not going to survive. One Githzerai monk named Ynir, who was secretly a member of Sha'sal Khou, a secret sect seeking to reunify the Githyanki and Githzerai, rescued the women and helped keep them alive long enough to give birth. While none of the women survived, the children born to them developed psionic gifts. Ynir took the children and created a secret monastery to teach these children how to hone their psionic powers. Over the past two centuries, many of the children went back out into the world upon reaching adulthood and eventually had children of their own. It was discovered in many cases, that the psionic gift was passed down hereditarily.
My character's mother was one of this order and had married a member of the king's guard (in a Forgotten Realms setting he would be one of the Neverwinter Nine). Upon the birth of her son, she returned to the order to have the child. During childbirth. the Order was attacked and all present were wiped out. Ynir was on another plane when this happened and returned to find that my character had been hidden away and had survived even though the mother had not. Ynir took the child to be raised by his father. At age 12, the child's father was killed in a battle and the child was sent to a special school/home for children of the kingdom's fallen soldiers. When they turn 18, they can either join the military or they are free to seek their fortune. My character chose to be a soldier and has a distinguished service record. Lately, he has developed severe and debilitating headaches that have caused him to be medically discharged from the military. Suddenly adrift for the first time in his life, he seeks a new mission and a new purpose. Unbeknownst to him, Ynir will soon make contact with him to reveal his legacy and help him harness the growing power inside him.
While this is still a work in progress, I thought it would be a good backstory for not only my character but as a way to introduce Psionics into a D&D setting.
I'm playing an echo knight in a sword coast setting.
I went to level 5 Gloomstalker first. My link to the shadows was my route to enabling my echo.
My DM and I discussed it, and agreed this was reasonable. We had a side encounter in the Shadow plane where my shadow was wrought from me by a fiend.
When I returned to the "real" world my echo encapsulates my evil side, and my character's alignment changed from neutral evil to neutral good.
This was due to my shadow taking the effect of a childhood experience that previously gave me my evil side. I am now living as the person I should/could of been...
Playing a Psi Knight in Eberron. Leveled up to 3 in Shadow Marches and the GM gave a me trippy dream in the long rest after the fight, hinting heavily one of the Dalekyr messed with my mind and gave me psychic power. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as Dalekyr are never good news..
I've been toying with some background ideas for a rune knight: 1. Someone who wants revenge on a dragon, so after some study, they seek out the magic of the dragons' greatest foes: the giants.
2. Start as a trader or soldier in a trade caravan that made occasional trips to a Firbolg commune, where they came across an epic poem that teaches rune magic.
3. Be a Firbolg that has discovered their people's ancient warrior roots, and is trying to reclaim that legacy in the face of the commune's ire. (I like the giant connection in their lore, if it hasn't been clear)
4. An dwarf guild/clan artisan who made a pilgrimage to an old giant ruin for inspiration, either finding a giant mentor, the giant runes in the ruins, or discover a dead wizard researcher who had made copious notes studying the runes.
My Rune Knight is a really intelligent young kobold with the inheritor background, he inherited a book of giant lore that he studied - which his parent stole.
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D&D, Youth Work and the Priesthood sadly do not typically interact... I do what I can!
The background that I have fits more of a Battle Master concept, but it could adapted to any other sub-class.
It's a noble dwarf heir to a super traditional clan famous due to their strong connection with the Gods. Basically a long dwarven lineage of Clerics and Paladins. My humble character, however, was not able to somehow manifest any kind of divine power -- whether through divine call (Cleric) or getting sworn to an Oath (Paladin). Bad lucky or destiny, he lacked the necessary inspiration or commitment to become a “holy warrior”. Kind of the “ugly duck” in his clan.
So in order to compensate for that, he trained twice as hard and became obsessed to sharpen his “mundane” battle skills. Of course conscious that he would never be able to call for sacred aid, he also adopted a more strategic and cunning-driven approach in combat, which I represented by going straightforward from level 1 to 5 as a Fighter Battlemaster, taking the Shield Master feat at 4 and then multiclassing one single level into Rogue (to grab Athletics expertise).
Needless to say he became the head of his clan and prove to his kin that everyone can make the difference in the world -- you don’t need to be blessed by the Gods to be an outstanding dwarf hero.
One hook would be the fact that this is Giant Magic we're using, so how did your character learn tricks off a giant? Maybe create a Giant NPC in your backstory that they can have a relationship with, even an antagonistic one. You could also have someone hunting them down for using what they consider a forbidden craft.
My guy let his learning of it lead to the destruction of his clan, breaking an oath the clan made with a nearby settlement and causing him to lose his clan name and simply be known as "Oathbreaker" since. DM has a fun few hooks in my old clan, the old settlement, and even the process of me learning it.
Not familiar with the other two to offer advice sadly.
In trying to come up with a martial class character (I tend toward the big tool kits of wizards/clerics), I stumbled onto Rune Knight. Loved the flavor and mechanics--and then thought it would be amusing to make him a gnome. (We were rolling stats, so it wasn't a huge sacrifice mechanically.) Just something about a wee gnome transforming into a Large gnome for key scenes just sounded great.
Here's what I came up with for my gnome rune knight archaeologist:
Wick has always excelled as a warrior, but keeping watch over this and that area of the village in the forest was never going to keep his interest for long. Always fascinated with the abandoned places and ancient ruins dotting the wilderness near his home forest, he's written several memoirs detailing the structures left behind by older cultures, their pottery, their weapons, their art.
On a more recent journey, however, his expedition party stumbled upon a large and aged temple tucked away in a deep gorge. It was clearly built by giants; Wick spent weeks there cataloging many aspects of the collapsed stone shrine--particularly a secluded room that contained mysterious glowing runes carved in it's tall walls. The room should have been almost impossible to access if not for the disintegration of the structure; an earthquake and the elements had pried it open.
While his travels continue, he carries with him the many pages of detailed drawings he made of the runes. He's borrowed several books from others in his village to teach himself the giants' tongue, and he's determined to figure out the significance of the clearly magical script. Until then, he's content to explore and add his observations to the vast library of accumulated gnomish knowledge.
***
Since we're starting at first level, this gave him a way to practice/research and build up to the abilities that will sort of pop into existence when he makes 3rd level. Also, while the giant-magic flavor of this subclass rocks, I wanted the background to kind of describe a way for the magic to exist but not be in wide use (otherwise, why don't more giants actually use it, right?). This way, it's ancient, forgotten, and unearthed by an inquisitive gnome, and his powers will grow as he sorts out more and more of the magic through trial and error and solving the puzzle of the runes.
I was thinking of an extra lazy bugbear who due to events beyond his control developed psionic abilities and decided life would be much easier if he could use his powers to do things and focused on developing them by following the way of the Psi Warrior. He will frequently complain about how much work it actually is and that he regrets his decisions because of it.
Well the Fighter is most certainly an interesting class. You don't have the crutch of magic and it's up to you to to find ways to circumvent or overcome the limitations you have...like every other hero's journey out there.
ECHO KNIGHT: A Shifter who has traveled from his home seeking to discover what wonders there are in the world beyond familiar borders. He received training since a young age in harnessing his Totem Spirit, but unlike most he is able to manifest it physically onto the material plain in the form of an Echo.
PSI WARRIOR: A young Half-Elf reluctantly taken in by their elven parent but with no talent in magic decides to find their own path and worth. After years of study, that young Half-Elf became a powerful warrior in their own right; not by magic but by steel and the untapped potential of psionics.
RUNE KNIGHT: A Scourge Aasimar, garners a steadily growing reputation as a bounty hunter. For all intents and purposes he appears and acts like a regular human sellsword, but unbeknownst to them, he has celestial blood flowing through his veins. But more importantly, and what he keeps close to the chest is that fact that he wields a rare type of magic based on celestial runes of power; whether this was a gift of divine favor or knowledge stolen is a truth only he knows.
I know this is totally dead, but if anybody sees this and is willing to brainstorm with me, I'm trying to think of a good backstory for a dragonborn rune knight. He's a gem dragonborn, and might come from a noble family (I haven't decided yet).
If you have any ideas, let me know :)
I was thinking, he lives in a kingdom of mostly dragonborn, and there is another kingdom semi-nearby, of giants, that asked for help in stopping an increasing number of attacks from savage dragons. My char decides to help the giants, against his family's wishes, and in turn they teach him some of their ways.
This is just one idea though, and I'm not sure if I want to use it, or something else...
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⌜╔═════════════The Board══════════════╗⌝
...and started me on my way into my next chapter in life...
My Rune Knight is a LN Goliath who is a prison warden. He uses the fire rune for the manacles and the…. I don’t have my sheet….the rune that includes charm.
Presently he is out adventuring to find the only prisoner to ever escape….
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A lot of threads discuss the mechanical benefits of playing these new subclasses which I don't mind because the fighter isn't necessarily the most interesting class. But now that I have decided to play a fighter for an upcoming campaign, I would like sample background hooks for subclasses, especially for the new knights on the block because there hasn't been many examples of them and Dynamis isn't a proper field in every world.
The Psi Warrior I'm in the process of creating has a fairly complex backstory. About 200 years ago, the Githzerai raided an Illythid stronghold. There they found females from just about every race who were being experimented on. All the females were pregnant. The Gith discovered that all of the females had tadpoles implanted into them and were not going to survive. One Githzerai monk named Ynir, who was secretly a member of Sha'sal Khou, a secret sect seeking to reunify the Githyanki and Githzerai, rescued the women and helped keep them alive long enough to give birth. While none of the women survived, the children born to them developed psionic gifts. Ynir took the children and created a secret monastery to teach these children how to hone their psionic powers. Over the past two centuries, many of the children went back out into the world upon reaching adulthood and eventually had children of their own. It was discovered in many cases, that the psionic gift was passed down hereditarily.
My character's mother was one of this order and had married a member of the king's guard (in a Forgotten Realms setting he would be one of the Neverwinter Nine). Upon the birth of her son, she returned to the order to have the child. During childbirth. the Order was attacked and all present were wiped out. Ynir was on another plane when this happened and returned to find that my character had been hidden away and had survived even though the mother had not. Ynir took the child to be raised by his father. At age 12, the child's father was killed in a battle and the child was sent to a special school/home for children of the kingdom's fallen soldiers. When they turn 18, they can either join the military or they are free to seek their fortune. My character chose to be a soldier and has a distinguished service record. Lately, he has developed severe and debilitating headaches that have caused him to be medically discharged from the military. Suddenly adrift for the first time in his life, he seeks a new mission and a new purpose. Unbeknownst to him, Ynir will soon make contact with him to reveal his legacy and help him harness the growing power inside him.
While this is still a work in progress, I thought it would be a good backstory for not only my character but as a way to introduce Psionics into a D&D setting.
I'm playing an echo knight in a sword coast setting.
I went to level 5 Gloomstalker first. My link to the shadows was my route to enabling my echo.
My DM and I discussed it, and agreed this was reasonable. We had a side encounter in the Shadow plane where my shadow was wrought from me by a fiend.
When I returned to the "real" world my echo encapsulates my evil side, and my character's alignment changed from neutral evil to neutral good.
This was due to my shadow taking the effect of a childhood experience that previously gave me my evil side. I am now living as the person I should/could of been...
Playing a Psi Knight in Eberron. Leveled up to 3 in Shadow Marches and the GM gave a me trippy dream in the long rest after the fight, hinting heavily one of the Dalekyr messed with my mind and gave me psychic power. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as Dalekyr are never good news..
I've been toying with some background ideas for a rune knight:
1. Someone who wants revenge on a dragon, so after some study, they seek out the magic of the dragons' greatest foes: the giants.
2. Start as a trader or soldier in a trade caravan that made occasional trips to a Firbolg commune, where they came across an epic poem that teaches rune magic.
3. Be a Firbolg that has discovered their people's ancient warrior roots, and is trying to reclaim that legacy in the face of the commune's ire. (I like the giant connection in their lore, if it hasn't been clear)
4. An dwarf guild/clan artisan who made a pilgrimage to an old giant ruin for inspiration, either finding a giant mentor, the giant runes in the ruins, or discover a dead wizard researcher who had made copious notes studying the runes.
My Rune Knight is a really intelligent young kobold with the inheritor background, he inherited a book of giant lore that he studied - which his parent stole.
I'll mourn the loss of another souls to the insidious and ever tempting forces of Good.
The background that I have fits more of a Battle Master concept, but it could adapted to any other sub-class.
It's a noble dwarf heir to a super traditional clan famous due to their strong connection with the Gods. Basically a long dwarven lineage of Clerics and Paladins. My humble character, however, was not able to somehow manifest any kind of divine power -- whether through divine call (Cleric) or getting sworn to an Oath (Paladin). Bad lucky or destiny, he lacked the necessary inspiration or commitment to become a “holy warrior”. Kind of the “ugly duck” in his clan.
So in order to compensate for that, he trained twice as hard and became obsessed to sharpen his “mundane” battle skills. Of course conscious that he would never be able to call for sacred aid, he also adopted a more strategic and cunning-driven approach in combat, which I represented by going straightforward from level 1 to 5 as a Fighter Battlemaster, taking the Shield Master feat at 4 and then multiclassing one single level into Rogue (to grab Athletics expertise).
Needless to say he became the head of his clan and prove to his kin that everyone can make the difference in the world -- you don’t need to be blessed by the Gods to be an outstanding dwarf hero.
I have a Goliath Rune Knight - Its a blast.
One hook would be the fact that this is Giant Magic we're using, so how did your character learn tricks off a giant? Maybe create a Giant NPC in your backstory that they can have a relationship with, even an antagonistic one. You could also have someone hunting them down for using what they consider a forbidden craft.
My guy let his learning of it lead to the destruction of his clan, breaking an oath the clan made with a nearby settlement and causing him to lose his clan name and simply be known as "Oathbreaker" since. DM has a fun few hooks in my old clan, the old settlement, and even the process of me learning it.
Not familiar with the other two to offer advice sadly.
Just here to have fun.
In trying to come up with a martial class character (I tend toward the big tool kits of wizards/clerics), I stumbled onto Rune Knight. Loved the flavor and mechanics--and then thought it would be amusing to make him a gnome. (We were rolling stats, so it wasn't a huge sacrifice mechanically.) Just something about a wee gnome transforming into a Large gnome for key scenes just sounded great.
Here's what I came up with for my gnome rune knight archaeologist:
Wick has always excelled as a warrior, but keeping watch over this and that area of the village in the forest was never going to keep his interest for long. Always fascinated with the abandoned places and ancient ruins dotting the wilderness near his home forest, he's written several memoirs detailing the structures left behind by older cultures, their pottery, their weapons, their art.
On a more recent journey, however, his expedition party stumbled upon a large and aged temple tucked away in a deep gorge. It was clearly built by giants; Wick spent weeks there cataloging many aspects of the collapsed stone shrine--particularly a secluded room that contained mysterious glowing runes carved in it's tall walls. The room should have been almost impossible to access if not for the disintegration of the structure; an earthquake and the elements had pried it open.
While his travels continue, he carries with him the many pages of detailed drawings he made of the runes. He's borrowed several books from others in his village to teach himself the giants' tongue, and he's determined to figure out the significance of the clearly magical script. Until then, he's content to explore and add his observations to the vast library of accumulated gnomish knowledge.
***
Since we're starting at first level, this gave him a way to practice/research and build up to the abilities that will sort of pop into existence when he makes 3rd level. Also, while the giant-magic flavor of this subclass rocks, I wanted the background to kind of describe a way for the magic to exist but not be in wide use (otherwise, why don't more giants actually use it, right?). This way, it's ancient, forgotten, and unearthed by an inquisitive gnome, and his powers will grow as he sorts out more and more of the magic through trial and error and solving the puzzle of the runes.
Excited to see how it turns out!
I was thinking of an extra lazy bugbear who due to events beyond his control developed psionic abilities and decided life would be much easier if he could use his powers to do things and focused on developing them by following the way of the Psi Warrior. He will frequently complain about how much work it actually is and that he regrets his decisions because of it.
Well the Fighter is most certainly an interesting class. You don't have the crutch of magic and it's up to you to to find ways to circumvent or overcome the limitations you have...like every other hero's journey out there.
ECHO KNIGHT: A Shifter who has traveled from his home seeking to discover what wonders there are in the world beyond familiar borders. He received training since a young age in harnessing his Totem Spirit, but unlike most he is able to manifest it physically onto the material plain in the form of an Echo.
PSI WARRIOR: A young Half-Elf reluctantly taken in by their elven parent but with no talent in magic decides to find their own path and worth. After years of study, that young Half-Elf became a powerful warrior in their own right; not by magic but by steel and the untapped potential of psionics.
RUNE KNIGHT: A Scourge Aasimar, garners a steadily growing reputation as a bounty hunter. For all intents and purposes he appears and acts like a regular human sellsword, but unbeknownst to them, he has celestial blood flowing through his veins. But more importantly, and what he keeps close to the chest is that fact that he wields a rare type of magic based on celestial runes of power; whether this was a gift of divine favor or knowledge stolen is a truth only he knows.
im not good with storys but i would be happy to help :)
In God I Trust
Of course you're welcome!
⌜╔═════════════ The Board ══════════════╗⌝
...and started me on my way into my next chapter in life...
⌞╚════════════ Extended Signature ════════════╝⌟
I was thinking, he lives in a kingdom of mostly dragonborn, and there is another kingdom semi-nearby, of giants, that asked for help in stopping an increasing number of attacks from savage dragons. My char decides to help the giants, against his family's wishes, and in turn they teach him some of their ways.
This is just one idea though, and I'm not sure if I want to use it, or something else...
⌜╔═════════════ The Board ══════════════╗⌝
...and started me on my way into my next chapter in life...
⌞╚════════════ Extended Signature ════════════╝⌟
My Rune Knight is a LN Goliath who is a prison warden. He uses the fire rune for the manacles and the…. I don’t have my sheet….the rune that includes charm.
Presently he is out adventuring to find the only prisoner to ever escape….