So I'm about to make an AT for an upcoming Storm King's Thunder campaign and I want to homebrew my background somewhat. I want my character to be a treasure/relic hunter and wanted to get some thoughts or ideas (also on my build too).
My character's backstory is that he tried to steal from a dragon's horde. Specifically the ancient red dragon Klauth (DMs idea with the dragon). Klauth spared him recognising his talents and gave him an offer he literally couldn't refuse. Knowing Klauth would probably kill him, my character agreed to become one his 'agents' and would be sent off to acquire magic items and relics etc. In addition to that Klauth would teach him a little magic to help augment his abilities. I don't know Klauth's true intentions but should be some fun RP. Especially with the party, my DM hasn't decided whether or not to tell the party yet. I don't see my character being a petty thief, rather someone who explores dungeons, disarms traps and hunts legendary artifacts. Presumably many of giant kind.
We are starting at level 5. My AT will be a high elf and I plan to take the magic initiate as my first level feat (house rule). This seems fitting as he is learning some magic from Klauth. Also I like the versatility in being able to use a variety of cantrips. What other feats would you recommend? So far the cantrips I've picked are:
Mage hand, minor illusion, booming blade, greenflame blade, message and prestidigitation (not 100% on this one yet).
For my spells I've picked: find familiar (magic initiate), silent image, tashas hideous laughter, disguise self and detect magic (we don't have a wiz etc in the party and i thought it would be thematic for identifying magical traps and items etc).
As for the treasure hunter background I thought about choosing investigation and arcana as the two skills proficiencies. Tool proficiency I picked climbers kit. And I decided to skip the language in favour of being able to recognise a few characters or words from a variety of languages. This comes down to being able to identify who these relics or dungeons belonged to and possibly gaining a bonus to investigation in understanding who built these traps etc and what to look out for. Not sure if this is over powered or not. I'm not too sure about the background feature as yet. Very happy to see what you think.
Sounds like a fun character concept! Focusing in on the background, it sounds almost exactly like the Archeologist background feature (which comes with Tomb of Annihilation). That background gives the history and survival skills, but what you picked is apt for a character with a more magical background. The feature of that background is as follows:
Feature: Historical Knowledge
When you enter a ruin or dungeon, you can correctly ascertain its original purpose and determine its builders, whether those were dwarves, elves, humans, yuan-ti, or some other known race. In addition, you can determine the monetary value of art objects more than a century old.
Being able to identify structures and relics is definitely in a treasure hunter's wheelhouse. The main difference is that your homebrew feature gives you more insight on traps, rather than art objects/treasure. I don't know if I'd build in a set bonus to investigation. Instead, as DM, I would set the DC of any checks you make appropriate for your character's level of knowledge (vs, say, a party member with the gladiator background).
If you're really set on detecting traps, the Dungeon Delver feat may be for you, though it lacks versatility like Magic Initiate, especially if you're not actually in dungeons most of the time. Since Magic Initiate allows you to cast a 1st level spell without expending a spell slot (but still expending material components), I might suggest switching Find Familiar with something you might need to cast every day like Detect Magic. AT can't ritual cast without the feat (and you learn few enough spells it's probably not worth it) so having Detect Magic handy for "free" is always nice.
Climber's kit isn't a proficiency, anyone can use it. I suggest taking a look at the expanded uses for tools in xanathar's guide. Besides the obvious disguise, forgery, and poison that are common for rogues, jewelers kit helps identifying precious stones, calligraphy helps with ancient writing, Mason helps with ancient structures, etc.
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So I'm about to make an AT for an upcoming Storm King's Thunder campaign and I want to homebrew my background somewhat. I want my character to be a treasure/relic hunter and wanted to get some thoughts or ideas (also on my build too).
My character's backstory is that he tried to steal from a dragon's horde. Specifically the ancient red dragon Klauth (DMs idea with the dragon). Klauth spared him recognising his talents and gave him an offer he literally couldn't refuse. Knowing Klauth would probably kill him, my character agreed to become one his 'agents' and would be sent off to acquire magic items and relics etc. In addition to that Klauth would teach him a little magic to help augment his abilities. I don't know Klauth's true intentions but should be some fun RP. Especially with the party, my DM hasn't decided whether or not to tell the party yet. I don't see my character being a petty thief, rather someone who explores dungeons, disarms traps and hunts legendary artifacts. Presumably many of giant kind.
We are starting at level 5. My AT will be a high elf and I plan to take the magic initiate as my first level feat (house rule). This seems fitting as he is learning some magic from Klauth. Also I like the versatility in being able to use a variety of cantrips. What other feats would you recommend? So far the cantrips I've picked are:
Mage hand, minor illusion, booming blade, greenflame blade, message and prestidigitation (not 100% on this one yet).
For my spells I've picked: find familiar (magic initiate), silent image, tashas hideous laughter, disguise self and detect magic (we don't have a wiz etc in the party and i thought it would be thematic for identifying magical traps and items etc).
As for the treasure hunter background I thought about choosing investigation and arcana as the two skills proficiencies. Tool proficiency I picked climbers kit. And I decided to skip the language in favour of being able to recognise a few characters or words from a variety of languages. This comes down to being able to identify who these relics or dungeons belonged to and possibly gaining a bonus to investigation in understanding who built these traps etc and what to look out for. Not sure if this is over powered or not. I'm not too sure about the background feature as yet. Very happy to see what you think.
Sounds like a fun character concept! Focusing in on the background, it sounds almost exactly like the Archeologist background feature (which comes with Tomb of Annihilation). That background gives the history and survival skills, but what you picked is apt for a character with a more magical background. The feature of that background is as follows:
Being able to identify structures and relics is definitely in a treasure hunter's wheelhouse. The main difference is that your homebrew feature gives you more insight on traps, rather than art objects/treasure. I don't know if I'd build in a set bonus to investigation. Instead, as DM, I would set the DC of any checks you make appropriate for your character's level of knowledge (vs, say, a party member with the gladiator background).
If you're really set on detecting traps, the Dungeon Delver feat may be for you, though it lacks versatility like Magic Initiate, especially if you're not actually in dungeons most of the time. Since Magic Initiate allows you to cast a 1st level spell without expending a spell slot (but still expending material components), I might suggest switching Find Familiar with something you might need to cast every day like Detect Magic. AT can't ritual cast without the feat (and you learn few enough spells it's probably not worth it) so having Detect Magic handy for "free" is always nice.
Climber's kit isn't a proficiency, anyone can use it. I suggest taking a look at the expanded uses for tools in xanathar's guide. Besides the obvious disguise, forgery, and poison that are common for rogues, jewelers kit helps identifying precious stones, calligraphy helps with ancient writing, Mason helps with ancient structures, etc.