I was my clan’s artisan, making any gadgets they need in a matter of hours. In a moment of poor planning they decided to send me on a raid and I got lost due to my terrible sense of direction. I now wander the world looking for my Clan and a way to take my mind off the loneliness.

Any race, artificer.

Guild Artisan Background

The illegitimate child of the village outcast, we put up with the abuse and harassment until my sorcery manifested and I destroyed the village on accident. With my mother safely hidden in the city, I have set out to find my father in search of answers. I hope the answers I get are less terrifying than the secrets I learned of my mother's family.

Half elf, any sorcerer

Me not so smrt, but me big and strong and good at hittin’ stuffs, and my gods like me, so I like to hit stuffs for my gods. By big bruddah said dis good, and I like to make my bruddah happy, so I fink is good too. Now I just need to find stuffs my gods don’t like sose I can hit ‘em.

(Any race, almost any background, barbarian/fighter/paladin or maybe cleric, low Intelligence)

I think it would be awesome to play a character like that with high intelligence.

but a penalty to perception.

And since it is this thread:

I was raised in a small village in the foothills of the eastern mountains, the sort where everyone is always in everyone else's business and the Clan's not too big. We have to go out to find a spouse, because most of us are related, and the Clan elders say that's not good for some reason, but I don't really care about that. I just want to see the world, and I see so many people with dark pasts while mine was happy and fun -- this next hill hides the town I am going to make a name for myself in, and I can't wait to make new friends!

I have been branded an oathbreaker, it all started when I swore an oath to hunt down the corrupt merchants and their soldiers who attacked me and left my unconscious body in the river. Before that I was an honest member of the city watch, after that day I was a force of vengenace hunting those that were involved in that day. Not long ago I found out my neighbours child was responsible for telling the merchants where I was on that day, my oath demanded vengenace, but I refused and now I am an oathbreaker.

*Probably not an Oath of vengenace Paladin turned Oathbreaker paladin but a fighter whose had a change of heart.

I was a high ranking artificer in the army who supplied soldiers with all sorts of wonderful war-like gadgets. Things started to go south when my tech started to fall apart when it was needed in the field but I never make those mistakes... never! I'm sure those nasty little gremlins sabotaged my machinery but I've been discharged and now I am trying to find uses for my gadgets which are still being messed with by those darn gremlins!

(Part four of four. Part 1 HERE. Part 2 HERE. Part 3 HERE.)

“I was surprised when I woke up several days later, even though I was bizarrely behind bars once again. A few hours into my new monotonous and torturous life, I was approached by the current president of Vasug: The Wizard Malia who had gone from a murderess to a hero after redeeming herself by fighting for the city. She recognized my sorcerous talents and was willing to pardon me if I fought ‘bad guys’ and criminals for her; Obviously, I accepted because who can refuse glory, the opportunity to take other nations' gold, and a little bit of arson?”

I have seen the sixty seasons the Stone Man said should be, I have been marked and stood beneath the Sun's Test, I have been blessed and sat before the elders. A great evil is coming they have said, and I must go forth and find the Four Foretold with whom I shall stand and face this horror, to defend my people and fulfill my purpose. I am They Who Stand Beside, and I seek a Fox, a Bear, an Owl, and a Mockingbird -- for they are whom I shall stand beside at the Doom of the World.

I climbed the ten thousand steps of the monastery in the mountain to beseech the old abbot to teach me his wisdom and his ways.  Once there, the old man agreed to take me as his student and impart on me his techniques, and my new sifu taught me my first lesson, that if I could dodge a wrench, I could dodge a ball.  I don't recall much of what happened after that, but apparently I'm an adventurer now?

Imma delver, see, I follows the legends and the myths, I dig in the darks and the deeps, doin my thing so's I can bring it all back and hae it be made purdy and get me some nice shiny purdies of mah own in return.

Mah last site, after t'ree months a movin' and diggin' and huntin' and siftin', we finally made it t'where the old man had said it would be, and sure 'nuff it was -- in a deep pit where the bottom glowed as bright as day, and we could see all t'purdies and fancies a-glitterin' and goldin'.

An t're furlong o' clear, cold watah onna top.

I always liked tinkerin’ wit’ stuff, and puttin’ togethah strange ‘trapshuns an’ stuff, but my clan didn’t ‘preciate ‘em, not even when dey helped us win battles an’ stuff. So I sets out ta find my own ways in ta world, and earn my face rings an’ ear notches on my own, an’ I fells inta fings wit’ dis hear group’a ad-venchurahs, ‘cause deys be ‘preciatin’ my ‘trapshuns. Now I’ma get gold, an’ ear notches, an’ all’a ladies gonna want me, an’ my ol’ clan mates can suck it!!

(Goblin, Soldier Background, Artificer)

This my teacher said to me on the day I began training: "Know this, little one; I will kill you.

I will do it for neither cause nor purpose nor because I have said I will; I will do it because it is to be done, and I am the one who shall do it.

Train hard, little one, train hard."

I took employment working on a farm and one day found a sword stuck in the ground bathed in a luminous shaft of sunlight that broke through the otherwise overcast sky. No sooner had I picked it up than the world was bathed in red and I was taken by a muderous rage that saw me slay my co-workers. Eventually I regained my senses and cried out for aid and was answered by the sword, it would give me power and strength if only I bath it in blood once per full moon and to my everlasting shame I agreed.

*Hexblade Warlock or a Berseker Barbarian that thinks they're sword is talking to them or a combination of both? You decide.

My name is Heymadood Thatfellow although I think I had another name once, you see, I woke up in the gutter of a city with no memory of who I was or how I got there but people ssem to know me and would call out "Heymadood!" when they saw mee or ask if I was "Thatfgellow from the tavern?". I found the tavern everyone thought I was from and discovered I was some sort of performer and they handed me a instrument that I can apprently play. It turns out I can play it quite well, its just a shame I cannot recall my past.

*Entertainer or Bard with amnesia.

I never wanted to be an outlaw, I just couldn’t stand by and watch injustice run rampant in my city, so one day I decided to do something about it. Soon I was labeled a vigilante and a criminal, and was forced to run for my life or become the reason the hangman got a new pair of boots. Now I’m looking for a good crew of likeminded folks who can help me so that one day we can return to my city and root out the  rot and corruption once and for all.

I was created for death and destruction, though I preferred to creating. When The Mourning happened and the war ended I found myself adrift with no purpose until I discovered adventuring. Now I seek to find out what it is I want to be.

Warforged artificer

I spent my entire apprenticeship planning to be a Merchant -- I learned the languages of the lands I would pass through, I learned to write and to keep records, I learned to bargain and persuade, I learned to cajole and to cash out.

I did not learn to drive a team at speed in flight from a bunch of bandits, nor did I learn to do more than perhaps defend myself against a just as unskilled sword fighter, nor did I learn that just because I knew it had value, that others would want to take it or just plain ruin it because they also did or did not.

As I lie here, bleeding out from an arrow in my shoulder, I am thinking that perhaps I need to change my apprenticeship, as I am too young to die here in the middle of nowhere, lying still to avoid being killed as I stare at a bolt of fabric bloodstained and blowing in the wind that could have fed my family for a year.

When the machine opened and the light came in my eyes burned, that was my first memory. My creator taught me languages, skills, and other proficiencies, including the ways of weapons. Now that my creator is dead I have set out to use the skills they taught me to make my place in the world.

We locked eyes. Me, a runaway, and her, a magicless mage. Through some stroke of luck, we became fast friends, sisters even. 

Big adventures don’t usually include small folks like me, yet here I am, setting my steps on the path toward the biggest adventure of my life. At home in my small corner of the big city, I always dreamed of grand adventures, but didn’t really expect to ever go on one. Now that I’ve finished my training I’m anxious to be on my way on the road to adventure.

(any small race, almost any background, pretty much any class)