Heritages

You’ve spent your life in the pursuit of knowledge. You have advantage on rolls that involve the history of a prominent person or place. Gain a talent related to academic study. When you Work on a Project that involves studying written material, reduce its countdown by 1.

You’ve lived your life in service to a temple or other religious organization. You have advantage on rolls to perform or understand religious ceremonies. Gain a talent related to your faith. When you reach a temple of your faith, you can request room and board for yourself and your party in exchange for assisting the temple with a minor task.

You are a skilled artisan specializing in a particular kind of crafting—leatherwork, woodworking, smithing, weaving, or jewelry making. Reduce crafting countdown for your specialty by 1 and the amount of basic materials needed to do so by ¼, and you roll with advantage to negotiate prices on crafting material.

Leatherwork

Woodworking

Smithing

Weaving

Jewelry Making

Sometimes you don’t even know who you are anymore, having spent your life weaving elaborate lies, never showing the world your true self. You have advantage on rolls to deceive others while maintaining a false identity, and can forge papers and credentials to create a false identity for yourself or another, countdown 5, that you can work on when you Work on a Project. You can have a number of forged identities equal to your Prowess. Creatures roll with disadvantage to recognize that work as a forgery.

You’re obsessed with cultures other than your own and have studied them extensively. You roll with advantage when trying to understand mores and folkways of a group. Gain a talent related to cultures, customs, or diplomacy. You can take the Work on a Project downtime activity to study the culture of the area you’re currently in, countdown 2. When you complete it, gain +2 ongoing to casual interactions with locals of that culture until you study a different one.

You’ve lived life in the underworld, learning an array of useful, if unscrupulous, skills. You have advantage on rolls to negotiate with criminals or find a safe place to hide. When you arrive in a settlement, you can declare you know someone here from the criminal underworld—a fence, a smuggler, a safehouse keeper, or similar. The GM decides whether they owe you a favor or you owe them one. You can do this once, and recover this use as part of your daily preparations.

You bear a permanent magical affliction—a hereditary blight, a divine punishment, a bargain gone sideways. The curse cannot be removed by any means short of the original casting being undone, and its mark walks with you wherever you go. Choose one manifestation when you take this heritage.

Sunless

You have darkvision, resistance to cold damage, and advantage to hide while in darkness. While in shadow or darkness, you can attempt to Hide even without cover. While in direct sunlight, you mark 1-fatigue at the end of each hour.

Hollow

You don't need to eat, sleep, breathe, or drink. You have advantage on saves to resist becoming charmed or frightened, and magic cannot put you to sleep. You have resistance to necrotic damage, and magical healing on you is halved (round down).

Marked

You bear a visible sigil, giving you advantage on rolls to intimidate or command obedience. You learn one cantrip of your choice from the arcane or divine spell list, casting it with +FOCUS, +POWER, or +CUNNING (chosen when you take this heritage). Creatures that recognize your mark and fear it become hostile on sight, those who revere it offer aid without being asked.

Bound

You are bound to a personal talisman—a ring, a locket, or something similar. While you carry it, you do not age, you have darkvision, and you can spend 1 AP and mark 1-fatigue to become Invisible. You can do this a number of times equal to your Prowess, recovering all spent uses as part of your daily preparations. While Invisible this way, you mark 1-fatigue at the start of every other round. You cannot bring yourself to willingly part with or destroy the talisman; if you ever lose it, you become consumed with retrieving it.

Doomed

A specific death has been foretold for you. You have resistance to the damage type related to said death (chosen when you take this heritage, with GM approval). Sleep brings only visions of your end—you do not need to sleep. The first time per rest you are targeted by an attack or effect of that damage type, or encounter an omen of your foretold death, you must make a Focus saving throw; on a miss you become Frightened of the source for 1 minute, on a weak hit you become slowed until the end of your next turn. When you would die, fate intervenes: you awaken, fully formed, at 1 HP after an hour. Once this happens three times, your death has come due—the next time you die, you cannot be revived by any means.

Haunted

You are followed by the spirit of someone with a close connection to you. You can ask the spirit questions as if you had cast Speak with Dead on it, a number of times equal to your Prowess. Recover all spent uses when you take the Recuperate downtime activity. You have truesight within 20 feet—the spirit shows you what others cannot. When you finish a long rest, you mark 1-fatigue as the spirit's constant chatter keeps you from being fully rested.

You’ve spent your life trekking through and mapping unknown terrain. You roll with advantage when navigating harsh environments or using your survival skills. While traveling overland on foot, your group can forage for supplies at any travel speed.

You grew up working the land and know its rhythms. You roll with advantage when working with domesticated animals. When you spend a minute with a non-hostile Easy-tier beast, it accepts your presence and will not attack you unprovoked. You can take the Work on a Project downtime activity at a plot of land to cultivate it, countdown 20. Once cultivated, when you take the Gather Supplies downtime activity at the plot, gain a number of supplies equal to your Prowess instead of rolling.

You’re recognized for a great deed in your past. By spending 2 AP and marking 3-fatigue, you can make a stirring speech: each ally who can hear or see you becomes Inspired, and any non-hostile commoners in earshot become friendly toward your party for the next hour. You can do this once, and recover this use as part of your daily preparations.

You’ve trained as a healer. You roll with advantage on rolls to treat the sick or injured, or to diagnose an ailment. When you take the Tend Wounds downtime activity to heal another, they clear 1 fatigue.

You’re two small creatures in a trench coat! You appear as a medium creature, and are considered one mechanically, but in reality you’re just a couple of small creatures standing on top of each other, acting as one. You can only take this heritage if your lineage’s size is small and their typical height is between 2-3 feet tall. Your total height as a medium creature must be between 4-6 feet tall.

While you are two physical creatures, you’re treated as one for the purposes of game statistics and mechanics, unless otherwise noted. You can’t equip armor for a medium creature; each of your creatures needs to equip armor separately, and you must wear a trench coat, long robe, or other long covering that obscure your true nature and maintain the illusion you’re a single medium sized creature. But you’re still two creatures! Adopt a quirk around how your two creatures interact with each other; maybe you’re always whispering to yourself in two slightly different voices, maybe you’re lightly kicking and punching each other to get the other to do what they want. Whatever the quirk is, it should be noticeable, but subtle. Gain the in a trenchcoat talent. If a creature attempts to discover your true nature while you’re trying to hide it, they must make a focus saving throw against a skill check you make using your in a trenchcoat talent; on a weak hit they notice something weird and gain +2 ongoing to discerning your true nature, on a strong hit they notice you are, in fact, just 2 small creatures in a trench coat.

On your turn, you can spend 1 AP to separate; if you do each creature gets ½ of your current HP, and any conditions applied (this does not change their duration) and can only be healed up to a maximum of ½ of your maximum HP. They share the same fatigue and exhaustion tracks. When split, each creature only has the equipment they were carrying. They share any remaining AP this round, and on subsequent rounds they take their turn together, sharing a single total pool of AP.

If one hits 0 HP but doesn’t outright die, the other can’t take any actions other than moving to their partner and getting them back together as a single creature, which takes 1 AP and immediately ends your turn. When you come back together, your HP equals the HP of each creature combined, and conditions that either creature has you now have. During this time, the partner at 0 HP makes death saving throws as normal, and if it dies, your maximum HP is cut in half and you lose all bonuses and abilities from this heritage until your partner is resurrected. If your partner is unconscious, you cannot split again until you’ve finished a short or long rest.

You’re accustomed to a life of privilege within the upper echelons of society. You have advantage on rolls to consort with nobles or command deference from those beneath your station. Gain a talent related to the nobility.

You make your living entertaining others, giving you advantage on rolls when you do so. When you take the Clear Fatigue downtime activity, you can perform for your party—each ally within earshot clears 1 additional fatigue.

You’ve been blessed with a natural gift and have worked to hone it. Gain two talents, and gain expertise in one of them.

Your soul has lived before, and fragments of past lives surface when you need them. At character creation, choose a number of common heritages equal to your Prowess + 1; these are your past lives. Two are active at any time, granting all their benefits and consequences as if you had taken them. As part of your daily preparations, you can swap one active past life for another from your pool; doing so marks 1-exhaustion that you cannot clear except by taking the Recuperate downtime activity. Whenever your Prowess increases, you discover another past life and add it to your pool. Your soul is split across many selves—you have disadvantage on saving throws to resist becoming charmed.

Few have sailed as widely as you. You recognize a port from its coastline or skyline, and know its main trade. You can take the Work on a Project downtime activity to chart a course to a place you’ve heard of, countdown 2. When you complete it, you learn its direction and approximate distance from your current location. You roll with advantage when sailing.

You’ve lived a life of military discipline, and are ready to defend those around you. You gain proficiency in two weapons of your choice, with mastery in one of them, and roll with advantage when convincing law enforcement of your take of events. When you take the Prepare downtime activity, you hold 2-prepared no matter how many party members prepare with you.

Because you’ve spent your life wandering from place to place, never settling down, you’ve picked up a knack for always having the right item on you. Add a Wanderer’s Pack to your inventory—when you use Retrieve Item from the pack, you can pull out a mundane item that’s useful for your current situation. Work with your GM to figure out what item you have taken out. You can do this a number of times equal to your Prowess, and recover all spent uses as part of your daily preparations.