Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Sage

Salutations, nerds! I’ve arrived at the Sage background for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons at last and let me tell you there is very little I enjoy more than super nerdy characters. Let’s crack in and dig up some scholarly traits that might suit your next 5E D&D character!

Fluff like 5E D&D background characteristics is the game too

From the 5E D&D Basic Rules: Fleshing out your character’s personality — the array of traits, mannerisms, habits, beliefs, and flaws that give a person a unique identity — will help you bring him or her to life as you play the game. Four categories of characteristics are presented here: personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Beyond those categories, think about your character’s favorite words or phrases, tics and habitual gestures, vices and pet peeves, and whatever else you can imagine.

Technically inspiration in 5E D&D is presented as a rule Dungeon Masters can use as a reward for players who remain true to their characteristics. Even though these characteristics don’t include mechanical benefits along the same lines as most class features these components of characters are still a part of the game with implications during play.

“If you’ve got a copy of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden you’ll find a whole bunch of character hooks and secrets in the introduction to inspire your characters’ motivation. Likewise resources like the Heroic Chronical in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and This Is Your Life sections in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything can really help develop fun and intriguing ideas for motivation of your adventurers.“ — 5 Sources of Motivation for 5E D&D Adventurers

d8 — Personality Traits

1. If something I know about comes up I just can’t help launching into a treatise of facts about the thing.
2. There’s something to be learned from everyone and I am going to try to learn it.
3. I’m hesitant to discuss my research as I’ve had it stolen before.
4. I have a lot of questions and trouble filtering how many come out at once.
5. If you tell me you like my shoes I will inform you they are not for sale.
6. My clothes are often wrinkled from sleeping in them after all night research, or covered in animal hair from my familiar (or someone else’s).
7. No one else can find anything in my bags but I know where everything is. If you tried to clean them I would be lost.
8. I have a metaphor or anecdote touching back on my field of research for every situation.

d6 — Ideal

1. Accumulation. I will add to the world’s knowledge and push us further than we have ever been. (Any)
2. Innovation. The point of knowing more is to make life easier on other people. (Good)
3. Truth. One should be able to be flexible when new information comes out. Tradition does not truth make. (Good)
4. Learning. I should not be the smartest person in the room. It’s impossible to improve this way. (Any)
5. Erudition. I always want to be the smartest person in the room and if I’m not I’ll work until I am. (Any)
6. Teaching. Some people just want to watch the world learn. Information should be available to everyone freely. (Good)

d6 — Bond

1. I was an esoteric advisor to a noble family for years before a curse fell upon one of them. Now I travel to find a way to break it.
2. Something I cared about was taken from this world and I seek a way to traverse the planes to get it back.
3. Someone I thought I was close to stole my research and ran with it. I plan to track them down and get it back.
4. I have a portion of a manuscript tattooed on my inner arm. I’ve been able to translate precious little of it.
5. There’s a historical figure I’ve applied myself to studying and I thirst for any information about them I can get my hands on.
6. I’m trying to recruit students for the university where I studied.

d6 — Flaw

1. If I can’t pick between books to take with me the answer is always both, and in the moment I tend to forget how heavy books can be.
2. I’m easily offended and sulk if not being treated like the smartest person in the room.
3. I correct people’s grammar and syntax and believe this is a virtue.
4. If my surroundings are uncomfortable or chaotic it is impossible for me to get anything finished.
5. I have trouble sticking to one area of study and am easily distracted to another one.
6. Academic life is relatively stable so when things go slightly wrong in the wild I tend to panic.

For me, at least the suggested features in the book are always incredibly inspiring so hopefully you found something in all of this that’s inspired you as well. Let us know in the comments, connecting with us on Facebook or tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Feel free to comment or tweet me @Pyrosynthesis too and of course, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — Sage is one of the background options for characters found in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook. A recent expansion for Magic: The Gathering and upcoming release for 5E D&D matriculates to Strixhaven, a university dedicated to the study of magic. This Cram Session represents the set’s Learn and Lesson keywords, which captures what a sage does wonderfully. A 5E D&D player can get a lot of mileage from the MTG multiverse. For example Theros is one of the MTG settings officially represented in 5E D&D, which we’ve explored quite a lot not to mention the free Plane Shift supplements. There’s also Curriculum of Chaos, the Strixhaven book we shared lots of details about after attending a press briefing. [Art by Marta Nael]

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