[Background] The Grave Keeper

Background

I put this together quickly for someone over on r/DNDNext, and thought I'd repost it over here as well. It's not a new idea for a background, but I was kinda proud of it.

Grave Keeper Background:

Mortician, embalmer, keeper of the dead - you are generally the last person to enter someone's life, and the last person someone wants to be around anyway. Although your services to your village are important and surprisingly specialized, people are far happier when they can just pretend that you and your cart don't exist.

Skill Proficiencies: Religion, Stealth
Tool proficiency: One type of artisan's tools
Languages: One of your choice
Equipment: A set of artisan's tools (your choice), a shovel, a religious symbol, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 GP.

Feature: Grave Ghost
Due to your association with the dead, most people would prefer to avoid and ignore you. Common people who see you going about activities that could be believed to be part of your work, such as transporting dead bodies or entering homes, will assume you have a right to be doing whatever you are engaged in, so long as you are not endangering them. In addition, your presence in a cemetery or graveyard, or a church or temple attached to such, will not be questioned, so long as your actions or behavior are respectful.

Suggested Characteristics:
Gravediggers are changed by their association with the dead. They see everyone reduced to their most mortal state, and are aware of the final fate of every living being. They understand the realities of life, but may become jaded towards the living.

d8: Personality Trait
1: I have trouble interacting with the living; I prefer the solitude of the crypt.
2: I have seen how we all end. Death does not scare me.
3: I have learned much about the commonality of all races and faiths, and am eager to share my knowledge.
4: I place no stock in wealth or manners. Money and status will not save you from death.
5: I have a deep reverence for nature and the cycles of life.
6: I keep a token or trophy from every body I bury.
7: I actually have a fantastic, if morbid, sense of humor.
8: I hold conversations with the dead, and sometimes believe I hear them answering me.

d6: Ideal
1: Respect. I believe that all men are equal in death, and deserve respect. (Good)
2: Tradition. Ritual and tradition bind the generations together, and should be preserved (Lawful).
3: Nature. Everything and everyone returns to the dirt in the end; defying nature leads to our own downfall. (Neutral)
4: Preservation. The dead are a resource; I merely preserve them for others to use. (Evil)
5: Community. Someone must do the dirty work for the betterment of all men. (Lawful)
6: Knowledge. Death teaches us many lessons, and we must learn them. (Any)

d6: Bond
1: Dishonoring the dead is a personal insult to me.
2: I visit and maintain a loved one's grave every day.
3: I chose this solitary, lonely lifestyle after my true love rejected me.
4: I used my position to fake someone's death. That person and I must keep each other's secret.
5: I secretly steal bodies to give to a medical school.
6: I took up this job to protect my village from a necromancer. Someday, I will kill him.

d6: Flaw
1: I steal any valuables from the dead before I bury them.
2: I will use my position to cover up crimes.
3: I constantly harbor dark, morbid thoughts that one day, I will no longer be able to control.
4: Death is inevitable; I will not go out of my way to prevent someone else dying.
5: I delight in horrifying people with my presence and stench.
6: I use funerals as an excuse to learn other people's secrets.

Posted Apr 19, 2018, 2:02 AM UTC · edited

11214
Jangness•

Great stuff! I think some sort of common identification item/clothing would help the feature make more sense though. E.g. A black scarf worn around your shoulders is used by common people to identify you as Grave Keeper.

16
C1awedOP•

ooo, I hadn't thought of that. I like that!

5
oldblindbob•

I like the religion part, to me stealth doesn't quite make sense. Medicine would make more sense since it deals with anatomy and such.

6
C1awedOP•

I figured stealth since this was meant to be an "unseen background character" type, and also because that gave one physical proficiency, and one "mental" proficiency.

5
Kanyeschest•

What ever works for you! It’s your homebrew! Just my 2 cents haha

3
C1awedOP•

No worries! Just explaining my logic.

I think there's a lot of room for interpretation with this general idea, and that's why it comes up in different forms. I focused on the "unseen caretaker" aspects of it; but I did think long and hard about medicine. I think you could also make a good case for History as well, or Nature. With some stretching, you might do Athletics (because wrestling dead bodies around is TOUGH) or Perception (smelling rotting corpses, looking for people who disturb graves, keeping an eye out for scavengers).

6
MrCerberus12•

I personally feel that Athletics makes more sense in that case. Generally grave keepers need to be able to lift and carry bodies as well as moving their cart. This is just my idea however.

1
xaafniit•

This is great, would have been really nice for my cleric.

4
Absurdisan•

Love it, great work! I'm thinking a necromancy wizard with this background would be great fun to play - especially if they have Bond option 6 and ended up becoming that which they hated!

2
aeluxx•

Looks fun! Nice job.

2
MrCerberus12•

"Language: Common and one of your choice." Otherwise they will be forced into picking common just so that they can talk to any human.

1
C1awedOP•

Basic languages are already provided by race.

2
MrCerberus12•

I posted that before realizing that is was a background. I feel incredibly stupid now. Sorry mate.

2
Fey_Faunra•

You might want to grant vehicle proficiencies, so he's actually decent at using his cart. Aside from that, this is good stuff.

1