Talents (5A)

This is a work in progress.

Talents are a weaker version of feats, worth perhaps half a half-feat or one-third of a full feat. Many are similar to the abilities granted by backgrounds and might even be substituted for background abilities. Most talents are based on a skill, and give some additional utility to that skill.

The DM can veto talents choices that do not make sense.

Alternate Talent Allowances

Proficency Bonus

You can choose a number of talents equal to your Proficiency Bonus. One of these is the ability given by your background - or a replacement with the background tag. This means that all player characters start with two talents (one from background and one other) at level 1, gaining and additional talent at level 5, 9, 13, and 17. Classes that do not cast spells (even if they gain spells from a subclass) as well as the bard and ranger gain an additional talent at class level 2, 4, 12, and 19.

Half Proficency Bonus

You can choose a number of talents equal to half your Proficiency Bonus. This means that all player characters start with a talent at level 1 and gain a further talent at character level 9 and 17. Classes that do not cast spells (even if they gain spells from a subclass) as well as the bard and ranger gain an additional talent at class level 5 and 13.

Talent Rules

When a talent talks of being contested or opposed, you can either roll the opposing skill and use that as the DC, or use a DC of 10 + the opposing skill's bonus. Talents do not apply to each other. If one talent calls for a Charisma (Persuasion) check and another talent gives advantage on such checks, they cannot be used together, either you use the effect that calls for a check or you use the advantage on a non-talent Charisma (Persuasion) check.

Opportunities and Worries

The idea is to give characters talents in addition to other rewards, perhaps at level 1 and every 3 levels or something of that order, with rogues and bards perhaps gaining additional talents to maintain their focus on skills. All of these should be related to stunts anyone can do, see Skill Examples.

Potential pitfalls.

Talents can work like splatbook abilities, creating further barriers to competence. You don't really know a skill until you have one or two talents expanding the uses of that skill.
Talents can bloat the very slim framework of 5E, introducing clutter that complicates the game to little profit.
The #Professional Skill! talent and others might be too good. I use "!" to mark talents I consider dangerous balance-wise.

Strength

Athletics

Brawler!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No

When you hit with your Unarmed Strike and deal damage, you can deal Bludgeoning Damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal damage of an Unarmed Strike.

Brawny

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No

You count as if you were one size larger for the purpose of determining your carrying capacity, which doubles the amount of weight you can handle.

Burly

5th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No

You count as if you were one size larger for the purpose who you can overrun, grapple, or shove.

Echoes of Victory

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No Background

You have advanatage on Strength (Athletics) checks relating to sports and competitions.

You are a famous athlete and have attracted admiration among spectators, fellow athletes, and trainers. You can use Strength (Athletics) as if it was Charisma (Persuasion) to find someone who admires you and is willing to provide information and temporary shelter. Between adventures, you can compete in athletic events sufficient to maintain a comfortable lifestyle and with time and resources to practice your athleticism.

Pack Rat

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No

You have a tendency to pick stuff up and keep it around for no clear reason, and to show it off just when it is needed. You can take an action to "find" an item in your pack even if you don't have it on your equipment list. Such an item must be reasonably common in the area. It can weight a number of pounds and cost a number of gold pieces up to your Strength times your proficiency bonus in Athletics. When you "find" an item like this, you immediately pay its cost as if you bought it. You can use this ability only once, regaining the ability at the end of a long or short rest.

Rustic Hospitality

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No Background

Since you come from the ranks of the common folk, you fit in among them with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among other commoners, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them. They will tell you anything they know, including all public events, and shield you from the law or anyone else searching for you, though they will not risk their lives for you.

You can use Strength (Athletics) as if it was Charisma (Persuasion) to impress commoners, make yourself popular at fairs, and the like.

Water-lover

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Athletics Repeatable: No

You have advantage on Athletics checks to swim and on Constitution saves to swim a long time or hold your breath.

Dexterity

Acrobatics

Dancer

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Acrobatics Repeatable: No Background

Dance is the art of bodily expression, to convey meaning through stance, posture, and movement. A dancer can accompany himself using the shuffling of feet or with instruments such as tambourines and castanets, but a dance performance is often supported by a musician. You do not need this talent in order to take part in public dancing, but stage dancing or leading a public dance allows you to use Dexterity (Acrobatics) as if it was Charisma (Perform) for this specific art form.

Dancer lets you make up for your lack of skill in Performance. If you are skilled in both Acrobatics and Performance you don't need this talent to dance professionally.

Gymnastic Performer

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Acrobatics Repeatable: No Background

You are a famous gymnast and have attracted admiration among spectators, fellow gymnasts, and trainers. You can use Dexterity (Acrobatics) as if it was Charisma (Persuasion) to find someone there who admires you and is willing to provide information and temporary shelter. Between adventures, you can compete in gymnastic events sufficient to maintain a modest lifestyle and with time and resources to practice your gymnastics.

Light Feet

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Acrobatics Repeatable: No

The distance you can jump is based on your Dexterity instead of your Strength. You can stand up from prone by expending 5 feet of movement.

Rigging Monkey

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Acrobatics Repeatable: No Background

You have advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks to maneuver on decks and in rigging.

When you need to, you can secure free working passage on a sailing ship for yourself and your adventuring companions. You might sail on the ship you served on, or another ship you have good relations with (perhaps one captained by a former crew-mate) or just show off your skills to gain employment. You can't be certain of a schedule or route that will meet your every need, your DM will determine how long it takes to get where you need to go. In return for your free passage, you are expected to work the rigging and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage.

Spacer

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Acrobatics Repeatable: No Background

You learned how to adapt to zero gravity. Being weightless doesn’t give you any disadvantage.

Tumbler!

9th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Acrobatics Repeatable: No

As a bonus action while wearing no armor or light armor, you can move by balancing, flips, wheeling, and somersaults until the end of your current turn. Creatures and difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement until the end of the current turn. Terrain that fills its entire space, like mud brush, tall grass, or water, cannot be avoided this way unless there are stable spots in each 5 foot space you can stand on.

Sleight of Hand

Fake Magic

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Sleight of Hand Repeatable: No Background

Anyone skilled in sleight of Hand can do stage magic, and you have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) to do conjuring tricks.

You can convince people you can cast actual spells even when you are not. Choose a spell you want to pretend to cast and make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check with a DC of 8 + spell level. Observers can contest this with Intelligence (Investigation). You can fool people into believing you cast subtle spells, including most divination and enchantment spells. You cannot fake most spell effects, but you may be able to simulate cantrips using pyrotechnics and legerdemain.

Magic Signature

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Sleight of Hand Repeatable: No

Benefit: There is something special about the way you use magic. Choose one visual effect for your powers; this can be something like flaming skulls, psychic shock waves, or celestial light. This is a cosmetic effect and does not change what the spell actually does, but it makes your power-use distinctive and harder to analyze. It takes an Arcana check to identify your spells, which makes Counterspell more of a gamble. You can avoid showing your Magic Signature until the end of your current turn as a bonus action. It is possible to fake your power signature, so it is not enough to count as evidence against you.

Petty Crook

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Sleight of Hand Repeatable: No Background

You know a lot of people living on the fringes of society; pickpockets, beggars, street urchins, street performers, sex workers and others who may or may not be criminals but who are certainly looked down on. You always know the latest word on the street and can hire others for silver pieces to provide a distraction, tail a mark, deliver messages, or survey a location. If you are down on your luck these people are willing to take some risks to give you aid and shelter, tough you are expected to pay in gold or return the favor.

Quick-Fingered

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Sleight of Hand Repeatable: No Background

You can make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to plant something on someone else, conceal an object on a creature, lift a purse, or take something from a pocket as a bonus action. These stunts normally require an action. Outside of combat rounds, this gives you advantage on Dexterity (Sleightof Hand) checks to pick pockets and plant objects. Working as a pickpocket provide only a poor lifestyle. Earning more requires taking risks that are more appropriate in play.

Rope Mastery

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Sleight of Hand Repeatable: No

You have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks to throw ropes and tie knots quickly and precisely including checks to bind helpless opponents or to escape bonds and can do so without attracting undue attention. You can throw a rope as if it had a grappling hook and climb a rope as if it was a rope ladder. You can impress and amuse with a display of knots or escape artistry.

Stealth

Convict

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No Background

You have been held prisoner. The knowledge gained during your incarceration lets you gain insight into local guards and jailers. You know which will accept bribes, or look the other way for you. You can also seek shelter for yourself from authorities and quickly establish a rapport with prisoners and ex-cons.

Drifter

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No

You spend a lot of time loitering, and have a tendency to just happen to be there when something important happens. Any time another character is alone and needs help, you can show up if it's at all plausible. Even in non-dangerous scenes you have a tendency to just be there, but in this situation the other player's and DM has a veto and can refuse your intervention.

Ear to the Ground

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No

You have a knack for eavesdropping to hear interesting information. You can use Dexterity (Stealth) to gather information.

Furtive!

9th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No

While hidden using Stealth, you have the protection of Nondetection. This is not magic but a product of your natural furtiveness.

Smuggler

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No Background

You are acquainted with a network of smugglers who are willing to help you out of tight situations. Working as a smuggler can provide you with a moderate lifestyle. While in a town, city, or near an important border, you and your companions can stay for free in safe houses. Safe houses provide a poor lifestyle. While staying at a safe house, you can choose to keep your presence (and that of your companions) a secret.

You can call on your contacts within the smuggling community to secure secret passage into or out of communities for yourself and your adventuring companions, no questions asked and no entanglements. You can’t be certain they will be able to help on your timetable.

Sneaky!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No

As an action when you are hidden, you can move up to 10 feet without having to make a Stealth check if you end the move in a position where you’re not clearly visible.

Social Invisibility

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No Background

You perfected the art of avoiding notice and never drawing attention. When someone first meets you, they later struggle to recall your appearance, your voice, or anything significant about you. Likewise, you blend into a crowd, making it difficult for pursuers to identify you. You can use Dextrity (Stealth) contest Investigation, Perception, and Persuasion checks to find information about you based on your physical description.

Underground Railway

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Stealth Repeatable: No Background

There are secret havens for escaped slaves in and around regions where slavery exist. As an exemplar of the abolitionist movement, you are greeted as a hero in such places. You know how to find these places even when they are hidden. You will be offered simple room and board and told all the latest rumors, but you may also be asked to help out.

Intelligence

Arcana

Alien Contact

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No Background

You are in contact with something utterly alien, usually an aberration, but possibly a monstrosity, ooze, or alien humanoid. You have a means to contact to or at least listen to communication with your alien. This can be mental communication, a physical phenomen like northern lights, a magic device or spell, or some alien technological device. Whatever option you are using, it takes time and concentration to make contact. During a long rest, you or the DM can decide that you communicate with a creature of the netherworld. Select a creature or determine the creature by rolling on the Alien Contact table. This can be the same creature each time or a random creature each time. The contact is mind-boggling but not immediately harmful, and the contact might bring you rumors or information, at the DM's discretion. Such conversations are always conducted in a language you can understand, even if the Alien Contact normally can't speak that language.

Alien Contact (d6)

Awakened ooze (an ooze that has had the Awaken spell cast on it)
Gibbering mouther
Flumph
Grell
Mind flayer
Aboleth

Arcane Initiate

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You have learned the basics of a particular magical tradition. Choose one Spell list: Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock.You gain the following benefits related to that choice:

Two Cantrips. You learn two cantrips of your choice from the selected Spell list.
1st-Level Spell. Choose one 1st-level Spell from the Spell list. You always have that Spell prepared. You can cast it once without a Spell Slot, and you regain the ability to cast it in that way when you finish a Long Rest.You can also cast the Spell using any Spell Slots you have. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these Spells. Whenever you gain a new level, you can replace one of the Spells you chose for this Talent with a different Spell of the same level from the chosen Spell list.

Arcane Network

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No Background

Commoners and nobility alike might seek you out as a expert on arcane magic with extensive contacts. Working as an arcane fixer can provide you with a comfortable lifestyle. Whether you possess arcane talents or not, you have professional cachet among arcane spellcasters. You know how to behave around magicians and can request favors, such as advice on magical problems, research concerning magic items and relics, and translation of sigils and runes. If you ask an extensive favor, however, you must repay it in a reasonable time or risk alienating your peers. You have advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) checks about the lore of arcane spells and arcane spellcasters.

Arcane Student

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You have learned the basics of a particular magical tradition. Choose one Spell list: Artificier or Wizard.You gain the following benefits related to that choice:

Two Cantrips. You learn two cantrips of your choice from the Spell list.
1st-Level Spell. Choose one 1st-level Spell from the Spell list. You always have that Spell prepared. You can cast it once without a Spell Slot, and you regain the ability to cast it in that way when you finish a Long Rest.You can also cast the Spell using any Spell Slots you have. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these Spells. Whenever you gain a new level, you can replace one of the Spells you chose for this Talent with a different Spell of the same level from the chosen Spell list.

Arcanist

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You learn the Prestidigitation and Detect Magic spells. You always have these spells prepared and can cast Detect Magic three times without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.

Magic Touch

5th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You learn the Detect Magic spell and this spell is always prepared. You can cast Detect Magic at will, but when you do so it only detects magic on a single object or creature that you touch.

Monster Master

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You automatically identify monsters of the Aberration, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Ooze, Celestial, Construct, and Undead types without having to take any action or make a skill check, as if you scored a minimal success on a lore check. You have advantage on further Intelligence checks to remember facts about such creatures.

Shadow Network

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You to communicate over long distances with others who also have this ability. If you write a letter in special arcane ink, address it to another member, and cast it into a fire, the letter will burn to cinders and materialize whole again on the person you addressed it to as long as they too have this ability. The ink used to send a letter across the shadow network is the same as that used by a wizard to scribe spells in a spellbook. Writing a letter in this ink costs 10gp per page or 1gp for a few sentences.

Sign of the Supernatural

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

You suffer some kind of handicap, which is seen as being touched by the supernatural. You gain both advantages and disadvantages from this sign. See Signs of the Supernatural.

Strange Sign

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No

There is something that sets you apart from others. Select one Strange Sign.

History

Anthropologist

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No

You automatically identify monsters of the Dragon, Giant, and Humanoid types without having to take any action or make a skill check, as if you scored a minimal success on a lore check. You have advantage on further Intelligence checks to remember facts about such creatures.

Archeologist

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

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 or culture. In addition, you know the monetary value of mundane objects more than a century old.

Architect

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

You understand geometry and design, making plans used to build houses, gardens, bridges, fortifications and other large-scale projects. It is generally impossible to make a large building (more than 30 feet tall or 150 feet in its longest dimension) without the help of an architect. During a short break, you can make a rough draft of a map of an indoor area you have seen, and can find empty space that is a possible location of hidden doors or chambers.

Bureaucrat

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

A bureaucrat understands the nuisances of civilian administration and can balance a budget, keep a bureaucracy running, resolve conflicts, act as a judge, and serve as an administrator. Your knowledge of how bureaucracies function lets you gain access to the records and inner workings of any noble court or government you encounter. You know who the movers and shakers are, whom to go to for the favors you seek, and what the current intrigues of interest in the group are.

Inheritance

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

Choose or randomly determine your inheritance from among the possibilities in the table below. Work with your DM to come up with details: Why is your inheritance so important, and what is its full story? You might prefer for the DM to invent these details as part of the game, allowing you to learn more about your inheritance as your character does. The DM is free to use your inheritance as a story hook, sending you on quests to learn more about its history or true nature, or confronting you with foes who want to claim it for themselves or prevent you from learning what you seek. The DM also determines the properties of your inheritance and how they figure into the item's history and importance. For instance, the object might be a minor magic item, or one that begins with a modest ability and increases in potency with the passage of time. Or, the true nature of your inheritance might not be apparent at first and is revealed only when certain conditions are met. When you begin your adventuring career, you can decide whether to tell your companions about your inheritance right away. Rather than attracting attention to yourself, you might want to keep your inheritance a secret until you learn more about what it means to you and what it can do for you.

Inheritance (d6)

A document such as a map, a letter, or a journal
A trinket
An article of clothing
A piece of jewelry
An arcane book or formulary
A written story, song, poem, or secret

Legalese

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

Your experience with your local legal system has given you a firm knowledge of the ins and outs of that system. You have advantage on History checks to recall laws and customs. Even when the law is not on your side, you can use complex terms to frighten people into thinking you know what you're talking about. In a legal context with folks who don't know any better, you can get favors or special treatment, using Intelligence (History) as if it was Charisma (Intimidate). Workeing as a lawyer can provide you with a comfortable lifestyle.

Librarian

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

You have access to a libraries with restricted access, either one great library or a chain of lesser libraries. Though others must often endure extensive interviews and significant fees to gain access to even the most common archives in your library, you have free and easy access to the majority of the library, though it might also have repositories of lore that are too valuable, magical, or secret to permit immediate access. You also have a working knowledge of your library's personnel and bureaucracy, and you know how to navigate those connections with some ease. You have advantage on Intelligence checks to find information in any library, not just your own. Finally, you are likely to gain preferential treatment at other libraries, as professional courtesy shown to a fellow scholar.

Loremaster

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No

You can take the Help action even when you ordinarily couldn't, as long as the creature you're helping can understand your instruction.

Merchant

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: History Repeatable: No Background

You can quickly identify and evaluate all but the most remarkable mundane items, and once identified you can evaluate magic items. In exceptional cases you may have to make an Intelligence (History) check, but you do so with advantage. You have connections with wholesalers, suppliers, and other merchants and entrepreneurs. You can call upon these connections when looking for items or information. They may give you discounts if you buy in bulk, but more importantly they will buy and sell stuff not usually on the market.

Investigation

Deduction

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation. Repeatable: No

When you are speculating as to the best course of action or about the motivations of a given character, you can have the GM tell straight out you whether your speculation is correct or incorrect. You can only use this ability once, regaining it when you finish a long rest.

Discovery

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation Repeatable: No Background

You have access to a unique and powerful discovery. The exact nature of this discovery varies. It might be a great truth about the cosmos or the forces of nature. It might be a new or recovered spell. It could be a site that no one else has ever seen. You might have uncovered a fact that has long been forgotten, or learned the whereabouts of some relic of the past that could rewrite history. It might be information that would be damaging to people, and thus give you enemies.

Work with your DM to determine the details of your discovery and its impact on the campaign.

House Agent

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation Repeatable: No Background

You are an agent of a house, and important clan, order, or guild with extensive contacts. You can always get food and lodging for yourself and your friends at a house enclave. You are expected to act in the interests of your house, do minor side missions for the house, and take occasional house assignments which will be paid for. When the house assigns you a mission, it will usually provide you with the necessary supplies and transportation. Beyond this, you have many old friends, mentors, and rivals in your house, and you may encounter one of them when you interact with a house business. The degree to which such acquaintances are willing to help you depends on your current standing in your house. The house does not provide you with a living, requiring an agent to be able to earn their way, but may support you if you are incapacitated and need care.

Investigator!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation Repeatable: No

You can take the Search action as a bonus action, but only to use the Investigation skill.

Scholar

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation. Repeatable: No Background

When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this information comes from a library, scriptorium, university, or a sage or other learned person or creature. Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an almost inaccessible place, or that it simply cannot be found. Unearthing the deepest secrets of the multiverse can require an adventure or even a whole campaign.

Scrounging

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation. Repeatable: No Background

You have an ability to find random junk that later proves useful. As an action you can scrounge for food and gear in trash bins, dungeons, and ruins. Make an Intelligence (Investigation) check for this, the found item can have a gold piece value equal to the result of the check, but it is in a shoddy condition, unsaleable, and falls apart at the end on your next long rest or on a die roll of 1 for any action involving the item.

After using this ability, you must move 100 feet away before you can use it again.

Secret Identity

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

Your fellow adventurers and the world at large know you as your heroic persona. Those who seek to learn more about you—your weakness, your origins, your purpose—find themselves stymied by your secret identity. Upon taking off the accoutrements of your heroic persona, you are unidentifiable as anything but a harmless commoner. You may be recognized or even famous in your secret identity, but only for mundane skills and proficiencies. Your thoughts and actions are so different that even magic cannot discern them. Regardless of your alignment in your heroic identity, your secret identity is true neutral in alignment. If you use any class features aside from skills, tool proficiencies, and saving throws in your secret identity, you assume your heroic identity. Otherwise changing identities is an action, that is best performed out of sight. You should zealously guard your secret identity, but it generally remains secret unless extreme events expose you to the world.

Thief Catcher

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation Repeatable: No Background

You are a known crime fighter, but not an officer of the law, see the Legal Authority talent for that. Local law enforcement (if it exists) has firm opinions about you, viewing you as either a nuisance or one of their own. Those who aren't involved in your investigation usually avoid impeding you. You can gain access to a crime scene and find contacts who will give you information.

If you know the Deception, Intimidation, or Persuade skills you can use this in additional ways. At the DM's discretion this might be automatic or require ability checks.

Deception: Through a combination of fast-talking, determination, and official-looking documentation, you can gain access to a place or individual related to a crime. You can gain access to or even steal evidence and loot. You can talk others into revealing their results to you.

Intimidation: You're experienced at pushing others to gain access to people and places to get the information you need. You can keep others out of the loop and take charge of crime scenes, witnesses, and evidence.

Persuasion: You have a special way of communicating with others to make them be at ease around you. You can requisition files, equipment, or transportation on a temporary basis. Your contacts not only give you information but also point out out where to get the information they cannot provide.

Total Recall

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Investigation Repeatable: No

You perfectly recall scenes from the past; years afterward, you can call up the precise words of a conversation or recall details of a room seen only at a glance. This allows you to analyze as scene from memory as though you were actually present there. You can retroactively use Intelligence (Investigation) to notice things you didn't think of looking for when you were actually there. This can notice items and clues, but not unseen creatures (that is covered by Perception).

Nature

Primal Initiate

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Nature Repeatable: No

You have learned the basics of the primal magical tradition. Choose one Spell list: Druid or Ranger. You gain the following benefits related to that choice:

Two Cantrips. You learn two cantrips of your choice from the druid Spell list.
1st-Level Spell. Choose one 1st-level Spell from the druid Spell list. You always have that Spell prepared. You can cast it once without a Spell Slot, and you regain the ability to cast it in that way when you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast the Spell using any Spell Slots you have. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these Spells. Whenever you gain a new level, you can replace one of the Spells you chose for this Talent with a different Spell of the same level from the druid spell list.

Spirited Away

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Nature Repeatable: No Background

Whenever you're sound asleep or in a deep trance during a long rest, you or the DM can decide that you are pulled into the Feywild and have an encounter with a native creature. Select a creature or determine the creature by rolling or determine the creature by rolling on the Feywild Visitor table. This can be the same creature each time or a random creature each time. You always return to your spot of origin and no harm ever comes to you as a result of such visits, which can last for minutes or hours, and you gain the normal benefit of the long rest. If an event occurs, you are usually returned to experience this event with the rest of the party. Conversations that occur with a visitor can contain any number of things, from messages and insights to nonsense and red herrings, at the DM's discretion. Such conversations are always conducted in a language you can understand, even if the Feywild visitor normally can't speak that language.

Feywild Visitor (d8)

Awakened creature (a Beast or an ordinary plant that has had the Awaken spell cast on it)
Sprite
Pixie
Satyr
Centaur
Dryad
Faerie Dragon
Unicorn

Tribal Heritage

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You have an excellent knowledge of not only your tribe's territory, but also the terrain and natural resources of the nearby area, and you are able to quickly grasp new areas of wilderness. You are familiar enough with any wilderness area that you find twice as much food and water as you normally would when you forage there. Additionally, you can call upon the hospitality of your people, and those folk allied with your tribe, often including members of druid circles, allied tribes, and the priesthoods devoted to the gods of your people. Unfortunately, you are also an enemy of your tribe's enemies.

Walker of the Wild

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Nature Repeatable: No Background

You recognize the signs people in the wilderness use to mark their territory. You know when you enter the lands of a people or tribe. You can approach such people to parlay without causing a confrontation. You and your companions will generally be allowed to travel through such territories, but you are responsible for the actions of yourself and your companions while there.

Xenologist

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Nature Repeatable: No

You automatically identify monsters of the Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, and Beast types without having to take any action or make a skill check, as if you scored a minimal success on a lore check. You have advantage on further Intelligence checks to remember facts about such creatures.

Religion

Canon

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Religion Repeatable: No Background

You lead and coordinate initiates and lay people in their work for the church. Your job might include training and instructing initiates, and they are required to obey you. Common tasks include maintaining the temple and community and charity work, but you can give other tasks to those under your responsibility. An initiate is expected to defer to your voice and obey your commands. Higher ranks of the church are not subject to your orders. If you abuse this authority your church or even your god might punish you.

Divine Herald

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Religion Repeatable: No Background

You learn the Thaumaturgy and Detect Evil And Good spells. These spells are always prepared and you can cast Detect Evil And Good three times without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.

Divine Initiate

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Religion Repeatable: No

You have learned the basics of cleric spells. You gain the following benefits:

Two Cantrips. You learn two cantrips of your choice from the cleric Spell list.
1st-Level Spell. Choose one 1st-level Spell from the cleric Spell list. You always have that Spell prepared. You can cast it once without a Spell Slot, and you regain the ability to cast it in that way when you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast the Spell using any Spell Slots you have. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these Spells.

Whenever you gain a new level, you can replace one of the Spells you chose for this Talent with a different Spell of the same level from the cleric Spell list.

Minister

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Religion Repeatable: No Background

You command the respect of those who share your faith, and you can perform the religious ceremonies of your deity. You learn the Ceremony spell and always have it prepared. You can cast it as a ritual. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

You and your adventuring companions can expect to receive free healing and care at a temple, shrine, or other established presence of your faith, though you must provide any material components needed for spells. Those who share your religion will support you (but only you) in a modest lifestyle.

You also have ties to a specific temple dedicated to your chosen deity or pantheon, and you have a residence there. This could be the temple where you used to serve, if you remain on good terms with it, or a temple where you have found a new home. While near your temple, you can call upon the congregation for assistance, provided the assistance you ask for is not hazardous and you remain in good standing with your temple.

Shadowfell Haunt

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No Background

Whenever you're sound asleep or in a deep trance during a long rest, you or the DM can decide that you have an encounter with the spirit of a creature of the Shadowfell. Select a creature or determine the creature by rolling on the Shadowfell Haunt table. This can be the same creature each time or a random creature each time. These visits are harrowing but not harmful, and the visitor might bring you rumors or information, at the DM's discretion. Such conversations are always conducted in a language you can understand, even if the Shadowfell Haunt normally can't speak that language.

Shadowfell Haunt (d8)

Talking raven (a raven that has had the Awaken spell cast on it)
Wicked Skull
Flameskull
Skeleton that is intelligent and talks
Ghoul
Ghost
Shadar-Kai
Necromancer

Theologian

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Religion Repeatable: No

You automatically identify monsters of the Celestial, Fiend, and Undead types without having to take any action or make a skill check, as if you scored a minimal success on a lore check. You have advantage on further Intelligence checks to remember facts about such creatures.

Wisdom

Animal Handling

Animal Friend!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No

You can use an action on your turn to befriend one beast within 60 feet of you that can hear you and that isn’t currently attacking or following the command of someone else. Make an Animal Handling check contested by the beast's Charisma saving throw. On a success the beast becomes friendly for an hour. When friendly it will not attack you or move to a spot further away from you. You can use this against Monstrosities the DM thinks are animal-like, but suffer disadvantage on the Animal Handling check when you do so.

Animal Handler

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No Background

You can use a bonus action on your turn to command one friendly beast or monstrosity the DM thinks is animal-like within 60 feet of you that can hear you and that isn’t currently following the command of someone else. You decide now what action the beast will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you issue a general command that lasts for 10 minutes, such as to guard a particular area.

Call Animal!

5th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No

You can call to a type of beast you select and have one of them approach you. If it reaches you it is friendly and willing to serve you as if it was domesticated, tough it will serve no-one else unless you train it to. You can only select beasts that have a Racial Beast Affinity for your race.

Make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. If a beast of the chosen type is within one mile times the result of the check, it will move towards you as long as you continue to call, cautiously moving one mile per minute. If no such beast is in range the ability fails. You know to end when you have been calling for a number of minutes equal to the check result. You can only control one animal at a time with this ability. You must take an action to dismiss a called beast before you can call another, but once you have domesticated a called beast, a process that takes a week or more, the beast no longer counts and you can now call another.

You need to concentrate to maintain the call, as concentrating on a spell. Other creatures might hear the call and come investigate.

Eye for Horses

5th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No Background

You can recognize and bring forth the capacity of what looks to others to be a bad horse. This gives you 50% discount when buying horses as you pick the undervalued ones.

Familiar

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No

You know the Find Familiar spell and can cast it as a ritual.

Tiny Companion

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No

A tiny companion is an intelligent and well-trained pet. It has some similiarities to a familiar, but is entirely mundane.

You befriend a Tiny animal, such as a bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. The DM may allow you to take other tiny anmimals as companions. Add your Proficiency Bonus to the tiny companion's AC, attack bonus, damage, and to its trained skills. Add twice your level to the tiny companion's Hit Points. You can take a bonus action to order the tiny companion to take any action. If you do not give your tiny companion an order, it can only perform the Dash, Dodge, Hide, or Search actions. It can be ordered to do tasks possible to animals, like delivering a letter to a creature you can identify, or guarding a location and coming to warn you if an obvious condition is met.

If your tiny companion dies, it takes you two weeks to train a replacement.

War Rider!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Animal Handling Repeatable: No

You are a dangerous foe to face while mounted. While you are mounted and aren't incapacitated, you gain the following benefits:

You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount.
You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead.
If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a saving throw, it can use your Wisdom (Animal Handling) instead of its own saving throw bonus if this is better, and it is takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
Your mount does not die at zero Hit Points. Instead it becomes dying, and remains dying for one hour, then it dies if it still has zero Hit Points.
As a bonus action or a reaction when your mount takes damage, you can expend one of your Hit Dice and make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. Your mount recovers Hit Points equal to the result. This can prevent your mount from becoming dying or restore it if it is.

This Talent is strictly better than the Mounted Combat feat and replaces that feat.

Insight

Empathic

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No

You can use an action to try to get insight into the motivations and goals one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. Make a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by the target’s Charisma (Deception) check. If your check succeeds, you learn the target's immediate goals, which creatures within sight it considers to be its allies, and its personality traits. You can only attempt to use Empathic once against any particular creature, regaining the ability to read all creatures when you finish a long rest.

Find Weakness!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No

You can use a bonus action to try to get uncanny insight about one humanoid you can see within 30 feet of you. Make a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by the target’s Charisma (Deception) check. If your check succeeds, you have advantage on attack rolls and ability checks against the target until the end of your current turn. You can only use this ability against a particular target once, regaining the ability at the end of a long or short rest.

Loyalty of Dissenters

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No Background

Dissenters must help each other if they wish to have any hope of survival, whether hiding within the city or cast out into the wild. You know how to contact other dissenters and can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among them. They will help shield you from those who hunt you and share plans and information, possibly even risking their lives for you. You can bring a small group of allies, but such allies will be given only shelter until they have proven their worth.

Polyglot

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No

You can communicate with creatures who speak a language but don't speak any language you know. You must observe them interacting with one another for at least 1 hour, after which you learn a handful of important words, expressions, and gestures – enough to communicate on a rudimentary level. After a day of observation, you can handle everyday conversation but nothing complex.

Predict Action

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No

You can use a bonus action to try to get uncanny insight about one humanoid you can see within 30 feet of you. Make a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by the target’s Charisma (Deception) check. If your check succeeds, you have advantage on saving throws against effects this creature uses and the target suffers disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks against you until the end of your next turn.

Revelation

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No Background

You have experienced a revelation, knowledge gained through spiritual insight. The exact nature of this revelation is something you and your DM should agree on, and it should fit the theme of the campaign. It might be a great truth about the cosmos, the deities, the powerful beings of the outer planes, the fate of the world, or the forces of nature. It might be a new or recovered spell. It could be a site that no one else has ever seen. You might have uncovered a fact that has long been forgotten, or learned the whereabouts of some relic of the past that could rewrite history.

Watcher's Eye

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Insight Repeatable: No Background

You have experience in dealing with both local laws and criminals. You can easily find the local outpost of the watch or a similar organization, and just as easily pick out places of ill repute and the dens of criminal activity. You can choose to fit in or stand out when you visit such places. You know how patrols operate, which lets you halve or double the time it takes for a patrol to arrive after an alarm is raised.

Medicine

Apothecary!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Medicine Repeatable: No

You can spend ten minutes applying a potion or medicine to dose it precisely, which allows you to affect two persons within 5 feet instead of just one. You can use a healer's kit without expending any charges.

Battle Healer!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Medicine Repeatable: No

If you have a Healer’s Kit, you can expend one use of it and tend to a creature within 5 feet of you as an Action. That creature can expend one of its Hit Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of Hit Points equal to the roll plus it's Constitution modifier plus your ability Bonus in Wsidom (Medicine). A creature can only benefit from this ability once, regaining the ability at the end of a long or short rest.

Profiling

5th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Medicine Repeatable: No

A method of suspect identification which seeks to identify a creature's mental, emotional, and personality characteristics. You can analyze the habits and behavioral patterns and find common traits. This lets you construct a profile from very flimsy information; you can make educated guesses about someone's personality, abilities and motivations just by analyzing clues. You do this by analyzing known actions and evidence left at a scene where the person you are seeking has been active.

You can use this once per short or long rest when you interacted with reports or scenes since the previous rest. Make a Wisdom (Medicine) check contested by the target's Intelligence (Investigation) or Charisma (Deception), whichever is higher. On a success the DM gives you a personality clue. You also get a cumulative +2 bonus on later profiling attempts. On a critical success you get a complete profile; if the target is known to anyone involved in the investigation you can identify him, and even if not identified you know his basic personality, skill set, and motivation.

Psychology

5th-Level Talent Prerequisite: Medicine Repeatable: No

You work with people to modify their mental state; to either cure or create psychological disorders. This requires a cooperative or restrained patient. You can also substitute the patients Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves with your Wisdom (Medicine) bonus while under your direct care; this can help against mental trials and assaults. You can cure mental conditions and illnesses as the DM deems appropriate, which usually takes a lot of time.

Speed Recovery!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Medicine Repeatable: No

During a short rest, you can clean and bind the wounds of up to six willing beasts and humanoids. If such a creature spends Hit Dice during this rest, that creature can forgo the roll and instead regain the maximum number of hit points on each die, adding it's Constitution modifier as normal. In addition it regains additional Hit Points equal to your ability Bonus in Wisdom (Medicine). A creature can gain this additional healing only once per rest.

Perception

Bookmaker

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Perception Repeatable: No Background

Odds and probability are your bread and butter. As an action, you can judge a difficulty or get a solid sense of which choice is likely the best one and which opportunities are too good to be true, at the DM's determination. Spending your time working as a bookmaker allows you a comfortable lifestyle.

Guardian Spirit

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Perception Repeatable: No Background

You have a guardian spirit watching out for your interests. When you are sleeping or otherwise distracted, your guardian spirit keeps watch over you, negating distraction penalties to your Wisdom (Perception) checks. What kind of spirit this is depends on your background and should be agreed with the DM, but since the spirit is epehemeral, cannot interact or be interacted with except to warn you, and does not communicate even with you the kind of spirit has very little effect on the game.

Hunter’s Instinct

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Perception Repeatable: No

When you travel in the wilderness, you sense when someone—or something—has caught your trail or scent. Although you lack the details, you instinctively recognize when your pursuers are within an hour or less of your position and from which direction they approach.

Perceptive

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Perception Repeatable: No

You can take the Search action as a bonus action, but only to use the Perception skill, not the Investigation skill.

Read Lips

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Perception Repeatable: No

You can understand what someone is saying by reading lips. You must be within 30 feet of the speaker (or use appropriate sighting), be able to see him speak, and understand the speaker’s language. You must maintain a line of sight to the lips being read.

If conditions are bad or the speaker susicious, you need to make a Wisdom (Perception) check against the lips' Charisma (Deception).

Windfall

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Perception Repeatable: No

You can use a reaction to make a Wisdom (Perception) check to make a lucky find. The DM decides what you find based on a Wisdom (Perception) check you make, but can make suggestions. Once you use Windfall, you must wait 10 minutes to use it in another location.

Result	Description
5-9	A pleasant but worthless find, such as a pretty pebble or a small edible treat.
10-14	A trinket or minor clue.
15-19	Something immediately useful but not valuable, such as a nail, knife, bit of rope, worn clothing, half-burnt torch, or a candle stub as appropriate to the situation. Possibly a significant clue.
20+	Something immediately useful, such as a ration, skin of water or wine, or even a minor consumable magic item.

Survival

Camper

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No

You learn the Alarm spell. You can cast it three times without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. You can also cast it using normal spell slots.

Guerilla

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No Background

You’ve come to know ruins, forests, streams, caves, and other features in which you can take refuge — or set up ambushes. You can quickly survey your environment for advantageous features. You have advantage of all Survival checks for such things. Additionally, you can scavenge around old campsites, houses, and in ruins to cobble together simple supplies (such as cheap food, improvised torches, rope, patches of fabric, etc.) that are consumed after use that allows you to feed and supply yourself and up to five other people.

Reclusive

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No Background

The wilderness is your home and you are comfortable dwelling in it. You can find a place to hide, rest, recuperate, and forage at a substenance level when out in the wild. This place of rest is secure enough to conceal you from most natural threats and hides you from being detected, as Nondetection.

Rubble Refuge

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No Background

You are are intimately familiar with a city that has slums and badlands. You are at home in areas of city ruins that most people shun: ruined neighborhoods where monsters rampage, sewers full of vermin, overgrown parks that no hand has tended in decades, and any belts of broken terrain that civilized folk have long abandoned. You can find a suitable place for you and your allies to hide or rest in these areas. You can travel trough such areas at a normal rate, where others would risk getting lost and travel at half rate or less. In addition, you can find food and fresh water in these areas for yourself and up to five other people each day.

Spelunker

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No Background

You are used to navigating the deep places of the earth. You never get lost in caves or mines if you have either seen an accurate map of them or have been through them before. Furthermore, you are able to scrounge fresh water and food for yourself and as many as five other people each day in natural caves

Wagonmaster

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No Background

You are used to being in charge of caravans and your reputation for reliability has you on a short list when the job is critical. Others recognize this and look to you for direction when a situation gets serious. You have an excellent memory for maps and geography and can always determine your cardinal directions while traveling. You are able to identify likely ambush sites and defensible locations for camping, having advantage of all Survival checks for such things. When traveling in a group, you are able to attract two additional workers who are loyal to you based on your reputation.

Wanderer

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Survival Repeatable: No Background

You have an excellent memory for geography, and you can intuit the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survial) checks to find your way and avoid getting lost. You never lose your sense of direction and quickly become familiar with any natural surface area you visit. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth.

Charisma

Deception

Black Marketeer

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: Yes Background

When you enter a town or city, you only need a few conversations with locals to find the best dealers in illegal goods and services. Whether you want to buy poisons, hire an assassin, or purchase classified information, you can uncover whom to talk to, where to go, and how best to approach them. If you spend your time making dirty deals, this can sustain you in a moderate life style.

Disguise Gender

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: No

You can spend 1 minute to change your apparent gender or to conceal your gender identity completely. You are so good at this that only very close inspection requires you to rely on Charisma (Deception).

A character that acts and dresses as another or no gender on a habitual basis does not need this talent to maintain that identity, but might fail to act their biological gender even when trying to do so.

Disguise Race

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: Yes

You can routinely conceal your true race and to disguise yourself as a member of another race chosen when you learn this ability. It takes 10 minutes to to prepare this disguise, wich can be done as a part of a long or short rest. If your frame is outside the normal range of the adopted race, you disguise yourself as a child or freak. You are so good at this that only very close inspection requires you to rely on Charisma (Deception). You can learn Disguise Race multiple times, each time picking a new race to disguise yourself as.

Fake-Out!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: No

You can take a bonus action to attempt to deceive one humanoid you can see within 30 feet of you that can see and hear you. Make a Charisma (Deception) check contested by the target’s Wisdom (Insight) check. If your check succeeds, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks from the target and your first attack roll against it has advantage; both benefits expire at the end of your current turn. Success or failure, the target can’t be deceived by you in this way for 1 hour.

False Identities

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: No

You have more than one identity. Choose a number of other backgrounds equal to your proficency bonus. You have documentation, personal notes such as letters or a diary, established acquaintances, and disguises that allow you to assume one a persona with this background in one minute. You do not need disguise kit to do so, but you do need to carry a small bag of clothes and knicknacks. Normally your act is perfect, only under especially difficult circumstances, such as entering a restricted area, do you need to use Charisma (Deception).

Inside Informant

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: No Background

You have connections to a previous employer or other groups you dealt with during your previous employment. You can communicate with your contacts, gaining inside information. This gives you all information that is common knowledge inside the organization, as well as the occasional bonus secret. You can also gather information within the organization without special effort or risk.

Mimic

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: No

You instantly pick up the rhythm of languages and dialects. You speak all languages you know as a native of that language, and can speak in dialects without effort. You can assume the tone and speech patterns of others, speaking like a tavern wench or royal magistrate on demand. Even if you don't speak a language, you can mimic the pacing and sound of the language enough to convince other non-speakers that you do speak the language.

When you try to mimic a specific person, you must make a Charisma (Deception) check, but you have advantage on all Charisma (Deception) checks related to speech.

Secret Society

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Deception Repeatable: No Background

You have a special way of communicating with others who feel the same way you do. When you enter a town or city you can identify contacts who will give you information on those that would hinder or help the goals of your secret society. Your society has marks used to warn of dangers and opportunities, often surreptitiously placed at doors and waysides. You can use innuendo and codes to pass information to other members of your society even when you are being overheard.

If you pick rogue's society when you chose this talent, you learn Thief's Cant. Characters that know Thief's Cant gain this talent for free relating to the informal society of rogues. At the DMs option, a rogue PC can forego learning Thief's Cant to join another secret society, getting this talent without having to pay.

Intimidation

Hands-On Investigation

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidation Repeatable: No Background

You can quickly gain information about the people and places of the local area. You learn of local events and notables in minutes and can gather information using Charisma (Intimidation) in minutes instead of hours. You have to act quickly on this information, as word of your hands-on investigation quickly spreads. You may also provoke brawls and resentment.

Heart of Darkness

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Arcana Repeatable: No Background

Those who look into your eyes can see that you have faced unimaginable horror and that you are no stranger to darkness. Though they might fear you, commoners will extend you every courtesy. Strangers will leave you alone and ignore outrageous behavior as long as it does not directly affect them. Agents of darkness have an affinity for you and may be willing to cooperate with you as long as it it is not against their direct interests.

Legal Authority

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidate Repeatable: No Background

You have the authority to enforce the law, and that status inspires a certain amount of respect and even fear in the populace. People mind their manners in your presence and avoid drawing your attention: they assume you have the right to be wherever you are. Showing your insignia gets you an audience with anyone you want to talk to, though it might cause more problems than it solves when you're dealing with incorrigible lawbreakers or the upper class. If you abuse this privilege you can get in serious trouble with your superiors and even be stripped of your position. If you take time to do the job, you can live a comfortable lifestyle. Thief Catcher is similar but informal talent.

Leverage

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidation Repeatable: No Background

You are a member of an organization and can exert leverage over one or more individuals below you in the hierarchy. You can demand their help as needs warrant. For example, you can have a message carried across a neighborhood, procure a short carriage ride without paying, or have others clean up a bloody mess you left in an alley. The DM decides if your demands are reasonable and if there are subordinates available to fulfill them. As your status improves, you can demand more complex help and gain influence over more people, including ones in greater positions of power.

Menacing

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidation Repeatable: No

As a bonus action you may attempt to demoralize one humanoid you can see within 10 feet of you that can see and hear you. Make a Charisma (Intimidation) check contested by the target’s Wisdom (Insight) check. If your check succeeds, the target is frightened of you until the end of your next turn. If your check fails, the target can’t be frightened by you in this way for 1 hour.

Military Officer

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidation Repeatable: No Background

You are a recognized officer from your career as a soldier. Soldiers loyal to your former military organization still recognize your authority and influence, and they defer to you if they are not officers. You can invoke your rank to exert influence over other soldiers and requisition simple equipment or horses for temporary use. You can usually gain access to friendly military encampments and fortresses in peacetime, especially where your rank is recognized.

Privileged

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidation Repeatable: No Background

Thanks to your social rank, people are inclined to think the best of you. You are welcome in high society, and people assume you have the right to be wherever you are. The common folk make every effort to accommodate you and avoid your displeasure, and other people of high status treat you as a member of the same social sphere. You can secure an audience with a local noble or official if you need to. Your passage is noted (unless you are successfully disguised) and any significant events will be in the local rumor mill. As long as you don't overstay your welcome, you can live as a guest of various nobles, which provides a comfortable lifestyle.

Scary Reputation

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Intimidate Repeatable: No Background

No matter where you go, people are afraid of you due to your reputation. When you are in a civilized settlement, you can get away with minor criminal offenses, such as refusing to pay for food or minor thefts or abuse, since most people will not report your activity to the authorities. This allows you to live a comfortable lifestyle without cost, but does not reduce the cost of more extravagant lifestyles.

Performance

Ballad of the Grinning Fool

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Performance Repeatable: No Background

You are a member of a clandestine network that includes entertainers. You can play the "Ballad of the Grinning Fool" publicly to be contacted by a member of the network who will give shelter to you and any companions you vouch for. This shelter might be discontinued if it becomes too dangerous to hide you. Once contact is established you can gain more and more help as you work with the network.

Carnie

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You are at home in a circus, carnival, or variety show. You have developed specific stunts to use for each of your skills and attacks and have advantage on ability checks to perform these as skits. Such stunts are flashy and can add flair to other actions, but are mostly entertainment routines. You are quickly accepted among other carnies, who will provide you lodging, shelter, and anonymity to you and a few allies as long as you share their lifestyle.

Fans

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Performance Repeatable: No Background

You have a group of followers who look up to you, but who do not work for you. On many occasions, they will turn up and offer to help, fawn over you, or just hang around. This is often helpful, but sometimes annoying. They will not accompany you on adventures and never enter dungeons.

At any time, you may have a number of Commoner fans equal to your Charisma score hanging around. Rarely, a powerful person or even a monster might turn out to be a fan, in which case they are likely to be extra pushy and demanding. If you work as a peformer, this affords you a comfortable lifestyle.

Instant Attention

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Performance Repeatable: No Background

By spending an action performing, you can try to distract humanoids you can see who can see and hear you. Make a Charisma (Performance) check contested by each humanoid’s Wisdom (Insight). Against each humanoid your check succeeds, you grab their attention enough that it makes Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks with disadvantage until you stop performing or their attention is pulled away by dramatic event such as combat.

At the DM's discretion this might work on creatures of other types as well.

Popular Demand

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Performance Repeatable: No Background

You can always find a place to perform, usually in an inn or tavern but possibly with a circus, at a theater, or even in a noble's court. At such a place, you receive free lodging and food of a modest or comfortable standard (depending on the quality of the establishment), as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they are usually friendly.

Persuasion

Contacts

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Persuasion. Repeatable: No

Contacts are persons you know and who are friendly to you and sympathetic to the same cause as you, but not your direct servants or allies. They will gladly supply information, acting as your eyes and ears. They also willingly perform services for you at normal cost, which can be a boon if they deal in something that is outlawed, rare, or otherwise hard to come by. Over time, your network of contacts grows, you gain new ones while some of your old contacts become obsolete.

This talent gives you a number of contacts equal to half your level (minimum 1). You generally acquire a new contact once per level, replacing an old one at odd levels and gaining a new one at even levels. Sometimes, your contacts change slower or quicker than this, but can never have more contacts than your level indicates.

A contact should ideally be someone you met and befriended during play. In this way, you can gain influential contacts; kings, courtiers, important heroes and other famous individuals. You can flesh out your stable of contacts with NPCs of your own invention, but these are generally not as important or influential as the ones you meet during play; typical examples are city guardsmen, traders, shopkeepers, local clergy, or minor mystics. On the plus side these invented contacts are reliable, while contacts met in play keep their personal goals and might turn on you if there is a conflict of intrests.

Diplomat

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Persuasion Repeatable: No

If you spend an action talking to a creature that is unwilling to talk, hostile, or even fighting you, you can make a Charisma (Persuasion) check contested by the creature’s Wisdom (Insight). On a success you convince the creature to not attack and talk to you for one minute. You suffer the usual disadvantage on this Charisma (Persuasion) check against hostile creatures. If the creature is attacked, has to make a saving throw or sees you take an hostile action or sees one of its allies be defeated the effect ends. It also ends if an ally of the target that is not fighting is attacked or has to make a saving throw. If the effect is ended or if you fail the check, you cannot use Diplomat against that creature again until after you finish a long rest.

Guild Contacts

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Persuasion Repeatable: No Background

You made a number of friends in an important guild, such as the Thieves', Alchemists', or Mages' Guild. They remember you fondly and help you in little ways when they can. You can invoke their assistance to obtain information, as well as equipment and services typical of the guild for a limited time. You can also gain access to the low-security areas of their bases.

Instant Charm!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Persuasion Repeatable: No

If you spend 1 minute talking to someone who is willing and able to understand what you say, you can make a Charisma (Persuasion) check contested by the creature’s Wisdom (Insight) check. If your check succeeds, the target is charmed by for 10 minutes. If you fail the check, you cannot use Instant Charm against that creature again until you finish a long rest.

Romance

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Persuasion Repeatable: No

You have a complex and troubled romance. This is not just any relationship, but one involving someone you cannot easily get together with. Having a quiet relationship does not need this trait; this is for a romance that takes up some actual screen time. This has many variants:

Your romance is eternal, but the subject of your romance varies from story to story.
Your romance is trouble-prone, and needs constant help and rescue.
Your romance is your lord and sovereign.
Your romance is also your Nemesis in a love-hate relationship. This requires you to also have the Nemesis talent, and combinations with other similiar talents can also work, with the DM's approval.

There are usually other complications as well; unrequited love, duty, racial differences, rivals, and other hindrances. It is usually best to pick a romance during play to keep an engaging NPC going.

Tell Tale

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Persuasion Repeatable: No Background

You can tell a compelling tale, whether tall or true, to impress and entertain others. You can make a poor living as a storyteller. Spending up to an hour (which can be a part of a short rest), you tell your story to willing listeners, attracting bystanders and passers by to your audience. Listeners are distracted and suffer disadvantage on all Wisdom (Perception) checks. Typically they buy you drinks and some become friendly toward you; this is not a magical effect, and continued amicability on their part depends on your actions. Your tale is too unlikely or mundane to have much effect on the beliefs and views of the audience.

Tools

Journeyman

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Tool proficiency Repeatable: No Background

You are a member of a commercial guild regulating a trade you are skilled in, currently on a sabbatical to gain training and experience. As an established and respected member of a guild, you can rely on certain benefits that membership provides. Your fellow guild members will provide you with a modest lifestyle, and pay for your funeral and support surviving family. In most cities and towns, a guildhall offers a central place to meet other members of your profession, which can be a good place to gather information or meet potential patrons, allies, or hirelings. Guilds often wield tremendous political power. If you are accused of a crime, your guild will support you if a good case can be made for your innocence or the crime is justifiable. You can also gain access to powerful political figures through the guild, if you are a member in good standing. If you work professionally in the field your guild is devoted to, you must pay a fee to the guild, but connections and preferential treatment still provides you with a net income sufficient for a lifestyle (at no cost) depending on your proficiency bonus with the skills and tools of your guild: +2 to +3: Modest, +4 to +5 Comfortable, +6 or more Wealthy.

Herbs of Life

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Herbalism Kit Repeatable: No

You learn the Druidcraft and Goodberry spells. Your casting ability for these spells is Wisdom. You can cast Goodberry three times without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.

Magic of Craft

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Artificer's Tools Repeatable: No

You learn the Mending and Identify spells. Your casting ability for these spells is Intelligence. You can cast Identify as a ritual and also once without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.

Patch It

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: Carpenter's tools Repeatable: No

Provided you have carpenter's tools, you can perform repairs on a vehicle or building, including individual parts such as a door or siege engine. As an action, roll a number of d8 equal to your proficiency modifier with carpenter's tools; you restore a number of hit points equal to the number rolled. The target cannot be patched by you in this way again until after it has been fully repaired. You can make a modest living working as a repairman.

Other

Celebrity

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You are a famous public figure. You and a partner can get VIP treatment at most social venues, expenses paid as long as you publicly endorse the venue. Fanciful rumors abound about your social life. You can make a living going to parties, which is a wealthy lifestyle but requires you to constantly move from venue to venue and eventually from city to city.

Class Respect

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes, each time with a separate class

You have the respect of a class other than your own, and are treated as a college by members of that class. You have access to secrets and gear normally only available to that class and can hire the services of others in the class without prejudice.

Crafter

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes

You gain Tool Proficiency with a set of Artisan’s Tools of your choice.

Factor

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

You have the services of a loyal retainer. This individual has the skills of a NPC Noble and can perform tasks for you such as making purchases, delivering messages, and running errands. They can act as your agent in your absence or represent your interests in a faraway location. He or she will not fight for you and will not follow you into obviously dangerous areas (such as dungeons), and will leave if frequently endangered or abused. You do pay your factor, but their services save you money that makes up for the expense.

Heir

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

I'm his daughter-in-law elect! - He'll marry his son - (He's only got one) - To his daughter-in-law elect!
- THE MIKADO by William S. Gilbert

It is well known that Something Marvelous is coming your way one day. People will know you are the heir apparent and fawn over you accordingly, offering you alliance, services, and credit tough there are no direct benefits whatsoever. The DM may spring this inheritance on you at a later date, giving you responsibilities and powers you likely want to avoid if you are to continue adventuring. This allows you to live a comfortable lifestyle, or even a wealthy lifestyle if you are willing to incur debts against your future inheritance.

Hobo Signs

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

Transients use subtle signs to mark places like homesteads, campsites, and places of employment. These warn of dangers and give hints on how to behave to find favor in a new place. You can use an Wisdom (Insight) check to find such information on the outskirts of a settlement or establishment.

Home

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You have a home near to the place where you pick this talent, including family, possibly parents, siblings, spouse, children, relatives, and close friends. Your family can provide for itself running a small business, such as a shop or farm. You can live and work with your family between adventures, which provides a modest lifestyle. The family also provides moral support and can perform services such as selling and buying and providing contacts. Having a home and family makes you a respected member of the community. Occasionally your family might require your help or otherwise be used by the DM as an adventure hook.

Infirmity

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You have a handicap that restricts your abilities in some way, but you have learnt to use prosthetics and skill to overcome most of your disability, allowing you to be an adventurer. Some infirmities even give you minor magical abilities. Select one Infirmity. The listed penalties assume you are using a simple prosthetic (such as a peg leg) when possible.

Knight

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You receive shelter and succor from members of your knightly order and those who are sympathetic to its aims. Your word carries weight both inside your order and in wider society. If your order is a religious one, you can gain aid from temples and other religious communities of your deity. Knights of civic orders can get help from the community – whether a lone settlement or a great nation that they serve, and knights of philosophical orders can find help from those they have aided in pursuit of their ideals and those who share those ideals. This help comes in the form of shelter and meals (a modest lifestyle), information, and healing when appropriate, as well as occasionally risky assistance, such helping to keep prisoners you have taken or smuggle you out of town when you are being hunted.

Medium!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes. Each time you learn to contact a new type of spirit Background

You are visited by spirits, who whisper secrets to you. Select a type of spirits on the table below. You can spend one hour holding a seance to consult with the spirits. Make a check with the noted skill to seek answers from the spirits, which is much the same as asking around or doing research, only the answers are colored by the nature of the spirits you commune with. The origin of the spirits is mostly for flavor; they can be encountered everywhere, but are more knowledgeable about their area of origin.

If you make your abilities public, you can usie it to maintain a modest lifestyle, but run the danger of witch hunts.

Type	Skill	Origin	Goals
Aberration	Intelligence (Arcana)	Far Realm	Profoundly disquieting.
Celestial	Wisdom (Insight)	Astral Sea	Morals and ideals.
Demon	Charisma (Intimidation)	Abyss	Violence and destruction.
Fey	Charisma (Perform)	Feywild	Jests, riddles, and tricks.
Fiend	Charisma (Deception)	Astral Sea	Temptation.
Ghost	Charisma (Persuasion)	Shadowfell	Fulfill unfulfilled desires.
Monstrosity	Intelligence (Nature)	Natural world	Monster instincts.
Nature spirit	Wisdom (Survival)	Natural world	Protect environment, enforce taboos.

Mentor

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You have mentor or employer that sees you as a trusted agent. The mentor is a constant source of information, employment opportunities, and often useless advice. You are maintained in a modest lifestyle when at your mentor's beck and call.

The DM is encouraged to use the mentor as an adventure hook and patron, and might tailor benefits and rewards to the mentor’s outlook on you. You can also turn to the mentor for help and advice, but a mentor will not accept being used and will avoid becoming directly involved in the action. The mentor is a powerful figure, which might or might not mean that he is a high-level character. A rich merchant, influential queen, or behind-the-scenes monster can function as a mentor just as well as the classic warrior lord or wizard sage.

The exact details of your mentor are up to the DM and unknown to you. A mentor might have a secret agenda and use you as a pawn in it, but is rarely hostile to your ideals.

Mistaken Identity

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

Your identity are commonly mistaken; either for a specific person or for a role other than your own. You are known for traits and abilities you do not possess, based on misinterpretation, rumors, or just plain lies. A commoner fighter could be known as a magical prince, a holy man, or a demon summoner. People influenced by your Celebrity status will have heard of this false repute, and react accordingly.

Musician

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes

You gain proficiency with a Musical Instrument of your choice.

Nemesis

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

Your fate and purpose is linked to a particular enemy. You and this enemy are bound to run across each other again and again, and you have a mysterious way of ending up in one-on-one encounters with this enemy. In addition, your nemesis advances in power as you do, and has an amazing ability to survive and return to fight another day. And should he die, there is always someone else on the sidelines, ready to step in.

The DM has to approve your choice of nemesis; it is generally best to pick a nemesis you've met during play and that proved particularly interesting, memorable, and loathsome.

Professional Skill!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

Choose a Skill from the list of class skills for any of your classes in which you lack Proficiency. You gain Proficiency in that Skill.

Racial Respect

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes, each time with a separate race Background

You have the respect of a race other than your own, and they treat you as if you were a member of the chosen race. You have access to secrets, training, and gear normally only available to that race.

Retainers

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

You have the service of three retainers. These retainers can be attendants or messengers, and one might be a majordomo. Your retainers are commoners, but add one skill or tool proficiency of your choice to each. They can perform simple tasks for you, but they do not fight for you, will not follow you into obviously dangerous areas (such as dungeons), and will leave if they are frequently endangered or abused. You do pay them, but their services save you money that makes up for the expense.

Savage Attacker!

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

You have trained to deal particularly damaging strikes. When you hit a target with an attack and roll damage, you can re-roll the damage dice. You must use the second result, even if it is worse. You can use this benefit only once per turn.

Silver Spoon

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes Background

You have connections that will support you as long as you are in their area of influence – at least one large city and a country estate. They will only support your lifestyle unless you make it worth their while and might resent you as a useless burden. Your name and signet are sufficient to cover most of your expenses; the inns, taverns, and feast halls you frequent are glad to record your debt and send an accounting to your estate to settle what you owe.

This enables you to live a wealthy lifestyle without having to pay for it. You may not maintain a less affluent lifestyle and use the difference as income – the benefit is a line of credit, not an actual monetary reward. While traveling this is reduced to a comfortable lifestyle or even less far from your financier.

Specialist

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: Yes, each time in another specialization. Background

Choose a skill and a narrow field of competence within that skill. When operating within this narrow field of competence, you add your proficency bonus to ability checks with that skill. This stacks with the proficency bonus for training in that skill, but not with expertize in that skill: you can never add more than twice your proficency bonus to any one ability check.

True Identity

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No Background

You have a secret but significant identity, and this identity is destined to become known and/or play a part in upcoming events. You can be the long-lost child of the old king, the destined savior of all lizardfolk, or a dragon bound to human form and abilities by a curse. The DM has to approve your choice, and its usually best to pick your true identity in play, once you know what the campaign is all about.

Victim

1st-Level Talent Prerequisite: None Repeatable: No

You have a tendency to end up as a victim; when someone is to be captured, mugged, or otherwise fall victim to a subplot, it tends to be you. Taking this trait means you'll accept that the DM hand-waves situations where you fall into peril and have to be rescued or work to escape, but DMs are of course encouraged to try and make this as fun and non-disruptive as possible.


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