Hermit's Discovery

[mgshamster]

What kinds of discoveries have you designed for your Hermit Backgrounds? Either as a player or a GM or just theorycrafting.

[mgshamster]

No one? Really?

[georgie_leech]

Well, I'm personally playing a Druid whose discovery was that the humanoid races were a part of nature just as any of the animals or plants, which mostly manifests as other Druids thinking he's a nut.

[mgshamster]

Well, I'm personally playing a Druid whose discovery was that the humanoid races were a part of nature just as any of the animals or plants, which mostly manifests as other Druids thinking he's a nut.

That's a fun line of thought and one I've engaged in in our real life many times.

Does it grant you any narrative power? How are you using it in game?

[mgshamster]

Two I've seen online:

1) Access to a pocket dimension that is only accessible when you're in complete darkness. Essentially useable as a portable hole!

2) Nature and Magic are intricately connected. You can choose to pull power from the world around you to empower your spells. When you do so, plants and animals around you whither and die, but you cast at 1 spell level higher. It's essentially Darksun.

Here's one I designed for one of my players who requested a divination focused Discovery: You gain random visions of key people who are threatening the world, and you can overhear and see them as they discuss their plans. This provides the player with a plot hook and with insider information on the bad guys.

Before I wrote up my guide to background features, I came up with a discovery for my cleric for Princes of the Apocolype. Essentially, it was that he learned that there were princes of the elements who planned to destroy the world. It tied him in with the campaign, but gave him no narrative power. It was a poorly designed discovery.

[georgie_leech]

That's a fun line of thought and one I've engaged in in our real life many times.

Does it grant you any narrative power? How are you using it in game?

Mostly I view it as an informing trait about my character; as the the stereotypical curt, not-much-of-a-talker-type who lived in a forest for hundreds of years, it's one of the only things he'll ever talk about at length. In terms of narrative power, not much, but, as mentioned, Druid. I already have plenty of the stuff. Aside from various utility spells I'm also the party Horse whenever we need to take a carriage somewhere. :smallbiggrin:

[Bgharcourt]

My GOO(Tharzidun) warlock's discovery was a map that changed whenever you looked away. He had no recollection of why he was in a strange ancient city. All he knows is that the whispers in his head compelled him to leave his village when he was 13, and now he is 25 and holding the map. The rest is a blank. As the map is so old, most of the features(countries, landmarks, ect.) are gone. He has no recollection of how he came to find the map, nor how he wound up in the underdark. During his time alone(before leaving to get more answers) in the abandoned city in the underdark, he counted 333 different map locations each marked with a little purple eye.

While I know that his patron is Tharzidun, my Warlock hasn't got a clue where his powers come from. He just assumes it is a byproduct of his halfelf blood.

[foREVer_Lawliet]

I am currently playing a monster hunter type character, his discovery was that of an advanced knowledge of monsters, this was agreed with my DM to allow me to have advantage on checks to identify monsters and their weaknesses.