Miner Background for Mountain (and Hill) Dwarf

[ZorroGames]

PHB page 125

I was thinking perhaps something off Guild Artisan.

page 132 PHB

Since Dwarfs and Gnomes mine a lot something like this:

Skill Proficiencies- choose two - Animal handling (mules, donkeys, ponies only), Athletics (from all the mining), Land Transportation (Cart only.)

Tool Proficiency- add Miners (Picks, Shovels, Wheelbarrows, carts.)

Language - Choose one - Gnomish, Underdark, Goblin, Kobold.

Equipment - Pick, Shovel, Letter of Introduction, Traveler's clothes, 15 GP.

Recommendations accepted.

[Naanomi]

Backgrounds get two proficiencies and two tools/languages... trying to limit those in weird ways isn't something backgrounds really do, so if you are trying to fit the normal 'background' model I would avoid that

That being said, Animal handling, athletics; land vehicles, stonecutter tools... seems like a solid skill choice

As for the background 'benefit'... maybe something like Outlander (never get lost in those mines?), or guild/clan Artisan social benefits as you mentioned.

Equipment looks good, I'd add a dungeoneer's kit, and for a 'trinket' an interesting stone or piece of ore you found?

[LtPowers]

I would suggest looking at the Clan Crafter background from SCAG; it's even closer to what you're looking for than Guild Artisan is.


Powers &8^]

[Naanomi]

In retrospect, mining is pretty 'low class' activity (even if respected in dwarves culture); we might want to look more at peasant hero as our base template than 'craftsman'

[ZorroGames]

I will look at SCAG.

Thanks all for advice.

[Armored Walrus]

In retrospect, mining is pretty 'low class' activity (even if respected in dwarves culture); we might want to look more at peasant hero as our base template than 'craftsman'

It depends if you're thinking miner as "the ones swinging the picks" or as "the one who determines where to dig next, figures out how much shoring up each stretch of mine needs in order to stay stable, the one who handles pockets of bad air", etc. I would see a mine foredwarf as being a fairly respected member of society. Depending on setting, that might be the only role that dwarves play in the mines; they may use kobolds or goblins or automata or dwarven convicts to do the actual mining.

To OP, I agree with the poster suggesting not limiting the proficiencies. For a feature, maybe some kind of prospecting ability? The character has the ability to notice deposits of minerals, has a chance of determining the best place to start a mine. Something like that. Or, some sense of structural stability. The character knows how to find the weak point in structures, or knows how to shore up a structure to ensure it doesn't collapse.

[Scathain]

AFB but Earthspun Miner is somewhere...

[ZorroGames]

Backgrounds get two proficiencies and two tools/languages... trying to limit those in weird ways isn't something backgrounds really do, so if you are trying to fit the normal 'background' model I would avoid that

That being said, Animal handling, athletics; land vehicles, stonecutter tools... seems like a solid skill choice

As for the background 'benefit'... maybe something like Outlander (never get lost in those mines?), or guild/clan Artisan social benefits as you mentioned.

Equipment looks good, I'd add a dungeoneer's kit, and for a 'trinket' an interesting stone or piece of ore you found?

Sounds reasonable.

I was looking at PHB page 125 and it says:

"... To customize a background, replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds."