this page on the homebrewery

While there has been some nice expansion on what profession a PC has before becoming an adventurer, there's also a decent number of gaps. Medical knowledge is most likely the area of Acolytes, Hermits, and Sages, but some medical treatments were handed over to whoever had the most training with using sharp knives around people. I guess some charlatans or guild artisans could fit the concept, but I figured a separate background was worth writing up.

While there's options like outlander and urchin for those without a place in society, charlatan and smuggler for criminals, and guild artisan for well to-do craftspeople, the only backgrounds related to the honest working poor seem to be sailor and fisher, both for coastal settlements. Everything else gets rolled into the folk hero background, so I've written up hauler, house servant, and pastoralist to fill some of those gaps. I also wrote one for someone who wasn't part of the army but did travel with it.

And finally I wrote a background for cultists. Seemed odd there wasn't one given how they're relatively common in D&D games.

Beside the written ones below, I was wondering for input on other common jobs people had in the middle ages (or more recently) that aren't represented. I didn't really have an idea for a "farmer" feature that wouldn't be what the folk hero gets, and I don't see adventuring cooks or weavers being that different from folk heroes or house servants in what their skills would let them do. Surveyors I expect were a thing, but probably wouldn't have mechanical abilities very different from an archeologist: maybe just switch Survival for Persuasion if marking property lines in a settled area.



Barber-Surgeon
Specialists trained with the blade, barbers are the most qualified to perform neat, narrow incisions where treating a person’s health requires physically entering the body. As someone trained in this manner, you’re someone people look to for improving both their appearance and their health, even if you have minimal training in the latter.
  • Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, Sleight of Hand
  • Tool Proficiencies: One tool chosen from Alchemist’s supplies, Brewer’s supplies, Cook’s utensils, or Herbalism kit.
  • Languages: One of your choice
  • Equipment: One set of tools of your choice, a barber blade (sickle), a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 15gp.

Feature: Knowledge of Cuts
You are trained in making clean and smooth cuts, both on the body and on flesh. Where masons can identify marks on stone, you can read marks on the body just as easily, allowing you to identify past surgeries and the relative timing of marks on a creature’s body, as well as identifying causes of death from cuts and disease.

Additionally, you can make a living providing haircuts to individuals. While working in this manner, you earn lodging and food of a modest or comfortable standard (depending on the wealth of the community you serve), as long as you perform haircuts and surgeries on a regular basis.

Spoiler: Barber-Surgeon Traits
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d6 Personality Trait
  1. Of course I’m a trained professional, now let me check your humors.
  2. I want to make everyone’s hair look impeccable. Now hold still so I can fix it.
  3. I have many ideas about life and health and enjoy discussing it with my fellow intellectuals.
  4. I put in a lot of effort to be warm and inviting, and to remember the details of other people’s lives.
  5. Anyone in good health must simply be unaware of their health problems, and I seek to identify them.
  6. I am constantly messing with, practicing with, and sharpening my blades.
d6 Ideal
  1. I always have another remedy, another cut, another plan I’m willing to try. (Chaos)
  2. With extensive testing of my methods, I will find the elixir of eternal life. (Evil)
  3. By systemically studying the body, we can define life and all its functions. (Lawful)
  4. I have chosen a particular disease to which I will find a cure. (Any)
  5. I want to help everyone live their healthiest life. (Good)
  6. Being prepared to shave or cut anyone who needs it is critical to my place in the world. (Lawful)
d6 Bond
  1. I watched a relative die from plague, and feel greatly for those who lived through the same.
  2. After spending so long taking care of a particular family, I see myself as a part of it.
  3. A particular town counts on me to treat their ailments.
  4. I compete endlessly with another barber with whom a I have a longstanding rivalry.
  5. My initial training came from a particular learning institution, and I will gladly aid others associated with it.
  6. An older surgeon took me in when I was a sickly child and taught me the trade.
d6 Flaw
  1. I believe diseases originate from breathing bad air, rather than from invisible dark forces affecting your body.
  2. I consider myself more knowledgeable on every aspect of disease than everyone of any other trade.
  3. I forget others aren’t as used to seeing diseases and gore.
  4. I practice my craft on myself and bear the marks of my errors.
  5. I was once paid to let a patient die, and keeping this secret has haunted me through my life.
  6. If I don’t think there’s any chance to save you, I won’t try.


Camp Follower
You grew up in military camps, following the army wherever it traveled. Perhaps you were the child of a soldier, or your family made their living selling supplies or services to the army they followed. In any case, you learned the ins and outs of camp life better than soldiers who had to set up camp and maintain their equipment while you explored or found work. You’re well familiar with the organization of military camps, and likely still have contacts in the military force you grew up around.
  • Skill Proficiencies: Survival, Persuasion
  • Tool Proficiencies: None
  • Languages: Two of your choice
  • Equipment: a simple weapon of your choice, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 10gp.

Feature: Fort Born
You know the building patterns and paths in military encampments and fortifications, including the hidden paths used to sneak through contraband to to the soldiers. You know how to look like you belong in forces too large for everyone to know each other, and where to get the symbols of different military units.

While traveling with a larger military force, you can eke out a poor or modest living (depending on the wealth and state of the military force) procuring goods and services for others in the camp.

Spoiler: Camp Follower Traits
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d6 Personality Trait
  • Requests are just orders in disguise.
  • I’m sure I can find whatever you’re looking to buy, for a finder’s fee.
  • I’m always looking for a chance to do an odd job.
  • I grew up watching what war did to people. I don’t want to experience it any more.
  • I know the story of a military tactic or strategy relevant to every situation I’m in.
  • I’ll treat anyone around me as a friend the moment I meet them, no matter how much they make my skin crawl.
d6 Ideal
  • I wish to pass more sights and see more people. (Any)
  • War brings desolation to so many. I wish to see the wars stop, or at least slow. (Good)
  • Commanders wield great power, and things will go best if I listen to them. (Lawful)
  • Desperate people will accept any terms for help, and I can always find someone more desperate than me. (Evil)
  • I’ve watched many soldiers required to follow commands that killed them. I’ll never do the same. (Chaos)
  • So many die in war. I just don’t want to be one of them. (Neutral)
d6 Bond
  • I was separated from my love during an attack on the baggage train. I hope they’re safe, wherever they are.
  • My family was in the army, and I grew up following along with the force they served.
  • I grew up around a particular castle or fort, and love it and its inhabitants.
  • I ran away from my old life to join the army. When they rejected me, I followed along as best I could.
  • An old veteran treated me as their own. They gave me their lucky charm on the eve of the battle in which they died.
  • I want to be a great and famous soldier.
d6 Flaw
  1. I once spied for the enemy on an army I followed before a disastrous battle. I fear I will be blamed for the defeat.
  2. I grew up being taught to hate a certain enemy, and my hatred of them is blind and unreasoning.
  3. Idyllic and peaceful environments put me on edge, certain something is going to surprise us.
  4. I’m become paranoid about my belongings being requisitioned or looted.
  5. I’m desensitized to violence.
  6. Fire and explosions fascinate me, and I forget to check where flames could spread before lighting one.


Cult Member
A variety of cults gather to learn secret methods of gaining power for themselves. You were born into such a cult or joined at an early age and grew up steeped in the priorities and customs of how such cults operate, whether or not you are a member.

When you choose this background, work with your DM to determine which cult you were a part of, how far through its ranks you progressed, and what kind of experiences you had while a member. Was the cult serving a particular creature? Was it trying to seize local power? Or perhaps it was intended to obtain secret knowledge.
  • Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception
  • Tool Proficiencies: Calligrapher’s Supplies, Disguise Kit, or Forgery Kit
  • Languages: One of your choice.
  • Equipment: An arcane focus or holy symbol of your choice, one set of tools of your choice, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 15gp

Dark Mark
You were transformed in some small way by the curse of a Devil, Demon, Hag, evil Genie, dark wizard, or other dark power and gained a dark mark, determined by rolling on the Dark Mark table.
Spoiler: Dark Mark Table
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d10 Dark Mark
  1. Your shadow appears to have horns, reach away from you, or otherwise take on a strange or disturbing shape.
  2. Your irises have turned solid black, clear, or appear to dance with flame.
  3. A tattoo shared by members of your cult, often featuring skulls, serpents, or other nasty imagery.
  4. When you write across your skin the ink quickly fades before reappearing with a reply.
  5. You have a tattoo of an eye, which moves around when no one is looking.
  6. Once each day a coin vanishes from your person. If no coin is available, you have a minor accident.
  7. Your nails grow sharp and your hands bony and ashen.
  8. You have a faint smell of ash and burnt meat.
  9. The cuts or burn marks covering your hands or face refuse to heal.
  10. Flames in your vicinity bend in your direction, as if trying to reach out and touch you.

Feature: In the Brotherhood
Secret organizations dwell in any place with enough people, and you know what to look for. You know where to locate the sigils and signs members of various organizations use to communicate and can follow them to contacts and hideouts. You don’t inherently what such signs mean or what countersigns could get you entry to such a group, but you can use them to locate members and hideouts.
While dressed in a manner which covers your specific features, you can easily avoid movements, verbal ticks, and gestures which would make it easier to discern your identity, and you can melt away into groups of others in the same regalia without effort.

Spoiler: Cult Member Traits
Show
d6 Personality Trait
  1. What I think is true, no matter what anyone else says. Or what anyone can show me.
  2. Everything that doesn’t go my way is the result of a great, shadowy conspiracy targeting me specifically.
  3. I can’t trust what anyone thinks, including myself. How do I know these actions won’t harm me?
  4. I’m afraid to openly disagree with people. How much power over me are they hiding?
  5. I’m always seeing signs of greater powers in the world and fret over what they want from me.
  6. Mundane details of the lives of other cultures fascinate me and disgust me.
d6 Ideal
  • Everyone should be free to choose their own path. No one should be inducted into organizations from birth. (Chaotic)
  • Where there is power to grab, I can use that power for my own ends. (Any)
  • True believers are superior, and we deserve power for it. (Evil)
  • I was taught cruelty and malice. I want to see what else the world has to offer. (Good)
  • The great powers control the world. I submit to their authority. (Lawful)
  • I am but a tiny speck, wishing to see more of the vast universe. (Any)
d6 Bond
  1. I have a friend still in the cult. I hope to ensure they get to safety—or that they rise to power.
  2. An outsider risked a lot to get me be out, and I owe them my life.
  3. Being separated from my fellow cultists wasn’t by choice. I hope to join them again.
  4. The dark power I served extended power to me. I want to warrant having it.
  5. Another cult member and I fell in love. They vanished one day and I never found out where they went.
  6. I joined the cult because I lost someone. I left when I learned there’s a chance of me finding them again.
d6 Flaw
  1. Anyone with a strongly held belief reminds me of my old cult, no matter what that belief is.
  2. Without someone to tell me what to do, I’ll get nothing done.
  3. I skip to violent methods of doing things. I forget other options exist.
  4. Having never been taught to consider evidence, I’m constantly flipping my opinion to fit the last thing I heard.
  5. Secretly, I can’t bring myself to believe what I preach to others.
  6. I have a voice no one else can hear. It has strange views on everything and I take its opinion very seriously.


Hauler
Goods always need to get to market, and someone needs to get them there. Grain, wood, stone, and may other products are heavy and difficult to transport, and you were one of the people who spent their days tying down crates or slabs of material before they started their long journey to the final market.
  • Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Intimidation
  • Tool Proficiencies: Choose one from between Mason’s Tools, Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water), or Woodworker’s Tools
  • Languages: One of your choice
  • Equipment: A crowbar, a 50 foot hempen rope, a set of block and tackle, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 10gp

Specialty
While the basic methods of moving bulky objects are the same no matter the object’s specific material, most haulers start moving cargo of a particular type or between two methods of transportation. Choose one to three specialties or roll on the table below to determine where you learned to tie down and move heavy loads.
Spoiler: Specialty Table
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d10 Specialty
  1. Trade Caravans
  2. Ports
  3. Canals
  4. Baggage Trains
  5. Smuggling Operations
  6. Foundries or Mills
  7. Marketplaces
  8. Lumberyards
  9. Mines or Quarries
  10. Airships

Feature: Load Lightener
If you have access to appropriate tools, you can move objects twice as heavy as those tools would normally allow. You can easily determine how to turn an object toward a particular spot without needing to lift it when such a thing is possible, and can easily determine how heavy objects were moved, including if they were brought to their current location by magic.
You can find work moving and fastening heavy objects in the places listed as specialties. While working in this manner, you receive free lodging and food of a modest standard, as long as you complete your assigned duties.

Spoiler: Hauler Traits
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d6 Personality Trait
  1. I pay close attention to objects around me, and feel compelled to point out when they’re likely to fall.
  2. I don’t like to waste words. I don’t need to talk to get my work done, and getting my work done is the important part.
  3. I love to put things together. The bigger the better.
  4. I’m always paying attention to what buildings are made of, and get excited by large scale construction.
  5. Everything can be moved, and I want to figure out how to move it.
  6. I am a master with a length of rope, and love showing off my skills.
d6 Ideal
  • All work is honest work, and all work is important to keep society functioning. (Good)
  • All of us working together is how we get things done. The top of a building couldn’t be there if the bottom was missing. (Lawful)
  • With us working together, everything must flow to the people. (Neutral)
  • I want to see what I can move as far as I can. (Chaos)
  • One day I will pull off the greatest haul in history. (Evil)
  • I want to develop a more effective method of transport. (Any)
d6 Bond
  1. Moving large loads is how I started providing for my family. I need to provide for them more.
  2. I’ve been working in transport for ages. These are my people, and I am one of them.
  3. I started working to support my beloved. As I started taking jobs farther away I saw them less often and eventually realised I’d lost track of them.
  4. My lucky peice of rope has saved my life on multiple occasions.
  5. I helped complete a particular monument, and will go to great lengths to protect it, its location, and those who worked with me to build it.
  6. Storage and transports are just as important and valuable as any other craft.
d6 Flaw
  1. I can only respect you if I can see the benefits your job brings to other honest workers.
  2. I’m haunted by the memory of someone crushed when a load came loose. I need to triple check everyone’s work.
  3. On the job, after the job, getting ready for the job; I need a strong drink.
  4. My skills are for letting me do as little as possible to get the job done.
  5. I’ll throw my weight around to get what I want, and I know how to throw weights.
  6. I assume I’ll be able to put back together anything I take apart, an insist I’ll know how to do so.


House Servant
In a world with few magical devices to dust rugs, clean chamber pots, cook, and bring in the food people must perform these tasks instead. In most societies there exists a lower class professionally trained in this subject, often trained and affirmed by an older servant who recommends them to early work, from which they develop the reputation they rely on for future work.
You learned your trade in a merchant’s home or noble's estate, and moved through your career from there. When you choose this background, work with your DM to establish where this wealthy patron is and where you’ve found work. since then. Additionally, consider what caused you to leave your employment and set out for adventure.
  • Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Sleight of Hand
  • Tool Proficiencies: None
  • Languages: Two of your choice
  • Equipment: A steel mirror, two pieces of soap, a set of fine clothes, and a pouch containing 15 gp

Feature: Manor Passage
You know the internal design of large buildings and can easily locate and open the passages servants use to get around unseen. Servants of a manor or household will usually allow you to pass by without comment, and you know the good excuses to get through without being mentioned to those with status. Other servants will typically also allow you to recuperate for a short while in their quarters and talk, but they will not risk anything to protect you, especially if they are aware of a crime committed in the area.
While in a city or around noble estates you can find work as a house servant. While working in this manner, you receive free lodging and food of a poor, modest, or comfortable standard (depending on the status of the owner), as long as you complete your assigned duties.

Spoiler: House Servant Traits
Show
d6 Personality Trait
  1. I must always be cleaning and can’t stand a mess.
  2. If you were going to request a household item, I have it ready right here.
  3. I’m ready with a sardonic quip on a moment’s notice for any situation.
  4. I love knowing what the movers and shakers are doing and I will do whatever I need to find out.
  5. I can’t handle the spotlight. Let me stay in the shadows, the sidelines, the other room.
  6. A minute spent idling is a minute wasted.
d6 Ideal
  1. We must accept our lot in life and make the most of it. (Lawful)
  2. If we weren’t all doing our work, everything would come to a halt. (Neutral)
  3. Each house I serve is just a stepping stone to power of my own. (Evil)
  4. The divide between the people I serve and the people I work with is how much money they have, nothing else. (Good)
  5. I want to see all the lastest fads and trends, even if I can’t participate in them. (Chaotic).
  6. This is the closest job to nobility; I must be a master of my craft. (Any)
d6 Bond
  1. The other servants of the household and I are always working together; we are a family too.
  2. I must always be ready to provide for the person paying my bills.
  3. My family never had the chances I’ve been offered. I want to extend it to them.
  4. A family I served took me in and cared for me when I was in desperate straights and I owe them my life.
  5. I fell in love with a member of a family I used to serve, and hope to be worthy of them.
  6. The tools of my trade are as important to me as the hammer and anvil are to a smith.
d6 Flaw
  1. I stole from someone I once worked for, and am terrified this fact could come to light.
  2. As far as I am concerned, my employer’s word is law.
  3. I’m a terrible klutz and am constantly dropping, defacing, or otherwise ruining things I try to handle.
  4. I’ll sabotage anyone trying to take my job—and who doesn’t want my job?
  5. I’m an incurable gossip.
  6. The superiority of those I serve extends to me.


Pastoralist
While dairy farms are typically adjacent to towns, other forms of pastoralism are done beyond the farms which feed cities, after which the animals are brought in “on the hoof,” to be butchered and sold. You grew up in the fields where these animals grazed, collecting lost animals, keeping watch for predators, and taking the herd between the summer and winter fields.
  • Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Athletics
  • Tool Proficiencies: One instrument of your choice
  • Languages: One of your choice
  • Equipment: One goat, pig, caribou (deer), llama, mule, pony, or other appropriate piece of livestock, an instrument of your choice, a quarterstaff, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp
Feature: Speak to the Animals
Using simple gestures, you can understand what beasts are trying to tell you. You are no more able to persuade animals and others, but are able to notice and understand when animals are trying to communicate something, what they are trying to communicate.
This ability is not supernatural in any manner, and only applies to beasts with whom you are familiar.

Spoiler: Pastoralist Personality Traits
Show
d6 Personality Trait
  1. I can’t stand to see an animal suffer.
  2. Riches, machinery, and politics confuse and baffle me. There’s was no room for such things in my own life.
  3. I keep an eye on everyone around me, preferably from a reclining position.
  4. I never waste words.
  5. We survive by our hard work, and I will work hard to survive.
  6. The hustle and bustle of the city worry and unnerve me. I’m for more comfortable on an empty hillside or an open field.
d6 Ideal
  1. As I care for the animals I raised, so too must we all care for each other. (Good)
  2. I run the flock, I shear and milk and butcher it, and I’ll decide I take from it and when. (Evil)
  3. Just as the plants the herd eats are ruled by the seasons, so too are we ruled by the phases of life. (Lawful)
  4. Each of the animals have a will of their own, and so do all of us. We should be free to peruse that will. (Chaos)
  5. I am as one with nature as the wild folk are, and I find it much more peaceful to live in. (Neutral)
  6. Our relationships are based on circumstance. This morning’s enemy may well be helpful now. (Any)
d6 Bond
  1. I bond to anyone I’m travelling with as fast as I bond to the herd I keep.
  2. The riches of the herd come from the land they graze. My life comes from this land, and I will protect it.
  3. My herd trusts me with their lives. I must rise to deserve the trust of these sweet animals.
  4. My family was betrayed by former friends, leaving us destitute. Someday I will get my revenge.
  5. I dream of secretly being the lost heir to a distant throne.
  6. I will greet fellow shepherds as my closest friends.
d6 Flaw
  1. I treat people as kindly as I do my animals. I’m sure you’re just as smart as they are.
  2. I consider everyone to be either a sheep or a shepherd, a predator or prey.
  3. I forget people can be reasoned with, and just try to herd them toward whatever I think they should do.
  4. City folk are unskilled and scheming. Outlanders are brutish thieves. Whoever you are, I have a stereotype to slap on you.
  5. A day spent sweating with effort is a day wasted. I’d much rather watch the animals graze.
  6. I have no respect for anyone still asleep past sunrise.
Spoiler: Llama
Show
Medium beast, unaligned

Armor Class 9
Hit Points 7 (2d8-2)
Speed40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
13 (+1) 9 (-1) 9 (-1) 5 (-3) 9 (-1) 7 (-2)
Senses passive Perception 9
Languages–
Challenge 0 (10xp)
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 3 (1d4 + 1) bludgeoning
Spit. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 10/15ft., one target. Hit 1 bludgeoning damage.