Fortunately, Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition has a lot of different options for games like this. They have come out with Princes of the Apocalypse, Curse of Strahd, and so many more that you can run for your game, but the question is, how do you run them to the best of your ability? Now, I’m not going to be the best person to talk about this, because I do like homebrewed games better and running those, but I do have a few things that I think could be useful.

Firstly, read through the whole campaign before you play. This might seem like it’s a lot of up front work, and it is, and maybe that’s what you’re trying to avoid, but you need to know how the story is going to go. That is going to allow you as the DM to plan out your sessions and not stumble over text and dialogue that might be written in there for you. It also means that you know what elements to really focus on. There would be a lot of desire to just run straight through it, but maybe one thing is just a throw away line and if you put too much emphasis on that, you could derail your own game.

Reading through the story is also going to let you know if there’s anything that you need to cut from the game. Maybe you’re group is not at all combat focused and the campaign book has a lot of different combats in it that are very common. You’d be able to drop them out pretty quickly or make them more of a set piece for the players that is just more descriptive than it is tactical and dice focused. Or you could lean more into the combat, make the random encounters less random.

Prep sessions. Now, you should always do at least some of that, and I still do some with homebrewed stuff so I know where I want to go with it. But I actually think that you might need more prep for running a written module because you need to know that beats that you are planning for the session. But know where things are, know what NPC’s your players might meet. Know where they might go so that you aren’t spending a lot of time flipping through the book when you could be playing.

Don’t be afraid to adlib/go off script. Not really something you can plan for, but just know that it’ll happen at some point in time. Your players will lose focus and go off script of what dialogue the game might provide for you. You need to be able to go off script, have conversations with NPC’s who might not exist but that your players create for you, or maybe they’ll go down a rabbit trail with another NPC or rabbit trail a quest into something bigger than it would have been. If you know the material from the module, you’ll have the tools to make something that still falls in line with what has been done before.

Now, the biggest thing is really that first item, if you know your material well, you don’t need to prep as much and you’ll be more prepared to go off script, so read through that module a few times. Beyond that, have fun with it. If you’re a new DM, put in the work of knowing the material and the game will go well. And when you mess something up or it takes a bit to find something, or you get a piece of lore wrong, that’s okay, even with a module, it’s still your game, so have a good time with it.

Have you run modules, what do you do to prepare? Do you have any tips for running a premade adventure?

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Ravenloft is the home to the Vampire Strahd who has been trapped there and lives an eternal life. All the people are trapped there in fact, and in the 5th Edition Adventure, The Curse of Strahd, characters are pulled from the Forgotten Realms into Ravenloft. Not just the people, but souls as well. There is no rest for anyone, because when you die your soul will be put into the next child born. And if there are more people than souls, so be it, those people are shells of people going about their routines that have been created for them.

Most of the games that you’re going to play in Ravenloft are going to be surrounding trying to lift the curse and take out Strahd. Even if it means that you can’t leave Ravenloft, to let souls be able to leave and have rest is going to be a driving force to the game. And campaigns in Ravenloft are going to be more deadly by nature because resurrection magics don’t work in the setting, so if you’re dead, you’re dead and your soul will be reborn, but you won’t be adventuring anymore. Granted, there’s a chance that if you die, you’re just becoming a vampire and joining Strahd’s undead.

When thinking about this setting, besides the vampire, it’s going to feel different because instead of the more traditional fantasy feeling houses, this world is going to have that run down Victorian era feel to it. And there are going to be things, cults, monsters, and the like, hiding around the corners. This is going to be a good setting for that spooky horror game as it’s going to feel more familiar to the players because it’s less steeped in fantasy. A downside to this is that you can’t play many/any other types of game in Ravenloft. There’s a lot of dark things to toy around with and you can focus on different pieces of it, though it’s likely to come back to Strahd in the end, but there is no grand world to travel through, there are mists that keep adventurers from being able to escape Raveloft and Strahd’s reach. So try as they might, the only momentary release from the darkness of the world is death. For that reason, you’re not likely to find happy NPC’s around Ravenloft as well. They are going to be feeling the weight of the darkness that locks them in the lands, and even though they don’t know who their soul was previously or have those memories, they’re going to be feel the weight of being reborn again and again.

This sort of setting is going to work well for some groups. I think that I could enjoy running or playing a game in it, but there has to be buy in that this is the type of game that you’re going to be playing. It’s going to be more depressing than your normal fantasy, and if you have new players, it’s not going to be what they expect from Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know that Ravenloft is an advanced setting, I would say more so that it’s a setting that you need to warn people about. And not just once in passing, repeat it when picking to play in this setting, because it will feel different than they are expecting. But it does offer a lot of options in terms of delving into that spooky sort of game.

Have you played in the lands of Ravenloft and fought against the Vampire Strahd? How do you like it compared to the more fantasy focused worlds of D&D?

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Forgotten Realms
This is a high fantasy setting where you’re going to see all the content (almost) from Wizards of the Coast coming out in. It’s your typical fantasy setting where Dwarves act like Dwarves and Elves act like Elves. This setting can be seen as a little bit vanilla in how standard it is, but it also makes it an amazing jumping off point for new players because it has a level of familiarity to it. The main cities in the Forgotten Realms are going to be Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate.

Eberron
Eberron is a very different setting than your typical fantasy setting. Magic is basically used as technology in this world. And it isn’t just a world where you have your standard races that you can play, there are shifters, changlings, and monstrous races that you can play as well. What also makes this setting unique is that the setting and call the adventures are set after this great war has ended when a country wiped off the map do to some cataclysm, but it’s never stated what it is, so it leaves it open for players and DM’s to decide for their campaign. The setting is very pulp and noir in it’s feel.

Ravenloft
Another different sort of setting where it’s less your standard fantasy setting and more focused on a Victorian Gothic setting. It is also going to be focused on a lower level of magic. The land is ruled by a vampire, Strahd, that is basically locked into the cursed land and most adventures set in Ravenloft are going to be about finding out Strahd’s history and then dealing with him. In 5th Edition the Curse of Strahd adventure pulls players from the Forgotten Realms and sticks them into this setting that is different than the world that they know and they are stuck there until they can defeat Strahd, if they ever leave.

Dragonlance
One of the first, if not the first D&D setting, Dragonlance is going to be another epic fantasy setting. The world is greatly influenced by the deities and a lot of the stories revolve around the good deities fighting the evil deities or the return of dragons after centuries of absence. It’s going to be much more in the standard version of fantasy and another good jumping off world that you could use to introduce Dungeons and Dragons.

Grey Hawk
As compared to the epic fantasy settings, Grey Hawk is more of a sword and sorcery setting. It is going to be darker and more dangerous for your characters. Magic is going to be less common than some settings. Grey Hawk is more of a world that is on it’s way out and the adventures that you might be more about keeping the world going versus bringing the world into a new great place which some Epic Fantasy stories can focus on more so.

Spelljammer
Now, if you want something completely different. Spelljammer is kind of a setting, but it can hit up most settings as you have magically powered space ships. This is going to be a game where you want to hop between a lot of worlds, have grand space exploration sort of adventures, versus a more traditional traveling adventure like Lord of the Rings. It really isn’t something that they’d call it’s own setting anymore, but it’s something that you could easily focus on to move between the worlds in your own campaign.

Dark Sun
This used to be a great world, but now, magic has defiled and the land and use of magic can make it even worse. And there is a god-like Sorcerer King who is ruling and can you stay out of their wrath or will they crush you and your party as you try to survive the harsh lands. Dark Sun is going to be a lower magic game that is much more focused on the survival throughout the lands and avoiding the halflings who are jungle cannibals. There are some new races that you can play in this setting as well and one of the biggest types of magic is psionics.

Birthright
If you want to play that extremely epic nation level game, Birthright is going to be the setting of you. In Birthright every player is going to be connected to a nation and have some sort of royal blood. These campaigns are going to be more about that nation ruling, epic wars, versus that smaller adventuring party. Birthright is a setting you’re going to have to come up with or tweak combat for to make it done at a bigger scale.

Planescape
This setting wraps several planes of existence into a single setting. It also takes it out of the normal medieval fantasy setting and puts it into a more Victorian and pseudo-steam punk world. There is a city of Sigil which is the home base for the players and is generally where you are going to be sending them out to the other planes to have their adventures and then returning back to Sigil to resupply, recover, and get new adventures.

Now, that’s just the start of Dungeons and Dragons settings. There are new ones being created as well as old ones that might come back. Most of these settings don’t have official books for fifth edition, but if you find older world setting books, you’d be able to turn them into something that you can use in 5e.

Do you have a favorite setting or is there a setting that you’ve really wanted to play in?

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I’m taking the vampire from D&D 5e Roll 20 which can be found here.

The first thing we have to do is change it’s weakness. It’s supposed to take damage in the sunlight, but that’s clearly not the case. They just instead, sparkled. Shudder. And to do that, you give them a new trait called ‘Sparkliness’. In this, they now have disadvantage on stealth in the sunlight. Not only that, they also cannot surprise someone when out in sunlight. Oh, vampire wants to sneak up on you during the day, yeah, there’s a beacon from miles away. They can still “hide” in that they can still get partial to  full cover from hiding, but you’ll never, as a player, wonder where the vampire is.

Next, to keep the vampires in proper alignment with the writing level of the book, you have to remove 10 from the intelligence stat. Those aren’t well written books, and while I haven’t actually read a whole one of them, I have seen experts, and I did watch the first movie, so I can say, these vampires are a little bit dumb. Probably drop 5 from wisdom as well, and you got the average Twilight vampire. We’ll leave the charisma alone, because apparently teenage girls still like them.

Finally, build wise, to get the full flavor, we have to look at their charm ability. Like I said above, they have a high charisma, so that means that they should be smooth and charming, but charm isn’t really accurate. It would make more sense to reflavor this ability as brooding. The rest of the ability can stay the same, but whenever you refer to the effect, it shall be known as brooding.

So how do you work this monster into your game?

I would do the satirical version of Curse of Strahd. Make the world as light and happy as possible. The vampire brings the adventurers to this realm so that they can help him find his long lost love. By long lost love, I mean the manic pixie dream girl whom he happened to see in the flower shop next to his massive gothic manor once, a week ago, and has determined that he is madly in love with her. He has a lot of quests for them to go on, once they have found the girl. They have to try and find out what she likes, they have to figure out what type of flowers to get her, they have to find a book of poetry that fits her personality just right because he’s just too brooding and quiet to do any of that on his own. Eventually, things will come to a head and the girl will tell him that she just needs the freedom to be her and that nothing can truly pin her down. Then, the already brooding vampire becomes more brooding, and it affects the weather so that it always raining. Actually, this could just be the history of Strahd that you play before the Curse of Strahd.

Tune in next time for more bad ideas in the Monster Factory. If you have any funny/dumb characters to build that can be used as monsters in your games, feel free to go ahead and send me ideas on Twitter, you can find my information below.

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The criminal background is one that in a game where you want to be the heroes, needs to be worked with carefully. There’s a thin line between being a hero and being a villain. In the Curse of Strahd game that I’m running, they were in a shop, the rogue character (don’t even think with criminal background) steals something, gets caught because they rolled a bad stealth check. Happened again when the rogue tried to flirt their way into getting a free drink from the married bartender who’s wife then promptly kicked that character out again.

When thinking about playing someone whose background is criminal, think about how you can play into the trope in some ways, but also it might be more interesting to play against type. In the case of the rogue in Curse of Strahd, hopefully she’ll start playing against type so that her character then realizes that they kind of suck as a criminal and reform their ways. Think about a criminal as someone who has come from a past of crime and is now an adventurer. What changed for them, are they still indebted to anyone, are they still an active criminal? There are a lot of ways that you can go beyond, I just like the looks of shiny things so I take them.

Now, I’ve just given the example of the thief criminal, but that might not be your thing. Maybe you don’t ever steal anything, but you’ve been a smuggler for a little while and you get caught up having to rescue a princess from a man in a black suit who then turns out to be her father. I might have heard that one from somewhere else. You can also a be a blackmailer or an enforcer for the local thieves guild. These probably set-up more interesting stories a lot of the time than the standard burglar who steals rings off of rich women in town because the rings are shiny.

I love nature and I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to protect nature. However, that wasn’t making a lot of money for me. People don’t pay you money when you save the rabbit caught in a snare from certain death, and they think that you’re driving off the goblins in the woods so that they are safe (still won’t pay you), not so that there are fewer creatures trying to kill the deer. One day, there was a band of brigands who came into the woods. They injured an owlbear and placed it into a cage. I could see it was gravely wounded and I went to release it and help it. I’m not that sneaky, however, and they caught me, but not until I had bandaged up the owlbears wound.  They kept  me around to keep the owlbear alive for the collector whom they had captured it for. They saw the work I had done and offered me a choice, keep helping them smuggle animals and keep them alive or they’d kill me. I knew that they wouldn’t stop smuggling animals if I was dead, so I agreed to help. It wasn’t until they got in over their head fighting a roc that I was able to make my escape, and that was a decade later. Now I’m going to get revenge on that collector and release his collection back into the wild where they belong, but I need some help doing that.

Class: Druid
Alignment: Neutral Good

It’s a silly life, but it pays way better than you’d think. That’s what I told my friends when they wondered how I lived so well, while I was a hairdresser. I have the gift of gab, and the court ladies love to have their friends over and talk, and I talk with them, but mainly I listen and I remember. I’m just the hairdresser, why would they be worried about little old me. You wouldn’t believe the gossip and rumors and scandals that you hear about as a hairdresser, but  I’ve found that it’s good to believe and remember them. When you know something really juicy, you can get a lot of money. The wife whose husbands position will be ruined if the king found out that he was fixing horse races, including the one at the royal tournament. They won good money from that, and I got good money from them. They tell you to quit when you’re ahead, but this seemed like the perfect con. An anonymous source threatened to ruin them, they paid that anonymous source money, and I kept cutting their hair. Then, whoops, my gift of gab got me in trouble with a duchess, accidentally spilled a detail that she really didn’t need to know. Now, it’s off with my head, if they can catch me.

Class: Bard
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral/Evil
This maybe should be an alignment that’s chaotic evil. It’s a little bit Loki like in just being someone who is out for a good time and doesn’t really care about others. However, if you run this as the characters only scam/criminal activity and they are doing it because it fell into their laps, it could be chaotic neutral.

I’m the wheel man. When there’s something shady going down in town and they need a fast and effective getaway, they call me. My rules are simple, no kidnappings, no killing, no stealing from those in need. If you meet those requirements, I’ll deal with you. I guarantee that you will get away, if not, it’s going to be my head on the block too. One night, I’m doing my job, waiting along a side hill, just out of sight from the mayors house. I hear some screaming up at the house, guess that someone caught them and they would be booking it back to me. Sure enough, five minutes later, the two toughs who hired me came crashing through the woods, though, I knew this was different than normal. In my torch light, I could see that one had their sword drawn, and there was blood on it and on them. I didn’t bother waiting for them, that’s my rule, no killing. I road down the one guy who was injured and shouted a warning what I would do to the other if he told on me. Turns out, he was more scared of his boss than he was of me, if I’d known who his boss had been from the start, I wouldn’t have taken the job. I heard within hours, he squealed to the cops and not only that, but a crime boss from the big city was coming out to our little town. I booked it and now I’m on the run. I hope with my mask that I’ll have remained an unknown and harder to stop, especially traveling with these goody two shoes

Class: Fighter (they commonly get access to steeds that would make them a solid option)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
I’ve said that I try and avoid the evil alignments because if you’re running a campaign with a bunch of heroes and one person is evil, it can make it tough. However, I think this offers an interesting role playing option for someone who is p laying this background. This character is clearly evil and clearly has well defined rules, if you’re up for it as a player, make this your characters redemption story. Slowly change them from evil into a lawful neutral so that instead of just being worried about their own skin, that now they are worried about more and have put their past behind them. It could offer some really awesome role playing moments if you get into it.

As a kid, my parents and everyone in my town was afraid of me. That was fine with me, I liked being on my own. I was playing in the woods one day by myself, creeping along following some of the hunters who were in the woods when I realized I’d picked up my own tail. There were some bad men following the hunters and I decided to get the drop on them. It was easier than I thought to kill a man, but that made people in town even more afraid of me. They sent me off to the temples, hoping that one of them would be able to fix me. Then I found the temple of the Raven Queen. Her priestesses told me of how there were those who had lived past their time and who needed to die. They were bad people who had made unholy deals to stay alive, and they needed someone on their payroll to take out these men. I became their hired killer and I was good at it, until I ran across the one who they only called the ancient one. None of their other hired killers had managed to get the ancient one, and I thought I could do it. I quickly realized that I couldn’t and I ran away, now I’m trying to find those who can help me take care of the ancient one before I return to the temple of the Raven Queen.

Class: Paladin
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Just a little bit of information, the Raven Queen is the Goddess of death, and sees death as a natural thing. She really frowns upon it when those who should be dead aren’t dead because of some nefarious means in this example, and because of that, she’d be sending out someone who isn’t evil to do this work.

Have you played someone with a criminal background before? What are some interesting twists on the criminal background to make a more fully developed character than someone who is just greedy and wants to steal shiny things?

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What is a Background?

Seems like a pretty straightforward question and answer. A background is what your character did prior to becoming an adventurer. The less straightforward part is that your character might not have done that thing in a while. For example, if you were an urchin and you’re now 50 years old, you weren’t an urchin that recently. It can also be very recently, though; maybe your adventuring started when you, with the criminal background, were caught by the owner of a mansion and instead of reporting you, they were impressed by your skills, so they hired you to do a job for them and leave them alone, and that’s where the game is starting.

I like it when players use their background to enhance a mystery or something in their backstory that I as the DM can grab onto as a plot hook. It doesn’t have to be a huge plot hook, but if there is something interesting, like an intriguing NPC or place or monster that is in your background, that helps me flesh out the world so that as a player, you feel more connected. Even if you’ve closed your past off — everyone is dead, I now have a traumatic event that happened in my past, etc. — how do you react when something like that happens again?

How Much Should You Use the Book for Backgrounds?

This is a situation where there isn’t really a right answer. As much or as little as you need to. The nice thing about the backgrounds from the player handbook (PHB) is that it helps you figure out things like flaws, personality traits, etc. if you’re having troubles or you only have a loose idea. The downside is that sometimes people feel beholden to use the ones that are in the book. I let my players tweak things as needed, or if they have an idea for a flaw, bond, personality trait, or ideal already, we make it so it works in the game. What you’re trying to avoid is making a character that is Batman and who doesn’t really have a personality, flaw, or bond.

Wait, What’s All in a Background?

A background is something that you’ve done in your past that was an important part of your life. We kind of covered that in the first part, but this is something that defines you heavily at the start of your game. Things can change as your character develops and as possible flaws are overcome or bonds aren’t bonds anymore. Let’s talk about the different parts of a background, though.

You generally start by picking out a single background — it might be that you were an urchin or criminal as mentioned above, but maybe you spent most of your life studying and were a sage, or you did something amazing and became a folk hero. There are a number of these options in the PHB and more in other books. I don’t have all of the other books yet, but I’ll probably be adding some as time goes on.

In each background, you have a few tables that you can roll on or pick from, and this is what I was talking about in the above section. Each background has a table containing personality traits, and then tables for flaws, bonds, and ideals as well. You can roll on them and get a random one to help you figure out your characters backstory, or you can pick, choose, and alter them so that they fit the backstory you already had planned for your character.

The reason that they do this is to give you a spot to start roleplaying from. It helps you fish around less to start a game to find your character if you have a baseline. It also gives you some things, like different proficiency depending on the background you took. Maybe as a Sage you are now proficient in investigation and knowledge about the arcane, but for a criminal background, it might be that you are proficient at sleight of hand and deception. Along with that, it gives you some ability or trait that you can use. For example, if you are a soldier, even retired, other soldiers still recognize your rank. Or if you’re a Guild Artisan, you can also go to the guild of your craft, but those seem to come up less. It also gives you some gear, if you’re getting gear that way, and possibly some more languages.

What If I Have Multiple Backgrounds?

Now that you’ve heard more about different backgrounds, you might be thinking that you fall into multiple categories. That’s certainly possible, so I’m going to go into story mode with you and talk about two different characters, Silver and Syldi.

Silver had a rough life and saw many horrible things. He didn’t know all of what was going on, but has been haunted by some of it. He also didn’t grow up well and was on the street and poor as an urchin. Those two things shaped him into the god-fearing man he is today. So, when Silver was looking at different backgrounds, the player didn’t feel like a single one quite fit. So instead of just picking one, he combined two. He took the skill proficiency, and gear from just one, but when building out his bonds, personality traits, flaws, and ideals, he worked from both lists. That’s one way you can get a couple of backgrounds into the same character.

Syldi, on the other hand, grew up on the street, barely making it. She had to steal from street vendors and eventually caught the eye of the local thieves’ guild. She started working with them until she was able to land on her feet and become a bartender (at least part-time) at the Queen’s Retreat. Syldi would make sense to have a combination of criminal and urchin background. However, Syldi was a thief because of necessity, not because it’s something that she really wanted to do. Her being a criminal wasn’t a defining feature of her as compared to being an urchin, and while she has thief skills (and is actually a Rogue with the archetype of thief), those are because she was an urchin, not because she was a criminal. So, that’s one kind of thing you can lean into; maybe there is one that is more important so that is the one you really get your skills from.

But What if None of Them Are Right?

With Dungeons & Dragons, playing the game and creating characters is more of an art than a science, I’d say. If you can’t find something that works as well as you’d hoped, work with your DM. Maybe the Sage options don’t quite match what you are looking for, because you want to be a student still, and a sage seems like they’d know too much. Work with your DM on it — maybe there are parts you can use from the sage, but then tweak the other parts or come up with your own. There’s nothing that says that you can’t come up with your own background, and if you have a great idea for one, run it by your Dungeon Master.

However, if your background idea gives you four new skills, a bank full of platinum pieces, and the ability to mind control any person within twenty miles of you into giving you their home as your own so you always have a spot to stay, that might be a bit overboard, and as a DM, I’m going to nix that. Certainly, though, come up with your own ideas and skills within reason. Even if you only get a couple of skills like most classes do, don’t give yourself the option of the two best ones for yourself; look at how other backgrounds do it and balance that out on your own. Your student might have skills that look more like a sage, but maybe you’re a student of martial arts; if so, don’t give yourself investigation and stealth because those seem the handiest. You’re probably not getting much investigating done if you’re practicing your sweet kung fu moves.

The same goes with your background traits such as personality, bond, flaws, and ideals. You probably don’t have a personality trait that everyone always likes you. If you suggested that as a personality trait in a game that I’m running, I’d either tell you just get the Charm Person spell or that maybe it’s your flaw — you think everyone likes you. Or, if you decide that your bond is to the empire because you’re the sister of the emperor, that can work, but don’t expect that to get you what you want. You’re going to have to defend the empire against the common folk who think the emperor sucks, and oh, by the way, while it opens a lot of noble doors for you, the emperor is pretty sure you’re trying to steal his throne, but thanks for the plot hook.

Basically, just be reasonable about it. I’ll nix anything as a DM if it is too strong. However, if your DM isn’t going to do that, don’t take advantage of it. The game is meant to be fun for everyone, so come up with your really fun background that the DM is going to enjoy and that you’re going to enjoy; just don’t take away from the fun of the other players.

Finally, What’s the Difference between a Background and Backstory?

This is a question that is pretty simple. Your background is basically your skills that you gained through your backstory. The backstory you choose is going to be what really shapes who you are as a character, and you can slot your background into it. That means, if you’ve spent your whole life apprenticing to be an armorer in the mines of Moria, you don’t have the criminal background. You can work at it from either direction; you can use your background to create your backstory and use those traits, bonds, flaws, and ideals to flesh out what happened to you. Or you can work it from the other direction, where you have a story and pick the background that works for you in that backstory.

Now that you have an idea of how backgrounds work, we’re going to delve more into some of them, and I’ll be giving examples like I did with the classes as to how you can use backgrounds and potentially turn them into something different than what your typical sage or urchin or criminal is like.

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Warlocks are one of the more interesting classes. A Warlock makes a pact with another entity of some sort to get their powers. It’s the “deal with the devil at the crossroads” sort of idea. You get power, but the power comes at a cost, and you have someone who can take away your power if you don’t do what they want. You can make a pact with a fiend, a great old one, a fey, or even a blade, and they’ll become your patron. The reason this makes for interesting storytelling is that no matter who you are, there has to be something in your history that shows why you made the deal you’ve made. People generally make deals for a couple of reasons — either to help someone they love, or to hurt someone who hurt them or someone they loved.

Mechanically, you are a simplified spell caster. You don’t have the spell options that a Sorcerer, Wizard, or Druid would have — probably more on level with a Paladin in terms of number of spells. However, the spells themselves are very limited, and you don’t have the weapon proficiency that a Paladin would have. You get a nice advantage in that your spell casting is based off of Charisma — this means that you get to have some face-of-the-party abilities as well. Generally, that charisma seems to be balanced out role-playing-wise by some level of twistedness or some broken part of your character, as again, the inciting incident for becoming a warlock generally isn’t good.

Let’s look at some ideas for Warlock backstories:

You watched in horror as your father and mother cried. Your life had been normal up to this point, but at 16, when you came of age, the told you a horrible secret. At your birth, you hadn’t been alive. You had been stillborn, and your parents didn’t know what to do. They had been trying for a child for so long, but it hadn’t worked out until your mother got pregnant with you. They cried, pleaded, hoped, and prayed, but you were dead. And then a voice had come to them, and time seemed to stop. “You wish to save your child?” it had asked them. They had told the voice that yes, that they would do anything. “Your child can live, but there is a price. On their sixteenth birthday, they are mine to do my bidding when I need them.” In their grief, they had agreed. And now, as a 16-year-old, you got powers that you never would have imagined — and along with that, a curse, as your parents still didn’t know who had brought you back to life. You felt a tug on you, and you left your home searching for answers as to whom they had made a deal with, to figure out if there was a way you could get out of the deal. However, you hadn’t been trained to study, so you needed to find someone to help you, someone who could determine whom the deal was made with.

Background: Haunted (Curse of Strahd) or Guild Member (?)
Patron: Great Old One

You found the blade as you cleared lands for your farm. You and your new spouse were building near where their family lived. The blade didn’t seem like it was anything special. You brought it back and placed it above the fireplace mantel. You weren’t a fighter, but it didn’t feel right to leave the blade out in the woods. A raiding party of giants came out of the hills, and while they hadn’t been seen in a while, there were many more that you’d expected, based on the stories people had told about them. Your farm was in their path, and you rushed from the far fields back home in hopes of getting to your spouse in time. You got back to the farmhouse just before the giants came, and bursting into the house, you saw your spouse hiding in the corner. The giant crashed into the house, and the whole thing shook. You could see through a window that they were going to strike again to bring down your house on top of you and your spouse. You grabbed the sword from the mantel, knowing that in your hands, it wasn’t going to be effective. But you felt a jolt of energy and a voice in your head that asked you if you accepted its power. “To protect my spouse, yes.” That’s what you said out lout, and the power flowed into you. With a lucky dash and blow, you took down the giant. The rest fled after seeing someone to stand up to them, but they are still raiding out there. You left your spouse with their parents and have vowed to finish off the giants and then return.

Background: Folk Hero
Patron: Hexblade

The best time of the year was when the peddler came through town. The adults liked it because they were able to replace things that had broken and hear the news of the world; the kids loved it because the peddler always told great stories and could make them laugh. They could even do a little bit of magic. The peddler had been coming around for generations to your village, and you knew a number of his stories by heart. When everyone had gone to bed one night, you couldn’t sleep because you were too excited to see the peddler. He’d come in late that night, so he hadn’t been able to tell any stories. You snuck out of your bedroom and into the inn next door where he was staying. You were able to go and find his room, and timidly, you knocked on his door. He answered, looking a little tired, but fully dressed and with a jovial smile on his face. He let you into his room, and he told you a story, then asked if you wanted to be able to help him and tell stories like he did. You said yes, of course — what child wouldn’t want to be like him? He smiled and bent down to touch your head. You felt power go through you, and he told you that you were his. When he left the village a few days later, he hid you away in his cart, and you learned from him. Then one day, he disappeared without leaving you a message. You found out that he and his cart weren’t appreciated in some towns — something to do with the mayor’s daughter — and soon, those stories cropped up in more and more towns, and people hated you. Now you need to find him again to get a normal life back.

Background: Guild Member or Entertainer
Patron: Archfey

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The Wizard is one of the classiest classes already without doing much to class it up (well, kind of…mainly I just want to write this sentence). There is some truth to this,though, because Wizards, as magic users, don’t get their power by an act of a god, through nature, by making a pact, or by a twist of fate. They are the scholars of the Dungeons & Dragons world. Wizards put time and effort into learning spells, honing their skills, and focusing their studies. Wizards cast based off of their intelligence, and can learn many spells by translating them into what they need it to be to cast the spell. This means that the wizard doesn’t have as hard a cap on spells known as some of the other classes.

Because it is more of a scholarly pursuit, there are a number of different courses of study that a wizard can go into. They could study evocation or divination or necromancy, and whatever they’ve chosen to study, they become better at that area than other wizards. This does in some ways limit the logical routes for backgrounds and backstories. As a wizard, you have to have at least some level of knowledge and schooling to be able to cast spells and learn spells. How you can change it up is how you learned, where you learned, and whom you learned from. You can also, especially with races that live longer like Elves and Dwarves, have been out of school for a long time. A human wizard is likely going to be more recently out of school.

So, what are some backstories that you could use?

You don’t know who your parents were. You don’t even know what town or country you are from, really, though you’ve started to search out clues. Being kidnapped as a young child is always terrifying, even more so when you are kidnapped by a mad wizard who wants to eventually put her mind into your body and become an all-powerful lich. She didn’t want the body of a child though, so she trained you and taught you so that you could help her. That was all that you needed — when you figured out what she was planning, you started planning as well. Then, as she got weaker and it grew closer to the time when she was planning becoming a lich and steal your body, you struck first. You killed her — or at least, you killed her human form. But what you hadn’t realized was that she was prepared to become a lich even if she couldn’t get your body. Now you’ve got to learn more so that you can destroy her and the power you unleashed upon the world.

Background: Folk Hero(?)/Haunted (from Curse of Strahd)
Wizard Class: Necromancy

School was not your thing. It wasn’t that you were a bad student, but it was so boring and dry. You wanted your life to be more exciting, so you goofed off in class, always making amazing illusions that you entertained your classmates with. This didn’t really endear you to the teachers, and before you were set to graduate, you were expelled for causing one too many disruptions. That was okay; you’d learned what you wanted to know. You took your show on the road and performed all over, from small towns of simple villagers to big cities in front of nobility. Life was great. Then you started to notice strange things happening in a number of the small towns and villages you went around to. You weren’t sure what was going on, but with your entertaining, you can open doors and talk to people. Now you just need someone who is better at investigating to help you figure it out.

Background: Entertainer
Wizard Class: Illusion

You remember that day so well. It stands out in your mind; you’ll never forget it. There was nothing that you could have done; you were so young. But one day, the goblins found you and your mother in the woods. She told you to run, and you did, but not too far — you watched as she tried to hold them back so they wouldn’t go after you. They killed her, but she had bought you your life with her blood. It still stands out in your dreams, and you rarely get a good night’s sleep. You went and joined up with the local militia, and they taught you how to destroy. You were able to fight and defeat many a goblin, but that didn’t bring your mother back. You vowed to let no one else die, and as you learned that you had magic abilities, you started spending your time figuring out a way to change the future. You, along with your teacher, were able to see a major tragedy that was coming to the school. Your teacher sent you away to get help, but while you were gone, your teacher died. Now you have to figure out how to stop this event on your own and find out who killed your teacher.

Background: Sage
Wizard Class: Divination

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The Wizard is one of the classiest classes already without doing much to class it up (well, kind of…mainly I just want to write this sentence). There is some truth to this,though, because Wizards, as magic users, don’t get their power by an act of a god, through nature, by making a pact, or by a twist of fate. They are the scholars of the Dungeons & Dragons world. Wizards put time and effort into learning spells, honing their skills, and focusing their studies. Wizards cast based off of their intelligence, and can learn many spells by translating them into what they need it to be to cast the spell. This means that the wizard doesn’t have as hard a cap on spells known as some of the other classes.

Because it is more of a scholarly pursuit, there are a number of different courses of study that a wizard can go into. They could study evocation or divination or necromancy, and whatever they’ve chosen to study, they become better at that area than other wizards. This does in some ways limit the logical routes for backgrounds and backstories. As a wizard, you have to have at least some level of knowledge and schooling to be able to cast spells and learn spells. How you can change it up is how you learned, where you learned, and whom you learned from. You can also, especially with races that live longer like Elves and Dwarves, have been out of school for a long time. A human wizard is likely going to be more recently out of school.

So, what are some backstories that you could use?

You don’t know who your parents were. You don’t even know what town or country you are from, really, though you’ve started to search out clues. Being kidnapped as a young child is always terrifying, even more so when you are kidnapped by a mad wizard who wants to eventually put her mind into your body and become an all-powerful lich. She didn’t want the body of a child though, so she trained you and taught you so that you could help her. That was all that you needed — when you figured out what she was planning, you started planning as well. Then, as she got weaker and it grew closer to the time when she was planning becoming a lich and steal your body, you struck first. You killed her — or at least, you killed her human form. But what you hadn’t realized was that she was prepared to become a lich even if she couldn’t get your body. Now you’ve got to learn more so that you can destroy her and the power you unleashed upon the world.

Background: Folk Hero(?)/Haunted (from Curse of Strahd)
Wizard Class: Necromancy

School was not your thing. It wasn’t that you were a bad student, but it was so boring and dry. You wanted your life to be more exciting, so you goofed off in class, always making amazing illusions that you entertained your classmates with. This didn’t really endear you to the teachers, and before you were set to graduate, you were expelled for causing one too many disruptions. That was okay; you’d learned what you wanted to know. You took your show on the road and performed all over, from small towns of simple villagers to big cities in front of nobility. Life was great. Then you started to notice strange things happening in a number of the small towns and villages you went around to. You weren’t sure what was going on, but with your entertaining, you can open doors and talk to people. Now you just need someone who is better at investigating to help you figure it out.

Background: Entertainer
Wizard Class: Illusion

You remember that day so well. It stands out in your mind; you’ll never forget it. There was nothing that you could have done; you were so young. But one day, the goblins found you and your mother in the woods. She told you to run, and you did, but not too far — you watched as she tried to hold them back so they wouldn’t go after you. They killed her, but she had bought you your life with her blood. It still stands out in your dreams, and you rarely get a good night’s sleep. You went and joined up with the local militia, and they taught you how to destroy. You were able to fight and defeat many a goblin, but that didn’t bring your mother back. You vowed to let no one else die, and as you learned that you had magic abilities, you started spending your time figuring out a way to change the future. You, along with your teacher, were able to see a major tragedy that was coming to the school. Your teacher sent you away to get help, but while you were gone, your teacher died. Now you have to figure out how to stop this event on your own and find out who killed your teacher.

Background: Sage
Wizard Class: Divination

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

We are trying a new thing with Amazon Links! If you’re interested in what we talk about in our articles or use for the podcast, please consider making a purchase through our links. Purchases help support our website and offset our costs. Thanks!

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