Background: Fated Hero

 

If you've been following my blog, I don't think it should be any surprise to you that I love backgrounds. They're one of the best ideas 5e ever had, offering customization options for characters that add flavor, and most of the features are narrative-focused, opening up new avenues for characters to explore and interact with the world rather than just giving them mathematical bonuses. That being said, I do think that there's room for background features to introduce mechanics of their own. There's some fun things that can be done there. As a bonus, they provide an avenue to mechanically represent new character concepts without having to write a completely new class - let's face it, D&D has more classes than it has archetypes for those classes to fit as it is. Here's one such example.

This started out as a post for The Saga of the Ortegids as a background to represent a PC being a member of the Ortegid Dynasty - that is, the legendary family that includes (but is not limited to) the main characters of the first three Dragon Quest games. The idea of a legendary hero is a common feature in contemporary Japanese fantasy that tends to be a direct reference to the player characters of the Dragon Quest games in the same way that the "demon king" archetype is the result of porting the video game conceit of a final boss into narrative media. Usually, the two are linked, with the hero often being prophecized to defeat the demon king. In some stories, they're the only one physically capable of doing so, and in some, the hero and the demon king are both metaphysical roles passed down cyclically every generation, with their struggle serving to keep the balance of good and evil. These aren't mutually exclusive.

Notably, however, the heroes of the Erdrick Trilogy are not prophecized chosen ones - that trope comes mainly from later games. In the first three games, they're all people who volunteered or were volunteered to deal with a pressing threat, but from what little exposition we get, it appears that this is because they feel it's the right thing to do and/or because they're following the example of their ancestors, not because of a mandate from higher powers. With this in mind, in addition to the fact this project is deliberately eschewing any artifacts of the medium of video games, you might be wondering why I'd try to represent it.

Well, heroes being elevated in some way among common people is something we see in fantasy and mythology in pretty much every culture and era, so I think it can still work. Drawing more than a little inspiration from The Saga of the Volsungs, the lore for my version of the setting is this: when Baramos, the Sorcerer-King of the Southlands, was told by an oracle that he was doomed to be slain by the line of the Aliahanian warrior Ortega, he had a curse placed upon Ortega's kin, such that all would be blessed with incredible strength, wit, and bravery, but simultaneously doomed to misfortune and tragedy, attracting powerful enemies and more often than not dying by the sword. This is why they're so often capable of great heroic deeds and faced with a need to perform them, not because the world works like it's a video game.

However, while plotting out this background, I realized that it'd also work very well for a variety of names in fantasy and folklore - the Volsungs, but also the heroes of ancient Greece, subject as they are to the whims of the gods, Samson, and even more modern examples like Elric of Melnibone. To that end, I've submitted it as a setting-agnostic background. Feel free to tweak it for your own purposes.

Fated Hero

For whatever reason - be it a curse, a prophecy, or merely attracting the eye of the gods, you are capable of great deeds, but your fate is a plaything of higher beings. You have the potential to become a figure of renown through heroism, but the same fate that guides you toward greatness could just as easily bring about your end.

Skill Proficiencies: History, Religion

Languages: Celestial

Starting Equipment: A token of your divine favor, a set of common clothes, an explorer's pack or a dungeoneer's pack, and a pouch containing 15 GP.

Feature: Gigantic Melancholies and Gigantic Mirth. Once per long rest, you can beseech the gods to grant you their favor in performing a great task. If the DM agrees that the roll at hand is a suitably heroic deed, you make the roll with Advantage. However, your fate is bound in both directions. Each time you use this feature, the DM will make a note of it, and can inflict Disadvantage on any one roll they choose in the future. Additionally, if you roll a natural one on your reroll, even if the original roll was higher, you must take it, as the gods are punishing you for your hubris in calling upon them so wantonly.

Variant: Ortegid Scion. This variant can only be used in a Saga of the Ortegids campaign, or one where the setting also features a family of heroes cursed to tragic fates. You are a member of some branch of the Ortegid Dynasty - possibly a prince of one of the three Ortegid kingdoms, a distant cousin, or the product of a one-night stand in foreign lands. In addition to the Gigantic Melancholies and Gigantic Mirth feature, you also have the Inheritor feature from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (if you bring up your heritage, you will get an idea of the local reception of your ancestors and how you can be expected to be treated in turn). You must be a human or a half-race of human parentage, and of at least partial Aliahanian ancestry, to use this background (though the Ortegids have traveled throughout Erdland and Torland and their descendants can be found in surprising places).