Beastlike (5e Background)

Beastlike

Photo by Julia Fullerton-Batten

You are unfortunately a pariah of society. People see you as less than sentient and view you as an unthinking creature: a beast. They don't respect your rights, and they use you cruelly for entertainment and other forms of demeaning treatment to prove their superiority. Your past is dotted with mistreatment and feral tendency. Either you were treated as a beast or even raised by beasts as a wolf child. The result remains that you are not of normal social circumstance. You may have mannerisms more beastly than that considered normal, and this has cost you. Most likely you were raised to be like an animal and treated as one, perhaps even kept in such conditions.

There are many ways you can think of this background. The two primary specializations are raised by wolves and caged tiger, though they are not mutually exclusive. Raised by wolves means that you were left, one way or another, to fend for yourself in the wilderness. You may not have learned speech normally, or even how to write. Instead, you learned the ways of the wild things, and primal survival. A caged tiger, on the other hand, is someone who was treated like a beast. They may be caged as entertainment for people to poke and prod, like an exhibit. They are often treated as subhuman and subject to mistreatment as a result. It is possible for one to be raised by beasts and thus caged as well, of course.

When making a beastlike, consider their past and how they were raised or treated as beasts. Were they abandoned in the woods and thus now have a stunted growth? Do they treat everywhere as the wilderness, behaving erratically like a caged animal? Maybe they were instead kept in a cage most of their lives and treated as a spectacle to be ridiculed, thus fostering a great distrust against the world. How did you eventually escape that life? Are you used to civilization? Do you still have speech impairments perhaps as a vestige of your darker times?

Skill Proficiencies: Survival and Nature

Languages: Sylvan

Equipment: Black cloak, a tattered set of common clothes, a momento from your past, and a beastly trinket of your choice

Feature: Subhuman

You are considered less than human and possibly a menace when you are a freeman. People may see you irrationally as a criminal and be more likely to report or pin crimes on you. You can use this view to your advantage if you are very familiar with this mindset. Then you can pose as an inferior beast, incapable of being suspected of carrying out complex plans due to your lesser being. People have no problem baring their worst selves at you, which is normally what they would do whilst alone, because they do not believe you intelligent enough to comprehend.

Alternate Feature: Beast's Nature

When in terrain that is similar to your original habitat in the wild, you can recognize good places for shelter, as well as the locale of beasts. You can understand the mannerisms and thinking of these beasts, as well as communicate to them nonverbally and recognize their scents and markings. This does not grant you outright friendship with any beasts, but you will certainly be able to get points across to them diplomatically.

Suggested Characteristics

The beastlike vary as beasts do, with unfamiliar behaviors and unpredictable emotions due to their complicated and often difficult upbringing.

d6	Personality Trait
1	You prefer to be alone. Large crowds are a bother.
2	Protecting your allies is the most important aspect to your life.
3	You tend to be rude to people who enter your personal space.
4	You treat your friends like they are your family.
5	I never look anyone in the eye.
6	I have intermittent rashes of violent tendencies.

d6	Ideal
1	Loyal. I’ll protect who I love, at any cost. (Good)
2	Uncaring. I am a lone wolf who needs no one but my own fulfillment. (Neutral)
3	Mighty. The strongest beast will survive, and that will be me. (Chaotic)
4	Human. The beast won’t take over my soul. I am a worthy person with rights! (Lawful)
5	Hunger. I must feed on something, regardless friend or foe. (Chaotic)
6	Blood. I seek to murder the ones who look down on me. (Evil)

d6	Bond
1	I won’t fail the people that believe in me.
2	I don’t quit even if it means death.
3	Risks? If I don’t take them who will.
4	My goal comes first. I have a duty.
5	People can be two-faced and I don't like them.
6	I have allies whom I trust everything with.

d6	Flaw
1	I make dumb choices. I’m a little quick headed.
2	My temper is way to short.
3	Very...Very antisocial
4	Not really a team player.
5	I can't trust more than a handful of people at a time.
6	Thoughts of murder run rampant in my head.

5.00

(one vote)

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