Entomologist (5e Background)

Entomologist

From Identity V

You are a professional bug researcher, spending hours everyday discovering, protecting, hunting, and researching insects. Are you a field researcher, are you trying to solve a locust epidemic? Do you simply love being around invertebrates? What kind of invertebrates do you study? Myriapods? Worms? Ants? Arachnids? Are you trying to find an antivenom for a deadly spider? Maybe you see a future where you can make lots of money selling pesticide. Maybe a specific insect trusts you through months of training. Possibly a tarantula, mantis, or centipede will never attack you, even though it is normally very aggressive. This may seem like a niche profession, but there is so much you can do with it.

Skill Proficiencies: Survival, Nature, or Animal Handling

Tool Proficiencies: Bug-Catching Net, Microscope

Equipment: Bug net, microscope, traveler's clothes, bee suit, insect encyclopedia

Specialization

Entomology is a broad term. Which type of invert do you study?

d6	Specialization
1	Myriologist
2	Entomologist (Insects only)
3	Arachnologist
4	Gastrology or Conchology
5	Wormologist
6	Isopologist

Feature: Slow, but possible training

As an entomologist, you can employ the capture, use, and companionship of an insect. You can spend your downtime to train an insect of no more than CR 1/2 to perform special tricks, like basic commands through scents or sounds. Each trick takes 10 days of downtime to learn. You can only have 1 insect that can learn an attack.

• Return: The insect will return to you regardless of other distractions if you offer it food.
• Scout: The insect (Flying) will fly to a spot you point at and stay there until called.
• Crawl: The insect (Crawling) will crawl to a location that you chose.
• Attack: As a bonus action, the insect (Biting, stinging, etc) will attempt to attack a creature either within 5 feet of itself or that is occupying the same space. For stings: enemy makes a constitution saving throw DC 9. On a successful save, nothing happens. On a failed save, wasps and bees do 1 poison damage (keep in mind a bee will die) large wasps and hornets do 2 poison damage, giant centipedes or bullet ants do 3 poison damage. Giant centipede: if this successfully damages an enemy, they must make a constitution save of 9 or higher. The poison knocks them out for 1 minute on a failed save, and nothing happens on a successful one.

Alternate Feature: Knowledge of Insects

You generally can tell a lot about an invert just by looking at it; you have advantage on Intelligence checks to recall and gather information on myriapods, insects, arachnids, worms, slugs, snails, etc.

Suggested Characteristics

When other people scream at a spider in their pack, you might pick it up, identify it, and take notes. In the middle of an intense moment, spotting a rare insect might pull your attention away from whatever was important.

d6	Personality Trait
1	You don't care about animals and only became an entomologist so you cold get away from civilization and still make money.
2	You struggle to make friends, as most people think you are weird for picking your profession.
3	You have a lot of grit and never stop working until you achieve your goals.
4	You are extremely brave and have little care for your own life.
5	You have an immense fear of spiders, but your family pressured you to pursue your career to get over the fear. So far, no luck.
6	You are super forgiving. Even when people bully you non-stop, you forgive them as soon as they apologize.

d6	Ideal
1	Humane. Cruelty is wrong and you feel you should protect the suffering (<-Good->)
2	Peace. Violence solves nothing. (<-Good->)
3	Order. Chaos causes countless problems. (<-Lawful->)
4	Working with Nature. Nature and people can work together to achieve greatness. (<-Neutral->)
5	Greed. You always act for your own good, never doing service etc. (<-Evil->)
6	Freedom. Everyone should be free to do whatever they want. (<-Chaotic->)

d6	Bond
1	You love a specific invert that goes with you wherever you go.
2	Your best friend is also your mentor or master when you were an apprentice.
3	You get homesick when you are away from the wilderness.
4	You miss your peers from zoology class who moved on with their lives.
5	Your pet tarantula was killed by your rival: besting them or getting revenge is your #1 priority.
6	You would sacrifice your life to protect an insect species that has been hunted nearly to extinction for its medicinal uses.

d6	Flaw
1	You went into zoology because you are terrible at interacting with people, and talk to bugs instead.
2	You are always out in the wild, so you never have time to take a shower or bath.
3	The only people you knew well was a teacher and your parents, so you don't have practice in society.
4	You are always grumpy because you find your profession terribly boring.
5	You are super lazy because you find your job ridiculously easy.
6	You have a terrible sense of humor, even though you try to make jokes.

5.00

(one vote)

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