Alchemist (5e Background)
Alchemist
You have worked in a town or a city as an Alchemist. Maybe working for the ruler of the settlement or for yourself trying to earn a living. Working with chemicals and potions has given you a large array of knowledge of how to make such concoctions. Using these skills you can make potions, deadly poisons, or primitive explosives (if your DM allows it).
Skill Proficiencies: Arcana and Survival
Tool Proficiencies: Alchemist's Supplies
Languages: 1 Chosen language
Equipment: Alchemist's supplies, 1d4+2 Books on Alchemical Formula, a belt pouch with 2d4 GP and common clothes
Feature: Experimenter
Based on your previous experiments, you can easily identify the uses of any component you acquire after examining it with your alchemist's supplies during a long rest.
Suggested Characteristics
Alchemists pride themselves on making more effective concoctions, you will always strive and spend your spare time trying to make yours more effective.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. |
| 2 | I've been called a tad bit crazy. |
| 3 | I'm not the best around other people. |
| 4 | I refuse to lead, I'm more of a follower. |
| 5 | I will not follow, only lead. |
| 6 | I will not let others think me a fool. |
| 7 | I will do anything for more research. |
| 8 | I don't like being looked at. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Goodwill. If you don't use your knowledge to help others, then why do you even have it? (Good) |
| 2 | Money. I don't care what I'm being told to do; if you can pay, I can do it. (Neutral) |
| 3 | Power. I got into the trade for one reason; the feeling of the foolish being destroyed by my concoctions. (Evil) |
| 4 | Ethics. There are certain lines that science was never meant to cross. (Lawful) |
| 5 | Freedom. Laws restrict and corrupt the pure, free-flowing fount of knowledge. (Chaotic) |
| 6 | Knowledge. I simply want to unlock the secrets of chemicals and how they work. It's a passion of mine. (Any.) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | My family is impoverished, and I send money I make from my work back to them. |
| 2 | I never forget the faces of my customers, and consider them to be friends. |
| 3 | I have a rival who is a greater alchemist than I. I constantly seek to best them. |
| 4 | My notes on my greatest discovery were stolen, and I must find them before they fall into the wrong hands. |
| 5 | I have a great interest in teaching, and am constantly seeking out new students. |
| 6 | The one who taught me my trade still lives; I respect them above all else, and will defend them to the death if they require it. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | My creations have been used for unspeakable evils. I can never forgive myself. |
| 2 | All of my work with my chemicals may or may not have ever so slightly addled my mind a tiny bit. |
| 3 | Ever since I got this job, I've been suffering from violent, destructive intrusive thoughts. |
| 4 | I've developed an addiction to one of my substances, and I need to make it whenever possible. |
| 5 | I have severe chemical burns from working on a chemical that required use of (X component here). I refuse to work with it, and have a phobia of it. |
| 6 | I don't do well in groups, and will go off on my own without asking others first. |
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