Backgrounds With Class: Cleric
Some classes and backgrounds mesh naturally, from a conceptual standpoint. Soldier and Fighter, Entertainer and Bard, Sage and Wizard. But backgrounds aren’t class-restricted, and so I wonder what it would look like if you paired every class with every background, even the ones that seem at odds, like Sage and Barbarian, or Outlander and Wizard. So I thought about it, and this is what I came up with. Some character concepts for each class, and each Player’s Handbook background for each class.
Not every cleric is a recognized priest. Actually, because of how backgrounds work, I’d even go so far to say that not even most clerics are ordained, at least not necessarily. A cleric is just someone who leans into their worship and belief for power, and their god rewards their faith so they can act on their behalf. Not much else to say here- I tried to get away from their faith being the most important thing about them, from a personality standpoint. There’s more to people than what they believe and what they do with it.
The Acolyte Cleric knows the dark; after all, her home in the Northern Reach is pitch-black for months at a time during the winter. She always looks forward to this time, when her aerie draws closer together, parroting old tales in their original voices or making new ones with shadow puppetry or sign language. The dark bespeaks safety and community for her, and when the time came for her to choose a vocation, the priesthood of the Moon Koi was a natural choice.
The Charlatan Cleric walks a tight rope between trickery and help. Gifted with a healer’s touch to reward her faith in the Fates, she struggles every day with the temptation to sell far easier- and more profitable- oils and unguents that might only maybe help. She considers her soft-heartedness a liability rather than an asset, but her neighbors know she holds her neighborhood in highest regard- and where to find her for actual healing when she closes up her stall for the day.
The Criminal Cleric knows kidnapping for hire is an ugly business, but it’s the one he’s got. Kidnapping sacrifices for the small altar to the Gossamer King he has in the sinking basement of a ruined plantation was a gateway into the trade. However, truth be told, the King has given his more gifts (and, he thinks, inclinations) to see people’s lives end under his hand and blade rather than just taking them for a golden payday. He’s sustained himself on the pocket contents of his victims for a long time, but bigger thirsts need sating.
The Entertainer Cleric got his start as a speaker; first a street prophet, then a town crier, then eventually as a voice for Indrahni’s faithful as they worshiped in the fields and wild places. Herald to the rains and the storms and the deepest snows of winter, he knows that a raised voice is as much a tool for the entertainment of the mind as for the enrichment of the soul. What takes him from his home is a need for more than the seasons to change, and so Eastwall becomes his home, as he wanders, doing the Lady of Storms’ will.
The Folk Hero Cleric was born to a time of war. His country has been wracked by civil war on and off since time immemorial, and when the enemy’s soldiers came to his home, he cried out to the heavens for whomever would help- and the Queen of Dragons answered. Bearing a flag of five colors, he ralled farmers, smiths, miners, and veterans alike and called them to his side, defending their town with ferocity scarce before seen. Now, he travels with the war zone, leaving shrines to Tiamat behind him and rallying those he can to defend their homes and persons from invaders- who, he cares not.
The Guild Artisan Cleric keeps giant bees. A hive tender and mazer by trade, he dons heavy chitin armor dyed calcium white every day and goes to speak to the bees, watching the dance and hearing the thrum of the house-sized beehives to know their needs. He, too, gives homage to Father Hunter, and keeps the bees as they keep him. That community-mindedness has stuck with him his whole life, and it’s in his nature to support others as they do him.
The Hermit Cleric owns a bookstore. Following a life in a monastery and discovery of a secret that tainted his people’s chaos-shaping for him forever, he fled to one metropolis after another seeking answers and wishing for a better way to uncover the truth- and what to do about it. Thoth came to him in a vision, ibis-headed and regal, to guide him where he was needed best, and now he disseminates knowledge to all who walk through his door- whether from the street in the famed City of Doors, or elsewhere.
The Noble Cleric strove her whole life to join the Order of the Brazen Scroll. In her homeland of Ymez, they keep the law in the name of Moloch, and that calling- the maintenance of order and discipline- is the highest she aspired to. Her upbringing and squire-ship prepared her well, and now she and her attendants keep the Brazen Bull’s peace wherever they must, whether it’s the streets and chambers of the grandest city, or the dirt roads and empty vistas and deserts of the wild countryside.
The Outlander Cleric was born a wanderer. Her family always traveled the roads and not-roads of the dry lands in and above the Hope Desert, but her own traveler’s spirit took her further afield, to lands across the Sea Between, even the surface embassies of the Lords of Life. With her travels her duty, a solemn commitment to seeing the dead put to rest, the new ushered safe into the world, and the knowledge that the Fates might speak at any time- and she, the mouthpiece. Still, the roaming is a delight, if her duty isn’t always, and her grave commitment is a comfort to those she sees.
The Sage Cleric has studied the language of giants since they were young. First upon the ivory carvings stone giants brought to the town at the base of their mountain, then later on the walls of ruins as their parents explained the fall of the great giant empires. The craft of these ancient peoples and places always struck them, and so they struck back. Armor, bricks, weapons, and art- all struck with the same runic maker’s mark and runes for strength and timelessness, an act of scholarship and simple faith that brought the attention of greater powers- and the greatest sponsor of any crafter.
The Sailor Cleric has left the most checkered part of their past behind them, but not far. The hop from pirate to lighthouse-keeper is a short one, but the divide is huge. In their new post as lighthouse-keeper, they’ve found a new appreciation for the work some put in to keep other sailors safe from reefs and hard shorelines, and their reverence for the light they tend has connected them to the Sun Phoenix. The time may come when they must leave the lighthouse and take their new light on the road, as their checkered past threatens to give chase.
The Soldier Cleric gives reverence to his divine parent the only way he knows how: by bringing their tempest to the battlefield. Tasked with defending the hospital tent and ready to drive intruders back by sword, spell, and lightning breath, he reached to the Dragon of Ages to guide his hand and the lightning within him to where he might best be of aid. Since the end of hostilities, he’s found himself wandering far afield, but his purpose has remained the same.
The Urchin Cleric has always known the truth: that knowledge is power, and both are the life of the city, and the god thereof. From a childhood in the alleys, rookeries, bath-houses, and taverns of Rojksvik, to an adulthood plying those same venues for every scrap of useful knowledge, she’s made knowing her business. A quick imitator’s tongue, sharp eyes, and a willingness to intrude or even trespass where her beak isn’t wanted provides her with a vast body of knowledge- all to be used, sold, traded, or hidden, at her discretion.
