Embark on a thrilling adventure with your Goblin character in Dungeons & Dragons 5e as we unveil the top five backgrounds designed to amplify their unique abilities and weave a captivating tale.
Crafting a compelling narrative for your Goblin adventurer begins with selecting the perfect background. In this guide, we’ve curated a list that seamlessly integrates with their cunning and mischievous nature.
Contents
What Are Backgrounds in D&D 5e?
Backgrounds are more than simple stat boosts in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. They reveal where your character came from, why you became an adventurer, and your place in the world.
Before choosing your Background, ask yourself a few questions:
- What was I before I became an adventurer?
- Why did I stop doing what my Background explains and become an adventurer?
- Where did I get the money to buy my starting equipment?
- Where did I learn the skills used in my class?
- What’s different about me compared to others with the same Background?
Best Backgrounds for Goblins
5. Feylost
Skill Proficiencies – Survival, Deception
Tool Proficiencies – One type of musical instrument
Languages – Choose one among Sylvan, Goblin, Gnomish, or Elvish
Equipment – A set of traveler’s clothes, a musical instrument (choose one), three trinkets (determined by rolling the Feywild Trinkets table), and a pouch with 8GP.
Why the Feylost?
Feylost characters have the Feywild Visitor feature, being visited by a creature of the Feywild whenever they take a long rest or are put in a deep trance.
Visits can last minutes or hours, and you remember each visit upon waking. These visits can bring messages, red herrings, nonsense, and insights controlled by the DM.
Conversations are always held in a language you can understand.
Goblins originate from the Feywild, so if you want your Goblin to be tied into the Feywild realm, then try choosing the Feylost background.
4. Urchin
Skill Proficiencies – Stealth, Sleight of Hand
Tool Proficiencies – Thieves’ tools, Disguise kit
Languages – None
Equipment – A set of common clothes, a token to remember your parents by, a map of the city you grew up in, a small knife, and a pouch with 10GP.
Why the Urchin?
Urchins have the City Secrets feature, giving them knoweldge of the secret passages that flow through the city and miss the urban sprawl.
While not in combat, Urchins and their companions traveling between two locations within a city will travel at twice the normal speed.
Goblins often end up as Urchins due to other civilized races disliking them and not allowing them a foothold in society.
3. Soldier
Skill Proficiencies – Intimidation, Athletics
Tool Proficiencies – Vehicles (land), One type of gaming set
Languages – None
Equipment – A trophy you took from a fallen enemy (a piece of a banner, dagger, or broken blade), a set of common clothes, a deck of cards or a set of bone dice, an insignia of rank, and a pouch with 10GP.
Why the Soldier?
Soldiers receive the Military Rank feature, allowing you to exert your rank and impose authority over soldiers lower than you.
This authority can grant you and your party access to fortresses, encampments, simple equipment, and horses.
Goblins can be found in the armies of other Goblinoids, and because of their hardy nature and bloodlust, they shouldn’t be underestimated, even if they are small.
2. Spy
Skill Proficiencies – Stealth, Deception
Tool Proficiencies – Thieves’ tools, One type of gaming set
Languages – None
Equipment – A set of dark common clothes, including a hood, a crowbar, and a pouch with 15GP.
Why the Spy?
Spies aren’t much different from normal Criminals or Smugglers, but they have practiced in vastly different ways.
In fact, most spies are trained espionage agents. Many work as sanctioned agents of the crown or sell uncovered secrets to the highest bidder.
Goblins might not have a bad reputation, but if there’s one thing these tiny creatures excel at, then it’s stealth and assassination.
1. Outlander
Skill Proficiencies – Survival, Athletics
Tool Proficiencies – One type of musical instrument
Languages – One you choose
Equipment – A trophy from an animal you killed, a set of traveler’s clothes, a hunting trap, a staff, and a pouch with 10GP.
Why the Outlander?
Outlanders have the Wanderer feature, giving them an excellent memory for geography and maps. Allowing them to always recall the general layout of settlements, terrain, and features around them.
They can also find fresh water and food for themselves and up to five others every day if the land offers water, small game, berries, and other things.
Goblins are accustomed to living in the wild, often making nests in forests and mountains, so their general knowledge of surrounding environments is often much better than that of other adventurers.
Final Thoughts
Whether infiltrating the shadows as a Spy, once serving in a great Goblinoid army as a Soldier, or navigating the wilderness as an Outlander, your selected background becomes the blank sheet upon which your character’s story unfolds.
Choose purposefully, delve into the intricacies of your chosen background, and let it infuse your Goblin’s journey with depth in the expansive realms of D&D.