Owlin, the wise and observant avian beings of D&D lore, brings a keen intellect and senses to any adventuring party.
Choosing the right background for your Owlin character can enhance their natural abilities and add depth to their role-playing potential.
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 Owlins
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.
Owlin are distant kin of the giant owls from the Feywild, and your character resonates with Feywild magic, drawing a Feywild Visitor to your dreams whenever you sleep or are put into a trance.
You can come up with a reason for this happening, but it no doubt traces back to your kin in the Feywild.
4. 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.
Two main reasons for an Owlin making the perfect Spy is because of their Flight and Silent Feathers abilities, allowing for improved reconnaissance and proficiency in Stealth.
Note: Darkvision also helps if you need to go out at night.
3. Courtier
Skill Proficiencies – Persuasion, Insight
Tool Proficiencies – None
Languages – Choose two
Equipment – Set of fine clothes and a pouch with 5GP.
Why the Courtier?
Courtiers have the Court Functionary feature, granting you knowledge of bureaucracies and access to records of governments and noble courts. You know who to ask for favors.
Owlin are often perceived as wise, making them the perfect Face character to go if you want to manipulate royalty or just advise them with your motives hidden in between the seams.
2. Cloistered Scholar
Skill Proficiencies – History, plus one among Religion, Nature, and Arcana
Tool Proficiencies – None
Languages – Choose two
Equipment – The scholar’s robes of your cloister, a borrowed book on the subject of your current study, a writing kit (a pouch with a small penknife, folded parchment, a bottle of ink, and a quill), and a pouch with 10GP.
Why the Cloistered Scholar?
Cloistered Scholar gives your Owlin Library Access, granting you entry to libraries of vast knowledge and ways to navigate through bureaucratic connections.
Owlin tend to be quite wise, even if they are kin of the giant owls in the Feywild, seeking knoweldge to uncover many secrets of the multiverse or whatever catches their fancy.
1. Faceless
Skill Proficiencies – Intimidation, Deception
Tool Proficiencies – Disguise kit
Languages – Choose one
Equipment – A costume, a disguise kit, and a pouch with 10GP.
Why the Faceless?
Faceless characters have the Dual Personalities feature, where you have a persona that most of the world knows you by, even your fellow adventurers.
Everything about you is different than your true self, and once you wear your disguise, all similarities of your true self are hidden. Removing your disguise makes you unidentifiable as your disguise.
This means you can change your appearance between your personalities as you wish, one serving as your camouflage and the other to hide.
Note: If someone realizes the connection between your true self and your persona, your deception could lose its effectiveness.
Because of Silent Feathers, Darkvision, and Flight, Owlin make some of the best Scouts or Faces out there.
With Faceless, they gain the ability to hide their true identity from anyone they deem unworthy and escape from situations using whichever identity they consider appropriate.
Final Thoughts
Backgrounds like the Feylost or Cloistered Scholar can highlight their wisdom and mystical connection to the natural world, while the Faceless or Courtier backgrounds can add a manipulative touch to their character.
Choose a background that resonates with your Owlin’s personality and backstory, and prepare for a campaign filled with insightful discoveries and soaring adventures.