Sea Elves, with their affinity for the ocean depths and their choice of backgrounds, set the stage for an epic voyage filled with intrigue and peril.
Discover the five most captivating backgrounds meticulously tailored for Sea Elf characters in D&D 5e.
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 Sea Elves
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.
It is likely that some Sea Elves have come from the Feywild, as they have traveled between so many lands already. Feylost can add a bit of mystique to your Sea Elf’s background.
4. Sailor
Skill Proficiencies – Perception, Athletics
Tool Proficiencies – Vehicles (water), Navigator’s tools
Languages – None
Equipment – A set of common clothes, a lucky charm such as a small stone with a hole in the center or a rabbit foot (or you may roll for a random trinket on the Trinkets table which is in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook), 50 feet of silk rope, a belaying pin (club), and a pouch with 10GP.
Why the Background?
Sailors have the Ship’s Passage feature, allowing free passage on a sailing ship for you and your companions. The reasons you are allowed on the ship vary, but the route the ship takes will not meet your every need, as it is a favor.
Furthermore, your DM will determine how long it takes you to get to your destination. You and your companions are also expected to assist the crew throughout the voyage.
Sea Elves are one with the water, some doing well for themselves by helping captains as Sailors or merely learning the trade so they can tell tales to their friends.
3. Fisher
Skill Proficiencies – Survival, History
Languages – Choose one
Equipment – A set of traveler’s clothes, a favorite fishing lure or oiled leather wading boots, a fishing tackle, a net, and a belt pouch with 10GP.
Why the Fisher?
Harvest the Water can be vital in a water-based campaign, especially if you make it more like Outlander in the sense that you can fish for food from bodies of water.
Since Sea Elves are so connected to water, it makes sense that some live off the land, becoming Fishermen on large vessels or simply living a humble subsistence existence.
2. Far Traveler
Skill Proficiencies – Perception, Insight
Tool Proficiencies – One musical instrument or gaming set you choose (most likely something native to your homeland)
Languages – Choose one
Equipment – Set of traveler’s clothes, one gaming set or musical instrument you’re proficient with, a small piece of jewelry worth 10GP in the style of your homeland’s craftsmanship, poorly wrought maps from your homeland depicting where you are in Faerûn, and a pouch with 5GP.
Why the Far Traveler?
Far Traveler gives you the All Eyes on You feature, marking you as foreign and garnering attention from everyone, including commoners, scholars, nobles, merchants, princes, and kings.
Sea Elves are unlike any Elves most civilized races are used to seeing in the Material Plane, often coming from far-off lands and being much closer to the magic that shapes the Material Plane.
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.
Sea Elves, much like other Elves, hold a vast knowledge of nature, not fearing it and instead using it to guide their way and nourish them.
Final Thoughts
Whether delving into the maritime prowess of the Sailor, the mystical depths of a Fisher, or an understanding of the wild as an Outlander, players are offered a diverse array of choices to shape their Sea Elf characters’ identities.
By selecting the most suitable background, players can infuse their Sea Elf characters with depth and purpose.