The first step in the origin creation process is deciding on a heritage such as a dwarf, elf, or halfling. Each of the eight heritages listed in this chapter include unique, biologically inherited traits as well as details about their physical appearances. While this may seem like the most important step, keep in mind that nurture plays as much of a role in development as nature; while you may be used to seeing fantasy media portraying lithe, agile elves, the culture and background you choose can provide the stepping stone needed to create a hulking elven berserker. While it may affect how the world perceives them, an adventurer should never be limited by their heritage.

When building your character’s origin, you can choose only one heritage to gain traits from. The Mixed Heritage rule should be consulted for characters with multiple heritages. 

The following sections appear in the descriptions for most heritages.

Age

This section details the average age at which a character of this heritage is considered to have reached adulthood, as well as their typical life span. Your character can be of any age, which could also be an opportunity to explain away significantly low or high ability scores. 

Size

All creatures are assigned a size, ranging from Tiny to Gargantuan. Medium and Small are the most common sizes for adventurers. 

Speed

While other factors may influence how fast you are, each heritage has a base Speed. This determines how far you can move on your turn during combat and while traveling. 

Heritage Gift

In addition to the traits granted to all characters of the same heritage, some include multiple gifts for you to choose from to further diversify your character. When multiple options are presented, you may choose only one heritage gift.

Paragon Gift

Later in their adventuring career, each heritage grants a paragon feature. This could be a completely new feature, or something that improves or offers a new way to use a trait already granted by the heritage.

Any Culture

You can choose any culture for your character, even if it is not listed alongside your character’s heritage. A dwarf can grow up in a wood elf culture , and a tiefling can hail from a cosmopolitan city.

In addition to the cultures generally associated with each heritage, there are also several general cultures you can choose from.

Mixed Heritage

With your Narrator’s approval, you can choose a heritage gift from a heritage other than the one you originally chose; this allows for the easy creation of adventurers with parents of two different heritages, or use of bases other than human for heritages such as tieflings. For more flavor, you and your Narrator may even decide that this affects things such as physical appearance, life span, or size in a way that is unique to your character.

What makes your character who they are? What have they experienced? When building your character, their upbringing—and by extension the culture they were raised in—can have as much of an impact as their heritage. By splitting your adventurer’s origin into four parts— Heritage , Culture , Background , and Destiny —there is ample opportunity to create wildly diverse characters with skill sets that reflect their lives in the most accurate way possible.

Building Your Origin Story

The prevalence of each heritage and culture can vary between various settings and different campaigns. Only you know what story you are trying to tell with your character, and only you know the best way to build that character’s origin. Anything is possible in a magical world and all of the heritages , cultures , and backgrounds presented in this chapter—as well as those you might build yourself—are viable options for an adventurer of any class . However, to ensure your character fits your specific game and setting, you should always have a discussion with your Narrator about the character options available to you prior to character creation. 

Your heritage solely influences your character’s physical appearance and traits, while your culture influences those traits that would be learned or developed over time. Your background reflects the path you have chosen to take, or a path you have been pulled into, independent of your heritage or culture . This grants you things like proficiencies with skills , languages, and tools, and bonuses to certain ability scores to represent the areas of your life that have seen intentional improvement. Finally, your destiny describes your character’s goals and motivations. The following sections are designed to walk you through the four-part origin story, and to help you build your ideal adventurer.