"We rebel against the conditions of labor because we did not negotiate them. However, negotiate or not, we are laborious animals, and just as dogs must be set to run each day, man and all his related siblings must be put to work each day, lest we find work to set our minds at ease."

-From "The Nature of Man" by Philosopher Benjamin Hicket

Former Occupation:

Every adventurer had to do something before they fought their way across the continents in search of glory and gold. This could have been something legitimate, or less than legal, but in any case, this is what your character was doing before they became a level one character.

            Former Occupation will grant a character a stat increase of +1 in a certain attribute. This represents the culmination of someone’s natural gifts through a long-standing occupation. Like with Education, a former occupation also grants both a skill proficiency and either a tool proficiency or a language. The occupation provides material basis for starting items and money for the character. Finally, it grants a unique Feat inspired by that occupation.

            In addition to a normal occupation, a player has the option to add “Indentured Servant” or “Slave” to their occupation. For example, someone can be a Barber, but they could also be a Slave Barber. If a character has the Indentured Servant prefix, then the character starts with half of their occupation’s money. If a character has the Slave prefix, then the character starts with one-fifth of their occupation’s money. However, other slaves or indentured servants will be easier to trust your character (indentured servants will always be friendly with former indentured servant characters so long as they have no reason not to be, and both indentured servants and slaves will always be friendly with former slave characters so long as they have no reason not to be; the former is considered a feat called Lesser Shared Suffering, the latter a feat called Greater Shared Suffering).

            It may also be possible (though this is uncommon) that your character is so young that being an adventurer is their first ever occupation. If this is true, then their inexperience takes away all the benefits of an occupation. In exchange, their youthful vitality grants them +1 in two different physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma).

            Many occupations have alternative names. For example, Barber-Surgeon also has Physician. In many cases, these names are mostly flavorful, but in some cases, the DM might work with you to change small aspects of the Former Occupation to make it fit more with this alternative title (such as different starting equipment). As always, if no occupation comes close to your idea of the character you want to build, please speak with the Dungeon Master.

            Finally, it may be possible that your character's former occupation was taking care of your own children and home - if so, you may consider taking the Parent former occupation option, which is a reworked version of the Midwife former occupation. See below to see this option.

            The Former Occupations you can choose for your background are all grouped into the following categories, which you can navigate to in order to find the former occupation you would like. In some cases, a single former occupation will appear in multiple categories, because they often fit into multiple categories. This should hopefully make it easier to find whatever occupation you want.

Castle Occupations: Work centered around the castle and the nobility.

City Trades: Work centered around the city, guilds, and respected professions.

Civil Service: Work in service of the state or sovereign.

Farm Work: Work in the fields, farms, and in food production in general.

Laborers: Work that is dull and menial, often looked down upon.

Military Assignments: Work in an army or navy, either public or private.

Scholarly Callings: Work in search of furthering and spreading knowledge.

Temple Positions: Work in and around temples and monasteries.

Unsavory Jobs: Work that is on the fringe of decency, or downright illegal.

Wilderness Roles: Work that is outside of the confines of a traditional settlement and economy.

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