Ena Lucoria

4 min read

🔮5e - Destiny🔮

A wizard pores over arcane texts to unearth fundamental truths of the universe. A rogue pursues the allure of glittering gold, determined to live wealthy or die trying. A paladin undertakes an impossible charge, resolute in defending their king and country from threats of unimaginable scale.

Every hero has something that drives them forward, an inner spark or outward goal that compels them to risk everything for a life of adventure. Choosing a destiny provides important roleplaying cues and features that help shape your character’s identity. Why are they an adventurer? What drives them into a life of danger? Is destiny thrust upon them by circumstance, or do they have a burning desire for a future they wish to claim for their own?

Motivation

Each destiny has a table of example motivations that represents the heart of your character’s desire to be an adventurer. Feel free to select a motivation, determine one randomly, or create one that you feel matches the destiny.

Inspiration

The Game Master awards inspiration, a resource which grants you an edge in important moments, when you roleplay your character according to your destiny. Each destiny has a source of inspiration which describes acts of roleplaying that should be rewarded with inspiration (although it remains at the Game Master’s discretion). Additionally, the Game Master can award inspiration whenever they feel a character has been particularly clever, engaging, or heartfelt in their roleplaying.

Once you have inspiration, you can save it indefinitely. Whenever you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check, you may spend your inspiration to grant advantage to that roll. You may use Inspiration after seeing the roll.

Alternatively, you can spend inspiration to use the inspiration feature unique to your chosen destiny.

You either have inspiration or you don’t; if you already have inspiration and do something worth rewarding inspiration, you do not gain a second use of inspiration.

Fulfilling your Destiny

Each destiny includes a fulfillment feature that you gain when you achieve your destiny, a momentous event usually at the end of a major story arc in the narrative (indicated by the Game Master). Even if your destiny remains outside of your grasp, it is close enough at hand that you automatically gain its fulfillment feature when you reach 16th level.

If you fulfill your destiny early in a campaign, at the Game Master’s discretion you may select an additional destiny. You retain your original destiny’s features and gain the source of inspiration and inspiration feature of your new destiny. You cannot gain a second fulfillment feature.

Changing your Destiny

Motives change over time, as do the stories we tell. Whenever you gain a class level, you may choose to change your destiny. You lose any features provided by your current destiny and select a new destiny, gaining its source of inspiration and inspiration features.

Forging Your Own Destiny

You may want to change a preexisting destiny or create an entirely new one to better fit your character or the campaign setting. Adjust or create your own destiny by replacing features found in one destiny with those found in another, so long as your new destiny contains the following:

  • Source of inspiration
  • Inspiration feature
  • Method for fulfilling your destiny
  • Fulfillment feature

Alternatively, work with the Game Master to create something entirely new! Try to focus on the core motivations of your character. What goal or ideal has pushed them towards adventuring?

List of all Destinies

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Art: Created by ani rofiqah from Noun Project

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