Reborn

You are a warrior for redemption, reborn and risen from your own ashes. You strive to mend the terrible deeds you committed in your previous life. After the fire of rebirth swept through you, you were made into a powerful figure and sent forth to undo whatever horrors you had committed.
Why the gods chose you to be reborn and yet allow others to burn, none can say, but you are the deepest proof that redemption is possible in the eyes of the gods.
When you emerged from the flame, your appearance changed. Your hair color, eye color, the shape of your nose—every aspect of your physical appearance changed in the process. Perhaps your new face is even one of someone you killed in your prior life.
Many reborn are lone figures who are very personally involved with a quest or task. You might be seeking to destroy evil cultists, yet in your former life you might have once been those same cultists’ high priest. You aid those who seek to undo the evil you once wrought. Reborn are incredibly rare, and it’s profoundly unlikely that you will ever meet more than one in a lifetime—if even one other than yourself.
Skill Proficiencies: History, Religion
Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan’s tools or musical instrument
Languages: One of your choice
Equipment: A walking staff (quarterstaff), a list containing items that you must do to right the crimes of your prior life, a set of ragged traveler’s clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp.

Feature: Echoes of Another Life

As one of the reborn, you have an entire previous life’s worth of memories and experiences to draw on, and sometimes you come across people or places you recognize from that past life. When you select this background, choose a single organization that is relatively widespread; for example, you might choose the religious orders of a faith from your past, the military forces of a kingdom, an order of monks, or the cabal of cultists that once served you. In your past life, you had a strong relationship with that organization—whether friendly or antagonistic, as you choose when you select this background.
You have a strong familiarity with the traditions, practices, hierarchies, and trappings of that organization, enough so that you can convincingly converse with a member of that organization and pass yourself off as a member. You can draw upon your knowledge of that organization at will.

Suggested Characteristics

Reborn have nearly full memories of their past lives, if some knowledge has dimmed following their rebirth, and their drive for penance shapes their personalities. Their actions and deeds in a former life might still affect their personality traits, though their ideals are now far nobler after emerging from the crucible of rebirth. Their flaws might be born of their guilt over past misdeeds, and they still retain strong bonds to allies—and victims—from their former lives.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I sometimes fail to stop myself from starting sentences with, “Before my rebirth…”
2	I have great patience for those who wrong me, having seen how misdeeds can return to haunt you.
3	I spend longer than most people contemplating my actions, judging my every move fiercely.
4	I am the first person to forgive anyone that asks for forgiveness.
5	My rebirth has given me a strong faith, and though I am no zealot I am more devout than most.
6	I am solemn to the point of being dour, due to the weight of guilt on my shoulders.
7	I relish every moment; I have been given a second chance, and intend to make the most of it.
8	I advocate for the harshest punishments; everyone must atone for their sins in some way.

d6	Ideal
1	Penitence. I have a great debt to work off, and I must spend every available moment making things right where I once was wrong.
2	Zeal. The gods have given me a second chance, and I must pursue the task that was set before me to the exclusion of nearly everything else.
3	Duty. In my past life, I preyed on the weak because there was no one to defend them from me. Now I will be the defender.
4	Covenant. There is a bargain between myself and the gods; when I have paid for my sins, my life will be my own again.
5	Irresistible Command. By divine edict I was reborn, and by that same edict must I atone for the life I once wasted on evil.
6	Gratitude. Once I walked a path that would have led to my own damnation; being given a second chance is a gift I must not squander with inaction or evil.

d6	Bond
1	There is one person that I wronged to whom I owe atonement more than anyone else.
2	I would do anything to erase any records of my former life.
3	I have sworn to bring vengeance upon someone who was my ally in my former life.
4	I will do anything that I am told to do by someone I wronged in my past life.
5	I will always protect the temple where I was reborn.
6	I must seek out and destroy those who once served me before my rebirth.

d6	Flaw
1	I am single-minded in my pursuit of atonement, even when it means ignoring the needs of my allies.
2	I can never forgive myself or others for their sins. Once guilty, always guilty.
3	I am reckless when I am working to right the wrongs of my past life, and care little for keeping myself safe.
4	I only see the worst in other people, because I know how evil I once was.
5	I will not suffer the wicked to live; I know what they are capable of in the darkest, blackest parts of their soul.
6	I will never give up when I think I can mark something off my list, even if I am about to collapse from wounds or exhaustion.